My fine is now over £300!!!!

rivereyes

Hi everyone,

Hoping to get some solid advice here...

I recieved a parking ticket for parking in a very poorly marked private carpark. I sent the company the template letter from this website saying that there was insufficent signage along with photos. One of the photos does contain a sign but it is high up on a post and in accordance with the advice on here, I believed it to be a manovering hazard. There was also a very small plaque in on the wall in the bay saying very faintly "Reserved" with the company name.

They sent the photos back and circled the sign which I refered to earlier saying 'here's the proof' basically. There has been a charge of £3 every day that I've not paid the fine and its gone from the original £60 to a whopping £309 (which is the exact amount today).

I am sitting tight but getting slightly nervous. Any help/advice would be great!

Cheers!

bargepole

rivereyes wrote: »

There has been a charge of £3 every day that I've not paid the fine and its gone from the original £60 to a whopping £309 (which is the exact amount today).

You're giving this scam an unwarranted legitimate status by using the word "fine" - it is nothing of the sort, it is an invoice for parking, based on a presumed contract.

The £3 a day is just pure fantasy, they would be laughed out of court with nonsense like that.

Ignore all their rubbish letters, designed to intimidate the ignorant into paying, don't contact them again and don't pay them a penny.

rivereyes

Cheers mate!

Yeah its ridiculous, I was there for 10 minutes as well. I can't believe the whole concept of parking fines - you are charge your hard earned money for not harming anyone and essentially not affecting anything. Absolute cowboys!

Crabman

rivereyes wrote: »

Cheers mate!

Yeah its ridiculous, I was there for 10 minutes as well. I can't believe the whole concept of parking fines - you are charge your hard earned money for not harming anyone and essentially not affecting anything. Absolute cowboys!

Sorry to repeat what bargepole said, but in case you missed it - this is not a fine - only police/council can fine you.

This is an invoice; a worthless unenforceable one at that.

It's important you realise the difference, and I'm going to [strike]steal[/strike] borrow sarahg1969's line and ask you to tell your friends/family about this type of scam to spread the word

shabadoo

I too was given a parking ticket for parking in an area where there was no signage at all from where i was parked. I sent a letter explaining that i was not going to pay the invoice and have received a reply explaining that they are going to pass it to a debt collected. I am a bit worried as i think this will effect my credit score and it is very unfair. any advice??

Crabman

shabadoo wrote: »

I too was given a parking ticket for parking in an area where there was no signage at all from where i was parked. I sent a letter explaining that i was not going to pay the invoice and have received a reply explaining that they are going to pass it to a debt collected. I am a bit worried as i think this will effect my credit score and it is very unfair. any advice??

It can't affect your credit score unless they win in court (very unlikely, never happened!) and then you fail to pay up. As for their debt collectors, they have no powers or rights to seize property or enter your home. Again, that only comes if they take you to court and win.

BillTrac

I read on Pepipoo the other day that a PPC actually took someone to court. The poor car owner wasnt going to let them walk all over him, he was totally clued up. The idiot PPC couldnt/didnt give the judge a copy of the "contract" and the case was dismissed. One for the goodies!!!

If you leave it long enough you will owe them thousands, and you can use the thousands you will save by not paying this invoice to have a holiday..........lol

Crabman

BillTrac wrote: »

I read on Pepipoo the other day that a PPC actually took someone to court. The poor car owner wasnt going to let them walk all over him, he was totally clued up. The idiot PPC couldnt/didnt give the judge a copy of the "contract" and the case was dismissed. One for the goodies!!!

If you leave it long enough you will owe them thousands, and you can use the thousands you will save by not paying this invoice to have a holiday..........lol

I think they didn't produce a contract because there was no contract between the driver and the PPC. It's a brilliant example to point people to, when they post here, understandably worried about the threats of 'court action'.

Even if there was an alleged contract, the charge being disputed would undoubtedly fall under the unfair terms in contract regulations and would therefore be unenforceable.

It would also be amusing to see how they justify their stance of, 'if you don't pay us in 14 days we'll double the charge and then we'll increase it again'.

Coblcris

Crabman, you are mistaken. the alleged contract issue was dismissed as, per usual in the vast majority of these instances, the PPC did not have proprietary rights to offer parking in the first place (and there were other issues with the contents of the contract) so it boiled down to trespass for which the PPC had no right of action at all again per usual in the vast majority of these instances. The Excel representative went through some very uncomfortable moments in court. As he is the same representative who admitted that they are powerless one wonders why they bothered.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2009/04/29/travellers-have-returned-to-leeds-road-but-won-t-get-a-parking-ticket-86081-23497279/2/
They probably thought they could bully their way through, has anyone ever seen any PPC act in any other way than as a playground bully with their demands for 'lunch money'. In my view they don't enhance the gene pool very much.

sarahg1969

Coblcris wrote: »

Crabman, you are mistaken. the alleged contract issue was dismissed as, per usual in the vast majority of these instances, the PPC did not have proprietary rights to offer parking in the first place (and there were other issues with the contents of the contract) so it boiled down to trespass for which the PPC had no right of action at all again per usual in the vast majority of these instances. The Excel representative went through some very uncomfortable moments in court. As he is the same representative who admitted that they are powerless one wonders why they bothered.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2009/04/29/travellers-have-returned-to-leeds-road-but-won-t-get-a-parking-ticket-86081-23497279/2/
They probably thought they could bully their way through, has anyone ever seen any PPC act in any other way than as a playground bully with their demands for 'lunch money'. In my view they don't enhance the gene pool very much.

That story just shows that it's a game of percentages. They ticket unwary drivers in private car parks because they know that at least a few will pay. They have no chance of getting a penny from travellers, so there's no point even bothering with tickets. And if they threatened clamping, even the hardest of their clampers wouldn't target a traveller's van, would they?

Coblcris

I agree, they are predators and cowards in my view. Only jail time will do.