UKCPS Car Parking Solutions Letter - Please Help

wolf15

Hi guys.

I have received an official looking letter from UKCPS Ltd stating I have been charged £60 for breaking a car park time limit.

If there is a sign up in the car park stating that there is a time limit to car parking and if this is exceeded can this company enforce the charge and is one then liable to pay?

The letter states the times that the car entered the car park and the time the charge was issued and that this was observed by cameras.

Can anyone help me with some advice - should this fine be paid if the time limit was exceeded for a parking time limit?

Many thanks

notts_phil

Couple of things

Its not a fine, just an invoice!

Dont pay it , ignore each silly letter,

Beware. Peter Haswell who is the office Tea for UKCPS likes to trawl these forums trying to trick people by private message.

Oopsadaisy

Ignore every piece of toilet paper that these scum send you.

dt3887

file it under B.I.N and F.O.R.G.E.T.

its not a fine, it is a simple invoice. Private companies cannot enfore it, only Council ones and Police issued ones If i Remember Correctly

wolf15

Thanks guys - is that even if they have recorded my time in and out of the carpark and it has exceeded the parking time limit that is given in the car park display?

Thanks for your help.

ManxRed

Yep.

Their recourse is actual losses suffered as a result of you parking there. How much are the charges at the car park for the overstay period? That's legally what you owe them, time-stamped photo or no time-stamped photo.

Also, the photo is incapable of identifying the driver, which is the only person they can pursue for the amount I have specified above.

Relax.

wolf15

There is a sign up saying that if the time is exceeded a charge of £x will be payable - I can't remember the exact amount but it maybe £60. I need to go back and check the carpark.

That's why I'm a bit twitchy about ignoring the letter.

Stephen_Leak

The sign may say that the parking charge is £60, but it has been judged that this much is unreasonable, so it is an unfair contract condition, so no contract is created.

We do not condone inconsiderate parking, or not paying or overstaying in a pay & display car park. However, back in the real world ...

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and the driver in the first place. (The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997.)

Even if there is a contract, all the car park owner can claim from the driver in damages for any breach of contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If this is a free car park or they paid, this is £0.00. By asking you for more, which is unreasonable, it’s become an unfair contract penalty, which is legally unenforceable. (Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914.)

Only councils, the police and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. Private companies can't.

Private parking companies consider that their signs create a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and the driver, that their demands are their losses and not fines or penalties, that these are reasonable, and that they’re legally enforceable.

What do you do?

Don’t appeal. They always reject them. Why should they? What’s in it for them to let anyone off?

What’s in it for them is information. They need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with chasing the registered keeper. They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve appealed and confirmed who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful.

What will happen now?

You are going to receive a series of letters from the PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These will threaten you with all sorts of financial and legal unpleasantness, to try and intimidate you into paying.

But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that a blackmailer couldn't sue their victim if they didn’t pay.

What should you do?

Ignore their empty threats. Eventually, they will run out of things to intimidate you with, and stop throwing good money after bad.

esmerobbo

wolf15 wrote: »

There is a sign up saying that if the time is exceeded a charge of £x will be payable - I can't remember the exact amount but it maybe £60. I need to go back and check the carpark.

That's why I'm a bit twitchy about ignoring the letter.

So if you decided to stay longer then the time allowed how would you pay? Did they make payment available at the site?
If you read the sign before parking would you have agreed to park and be charged £60 for doing so?

There is a lot more to entering into a contract then someone posting a sign up and assuming everybody reads it and agrees to it. It also has to be fair to both parties.

wolf15

Thanks guys.

give_them_FA

Very important you have absolutely no communication whatever with this company. And beware of any private messages you get offering to "help" unless they are from well-established names on here.

Forward them to me if you get any, please.

This is a particularly slimy company.