CPN from Car Parking Partnership at wifes hospital

ubdai

My wife works at a local hospital where the car parking is 'administered' :laugh: by the Car Parking Partnership.
There are three options for paying for parking they are.
1- £1.60 per 24hrs
2- Scratch card book at £33 with approx 20 coupons for 12 or 24 hr parking periods.
3- Pay monthly via deduction from salary. Approx cost £22 month dependent on number of contracted working hours.

Wife has just returned home with a CPN from the above company.
They call it 'Notice of Breach of Parking Conditions' at said hospital.
PCN issued because car park attendant believes that a CPN has been incurred because of Code 18
'Parking without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket'.
Charge of £100 reduced to £40:dance:if paid within 14days.

From what I see on this forum the ideal thing is to simply ignore and throw the invoice away. Wife is worried that if she does not pay, then the hospital could get involved and things could turn nasty.
Where does she stand regards this invoice as the company has 3 methods of paying for parking? (They seem to cover all bases regards paying for parking).

Could someone please MOH mind at ease.

Thanks
ubdai

Stroma

Well if she's paid to park there is no loss, they can only claim for the loss. So that would be £1.60 maximum, an illegal penalty of £100 reduced to £40 are both excessive and do not reflect any loss incurred .

Did she pay ?

And ignore the parking company, this is a third party alleged debt and has nothing to do with the hospital, unless the hospital are the ones issuing this demand

Coupon-mad

ubdai wrote: »

My wife works at a local hospital where the car parking is 'administered' :laugh: by the Car Parking Partnership.
There are three options for paying for parking they are.
1- £1.60 per 24hrs
2- Scratch card book at £33 with approx 20 coupons for 12 or 24 hr parking periods.
3- Pay monthly via deduction from salary. Approx cost £22 month dependent on number of contracted working hours.

Wife has just returned home with a CPN from the above company.
They call it 'Notice of Breach of Parking Conditions' at said hospital.
PCN issued because car park attendant believes that a CPN has been incurred because of Code 18
'Parking without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket'.
Charge of £100 reduced to £40:dance:if paid within 14days.

From what I see on this forum the ideal thing is to simply ignore and throw the invoice away. Wife is worried that if she does not pay, then the hospital could get involved and things could turn nasty.
Where does she stand regards this invoice as the company has 3 methods of paying for parking? (They seem to cover all bases regards paying for parking).

Could someone please MOH mind at ease.

Thanks
ubdai

As Stroma said, did she pay and display? Important question, only because this is a hospital and she works there.

ubdai

Coupon-mad wrote: »

As Stroma said, did she pay and display? Important question, only because this is a hospital and she works there.

She was running late and completely forgot to get a ticket. Big oops on her part.

ubdai

Half_way

Offer them the normal parking rate (£1.60 ?) as a full and final settlement, also remind them that the £40/£100 charge is a penalty charge and as such this sum can not be charged.

Coupon-mad

Or ignore it - here's a thread from today where the OP is going to do just that, and posters there have 'been there done that' so it IS an option:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4464857

But the thing is the Hospital could potentially become involved so I think I would consider going with offering the parking fee alone. But if she does this, I would NOT tell the PPC she's a staff member - even if she thinks they might know from a database of car reg numbers.

Do a really SHORT covering letter 're ticket number xxxxx car reg xxxxxx - I see you allege that the driver did not display a P&D ticket. Without accepting any liability for any breach of parking regulations I am enclosing a cheque for £1.60 which would have been the amount for paid parking. Any higher amount would be an unlawful penalty for breach so this cheque is sent as full and final settlement without admission of any breach or any liability.'

Keep a copy of the letter, a photocopy of the cheque and keep a cetificate of posting (free from the Post Office). Send it normal 1st class mail, not Recorded (don't let her waste her money).

A PPC on site has made no loss and does not have the possessory rights to make contracts via their signs either. The £1.60 is the only possible claimable loss, so if she offers it up front by cheque by post, with a covering letter, then if the Hospital wanted to stick their oar in she can show she has acted reasonably throughout.

If she does this and just gets a standard rejection from the PPC then she should ignore the usual follow up letters, keep them in her file and not be drawn to correspond further unless the Hospital gets involved. They probably will NOT but she will at least know an offer was made to the PPC so there's nothing else that could happen - even if the Hospital went really silly and tried to do a small claim over it.

The only hospital we know about that is more likely to take action is Aintree, using Trethowans solicitors - but they are rare and perfectly defendable cases especially where an offer to settle has been made up front.

Please don't worry about it and PLEASE do not pay the fake PCN. It's either ignore, or make a reasonable offer, then ignore!

Half_way

The reasoning behind offering the parking fee, is that there was a ( rare )case a while back where someone was takent o court, because they hadnt paid or attempted to pay the standard rate the parking company was anle to recover some money through the courts.
However their claimed losses were well in excess of the amount the PPC claimed and the Judge awarded the PPC a tiny fraction of the claimed amount.
If the Driver had atempted to pay, even if the PPC rejected the payment the outcome would have been different.

ubdai

Cheers everyone. Will get on the letter writing straight away.

ubdai