Private Parking Ticket on a car leased through work

Sintara

Hi everyone, first time ive ever posted on here but Im a bit confused as to how to proceed...

I got a £100 parking ticket from Premier Parking Solutions a month or so ago. You get 90 mins free but my ticket had blown off the dashboard probably when I was squeezing my baby out of the car seat (spaces are tiny and no mother and baby ones). I was only in the shop 8 minutes and the time on the tickets shows only 4 minutes had elapsed between getting my free ticket and when the fine was slapped on my window.

Anyway my immediate reaction was to write with a copy of the ticket and explain but having read all the advice on here I decided to ignore it completely. BUT I hadnt taken into account my car is leased. PPS contacted the lease company who then contacted my work. My company pays half the lease and I pay half so I can have personal use too. The lease company said I am breaking my contract if I do not do something to rectify the situation ie I have to pay or contest. Im not sure I am breaking my contract but my work is now putting a lot of pressure on me too. My job contract is up for renewal in three months and I dont really want them thinking Im a trouble maker.... So looks like I will have to write to PPS afterall.

Any advice? I think I will have to admit to driving so as to stop them bombarding the lease company with letters.

On Honest John it suggests sending a cheque without prejudice for £10 and saying basically if you want more take me to court.

I was hoping someone could signpost me to a letter template. I have looked up all the relevant legal points but am not confident I could use them correctly...

Any help would be much appreciated...

vax2002

In this instant I would write to the PPC company and state you were the driver and to adresse all corrospondance to your home address, that you have a valid ticket and they should move to immediate court action to pursue the losses.
It gets your employer and lease company off your back, then you can refuse to pay and if they sue and you have the ticket they will loose.

Coupon-mad

vax2002 wrote: »

In this instant I would write to the PPC company and state you were the driver and to adresse all corrospondance to your home address, that you have a valid ticket and they should move to immediate court action to pursue the losses.
It gets your employer and lease company off your back, then you can refuse to pay and if they sue and you have the ticket they will loose.

Yep, seconded, but of course do not offer the PPC any money, Sintara - it could be viewed as an admission of liability IMHO. Give whichever address will cause least alarm to the household - maybe the address of another family member if there are others in your house who would worry - and of course do not supply a phone number, you don't want them bothering you!

It's a scam anyway with any PPC ticket, but when they make you display a ticket in a free car park it's obviously setting some unlucky people up for a fall when the ticket falls down! Did you keep the ticket that you had to display? If so then send the PPC a copy of it with your letter just saying they must stop contacting the company/ies (name them) as they have no legal basis for pursuing them.

I would say summat like:



Dear scammer,
Re - Parking Charge xxxxxx
I understand you have been contacting the owner and/or registered keeper of car reg xxxxxxx regarding the above 'parking charge notice'. As you are well aware, the BPA Code of Practice forbids parking companies to pursue the owner or keeper for private allegations of trespass such as this. Further, you have no legal basis whatsoever to allege trespass or breach of contract against any vehicle owner or registered keeper so this contact must cease now.

I am writing to you to advise you that I was the driver of the car on that day and had displayed a valid ticket for the free parking time offered. I did not overstay nor breach any terms and conditions of parking. I enclose a copy of the ticket. There was no trespass, no loss caused by my parking and so the 'Parking Charge Notice' should be cancelled.

This letter is not an 'appeal' so please do not bother with any template reply which will be a waste of your time and mine. Please be clearly advised that the alleged debt is denied at outset and I will not reply to any debt collector letters and no further charges must be added to the amount of the 'Parking Charge'. I will also not reply to any further correspondence from you in the absence of sealed Court papers. If you do wish to pursue this matter further then please furnish me with any evidence upon which you intend to rely, and proceed to Small Claims Court within 28 days of the date of this letter, otherwise I will consider this matter closed.

If you continue to write to xxxxx company or xxxxx company, or contact them in any way about this matter, then this will constitute harassment and a breach of the BPA Code of Practice and of the DVLA terms for Approved Operators; such breaches will be reported.

love & kisses,

an MSEer who knows you are all scammers x




And send a copy of your letter to the companies who are getting in a tizz over this scam, along with a printout of this Fleet News article which is very useful in trying to educate Fleet Managers to wake up and smell the coffee about fake PCNs:

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2009/5/28/question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/30698/

HTH

esmerobbo

If you need to contest it to satisfy the lease company send Coupon mad's letter to the PPC. However I would miss the loves & kisses bit!!;)

I wonder if these lease companies would be so keen to pay up if it was them who were paying these invoices. Somehow I doubt it!

Sintara

Thank you all for your replies especially you Coupon-mad. That is really really helpful, my letter would not have included half that info or sounded so official. I do have my parking ticket so will include a photocopy of that too and hopefully that will be the end of it. Fingers crossed...

Thanks again

RENEGADE_2

Not that I would ever discredit the fine contributions of Coupon-Mad and the wholly useful advice ever offered by her. I would shorten the message for another reason - better for you and things are best kept tight. Alternatively, you can if you wish to be annoying lengthen it by going round in circles and saying absolutely nothing, or nothing additional. As you wish to make a point, here is how I would draft the very same letter - note, this is entirely Coupon-Mad's proposal and nothing of mine introduced to it:

Dear scammer,
"So-called Parking Charge xxxxxx"
You have contacted the owner and/or registered keeper of car reg xxxxxxx regarding the above document. BPA Code of Practice forbids companies pursuing owner or keeper for private allegations of trespass as such. You have no legal basis to allege breach of contract against any vehicle, owner or registered keeper so this contact must cease now.

I write to you to advise you that I drove the car on the day and had displayed a valid ticket; I neither overstayed nor breached any other terms. I enclose a copy of the ticket. With no trespass, no loss caused by my parking, your 'Parking Charge Notice' is void and must be cancelled.

This is not an 'appeal' so do not send a template reply as it shall be ineffective. Be advised that the alleged debt is wholly denied. To this end, I will not reply to third parties nor do I recognise further charges added to the already negligible 'Parking Charge'. In the absence of sealed Court papers, I shall no longer reply to you either. If you wish to pursue the matter, please muster your evidence and commence litigation within 28 days of the date of this letter, otherwise I will consider this matter closed.

If you contact xxxxx company in any way again, this will constitute harassment and breach BPA Code of Practice and the DVLA terms for Approved Operators and as such, it will be reported.

love & kisses,

an MSEer who knows you are all scammers x





I can make it a lot longer if you wish!!! A lot lot longer.

Example: "I write to you to advise you that I drove the car on the day and had displayed a valid ticket"
can become
"this letter is carefully drafted to convey the relevant and binding information that the vehicle in question, although registered to Mr.X of 145 ZZZ-Street, London SW1 and owned by Mrs.Y of 386 QQQ-Street, Bristol, BS2, it had infact been neither of these two individals that were responsible for the movements of vehcile JJJ-UUU on the morning of the 17th October 2010 between the hours of 10:00 and 10:32 when an alleged contravention of terms and conditions promintently displayed at Pratt's Retail Park, Wrexham may or may not have taken place. It is my duty to announce to you that the person you need to address for this affair and he who must take full responsibility for any contravention should it be proven in a competent court is the person to whom should we meet face to face you will no doubt refer to in the perpendicular. May I also point out that contrary to your misgivings and overall lack of accurate information, the conditions of your signage were indeed observed in that I had infact taken the necessary measures to ensure that a valid dated and paid for ticket was purchased."

I can twist it even more... if you'd like to send them unconscious! I'd recommend a fifty-page dossier!

Sintara

Hi All,

I had just began to hope it had all gone away when I was contacted by our head office to say they had a letter from a debt collecting company who were threatening to call at the office in the next 72 hours. Argh!

Thats despite following the advice above and putting in a letter that I was the driver. Should I call Premier Parking Solutions/debt agency? Or put another letter in writing? Original one was sent registered so I have proof they got it.

Also who do I contact to report these breaches? I know the info is undoubtedly on the web somewhere but if anyone could save me the time that would be great....(especially since Im at work and even posting this is pushing my luck a bit!)

Thank you so so much. Ive had a really stressful week. My baby boy has been in hospital, my freezer packed up whilst we were staying in hospital so we lost all the food and I had a really intense interview/assessment for another post this week. I could really have done without this stress too

vax2002

They will target the company as they think they will buckle and pay it and dock the money from your wages.

esmerobbo

Nearly all threats by debt collectors are empty threats, I doubt anyone will call. Its a very common threat that scares people but I have never heard of anyone ever calling!

If someone does arrive your company should just let them know they are not liable and they have been told who is! Seeing you have already told them print another letter for your company to hand to them. I would however wager no one comes!!

The debt collectors initials are not D S are they?

Coupon-mad

Sintara, did you give the Fleet Manager/Head Office the 'Fleet News' printout or link given earlier? Of course the debt collectors will be rolling out their computerised threatogram chain they use every time; of course they will have ignored any letters from Head Office. Please ask your Head Office, what part of 'this is a scam' are they not understanding and why are they still worrying about it??!

The letters are all part of the scam, there is NEVER a home visit for God's sake, why are they believing this twaddle?

Was it CCS Collect? They use that as their last letter in the chain:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=30209467&postcount=15

If it was CCS collect then send your HO a link to Taxi Phil's summary of this mail scam. And also send them a link to any letters like yours that you find when trawling the examples in the top thread (PPS are not named but I bet their letter-chain matches another PPC, click on the links & find your threatogram chain):

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

And finally how about emailing them a link to this very thread you are posting on and let them see what the big wide MSE world out there knows about this scam, that for some reason they don't?! It is NOTHING to do with them as any 'private ticket' is not even a fine and the owner/keeper of a vehicle has zero liability for it (unlike a real fine from the Council or Police).