Parking eye parking charge notice

DJMAPPIE

Ive just got home from work to find a letter for parking eye. (Parking charge notice)

It details that I parked in Aldi Worcester for 7 hours and 20 mins when the limit is 2 hours. I didn't realise that this operation was in force on this car park and didn't notice the signs.

I have read so many feeds/forums with regards to Parking eye which have said to ignore all communication from them and don't get in touch with them and it will go away!

Is this really the case? Because i also parked on the same car park the other day for about the same period of time whilst i was at a mates house, so I am expecting another parking charge notice to come through the door at any time!

Please help........thanks

trisontana

Two lots of junk mail instead of one!

Stephen_Leak

DJMAPPIE wrote: »

<snip> I have read so many feeds/forums with regards to Parking eye which have said to ignore all communication from them and don't get in touch with them and it will go away!

Is this really the case? <snip>

No, I just post this for a laugh.

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private company or individual can't. A private parking company (PPC) 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.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any alleged breach of contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If it’s in a free car park or the driver 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.

There are also now two recent landmark court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs, Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In both cases, the judges ruled that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is a court of record, equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgement sets a legal precedent.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you owe the CPO the original charge, then you ought to write to the CPO, offering this in “full and final settlement”. In any event, you should write to the CPO, advising them that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions by either of them would be regarded as harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with a PPC.

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 harassing 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 had to do 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 an 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.

DJMAPPIE

Thanks i'm sure everything ive read and all the information you have both provided is correct but there is still that little bit of my brain that should be worried....

bargepole

DJMAPPIE wrote: »

Thanks i'm sure everything ive read and all the information you have both provided is correct but there is still that little bit of my brain that should be worried....

Look at it this way: 240,000 users in 240,000,000 threads say ignore.

Perky Pieman (well known troll) says pay.

Do you want to ask the audience, phone a friend, or do a 50/50?

vax2002

it is an impersonation of authority scam, it has been carefully designed to make you "worried".
What do you expect them to do in order to make you pay a invitation to settle invoice, ask nicely ?
When you ignore this lot, they will pass you on to the next bunch of impersonators who will pretend to be Graham Whites solicitors ! who will kindly offer you legal advice to help you pay the scam fake impersonation of authority fake parking ticket.

DJMAPPIE

ill take your word for it thank xxx

have any of you had one of these and ignored them?

AltheHibby

Mrs theHibby has ignored 3 of these threatograms in the full knowledge that they can do the square root of sod all about it.

Coupon-mad

DJMAPPIE wrote: »

ill take your word for it thank xxx

have any of you had one of these and ignored them?

I have had 2 and ignored them, one from 4 years ago and the other one is new one last week and I laughed when I saw it on the windscreen!

You should ALWAYS just ignore any fake PCN. It is NOT a fine at all. Forget it.

You are not liable to pay and you must not 'appeal' as that's a pretence. There is no appealing a scam. This is a private company with an unsolicited invoice, dressed up to impersonate a parking ticket. It's NOTHING at all to spend any time worrying about!

Tick off the threatening letters Here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion here.


HTH

DJMAPPIE

thanks very much i just don't understand why supermarkets take these people on to "police" there car park if its a scam??

ManxRed

They get a kickback from the mugs who pay up.