Parking Charge Notice

dogshuman

I just need advice and reassurance. I got a parking ticket for parking in a car park, which I mistakenly thought was a local authority car park, but found wasn't when I received the ticket. I had paid the relevant fee for parking and displayed the ticket, but it must have blown over when I shut the door. The parking charge notice says that the ticket was reversed. This was written after the tick in the box for failure to display a valid ticket or permit.

I have kept the ticket I bought which was still valid for another hour after the parking charge notice was issued. There didn't seem to be any way of appealing against the notice, only a phone number to pay it. We looked on this site and it seemed to say ignore it. I heard nothing and was beginning to relax when I received a letter from a debt collection agency, swiftly followed by a phone call. Am I still better sticking to the ignore course of action, or do I now need to do something else?

Thanks in advance.

Orford

dogshuman wrote: »

Am I still better sticking to the ignore course of action, .

Yes carry on ignoring, letters/ phonecalls etc. They will eventually give up.

vax2002

the debt collectors are as fake as the ticket and rude vulgar abuse gives the phone pests exactly what they deserve.

dogshuman

Thanks guys, I just haven't had to deal with anything like this before and it feels quite intimidating, thanks for the reassurance.

Anna_Nonymouse

It's supposed to be intimidating - they purposely phrase things in a manner where they're right and you're wrong; they don't legally have a leg to stand on by demanding this money from you, so they rely on scare and bully tactics. They try and threaten your peace of mind over your credit rating, your criminal record, your property. They insinuate that you are in the wrong, and the legal system is all on their side.
They HAVE to try and scare you into paying, because it's an invoice. Nothing more. You can ignore it, and you should, and all the other letters you get from debt collectors and solicitors, inviting you to pay before it gets any dearer, because it's all bull. If you get stamped court papers, then worry. Till then, sit back, and play bingo with the people who have been through this already - once you've had all the letters in their list, you know it's over

Stephen_Leak

dogshuman wrote: »

I just need advice and reassurance. I got a parking ticket for parking in a car park, which I mistakenly thought was a local authority car park, but found wasn't when I received the ticket. I had paid the relevant fee for parking and displayed the ticket, but it must have blown over when I shut the door. The parking charge notice says that the ticket was reversed. This was written after the tick in the box for failure to display a valid ticket or permit.

I have kept the ticket I bought which was still valid for another hour after the parking charge notice was issued. There didn't seem to be any way of appealing against the notice, only a phone number to pay it. We looked on this site and it seemed to say ignore it. I heard nothing and was beginning to relax when I received a letter from a debt collection agency, swiftly followed by a phone call. Am I still better sticking to the ignore course of action, or do I now need to do something else?

Thanks in advance.

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. 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.

With windscreen notices, an appeal letter will tell them your name and address, and maybe that you were driving at the time. If you don’t tell them, they have to buy the registered keeper details from the DVLA.

With postal notices, they’ve done this already. But they still need to know the identity of the driver.

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 written and confirmed who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of unlawfully harassing the registered keeper, they can now unlawfully harass the driver.

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 everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. Yes, it does seem counter-intuitive to deal with something by ignoring it. But, eventually, they will run out of empty threats to intimidate you with, and stop throwing good money after bad.

give_them_FA

What bunch of scallywags issued you with the fake ticket, anyway?

dogshuman

give_them_FA wrote: »

What bunch of scallywags issued you with the fake ticket, anyway?

PCN Parking Services acting on behalf of Car Parking Management (Cumbria)

Payment is via paymypcn.net

give_them_FA

PCN Parking Services? You cannot be serious!

Coupon-mad

IF YOU ARE READING THIS THREAD AFTER 2012 - WHY???????

THE ADVICE CHANGED IN 2013.


Please see my signature for the ONE click needed to jump to page one of the forum with threads galore from this week!


PRIVATE PCNS CAN BE BEATEN EASILY ON APPEAL NOW - HOP TO PAGE ONE, GET OFF THIS ANCIENT THREAD!

give_them_FA

Yeah, Duane? Got an answer for that?

Do you have a site called notpayingmypcn.net for me to use, matey?