PCN issued, letters started arriving, need help!

Henners63

Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice with another private parking firm. I was parked off street outside a letting agent for 15 mins whilst I popped into the shop next door to pick up a present I had bought for someone on 21st Dec at about 4:45pm. I didn't notice teh red sign they had int he window with WARNING and then a load of small print which I went and look at after I had been given this charge. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed the £150 fine on my windscreen.

I made a written 'appeal' on an e-mail which was rejected. I then re-stated that I wanted to appeal, again in writing on an e-mail, adopted the begging tactic which I now feel foolish for, and was replied to saying:

'Dear Mr H,
Thank you for your email.
I shall indeed speak to the landowners for you, but as we do manage the car park, and the signs do clearly state that this the land is private property, we can make an appeal based on your previous emails.
I shall let you know how we get on.
Best Wishes

XXXX

Aspect Parking Solutions

That was 11th Jan. I have had no subsequent correnpondence until in the post I received 'the letter' along with the DVLA information that they requested saying that I was parked unlawfully, I hadn't paid, the time allowed for the reduced rate £75 instead of £150 was now expired and that if I don't pay within 14 days of receiving the letter (1st Feb) they will take all necessary action to recover the costs and that I will pay for any fees brought on by this action.

I have been to the letting agent who gave me the charge and they weren't forthcoming about it's issue and said it was out fo their hands, that they don't own the land they just rent it and that it was all up to Aspect and the land owner.

I wish I had read all his stuff earlier and had not got in touch with them but now that I have my questions are:

By admitting it was me, have I simply accepted that I am in the wrong?
Can I just ignore them from now?

I think if it came to it I could get the £75 rate back since they haven't replied to my earlier correspondence. I want to pick the phone up and call them and say that they still haven't responded to my earlier appeal which they said they would. Again, is this the wrong thig to do?

I really don't want to go to court. I have a week until I guess the next round of letters come. I feel quite threatened by them. Can I really just ignore this and will it go away?

Any help much appreciated. I have all correspondence available if that can be of any use.

trisontana

Did they actually use the word "unlawfully"? You have not broken any laws as this is a private parking ticket. From no on just ignore these people and don't communicate with them again, You don't owe them a penny. Just treat their silly letters as you would any other junk mail.

taffy056

They are just a useless private parking company, you were ticketed by the letting agents and they earn commision from it, the advice is to ignore them completely unless stamped court papers arrive, the chances of that happening is about the same as a lotto jackpot win, so realistically next to nothing of it going further. Don't contact the parking company further as its pointless they just want money and there is no real appeals, and certainly don't pay them anything! They can only claim for a loss £150 is clearly penalty which is illegal for them to issue.

give_them_FA

All right, you did what a lot do and made the mistake of thinking you were dealing with reasonable people and that their "appeal" system was real, now you know different, they are nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing chancers and rely on a stack of completely empty threats to try to extract a ludicrous amount of money from you.

Do not pay them one penny, and be brave enough to completely ignore all the dire threats that you will undoubtedly receive when they start to realise you are not the MUG that they thought you were!

In the end NOTHING will happen and they will concentrate their efforts on easier targets.

Henners63

Firstly, thank you for your responses. They are much appreciated. You were right in saying I did think that I was dealing with reasonable people, although more fool me when I think back. What reasonable person would try and charge someone £150 for parking their car anywhere for 15 mins?

An extract from the letter reads:

'On Wednesday, December 21, 2011 your vehicle was parked unlawfully, details of which are set out below. Despite request for payment set out on the Parking Charge Notice, affixed to the windscreen, no payment has been received.

Should you fail to make the full payment of £150.00 within 14 days we will take all necessary actions needed to recover all costs.

It is now too late to pay the discounted amount of £75.

Any further action will increase the amount owed to include tany fees brought upon Aspect Parking Solutions.

Please do not ignore this letter. If you are unsure about it's contents you sould obtain legal advice either through a solicitor or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

Blah, blah, blah.

Yours Faithfully
SM
Legal Department'


I have to say the letter does make me feel uncomfortable. Like anyone, I really don't want to go to court. In the seemingly unthinkable event that they did pursue things further, I 'owe' them £150 which they would presumably be awarded, in that event would they be able to claim for other things? I guess these people do all of this through small claims courts?

Trebor16

It is the usual bluff and bluster of a PPC. You didn't park unlawfully and you don't owe them £150. As Aleksander would say.......Simples!!

trisontana

So they actually use the word "unlawfully". It would be interesting to ask them what particular statue law has been broken by you by parking on private land.

As for going to court, that's very very unlikely. That claim for £150 does not reflect the actual loss suffered by the landowner and that's all they can claim for. This was reinforced in a recent court case involving Parking Eye. They asked for hundreds of pounds over two unpaid pay and display tickets. They were awarded just £15 - the price of those two tickets.

Don't be worried or intimidated by those letters. That's what they are designed to do. Once you know what their game is you can just laugh at their stupid efforts to fool people into paying up.

societys_child

Henners63 wrote: »

I have to say the letter does make me feel uncomfortable. Like anyone, I really don't want to go to court. In the seemingly unthinkable event that they did pursue things further, I 'owe' them £150 which they would presumably be awarded, in that event would they be able to claim for other things? I guess these people do all of this through small claims courts?

You're taking it far too seriously. They're not taking you to court as £150 would be regarded as a penalty. Private companys can not issue penalties or fines. You win - just ignore them

Henners63

trisontana wrote: »

So they actually use the word "unlawfully". It would be interesting to ask them what particular statue law has been broken by you by parking on private land.

Guess I'll only find out if it goes any further but it sounds like the best course of action now is just to leave contacting them and wait until this all goes away or something gets escalated.

Thanks again all for your advice. I shall sit it out and see what happens from there. I'll re-post when the next letter arrives ina week or so's time!

give_them_FA

They are not going to take it to Court. Fact. They tell everyone that to try to browbeat or coerce them into paying. The amount they are claiming is completely unrecoverable. And well they know it. If it was recoverable they would have taken it to Court already. They have made it TOTALLY unrecoverable by referring to "unlawful" when your actions were nothing of the sort. They do this to everyone and some people, sadly, are cowed into paying them. There are 2.5 MILLION of these BOGUS tickets issued a year, 65% don't get paid as people are learning they are a total bluff. Do the non-payers get taken to Court? In a word, NO. The Court system would have imploded long ago if they were. Quit worrying, ignore them and laugh at the fact that they have made a loss on their attempt at extortion from you!

Coupon-mad

Hmmmmm...this one could be a bit different, depends on the OP.

So here we have APS and an OP who is at pains here to point out there was a sign, has admitted he was driving and was not using the letting agent. Bad move, or maybe not, depending on who the OP is:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=61400&st=20

Look at post 40, APS actually took a poster to Court and in this linked thread they sent a (badly prepared) barrister who convinced a victim to cough up £60. Seems stupid as the cost of the flippin' barrister must have been more - I guess they just want to quote some 'settled' cases to their pathetic website.

The poster started off here on MSE just like this poster and there was a troll on that thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3043980

Henners63 = Skellen25? :cool: