Private Parking Tickets discussion

latchford

MY wife overstayed 10 minutes on a private car park and has been issued with a pcn. There are a couple of issues here. Firstly no ticket was issued on the car and secondly personal details ie name and address of vehicle ownerwere provided by DVLA. I think this is an abuse of personal data as it was not provided for this purpose. Is this legal and do we have to pay the fine in these circumstances.

Crabman

latchford wrote: »

MY wife overstayed 10 minutes on a private car park and has been issued with a pcn. There are a couple of issues here. Firstly no ticket was issued on the car and secondly personal details ie name and address of vehicle ownerwere provided by DVLA. I think this is an abuse of personal data as it was not provided for this purpose. Is this legal and do we have to pay the fine in these circumstances.

Hi latchford, welcome to MSE

A private company can't fine you, they can only claim what they have actually lost as a result of you parking there, and even then only from whoever was driving at the time.

Ignore this and the future rubbish they'll no doubt send (it'll get intimidating and they may use red ink), don't contact them and don't be pushed into paying. If you do get worried please post back here for reassurance.

In response to the DVLA question - yes - the DVLA are more than willing to pass registered keeper details onto low-life scammers in exchange for money. :rolleyes:

vickylove

Hi, I received a £60.00 fine today for overstaying in a private car park by twelve minutes. I was captured on cctv and received the fine through the post although no actual ticket was placed on the car at the time. Again the sneeky individuals running the company obtained my details from the dvla...Any point in trying not to pay??? the ticket says if i dont pay within 14 days the fine will increase to £100.00!!!

taxiphil

vickylove wrote: »

Hi, I received a £60.00 fine today for overstaying in a private car park by twelve minutes. I was captured on cctv and received the fine through the post although no actual ticket was placed on the car at the time. Again the sneeky individuals running the company obtained my details from the dvla...Any point in trying not to pay??? the ticket says if i dont pay within 14 days the fine will increase to £100.00!!!

Yes, there's every point in not paying - you'll be saving yourself £60.00! This is an unenforceable penalty charge. A penalty is a punishment, and the civil law doesn't recognise the concept of punishment.

A court would only award them their actual losses. For overstaying by 12 minutes, their losses would be nil, or maybe a couple of pounds if they can prove some kind of loss of business (but even that requires a huge stretch of the imagination).

They will send you a whole load of scary letters threatening to take you to court, but they won't actually carry out their threats because they know perfectly well they won't win.

Anyway, they wrote to you because you were the registered keeper. That doesn't necessarily mean you were the driver. The alleged contract is with the driver. And you have no obligation whatsoever in your capacity as registered keeper to tell them if you were/weren't the driver at the time.

It's just a scam and they earn all their money by intimidating people into paying up. Just ignore them, or write GET STUFFED in black marker pen on their letter and send it back to them.

P.S. It's not a fine - only the state (e.g. police / local authorities) can fine you. Remember that the people running this scam are nobodies - they're just a few people in an office sending letters out in the hope that people will send them cheques in return. They have no special authority or power.

roadtripin

Hi All,

I'm after a bit of advice. On 16th Dec I parked in a pay and display car park without 'displaying'. My ticket had actually fallen on the floor of the car as I shut the door.

I received a £50 fine in the post and appealed, explaining what had happened and enclosed the original ticket.

Yesterday (24th March) I received a letter saying that my appeal failed and I still have to pay. It said taht althoug it may seem harsh, it my responsibility to make sure it is visable. It will increase to £100 if I don't pay within 14 days and then they will transfer it to debt recovery agents and/or start court proceedings.

I assumed my appeal was successful as I hadn't heard anything. Can they really leave it this long to reply?

I don't mind if they start court proceedings as I think I have a good case but debt recovery agents sounds messy - what would they normally do first?

Thanks in advance

Marc

Orford

Council or private parking company?
If the latter just ignore.

Read this sticky:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1363571

roadtripin

Parking company (MET)

Trebor16

Ignore them, their appeals procedure is a sham.

mazjam

Neuromancer wrote: »

Oh dear, touchy, touchy. Remember, therealdeal, you are not Perky and in fact have "no connection with a parking company" so why does it bother you so much? All your posts are supporting PPCs and attacking Pepipoo. One could easily ask what is yout fixation, if it were not already obvious.

Having just returned from said forum, after asking 2 very direct questions and receiving a barrage of idiots telling me repetedly and incessently to not reply, file the letters, else they don't want to talk to me (that is how I took it) and having to tell them numerous times that I wanted a specific answer, not just the same tac over again that I can read freely in other posts, I would poo-poo Pepipoo with the best of them. I would like to say I made my point for the benefit of those who need proper advice, but i don't think that is possible.

peter_the_piper

mazjam wrote: »

Having just returned from said forum, after asking 2 very direct questions and receiving a barrage of idiots telling me repetedly and incessently to not reply, file the letters, else they don't want to talk to me (that is how I took it) and having to tell them numerous times that I wanted a specific answer, not just the same tac over again that I can read freely in other posts, I would poo-poo Pepipoo with the best of them. I would like to say I made my point for the benefit of those who need proper advice, but i don't think that is possible.

Having read the thread in question it was never made clear why you wanted the PPC to take you to court when you were not the driver or the RK. For the majority of people caught up in the ppc scam the advice given by the knowledgeable people on here and pepipoo is sound and works. Calling them idiots is not likely to get you any better advice.