Can I ignore my 'parking charge notice' from Euro Car Parks?

esmerobbo

cepheus wrote: »

Euro car parks have just taken over from the local council where I live, which means they now use cameras not barriers. It does beg the question though, if they can't enforce the ticket how can they run a parking business?

Martin has a section on it here. This seems to suggest you ignore it

but then he seems to suggest they can take you to court and explains an elaborate appeal procedure !
How to fight private parking tickets



If I understand this correctly, because they can't fine you doesn't mean they can't force you to pay through the courts? It's just that they probably won't bother to go to court in most cases.

Many many people sit at a computer all day sending out scam emails nearly all are binned but now and again some zoon pays up!

Unfortunately with PPC's there are many zoons, Get the idea!

Guys_Dad

Are you sure that they have not just contracted out the management of council car park to a Parking Company rather than direct labour? That is a different scenario.

Stroma

The advice for all the parking companies are the same, there are lots of threads but mostly it's best to just start a new one as its better to have one issue to one thread. Here is a google search

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&q=+site:forums.moneysavingexpert.com+euro+car+parks&sa=X&ei=rwsSUd8Yw8LRBbDsgTA&ved=0CGAQrQIwAw&biw=320&bih=505

cepheus

Coupon-mad wrote: »

And Martin's article is from 4 years ago! :rotfl:

Here is the current forum, read here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

so why does it say this?

Updated 5 Feb 2013

It seems there are a lot of paranoid people on here. I'm just trying to establish my position as a motorist because sooner or later I will get a ticket for being a few minutes late!

There is the other side of the equation, if these firms can't enforce fines (although my questions haven't been answered regarding why has Martin bothered with posting a long and elaborate dispute procedure) and everyone begins to realise it, what prevents the long term parkers simply ousting the short term ones who want to use the car park responsibly?

It's OK to demonise car parking firms for sharp practice, but this could just swap one form of unfairness for another.

Stroma

cepheus wrote: »

so why does it say this?

It seems there are a lot of paranoid people on here. I'm just trying to establish my position as a motorist because sooner or later I will get a ticket for being a few minutes late!

There is the other side of the equation, if these firms can't enforce fines (although my questions haven't been answered regarding why has Martin bothered with posting a long and elaborate dispute procedure) and everyone begins to realise it, what prevents the long term parkers simply ousting the short term ones who want to use the car park responsibly?

It's OK to demonise car parking firms for sharp practice, but this could just swap one form of unfairness for another.

You haven't actually asked any questions, as I said above its best practice to have one issue per thread, the reason is that it gets confusing to advise people if there is more than one query, and things may get crossed.

Martin's article hasn't been updated to reflect current advice, this is not actually our fault this is down to mse itself. All we can do is point people to the parking sub forum where the up to date advice is.

As for paranoia every person is different and they post their interpretation of things, I don't believe anyone on this thread is suffering with that infliction.

Coupon-mad

cepheus wrote: »

so why does it say this?

It seems there are a lot of paranoid people on here. I'm just trying to establish my position as a motorist because sooner or later I will get a ticket for being a few minutes late!

There is the other side of the equation, if these firms can't enforce fines (although my questions haven't been answered regarding why has Martin bothered with posting a long and elaborate dispute procedure) and everyone begins to realise it, what prevents the long term parkers simply ousting the short term ones who want to use the car park responsibly?

It's OK to demonise car parking firms for sharp practice, but this could just swap one form of unfairness for another.

Martin always said, on TV and in the press, that 'unfair private parking tickets' are unenforceable. He gave people the option of the ignore approach or the appeal approach. We think he kept the word 'unfair' in there and suggested an appeal if you did not want to ignore, because he was protecting his position as a journalist in case someone said 'took your advice and I actually then lost in small claims over one of these'. You actually have more chance of winning the lottery than being taken to small claims over a fake PCN. And with a proper defence the PPCs lose if they try (it's soooo rare that they would anyway, most PPC have no clue about the law).

The article may well have been tweaked the other day - won't have been Martin though as this isn't his site any more. Maybe one of the MSE team changed a word or two or added a link, who knows? We mere regular posters are not responsible for any old articles that linger here.

Does this link help, this is pepipoo's explanation of the legalities and what to do if you get one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=46975

What's to stop long term parkers ousting short term ones? Nothing. But there never was anything that could be done (except clamping which is criminal now thank goodness). The point is that people 'abusing' car parks like this is a myth put about by the PPCs. Most people will pay their way in a P&D car park (us included) and most people park considerately (us included). Don't even get me started about the lies about 'disabled bay abuse' that are perpetuated by the BPA or PPC sock-puppets and spewed out by the press every so often!

If the PPCs were kicked out of a car park then anarchy would NOT reign - your typical car park is not a hotbed of inconsiderate parkers waiting to pounce! Look at all the car parks that work perfectly OK without a PPC. Of course they do because PPCs do not have parking management in their agenda, nor do they maintain car parks - it's all about penalties dressed up to impersonate parking tickets - and yes, it is sharp practice.

Paranoia? Certainly not.