Parking Eye.....Again!

Hutchy4

Sorry to bring this up again as it seems to always get the same response, but for my own piece of mind can you clarify my position?

My family and I overstayed in a carpark monitored by Parking Eye by a total of 17 minutes, as usual we think we have a valid reason for doing this. The first 30 minutes was free, signage was fairly obvious.

We received the usual letter: £60 charge going up to £90 then £120.

We appealed in the required time - it was rejected. We then asked what proof they wanted - no response! Then the £90 charge arrives today, along with a separate letter saying they have put the charge on hold to allow us to send in evidence.

Should we do as most people on here advise and ignore all correspondence and ride it out; or should we as others suggest offer to pay for the 17 minutes we overstayed by?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

give_them_FA

Ignore it mate, it is a total waste of time trying their appeal system, it is a sham. All they want is to establish a communication with you so they can browbeat you into paying when they send out their rejection letters. They have no interest whatever in the facts, why's or wherefores. All they are interested in is extracting money from you. Good job you came here before they succeeded.

You mistook then for someone with honesty and integrity and played their game. Read around here and you will find all they are is money-grubbers trying to make a profit out of honest and trusting people.

Bottom line, have no further communication with them, ignore them and anyone else that contacts you, and when they are finished with their preset chain of scary letters then they simply give up.

But, how much would the 17 minutes have been? You could certainly offer that to the owner of the car park.

Stephen_Leak

Everyone likes to think that their case is unique but, for all intents and purposes, the circumstances are academic.

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 not legally enforceable. (Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914.)

Under various legislation, only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. Private parking companies can't.

What do I do now?

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 they don’t know who the driver was, they have to buy the details of registered keeper 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 they do to me?

They will send you a series of letters, 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 intimidate you into paying.

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

What should I do then?

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

Kite2010

The landowner has suffered a small loss (of whatever 17 minutes worth of parking is), which will most likely be pennies.

Parking Pie are demanding a penalty which can be ignored.

Hutchy4

Thanks for the advice. I will ride it out and post back what happens for other people's benefit.

Crabman

Hutchy4 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I will ride it out and post back what happens for other people's benefit.

You can view our letter chain for Parking Eye so you know what to expect:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2214803

justiceforme_2

I have the same letter Hutchy4...apparently over-stayed by 18 mins and now they want £90...£60 if paid within 13 days. hmm now how did I stay over the ticket time, as I am usually so acute on with car parking...ahh the car park I used is very busy, so spaces not always available, now where parking eye get you is...they photograph and give a time your car entered the car park say for example 3.15pm....you wait 15-20 minutes for a parking space...park your car, say at 3.30pm get a ticket for 2hrs and then leave at the time of your ticket which says 5.30pm... they photograph your car with the time you've left the car park at 5.30pm and therefore you've overstayed...because you entered at 3.15pm..same if you enter the car park, wait for a car parking space...give up 10 minutes later and leave...you have not purchased a ticket and therefore they fine you...has anyone else come across this problem with parking eye?....or are they just a bunch of scammers

ManxRed

They do this a lot, have a wild guess what they do if you visit twice in one day?

give_them_FA

Well done, you have worked out the answer. Now you can get justice by simply ignoring their transparent attempt at a scam.

sunfairy

Thanks to everyone above for advice in similar situations.
Parked over the 2-hour time limit in a supermarket car-park on Bank Holiday Monday - thinking that Sunday-rules would apply so I would be safe after the stated time limit. Have appealed to Parking Eye by email and am now worried that it was a mistake as they now know I've admitted it. However, reading these forums is encouraging - should I ignore further correspondence?

trisontana

Of course. You situation is no different to the many others featured on here.