Private Eye Parking Fine

trisontana

Worry you not. It won't go to court

Coupon-mad

Cash_JR wrote: »

I have received a Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye who operated a motorway services car park. The signs clearly state two hours free parking but I was parked for 3 hours 24 minutes, so I have clearly breached the conditions of parking. The photo evidence is of my car entering the car park at 00:27:57 and exiting the car park at 03:52:45.

Do I have any defence to this parking charge?

I'm aware of previous posts regarding private companies being unable to legally enforce a parking charge, but if on the rare occasion I do get summoned to court, the evidence is in their favour as I clearly enter the car park at 00:27 and I don't leave until 03:52.

The charge is a ridiculous amount of £90 reduced to £60 if paid by 19/07/2012

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

You don't get 'summoned to Court' for a Small Claim! It's not a criminal matter just an unsolicited invoice!

It's just a scam, ignore it as long as your vehicle is not a company/ hire or leased car. This is not some sort of authority, it's not even a real parking ticket.

Tick off the threatening letters Here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion here.

HTH

Taralou_3

I have recieved a parking fine from ParkingEye from parking in the Royal Marriott Hotel in Bristol on the 11/08/2012. They are asking me for 60.00 to be paid by the 28th Aug 2012 if i dont pay it by then they are asking for 90.00 plus 30.00 admin fee =£120.00 Im furious as the hotel have introduced a new way of parking which i wasnt aware of.I new there were new pay machines on each level but wasnt aware i had to pay before i left the hotel. After i did what i was doing i paid for my parking on the way back to my car. I paid £5.00 i had to enter my reg number and pay for how long i thought i was hence paying the five pounds. i exited the hotel with no problem!! I have now recieved this letter form ParkingEye they have taken photos of my car on entry to the hotel and exit of the hotel and it states on this letter when i entered and when i left with pictures of my car it also states that the DVLA have given them my details im furious i find this incredible that they have passed my details on to this private company. It also states on this letter that i was parked for 6 hours 16 mins I except that i have underpaid and and owe them anouther five pounds which im willing to pay to the hotel but im not willing to pay this ridiculas amount of fine. PLEASE can someone help me where do i stand and do i pay it as im shore im only on letter one and more will follow. Thanks Tara

ManxRed

OK, your legal position is this: Technically, you owe the hotel £5. You could send them a cheque for this amount, its up to you.

Legally you owe Parking Eye absolutely nothing whatsoever, and you should ignore them, all their letters (including Debt Collectors and pretend solicitors) - despite the threats of court, bad credit rating, bailiffs, CCJs, etc. they do not have a legal leg to stand on, and will not pursue any legal action against you. They know full well that they'd lose.

For that reason, the scary letters approach is their ONLY chance of getting you to pay up money that you do not legally owe them. So that's all they'll do.

Coupon-mad

Taralou wrote: »

I have recieved a parking fine from ParkingEye from parking in the Royal Marriott Hotel in Bristol on the 11/08/2012.

They are asking me for 60.00 to be paid by the 28th Aug 2012 if i dont pay it by then they are asking for 90.00 plus 30.00 admin fee =£120.00 Im furious as the hotel have introduced a new way of parking which i wasnt aware of. I knew there were new pay machines on each level but wasnt aware i had to pay before i left the hotel.

After i did what i was doing i paid for my parking on the way back to my car. I paid £5.00 i had to enter my reg number and pay for how long i thought i was hence paying the five pounds. i exited the hotel with no problem!!

I have now recieved this letter form ParkingEye they have taken photos of my car on entry to the hotel and exit of the hotel and it states on this letter when i entered and when i left with pictures of my car it also states that the DVLA have given them my details. I'm furious - I find this incredible that they have passed my details on to this private company.

It also states on this letter that i was parked for 6 hours 16 mins I except that i have underpaid and and owe them another five pounds which I'm willing to pay to the hotel but im not willing to pay this ridiculous amount of fine.

PLEASE can someone help me where do i stand and do i pay it as im sure im only on letter one and more will follow.

Thanks Tara

Sorted out your paragraphs so other can read it - on a forum a big wedge of words is impossible to decipher!

Anyway stop being furious and just ignore the whole thing. You say you are only on 'letter one' so I assume from that you have seen the letter-chains sticky thread? So just play snap with the rest like we all do!

I have ignored 2 fake PCN, laughed when I got them both and ignored any threatograms (still waiting for my recent ones from Britannia...come on Britannia you are letting the side down! ). Others here have ignored DOZENS of these fake PCNs, nothing happens.

Re the DVLA scandal, yep, it's been covered in the press and on Watchdog:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8432227/DVLA-selling-drivers-details-to-unscrupulous-car-parking-firms.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123390/7-000-drivers-names-sold-criminals-How-DVLA-21m-selling-details-4-85m-motorists.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2012/03/observices.html

...and nothing whatsoever has ever been done about it. Except that under the Freedoms Act from October 1st, guess what? The PPCs are being given 'keeper liability' which means they can pursue the registered keeper of a car if the driver isn't named, even if the keeper wasn't there so can't have entered into any contract!

The good news is that if such a case went to court the contract allegation could be blown out of the water if it was an absent keeper they were pursuing. And there's plenty of other ammo which will make any fake PCN pretty much impossible for a Court to allow where a PPC doesn't own or have a proprietary interest in the car park (99.9% do not of course). In your case it's the hotel's car park, so the PPC can do diddly squat except try to convince you to pay their impersonation of a parking ticket. They will roll out the usual letter chain shown in our sticky thread...then it will all fizzle out to nothing when they give up.

Even better news is, the Act is also insisting that the BPA-member PPCs, from October, join an 'independent appeals service' which will cost each PPC £27 plus VAT every single time someone appeals to the POPLA service. And it costs the motorist nothing.

Then what? The POPLA decision will be binding upon the PPC but not on the motorist so we can all cost the PPCs over thirty quid every time, then ignore them after that. Personally I can't wait and intend to try it myself soon.

Stephen_Leak

Only councils, the police, some train operators and Transport for London can issue legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private ticketing company can't. What they issue are “speculative invoices”.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract with a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011.

All the car park owner can claim from a driver in damages for an alleged breach of a contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If it’s in a free car park or the driver paid, this is £0.00. Demanding more has been judged to be unreasonable and, therefore, an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

There are also now landmark court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012, HM Revenue & Customs vs. VCS Parking Control, Lower Tax Tribunal, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs (Appeal), Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In these cases, the judges ruled that only the car park owner can charge for parking and take alleged offenders to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is equivalent to the High Court and, therefore, its judgements set legal precedents.

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you owe the car park owner the original charge, then you ought to write to them, offering this in “full and final settlement”.

In any event, you should write to the car park owner, advising them that they’re "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents and that any further actions by either of them would be regarded as harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This ought to make the car park owner call off the private ticketing company and, maybe, also realise the potential cost of doing business with them.

Don’t appeal to the private ticketing company. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off?

The private ticketing company, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters. The debt collector and solicitor are usually the same people, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable to try and intimidate you into paying.

Continue to ignore everything you get from them. Eventually, they’ll run out of empty threats and stop throwing good money after bad.