Northern Parking Solutions Ticket! (Sunderland)

AnaMarquex

Hello!

My name is Ana and I´m new to the UK. I recently rented a room in a block of apartments in Sunderland. There is a sign on the entrance stating "Residents only parking" and allocated bays inside. There are also 2 visitors parking spaces.
I parked my car in a free space by a back wall - away from the parking bays and without any signs either on the wall or the floor. I asked my landlady if it was ok to park there and she thought it was.
Well, apparently it wasn´t since I was issued a parking ticket for unauthorised parking. But no way I´m going to pay this. :mad:

The thing is I´m driving my company´s car and I can´t simply ignore it, since they will send the letters to my employer.
I rang Consumer´s Advice and they told me to write a letter explaining my situation. But from what I´ve read in other cases, the common advice is to ignore them.
What can I do? Shall I write a letter explaining I´m now a resident, that I wasn´t obstructing any allocated bays and see if they´ll drop it?
Or simply ask my employer to give my name and my work address and go from there?

Any help would be much appreciated...

McKneff

Hello there and welcome.

If you are renting in the block you must be entitled to park there so why did you not park in one of the allocated spaces for residents. Should you have a pass to put on your dashboard to let the parking people know you are a resident. If so your LL should have provided this.

I am tempted to say completely ignore it, what do others think

AnaMarquex

Well, my landlady only has 1 parking bay for herself.
There isn't any sign explaining you need a permit or which company to contact, just the one I mentioned "Residents only parking".

Anyway, I wouldn't be so worried if it was my own car...

peter_the_piper

First tell us if it was a Council Ticket or a private one. If private you will have to make sure that your employer does not pay the invoice and if they give your details ignore the PPC.
If its a council one than scan/photo the PCN, remove identifying details and post both sides on here. Do Not Ignore this one.

AnaMarquex

It's a private parking ticket.

Could someone explain to me the importance of not revealing who the driver was? And where can I find template letters to send them?

Spartacus_Mills

AnaMarquex wrote: »

It's a private parking ticket.

Could someone explain to me the importance of not revealing who the driver was? And where can I find template letters to send them?

Don't waste your time. The template letter is a total and utter waste of time and simply tells the people running this scam they have you on the hook.

Ignore the letters and get on with your life. They have no right to charge or fine you. What you have is an invoice which you can pay if you wish.

McKneff

You can pay it if you wish but you would be silly to. Ignore all letters no matter how scary they are. Have a large red wine, smile smugly and forget it. post on here if you need reassurance, we know how scary it can be for a person new to the country.

ts_aly2000

First off you need to advise work of the 'scam.'

Second off, even if there were signs detailing T&Cs, then it's not enforceable. The only tickets which are, are those issued by Councils and the Police, and still those can be defended as they make mistakes in the statutory wording. In those cases they DO have to be properly defended.

Contrary to popular belief, you can't just go slapping tickets on anything that moves.

Do NOT pay. Do NOT write to them. Do NOT contact them. They're fishing. All you'll get (or your company as the RK) will be a few threatening looking letters with big words on them. Some will start coming from solicitors and debt collectors, which in reality are from the next desk in the same office (house).

The WHOLE thing is a scam. You can buy these packs here; Setup Your Own Parking Scam.

rikbar

Hi Ana,

They guys above are correct, if you ignore these they usually go away. Your key issue is that this is a company car and they may end up paying and then passing the charge on to you.

Reading your post it seems that maybe all the parking you are describing is allocated to the individual flats, but that your flat has one space that is used by your landlady. If this is the case, and the rest of the spaces are also allocated, then you should not be parking there. This is a regular thing in the UK, builder make 2 bed appartments and only provide space for a single car per flat, thus if you have 2 cars between you, you need to find somewhere else to park the second car, or agreement with another resident to use their space if they have no car. If this is the case, and it could cause problems with your employer, I would look to park elsewhere. Hope this helps

Rikbar

Alx*27

• do not pay
• do not contact them again
• ignore their threatening letters and hollow threats
• they will give up and go away
• they will not take you to court
• it's nothing more than a mail scam

parking_lawyer

If you cant reach NPS at their po box address or payment line number why not contact owner/director directly?

Mr Casey
Tel: (0191) 257 3679
20 Rathmore Gdns, North Shields, NE30 2SX