Uk Parking Control Ltd

nicholahaddock

i have also received a car fine from this company for £150 after sending various evidence such as diasbled badge holder and photographic evidence to suggest that i was in the right to park where i parked i am still being forced to pay this charge.

i have received 3 letter from debt solutions demanding this money and they have even suggested if i provide them with proof of benefits i can pay on a weekly basis. today i have received a letter from zenith collections only they want £80 for the fine. when i phoned zenith collections and asked why they have taken over this fine they said it was because i failed to pay the fine and produce benefit evidence and if i dont pay the £80 they will start court proceedings next week.

the woman was very cheeky and ignorant which ended up in an arguement with her telling me to get in contact with a solictor asap

do zenith have any more rights to take my money than debt solutions ?

trisontana

It's not a FINE! It's an invoice. Forget about that "court proceedings" nonsense. That's just a hollow threat. They won't go anywhere near a court. Keep ignoring .

nicholahaddock

fotocoe wrote: »

hi all, i got a ticket from ukpc after parking for 30 minutes in aylesbury shopping centre. My hire car had been giving trouble so i let it sit while i went and got a quick bite to eat. The ticket was on the screen when i got back. The first 2 hours are free but you have to display a ticket, i missed that bit. I did try to appeal to ukpc but as always they don't do appeals and proceeded to up the fine if not paid within 10 days. After reading many of the posts on this site i decided not to pay and sent the below letter to them. Not heard a word since. They may have changed their tactics since then but the principle remains the same.

I am disappointed that you have declined to cancel the “charge” and i have taken legal advice as to whether this fine is enforceable by ukpc.

Advice is that it is the car park owner and not its agents that has any legal authority to enforce payment of the fine, and only then if the car park owner has lost financially as a result of my not displaying a ticket in my car. As i was only in the car park for about 30 minutes in total and the first 2 hours parking is free, any financial loss would be difficult to prove by the car park owner.

In these circumstances, and as i do not believe the fine is warranted for the reasons stated in my letter, i do not intend to pay this fine.

Any further action by ukpc in this regard will be regarded as harassment under the terms of the protection from harassment act 1997. I am copying this letter, together with my letter of appeal to the car park owners.

- i must try this as i am a disabled badge holder with a disability car and on the day i had my badge on display i also took photographic evidence to proof that there are no warning signs to drivers that fines would be given for unauthorised park vechicles but they have taken no notice of me whatsoever i am close to paying this money just to stop receiving threatening letters

trisontana

It's not a FINE, and please don't cave in because of some silly "threatening letters" . Treat them as you would any other junk mail.

ManxRed

OK, take a deep breath....

This is a well-known scam that has been around for donkey's years.

Private Car Parking companies have no legal rights to issue 'fines' (in fact no private company or individual can). Only a court can issue a fine, and only a local council, the police, or Trasport for London can issue a penalty in respect of parking.

What these private parking companies do, is issue invoices in respect of 'contravening a terms and conditions of a contract' which is effectively formed when the driver reads the terms and conditions on the signs in the car park. The invoice is dressed up to look like a proper parking ticket, and is designed specifically so that members of the public think they have been fined.

The private car parking company (we call them PPCs) only make money when people pay these tickets - the landowner usually pays them nothing. They are profit making organisations.

The more tickets they issue, the more money they make.

Now, in your particular scenario:

1. You haven't breached their terms at all
2. The money they are trying to scam out of you is waaaay more than the actual losses suffered by the landowner as a result - and legally this is all you can charge for breaching a contract
3. Odds are that the PPC does not own or occupy the land, which means that does not have the legal authority to offer a parking contract with drivers anyway.

Three rather large reasons why they won't take anyone to court as they would be laughed out of court within 5 minutes.

You, on the other hand, have a strong case against them, AND the landowner in that they are effectively breaching the Equality Act 2010 for not making any kind of allowance for the fact that you (or your passenger) have a disabled status. You COULD threaten them (and the landowner) with your own court action for harassment and for breach of the Equality Act and what's more, you WOULDN'T be laughed out of court - there's a good chance you'd win.

Let us know if you want to retaliate to the parking company and we could help you draft a letter.

DO NOT PAY THE BLOODY THING!! Legally you don't owe them a penny.

fisherjim

nicholahaddock wrote: »

i have also received a car fine from this company for £150 after sending various evidence such as diasbled badge holder and photographic evidence to suggest that i was in the right to park where i parked i am still being forced to pay this charge.

i have received 3 letter from debt solutions demanding this money and they have even suggested if i provide them with proof of benefits i can pay on a weekly basis. today i have received a letter from zenith collections only they want £80 for the fine. when i phoned zenith collections and asked why they have taken over this fine they said it was because i failed to pay the fine and produce benefit evidence and if i dont pay the £80 they will start court proceedings next week.

the woman was very cheeky and ignorant which ended up in an arguement with her telling me to get in contact with a solictor asap

do zenith have any more rights to take my money than debt solutions ?

Please don't give in to these ignorant money scammers. I had three threatening letters from Debt Recovery Plus, followed up by two more from Zenith.
Just read them again carefully, and you will see how desperate they get trying to bully you into paying these ridiculous invoices.
What a bloody cheek expecting you to send personal information to them about benefits, only goes to show how they prey on the vulnerable.
I will bet £100 they have never mentioned the word "fine" in any correspondence, please recondition your thoughts on this, and sit back and laugh at them.
Of course the woman on the phone was ignorant, she will be an unprofessional low paid, poorly trained office girl of limited intelligence trying to uphold their scamming tactics, and you were being awkward.
Just carry on like this you are nearly at the end now!

charleyboy37

I hav'nt read all the letters on the forum, so this might have already been mentioned, but I read a letter from a retired Det. Insp. to the one of the Dailys, which said if push came to shove on one of these private car park tickets, you are only liable to pay one full days parking fee, as this covers your obiligation to reimburse them for "loss of earnings"

PaulT1973

Hi, got a parking fine on my car in a retail park after forgetting to pay and display a free zero value ticket during the first "2 hours free period". (was poor signage tho in my defence!)
So totally my fault but should I still ignore debt recovery plus letters etc as suggested on this site?
The AA website suggests that people should pay up but this site says keep ignoring the letters???
Also, I no longer own the car involved so I should I send the letters back and write on envelope "no longer at this address"??

Stroma

Ignore them, if you wish further please create your own thread instead of hijacking this one, we like to operate one parking issue to one thread - thanks

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

ukpcgrrr

Hi all ...

I've been through the entire UKPC letter chain and after a delay of at least a few months I've received a letter from 'Stirling Park' to whom Debt Recovery limited have seemingly passed the debt of £150 (it changes a lot!). The letter gives 7 days to pay and threatens court action and credit rating problems. The Stirling Park website seems genuine.

What to do? Not seen this letter on the letter chain shown on MSE ...

Grrrr.