Help, Parking Charge Notice

ruston

Hi (please bear with me, I'm new to this & not very confident with it).
I''ve received a Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye for overstaying at a retail park by 29 minutes.
The reason I ended up being there so long was because the whole car park was grid locked & it took me over 1 hour to get out along with many other motorists.
The notice asks for the name of the driver - I have gathered that the parking company have 'bought' my address as the registered keeper from the DVLA.
Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Half_way

First of all, dont panick.

Secondly, do you know who owns this retail park?
if so complain to them.

Next, take a good long read up on here, and other sties such as pepipoo, educate yourself and learn about the scam.
you may read something about a law change - again dont worry this can work in your favour.

you will get advise to ignore/bin/bog roll etc, but in my opinion the best way to deal with parking eye is via an appeal and Popla

Guys_Dad

1. Read some threads on here to decide if you want to choose the IGNORE route or the POPLA route. If you don't know what I am on about, you haven't read sufficient threads.

2. You have a reasonable chance of winning a POPLA appeal, as long as you have some way of proving that there was a gridlock as you state. Can you prove it?

The British Parking Association Code of Practice has a section on grace periods, section 13. The relevant paragraph is this

13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave
the private car park after the parking contract has ended,
before you take enforcement action.

Now, under normal circumstances, 25 minutes exceeds a reasonable period. However, we all have encountered gridlocks and it is not your fault if you were trapped by Parking Eye's mismanagement of the car park.

Have you got the photographs that they took and does that back up the gridlock statement? If so, you could be on an easy winner.

So, decide which route you want to go. If you decide to appeal, come back on here first and you will get lots of help to make your case.

Coupon-mad

ruston wrote: »

Hi (please bear with me, I'm new to this & not very confident with it).
I''ve received a Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye for overstaying at a retail park by 29 minutes.
The reason I ended up being there so long was because the whole car park was grid locked & it took me over 1 hour to get out along with many other motorists.
The notice asks for the name of the driver - I have gathered that the parking company have 'bought' my address as the registered keeper from the DVLA.
Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Obviously the first thing to say is don't pay it. Not at all, even when you get scary letters.

Second thing is to make a major complaint to the retail park.

Here's my usual reply to newbies about fake PCNs, post #14 here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4458671


HTH

ruston

Hi, thank you to those who offered advice. Wow, there's loads of stuff & I'm sure I''ve only scratched the surface. My head is spinning!
I think I would like to appeal (as oppose to ignoring). I must confess I'm not the best letter writer so will need help if that is ok.
A quick update:- I contacted Matalan today (just one of the stores on the retail park & the one I shopped in). Unfortunately, the admin team had gone home so I will ring again tomorrow. I am hoping that they will assist by confirming how grid locked the car park was & put it in writing. I have my receipts which confirm I was shopping on the retail park.
I will post again with a progress report.
Once again, thanks.

pogofish

Don't appeal to Parking Eye unless you are determined to go all the way with POPLA - and then ignore that if they go against you.

Seriously! this firm is a complete joke who use the most deplorable scare tactics in order to get folk to pay their fake tickets.

Look at the Letter Chain thread, then some of the many hundreds of PE threads here to see how ignoring is the best and most straightforward tactic for getting them off you back.

Coupon-mad

ruston wrote: »

Hi, thank you to those who offered advice. Wow, there's loads of stuff & I'm sure I''ve only scratched the surface. My head is spinning!
I think I would like to appeal (as oppose to ignoring). I must confess I'm not the best letter writer so will need help if that is ok.
A quick update:- I contacted Matalan today (just one of the stores on the retail park & the one I shopped in). Unfortunately, the admin team had gone home so I will ring again tomorrow. I am hoping that they will assist by confirming how grid locked the car park was & put it in writing. I have my receipts which confirm I was shopping on the retail park.
I will post again with a progress report.
Once again, thanks.

Parking Eye have been known to cancel their fake PCNs if a person can show copies of more than £30 of receipts...that may make things simpler for you to get this sorted.

spacey2012

Appeal at your peril.
IGNORE, but read what to expect and in what format and from who and what threats will be made.

To avoid confusion:
These "rules" getting posted are not the law or anything that a parking company must adhere to, they are a set of "guidelines" issued by a trade club the parking firms are members of called the BPA.
Most have not even read them, let alone take any notice of points you raise against them.

ruston

Hi everyone. An update to my last post. I have spoken with matalan today & the man I spoke to has agreed to draft a letter confirming that the car park was completely gridlocked & traffic was at a standstill. I have copies of my receipts. I will write to them & see what response I get but I have no intention of paying this charge. Any advice/tips as to what I could include in my letter would be greatly appreciated.

Coupon-mad

Word it not as an appeal, not a begging letter, but as a complaint about this jumped-up charge! Maybe as a legal challenge like in this thread about PE:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=77301

Then conclude your complaint by giving PE the chance to cancel it as you are enclosing a copy of the Matalan letter and have copies of receipts which you will show to POPLA if PE do not cancel the fake PCN.

Keep the original Matalan letter, and keep your receipts - I wouldn't even let PE see them at this stage - save that for POPLA but tell PE you have them and that you spent over £30. If PE will not cancel it then demand the POPLA code, or if they reply with no code, just let 35 days go by since they would have received your appeal (explained in that linked thread).