"Parking Fine" from Civil Enforcement Ltd?

kPATm

Hello. Well I just got a "Parking Fine" through the post on Saturday saying the usuall. Now I do believe there is actually a sign saying that payment is needed to park in this area but as I was parked for under 1 hour I thought I would be ok. Now the parking are is a few yards away from my local shopping mall and withing the last year or so a payment machine has popped up inside said shopping mall. This machine requires drivers to input their car registration for the fee of £1 per hour I think, the thing is no ticket is then given by this machine to be displayed in your car. So really I just want to know what I should do about this as Im a bit of a worrier and I could be doing with some advice. Thanks

pogofish

You do not have a fine. Just a speculative invoice.

The simple answer is to ignore everything from them and their fake solicitors/debt collectors.

Their letter chain is probably in the sticky thread above and if you try a search of the forum, you will find umpteen instances of their scam.

kPATm

Yes there are a few letters from them in that thread. The only reason Im worried is that there are signs at the car park area stating that payment is required to park there, obviously I did not pay?

Coupon-mad

Old thread - OLD ADVICE - DO NOT READ OLD THREADS!!!!

pogofish

I doubt it will make one whit of difference - If they were to pursue you, it could only be for the actual loss suffered - ie the cost of parking.

Civil enforcement are highly unlikely to do that, they send scam demands for totally unreasonable and unenforcable sums instead.

Inflatable_Armadillo

kPATm wrote: »

Yes there are a few letters from them in that thread. The only reason Im worried is that there are signs at the car park area stating that payment is required to park there, obviously I did not pay?

Firstly, a Private Parking Company do not have the power to 'fine' you, the only people that can issue a 'Penalty' for a parking offence are the Police and a Local Authority. You don't have one of those, you have a speculative invoice from a PPC made to look and fool you into thinking is a PCN!

So, irrespective of you not paying (and most probably in genuine error) you need to stand firm and just completely ignore them. If you 'appeal' as they call it it is not really and appeal and they are bound to reject it. Just do not acknowledge they even exist, just ignore.

The burden of proof lies (quite literally) with them and the only recourse they have is to sue for breech of a supposed contract or for trespass. They are very, very, very unlikely to do that because that is not how the scam works and even if they did, you wouldn't have to pay them the sorts of money thy are demanding!

They will start to send you lots of very official looking demands and this is to pressure you into giving them your money in respect of an invoice which they have no reason to have ever issued to you.

They will stop, probably after the last 'letter' you see from them on the sticky thread and you will never hear from them again... unless you do it again!

Just ignore and relax!

blarb

kPATm wrote: »

This machine requires drivers to input their car registration for the fee of £1 per hour I think, the thing is no ticket is then given by this machine to be displayed in your car.

So aside from all of the other great advice to ignore, we have a machine that you have to input information into, and it doesn't give a receipt that it has accepted the correct information that you gave (when you give it ...). Consequently it would be your word against theirs that there was no record of your car reg no in the machine, and would count against them also for not providing recourse to the user of the facility.

esmerobbo

Go back put your number in twice and pay £2 then you owe them nowt!!!!:p

No don't, ignore them, you owe them a £1 but they wont let you pay what you owe and claim silly money!

pendulum

Do ignore them, but also take the advice not to do it again if you can help it. If they are SIA registered and have the appropriate signs up, they could just choose to clamp you next time, and you cannot simply ignore that!

kPATm

Thanks for the advice everybody. Ingnore the letter I will. I will keep this thread updated how I get on if anyone is interested

Coupon-mad

Old thread - OLD ADVICE - DO NOT READ OLD THREADS!!!!