Euro Car parks

angcheshunt

Hi all,
I'm new to this and so therefore please forgive me if i'm posting in the wrong place!!
Last saturday, I parked in a free car park at Matalan in Hertford as i have done many, many times before to shop for some holiday clothes with my mum of 78 years old. We spent quite a while trying things on and queuing to pay for our purchases and left after just under three hours to return home. I was therefore shocked and concerned to receive a PCN from the above company a week later including a photo of my number plate stating that i had exceeded the free parking period of 2 hours by 48 minutes! I phoned the store and they advised me that the car park is owned by a private landlord and Matalan are in the process of appealing to get the free period extended to three hours, however unfortunately they could not assist me at all. My poor mum has been so worried about this aswell and has offered to pay the £70 fine from her measley pension. Please could you advise me if this is legal and if i ignore this notice they won't proceed with legal action, I am so worried.

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

warehouse

Ignore the ticket and search this section for more posts about Euro Car Parks. You won't have to pay a single penny.

Coupon-mad

It's a well-known scam so stop worrying about it and start laughing at them. For Gawd's sake this is NOT a fine!!

I laughed when I got a fake PCN from Euro Car Parks 4 years ago and I am just an ordinary law-abiding wife and Mum with a clean credit record, CRB check, 4 kids, no money, a mortgage, the lot! I carry the letters I received around with me to show people about this con - I showed a shop-load of customers when having my hair done in my local hairdressers the other day, exactly what arrives and what to ignore. I like to spread the word.


Ignore this fake PCN and you will just get the same letters we all do - and despite the 'debt collector' or 'solicitor' headings and bold lettering, threatening increasing charges, they really are very easy to ignore (as we all do!). There will be no Court, no CCJ, no bailiff, nothing to pay as it's not a fine, and no effect on your credit rating. As long as it's not a company or hired car which is more complicated, you just IGNORE the whole scam.

All the letters can be seen as picture previews, in the permanent info 'sticky' thread near the top of the parking forum. See my signature for the words to click on, in order to take a step back and see the whole current thread list. One click and you see all the current threads here.

Third from the top, click on 'PPC letters & threats' which is the 'sticky' permanent thread I mentioned.

1. With your Mum, sit down and watch the Watchdog clip on there, and then

2. Scroll down to look at the preview pics of Euro Car Parks' threatograms, then

3. Play a nice game of snap with each matching templated threatogram, then

4. Tell your friends & family about the fake PCN scam so they never pay one.



HTH, honestly it's easy!

ManxRed

No, it ISN'T legal.

Under contract law, the landowner can pursue the driver for the actual financial losses incurred as a result of a breach of the parking conditions. This raises at least three issues:

1. Euro car parks are not the landowner. Under a recent upper tirbunal ruling (VCS v HMRC) only the landowner or someone with sufficient proprietary rights over the land can pursue someone in relation to a parking charge.

2. They do not know who the driver was. They can contact the DVLA to find out who the Registered Keeper is, but clearly they have no way of knowing if that was the driver or not. And the registered keeper is under no obligation to tell them who was driving.

3. The actual losses incurred as a result of your 'breach' in a free car park is... errrr... zero. Not £70.

It would be laughed out of court. That's why they are extremely unlikely to even try that. Instead they will attempt to scare you into paying by sending scary letters claiming that they may take you to court (with emphasis on the word 'may'. They won't).

Ignore them, do not contact them, and simply file the letters away out of sight out of mind. Eventually they will give up and go away.

angcheshunt

Have spent most of the evening searching through all the posts and now feel happier and convinced that this is a scam and shall not be parting with a penny; my mum will be so relieved!! Thank you all so much for your help! :j

ManxRed

Another satisfied customer!!

Don't forget to tell everyone you know about this scam!!