To ignore or not to ignore? Help..

mol2612

Hi,

Quick question... Yesterday I received a parking charge notice. I was parked in a private car park at the back of two shops (the shops were both closed for the day so assumed there wouldn't be an issue as the car park was empty).... Anyway, I got back to my car and had a ticket from VCS Ltd...
It shows a list of contravention codes with number 94 circled - "Parked without displaying valid ticket/permit"
All of these codes have a set printed fine of £80.00 with an additional charge of £40 after 7 days.
There are 3 signs clearly printed in the car park but as ever I was oblivious to the world around me (D'oh!!).

With this being a private car park will the ticket have been issued from your average traffic warden? Or the owner(s) of the car park?

Basically how valid is this? And should it be paid? I don't want to run the risk of incurring huge charges.
If I refused to pay will the fine be set at £120? Or will it rise any higher the coming weeks/months?

Up to now I've emailed VCS and stated that I've misplaced my ticket and for them to send me the serial number and confirmation of the payment required... (More so to see if I'm logged on the database).
Not sure if this was the correct thing to do? But I guess that's why I'm here as I'm unsure where to go from here?


Any help much appreciated

shortchanged_2

Best advice would have been not to contact them at all and ignored all of their empty threats.

Problem now is you've more or less admitted to them that you were the driver.

trisontana

shortchanged wrote: »

Best advice would have been not to contact them at all and ignored all of their empty threats.

Problem now is you've more or less admitted to them that you were the driver.

So what? Just ignore them from now on.

I like the use of the phrase "Contravention code 94". They wouldn't be trying to imitate a council ticket would they?
And to the OP, this is not a FINE, it's an unenforceable invoice, and it wouldn't have been issued by a proper traffic warden, just some lowly paid drone working for the parking company.

shortchanged_2

trisontana wrote: »

So what? Just ignore them from now on.

I like the use of the phrase "Contravention code 94". They wouldn't be trying to imitate a council ticket would they?
And to the OP, this is not a FINE, it's an unenforceable invoice, and it wouldn't have been issued by a proper traffic warden, just some lowly paid drone working for the parking company.

I agree with what you're saying trisontana, I'm just saying that the OP has given them some more scope to dig.

Sirdan

shortchanged wrote: »

I agree with what you're saying trisontana, I'm just saying that the OP has given them some more scope to dig.

To dig what exactly ?...they either proceed with a County Court claim or they don't ..there are no other options available.
As we know 99.99999999999% of the time they don't proceed and when they do the Private Parking industry has a spectacular failure rate in court ..for all sorts of reasons.

It appears to me that with so called "keeper liability" in the offing the BPA / Private Parking Industry are quite keen to promulgate the myth that not knowing who was driving is the ONLY reason they can't recover their charges in a small claims court action ...this of course is nowhere near the truth.

Coupon-mad

mol2612 wrote: »

Hi,

Quick question... Yesterday I received a parking charge notice. I was parked in a private car park at the back of two shops (the shops were both closed for the day so assumed there wouldn't be an issue as the car park was empty).... Anyway, I got back to my car and had a ticket from VCS Ltd...
It shows a list of contravention codes with number 94 circled - "Parked without displaying valid ticket/permit"
All of these codes have a set printed fine of £80.00 with an additional charge of £40 after 7 days.
There are 3 signs clearly printed in the car park but as ever I was oblivious to the world around me (D'oh!!).

With this being a private car park will the ticket have been issued from your average traffic warden? Or the owner(s) of the car park?

Basically how valid is this? And should it be paid? I don't want to run the risk of incurring huge charges.
If I refused to pay will the fine be set at £120? Or will it rise any higher the coming weeks/months?

Up to now I've emailed VCS and stated that I've misplaced my ticket and for them to send me the serial number and confirmation of the payment required... (More so to see if I'm logged on the database).
Not sure if this was the correct thing to do? But I guess that's why I'm here as I'm unsure where to go from here?


Any help much appreciated

It is not a valid 'parking ticket'.

It's an invoice from scammers who will now bombard the registered keeper with the letter-chain from debt collectors which is shown in our top thread.

But that's all. IGNORE VCS and ignore the letters.

Kite2010

Car-park for 2 shops which were closed at the time of the "offence", I wonder what the damages would be for the landowner, I know nothing.

Ignore the scammers with the letter-chain of threats, there is such a remote chance (because they know they won't win) they will actually take you to court it's not even worth thinking about

poolhallrob

Hi ,

I have been busy ignoring 3 letters (invoices) so far from a private car park. But now have had a letter from a Debt Recovery Bailiff Service and are getting a bit twitchy. I actually wasn't driving at the time, my husband was (I was passenger), but vehicle registered to me. Don't want to go to court, do I get a final chance to settle out of court if the worst comes to the worst?

Kite2010

Don't worry, the debt collector letter is just another step in the chain, it will have been sent from the next chair down in the office.

They want you to settle out of court, because they know they have a very very low chance of winning in court

trisontana

Of course they are not real bailiffs. They are just powerless debt collectors with delusions of grandeur.

Kite2010

Poolhallrob if you have a look at this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2214803 it will tell you what letters to expect. You can play snap when the next threatogram arrives