Private Parking Notice UKPPO

vonster86

Hello,

I recently received a PCN from UK Parking Patrol Office in Manchester. I parked on the street with no yellow lines but admittedly there were no parking notices posted up, which I didnt notice until I saw the ticket (issued at 11.30pm on a saturday night!). Its a £100 fine which will be kindly reduced to £60 if I pay within 14 days (which is this weekend), and I want some advice on whether I should just cough up the fine or ignore it? Ive read some of the info on this board, bit concerned about having receiving threats for many months down the line or have people knock on my door!

Thanks

prosnap

The whole private parking business relies on misrepresentation of authority. They are not the council, police or government, so they can't legally issue fines or penalties. All they have sent you is a civil invoice, which you have no legal obligation to pay or acknowledge.

Contacting them is generally a waste of time, their appeals process is worthless as it is not run by an impartial third party but rather by themselves so it's obviously within their interests to reject it.

Over 99.9% of the time they will not take you to court, because the more times they take people to court, and lose, the more chance that other members of the public get to hear that the invoices can be ignored. This would then lead to parking companies having no income because there would be no more gullible people left!

Taking people to court actually hurts their business ... Which is why they hardly ever try it.

taffy056

First of all its not a fine, they are not a statuary body and cannot issue them, so please get out of the mindset that this is enforceable like a penalty charge notice. What you have is an invoice from a private parking company, they are simply asking you for money for breach of contract, they have no legal right to do that, which means it will not go to court despite their fancy corrupt like name. The best advice providing you are the RK of the vehicle is to ignore, there are other things that can be done but that takes time and effort.

Coupon-mad

vonster86 wrote: »

Hello,

I recently received a PCN from UK Parking Patrol Office in Manchester. I parked on the street with no yellow lines but admittedly there were no parking notices posted up, which I didnt notice until I saw the ticket (issued at 11.30pm on a saturday night!). Its a £100 fine which will be kindly reduced to £60 if I pay within 14 days (which is this weekend), and I want some advice on whether I should just cough up the fine or ignore it? Ive read some of the info on this board, bit concerned about having receiving threats for many months down the line or have people knock on my door!

Thanks

The last thing in bold doesn't happen (except for recent reports of a rogue debt collector pretending to be a bailiff when trying to extort money for Car Parking Partnership).

It's only junk mail, man up, we have all ignored these threats on here! I have ignored two fake PCNs like yours (from different PPCs) and I am just an ordinary wife & Mum. It's no biggie to dodge a mail scam and you would be mad to fall for it!

As long as you or a family member are the registered keeper of the car, you can and should just ignore the 'ticket' and ignore the other letters that will arrive. The letters are easy to ignore and laugh at, when they arrive at the address of someone who knows it's all hogwash and not a real parking ticket at all.

The whole scam of fake PCNs relies firstly on people's ignorance of the fact that a random private company can't fine anyone, and secondly on their natural fear of parking tickets and the escalating costs/bailiff scenario. So PPCs copy the look of a real parking ticket and - hey presto! - the cash rolls in from victims who know no better.

There is no fine, no CCJ, no bailiff, no debt, no effect on credit rating, no Court, no repercussions at all from a pathetic, unenforceable fake PCN (= invoice) issued by a random third party.

The signs are irrelevant; there was no possible contract between you and UKPPO as you never saw their signs, and they don't own the land and they have made no loss.

Tick off the threatening letters here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion - read the answer at the bottom, it's very clear! - here.

So I recommend from now on that you just play snap with the threatograms from debt collectors - choose to ignore and laugh at the scammer and their attempt to extort money. It's like deleting obvious phishing emails from your 'Bank'; it's a very similar con based on impersonation of authority.

DID I SAY DO NOT PAY?!!!!!!!!!!

vonster86

Hi again, I've just had a quick read of the forums and it appears advice re. ignoring PCNs has changed in England? The 'offence' was on 10/11/2012 and I am still receiving letters, latest one from a debt collection agency offered to reduce fine back to original amount, £60 (from £160). I presume this is out of desperation as they realise they are not going to get anything out of me. But, I dont want to risk any chance of being taken to court, should I continue to ignore and they will eventually go away?

Thanks

Guys_Dad

vonster86 wrote: »

Hi again, I've just had a quick read of the forums and it appears advice re. ignoring PCNs has changed in England? The 'offence' was on 10/11/2012 and I am still receiving letters, latest one from a debt collection agency offered to reduce fine back to original amount, £60 (from £160). I presume this is out of desperation as they realise they are not going to get anything out of me. But, I dont want to risk any chance of being taken to court, should I continue to ignore and they will eventually go away?

Thanks

I would continue to ignore. They could take it further, but I would bet that they will not now after this amount of time.

If they do, come back for help.

vonster86

Thanks. Hmmm... I'm kind of tempted to pay now, the hassle and stress of going to court will be worth more than 60 quid even if I were to win. I'm also going abroad for a few months soon, I dont want to return to find I have a CCJ!

vonster86

Actually the last letter said the £60 offer expires after 14 days, not sure what to do now. Dont want to pay £160, dont want to go to court either...

prosnap

vonster86 wrote: »

Thanks. Hmmm... I'm kind of tempted to pay now, the hassle and stress of going to court will be worth more than 60 quid even if I were to win.

Great idea!

Ignore them for 9 months and then pay them!

fisherjim

vonster86 wrote: »

Actually the last letter said the £60 offer expires after 14 days, not sure what to do now. Dont want to pay £160, dont want to go to court either...

You are joking surely!

vonster86

I ignored them because that was the advice given on here (see original replies), as I was under the impression that PCNs were unenforceable and would never go to court. It now appears the advice has changed and people are getting taken to court, Im a bit confused now... :S