Parking Enforcement Notice - Paid

scousedicko

Coupon-mad - in the letter why not refer to the company as VALCO and sign off as "trollied".

melis

How I wish I had looked into this back in April ...my partner and I went to pick up his son some distance away early one morning (a 3 hour round trip) ..returning home we stopped off to get our weekly shop and have breakfast at Asda Greenhithe store .. about a week later we had a letter from TCP demanding we pay a fine .. they had photos of our car arriving and leaving ..we had been there exactly 2 hours 15mins ..we were just 15mins over the time limit..
as partners son is disabled (profoundly deaf and autistic) breakfast and shopping takes us a bit longer then most .. partner is already very stressed and paid the lower fine of £30 ..
I tried writing to the store but was ignored I emailed the CEO explaining the situation and feeling it had been unfairly handled and that now my partner refuses ever to shop at Asda again ..but my email was also ignored.
I will definetly pass the word that these fines are illegal and will not stand up in court.
To think these people have £30.00 of our money makes my blood boil !:mad:

taffy056

Well I'm sorry you have had this problem with asda , you could sue them both for breaking the equality act, they must make reasonable adjustments for disabled drivers and their passengers. Over staying by 15 minutes is not reasonable once it's been brought to their attention.

Send them a letter before action with compensation of £300-£500 for the stress and the breach, plus the £30 for the ticket and £35 for issuing a claim in the small claims. If you are serious about this we can help you with a claim, Coupon who is a regular on here can help you with the wording if you wish, I am sure she would be happy to help.

bazster

melis,

If I were you I would write a brief but very formal letter to Asda along these lines:

Letter Before Action

Firstly explain the circumstances, keep it brief and factual, pretty much as you did above. Then continue...

Asda will be aware that the Equality Act 2010 requires you to make reasonable adjustments in catering for disabled people, including allowing extra time. You have ignored this by allowing your agent, Town and City Parking, to charge me £30 for overstaying with my autistic son by just 15 minutes. This is a breach of the Equality Act 2010 for which I hold Town and City Parking and Asda jointly and severally liable.

I now require you to pay me, within 14 days of the date of this letter, the sum of £500, comprising the £30 charged by Town and City Parking plus an additional sum as compensation for distress caused and injury to feelings. If you do not pay then I will bring an action against you in the County Court, the costs of which will be added to the claim.

Put it in writing (don't email it), make it from your partner and have him sign it, and take it to the post office and get a proof of posting.

Do NOT send it to the store, send it to their head office:

Asda Stores Limited,
South Bank,
Great Wilson Street,
Leeds,
LS11 5AD

Send a similar letter to TCP:

Town and City Parking Limited,
8 Charlotte Street,
Perth
PH1 5LL

I reckon Asda will cough up straight away, but if they don't, after 14 days send them and TCP another, similar letter given them seven days further.

If they still don't pay, submit a Money Claim Online naming both Asda and TCP as defendants.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

It will cost you £35 to lodge a claim for £500. The £35 will be automatically added to the amount you are claiming. If you really want to go for it you can up your claim to £1,000 (adjust the letters accordingly) but it will cost you £60 to lodge the claim.

Faced with an actual claim (which they can't defend because they don't have a leg to stand on) they are very likely to cough up.

Good luck!

melis

Thank you Taffy ..I will put this to my partner..
He is not a disabled driver but his 19 year old son is disabled ..the annoying thing is they want us to use their restaurant and shop but you are obviously not supposed to relax and enjoy your meal ..which takes time with someone that is autistic.. and then we were supposed to rush through shopping (even though stepson likes to put things back on the shelves neatly)

Thanks again I will pass the info on.:beer:
Bazster That is really helpful Thanks am printing these off to show OH as I type!

bazster

The fact that your OH is not disabled doesn't matter, he had a disabled person with him so your OH can bring the full weight of the Equality Act crashing down on their scumbag heads.

This kind of situation is exactly what the Equality Act is for, so go ahead and make Asda very, very sorry for their crass insensitivity.

Incidentally, is your stepson available to put shopping away in our kitchen? I suspect my OH would like his approach to it a lot better than she likes mine...

taffy056

melis wrote: »

Thank you Taffy ..I will put this to my partner..
He is not a disabled driver but his 19 year old son is disabled ..the annoying thing is they want us to use their restaurant and shop but you are obviously not supposed to relax and enjoy your meal ..which takes time with someone that is autistic.. and then we were supposed to rush through shopping (even though stepson likes to put things back on the shelves neatly)

Thanks again I will pass the info on.:beer:
Bazster That is really helpful Thanks am printing these off to show OH as I type!

No problem we are here to help you, as you can see others will also give time to offer the benefit of our experience on this. Let us know what you intend to do as we can advise you whether you go ahead or not.

One thing from tomorrow 1st October things are changing so if you do get another of these invoices you need separate advice for this.

bazster

Incidentally, if you get as far as actually bringing a claim against Asda, contact your local paper. They will absolutely love it, will probably make it their headline, and will certainly approach Asda for a comment!

melis

Thank you so much ! We will be sending the letters off tomorrow..
I will let you know how we get on..

(Will see if I can hire stepson out) :rotfl:

bazster

Good luck, do keep us posted!