help please

toplad

i have been parking in a local private car park for some time. they have just given me a penalty notice - as i forgot to pay for a ticket about 8 days ago. i have a disabilty in which i can suffer from short term memory loss and clearly forgot to pay for my ticket that day. i am clearly at fault and am angery with my self, but being told to pay £90 is wrong the daily charge is only £4 and i have tickets of previous purchses showing that i normally pay. Is there any thing i can do.

halibut2209

Private parking ticket?

Ignore them. They can't do anything. Have a read of the other threads here

give_them_FA

Yes. There are two things you could do.

1. If you accept that you were at fault and forgot to pay, then come clean and pay them, so you will be above criticism. No, not the £90, silly! Send them the £4 as a cheque, with a letter saying that it is the missed payment and is offered in full and final settlement of what you owe them. Write that on the back of the cheque too, in case they cash it. Though I bet they won't- it isn't their norm to accept only what they are entitled to. They are usually too greedy for that. (However, if it's Parking Eye, you could mention Parking Eye v Smith, Manchester County Court 2011, where the Judge held that the unpaid parking charge was all they were entitled to and told them they could sing for the rest and their costs!)

2. You could ignore them and everything they send you. You will receive a copious supply of toilet paper but once they realise you are not going to buckle they will slink off, never to be seen again. Your attitude would be basically yes, I did owe the £4, but that's cancelled out by your unlawful attempt to con me into paying some ridiculous amount for it.

Up to you. Either will work.

Option 1 opens the door for you to sue them if they keep threatening; only real difference.

halibut2209

Just to confirm, it IS a private ticket, and not a council one?

Does it say "penalty charge" or "parking charge"?

Trebor16

Normal advice is to ignore them but given your disability (which is presumably backed up by medical evidence) it might be worthwhile writing to them, pointing out your disability and offering to pay the charge for that day. If they reject your offer then it opens up issues under the Equalities Act 2010 which is where GivethemFA could be of help.

give_them_FA

halibut2209 wrote: »

Just to confirm, it IS a private ticket, and not a council one?

Does it say "penalty charge" or "parking charge"?

Always worth asking, but it does say "private" car park and no Council I have heard of has the nerve to try charging £90 for a P & D PCN! :rotfl:

What company is it, toplad?

halibut2209

True, but given the usage of the word "penalty", just wanted to be clear

bondy_lad

surely its got to be PARKING charge notice you have recieved =scam/con/fake/not legit/loo paper/unenforceable,,,ignore and all future threat o grams on or on behalf of these cowboys.

Mugsey

There is a lot of good stuff on this on the internet. Have a good read before you take action.

Funnily enough I just had a letter today apologising for any inconvenience I might have suffered as a result of the parking ticket which they put on my windscreen!

Firstly, you do not have to tell them who the driver was, although if you sayit wasn't you and they have CCTC which shows it was you, you have committed a criminal offense. So when they sent me a letter demanding £80 I said I wasn't the only person who drove the car so I wasn't certain who was driving it at the time in question. If they could provide me with CCTV of it being parked I may be able to identify the driver from that.

I said this so that I could ascertain how much photographic or other evidence they had.

I also disputed that the photographs they had on the website showed that I was in breach of terms and conditions because the quality of the photographs wasn't very good. I asked for clearer photographs and then said I would take legal advice if I thought there had been a breach of terms and conditions.

Remember, if it is a PRIVATE car park, they are only trying to impose a charge on you for a breach of terms and conditions. There are no by-laws which say you have to pay (although there are if it is a COUNCIL car park).

If they did decide to pursue you, they would have to go through the small claims court and prove that there was a contract between you and them.

I don't know if I would offer them £4 tbh, because that might say that you agree there was a contract between you and them.

I would probably start by saying you weren't sure who the driver was. If it is a PRIVATE car park, they can't make you say who the driver was.

give_them_FA

Nice synopsis, Mugsey, though just a couple of points I would query. As they have no entitlement to the information anyway, it is difficult to see how any statement that you weren't driving, even if untrue, could come within the remit of the criminal law... they may say it does, but they tell all manner of lies...

I would also suggest that the contract law in a Pay and Display is clear- unlike some of the made-up rules they try to apply in order to levy imaginative charges... the purpose of offering the parking charge is by way of an investment in that if you have discharged any possible liability to them, that leaves your way clear to sue if they try to harass you into paying more, without fear of any criticism by the Court you take it to.....

of course you can simply exercise your right to silence and leave it to them if you are not interested in taking it further yourself. So if you're not planning to "strike back" there won't be any conversation between you and them anyway, and the issue of "who was driving" won't get discussed!.