EuroPark Ticket, help?

Brimb

Hello, this is my first post so go easy on me!

I parked in a local Euro-Park area today, to return some clothes to a nearby shop, came back to find a parking fine on my windscreen, spoke to the attendant and he told me it was £50, The ticket says I was gone for 6minutes, can this really be justified?
I have read about ignoring the fine and it usually going away, but I don't fancy the thought of being taken to court or further action taken:(
I was contemplating posting a letter with an enclosed cheque for a 1 hour stay in the park, (70p?) would this be sufficient to cancel the fine? Any advice on what to do?

Thanks !

ManxRed

Technically you owe them the 70p, no more.

If you want to send them 70p I would do it with a postal order rather than a cheque, and mark any covering letter with 'in full and final settlement'.

Add that you consider the matter closed and will consider any future correspondence from them, other than to confirm that they are cancelling the charge, as harassment and you may take action as per the Protection from Harassment Act.

Other than that, they have no legal standing whatsoever to pursue you for £60 or anything other than 70p basically.

Stephen_Leak

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private parking company (PPC) or an individual can't. Even PPCs call their tickets “Parking Charge Notices”, not “Penalty Charge Notices”. In law, they’re called “speculative invoices”.

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 a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011, 1SE02759, the Peel Centre case.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a 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. Demanding more has been judged to be unreasonable and therefore an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, which is not legally enforceable. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you do owe the CPO anything, then you should write to them, offering this in “full and final settlement”.

In any event, advise the CPO that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions have been judged to constitute harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. That ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with them.

Don’t appeal to the PPC. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off? Actually, there is something in it for them: 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 who was 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 told them who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of harassing the registered keeper, they can now harass the driver.

What will they do to me?

The PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable, 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 anyone who didn’t pay them.

What should I do then?

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

Brimb

So my first step would to be, to send them a letter enclosing the 70p, and not enclose any information of my address, name, DOB etc, what if they reject my settlement to pay for 1 hour? If I recieve no reply from this letter, should I assume it is settled with? I will begin typing up a letter now.

ManxRed

Basically you would ignore any further letters and demands they send demanding any further monies (including this £50 they want). These may include debt collector letters (powerless) and possibly even a pretend solicitor, again who knows full well they have no legal leg to stand on but are hoping you get scared by letters to solicitors and cave in and pay up.

You may need to tell them at least the reference number on the ticket so they know who to 'not bother' anymore.

Brimb

Dear Europark,
I received a parking fine on 25/06/2012 for leaving my car unattended and not purchasing a ticket for a period of 6minutes, upon returning I found a Parking charge notice for £50, I find this incredibly unjust to condone such a charge for this period, I understand I was in breach of a contract and as such I believe one hour’s worth of parking time will suffice for my time in the car park.
This is my full and final settlement towards the Parking charge notice and I will consider any more requests to pay £50 as harassment under ‘The protection from harassment act 1997’
Faithfully,
Motorist.




I will include the reference number and my car registration number once I remember them !

Stephen_Leak

If they refuse your "full and final" offer and keep sending the usual threatening letters, then they shoot themselves in the foot for any theoretical court case against you (assuming that they could now do so). The important thing is that they would leave themselves wide open to you suing them for harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

I recommend a cheque. The minimum amount is 1p. It gives you evidence of payment, ie. the cheque stub, the copy of the covering letter and the certificate of posting. It also gives you evidence of them cashing it or not, ie. your bank account.

PS. The above letter looks OK to me. Nice and concise, it says all it needs to say and no more. The main thing is that it doesn't confirm whether you were actually driving or not.

PPS. It should go to the car park owner, though.

hoohoo

Brimb wrote: »

Dear Europark,
I received a parking fine on 25/06/2012 for leaving my car unattended and not purchasing a ticket for a period of 6minutes, upon returning I found a Parking charge notice for £50, I find this incredibly unjust to condone such a charge for this period, I understand I was in breach of a contract and as such I believe one hour’s worth of parking time will suffice for my time in the car park.
This is my full and final settlement towards the Parking charge notice and I will consider any more requests to pay £50 as harassment under ‘The protection from harassment act 1997’
Faithfully,
Motorist.




I will include the reference number and my car registration number once I remember them !

I wouldn't agree in writing you were in breach of contract. That might depend on a lot of things such as signage, lighting etc. I would just say

[STRIKE]I understand I was in breach of a contract and as such [/STRIKE]I believe one hour’s worth of parking time will suffice for my time in the car park

Coupon-mad

Brimb wrote: »

Dear Europark,
I received a parking fine on 25/06/2012 for leaving my car unattended and not purchasing a ticket for a period of 6minutes, upon returning I found a Parking charge notice for £50, I find this incredibly unjust to condone such a charge for this period, I understand I was in breach of a contract and as such I believe one hour’s worth of parking time will suffice for my time in the car park.
This is my full and final settlement towards the Parking charge notice and I will consider any more requests to pay £50 as harassment under ‘The protection from harassment act 1997’
Faithfully,
Motorist.

I will include the reference number and my car registration number once I remember them !

Really don't know why you are doing this. Just ignore them.

For starters, your letter tells them who the driver was of that car on that day and as hoohoo says, you've also admitted a breach of contract. Anything else you want to tell them?!

For goodness sake ignore them like we all do.

Stephen_Leak

It does act as the "Letter Before Action" for any potential harassment action.

Kite2010

Send the payment to the landowner, it is their loss.

Ignore Euro, they are more useless than a hair-dryer trying to dry out the isle of wight festival site.