Private Parking Tickets

bettyboo33

Hi,
I got a parking ticket from the Car parking Partnership last June and having taken advice from this forum I didn't pay it. This was outside Manchester childrens hospital as we were visiting my grandson who had been rushed to intensive care with severe head injuries.

However, I've received a letter today from PS&P Ltd saying they have been appointed as debt collectors demanding money.

It looks very official and I've seen the list of letters that come from the Car Parking Partnership and its letter 5.

Do I pay it or do I stick to my guns. I'm just worried that this is going to go to court.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

bondy_lad

worry not betty,ps&p have zero powers,its all part of the SCAM,so just bin em and carry on,hope your grandson is ok now?but as i say worry not and please come back as often as you like for further reassurance about this SCAM,i am taking it, if you have visited us before and the advice was to ,,ignore, you recieved a PARKING charge notice,which is merely an unenforceable invoice, no powers attached to it.relax,feet up,come on gb ,more golds,glass of wine.there you go love,,sorted.

bettyboo33

thanks for the advice, grandson is doing fantastic now thanks to the brilliant surgeons at the childrens hospital.

I will carry on watching GB!

Have to say this forum is great, lots of good advice. thanks again

Stephen_Leak

We are seeing a lot of old cases being resurrected.

It seems like they are getting desperate for money and/or space in the "unpaid" filing cabinet drawer.

xxxcatxxx

Hi,

I have received my 1st ever parking ticket today from a company called highview parking. Apparently I parked in a free car park over the allocated time as they have CCTV images of me entering and leaving the car park. Now I have used this free car park for years and never even knew there were parking restrictions in place! I have drove to the car park this morning to see a sign as you enter but only seen it because I was looking for it! The car park only has this sign on the entrance and no other signage visable when you get out of your car which I think is unfair! Do you think I have a valid arguement that the signage is poor or do you think they will they still insist that I pay? I have already sent an e-mail appealing on these grounds, but realise I may have harmed my case by replying? The fine is £50 if I pay within 14 days or £75 if I pay after :-(

BASFORDLAD

They can insist what they like , but you dont need to respond so just ignore

You havent harmed anything as the is nothing to harm

So just expect and a few letters and move on

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 company or individual can't. Private parking companies (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.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any alleged breach of any alleged 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 recent landmark court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012, HM Revenue & Customs vs. VCS Parking Control, Lower Tax Tribunal, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs (Appeal), Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In these cases, the judges ruled that only the CPO can charge for parking and take drivers to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgements set legal precedents.

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 just means that they can now harass the driver instead of harassing the registered keeper.

How will they do this 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 blackmailer can't take anyone who didn’t pay them to court.

What should I do then?

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

Unhappy_Chappy_2

Just thought that I would share this with the community: Fines from speed cameras (whether fixed or mobile) is a non starter if you do not receive it within 14 days from the offence.

You can contest this and would win. That is the reason sometimes you get hit and don't receive a fine as most fixed cameras are not attended to on a daily basis.

trisontana

Unhappy_Chappy wrote: »

Just thought that I would share this with the community: Fines from speed cameras (whether fixed or mobile) is a non starter if you do not receive it within 14 days from the offence.

You can contest this and would win. That is the reason sometimes you get hit and don't receive a fine as most fixed cameras are not attended to on a daily basis.

What's this got to do with private parking tickets?