Court action threatened

michaelwdownie

Hi all

I don't know what to do. It would appear that I've received a PCN that I didn't know about for parking in a local Morissons.

I received a letter a few weeks ago saying that I had a week or so to pay £85 as I had failed to respond to their letters sent in January (which I never received).

I know that normally the advice is to ignore them, but seeing as I never received the PCN, I decided to appeal, just to find out what I'm being charged for.

Today, I received a letter saying that as it has been 80 days since I received the PCN they "categorically reject your request to be supplied with a POPLA reference number and inform you that a County Court Claim will be issued against yourself in regards to this matter".

Apparently I'll receive court papers in due course, whatever that means.

Has anyone ever been taken this far with Parking Eye? I don't know whether to take this one seriously as its fairly threatening and to get legal advice, or whether or not to just ignore it as is the trend with parking eye charges.

As yet, no court papers have arrived, but the language in this letter is pretty damn threatening.

Any suggestions, folks?

Half_way

First of all what are they saing youve done to earn a parking eye special?

Was this a result of a ticket on your vehicle, or a letter in the post from a camera capture system at the entrance/exit?
If a camera capture system, did the first letter arrive within 14 days of the visit?

Was it staying for longer than you should? if so how long?

Parking outside a marked bay?

Parking in a disabled spot without showing a blue badge? if so do you have a long term disability that has an effect on your mobility?

Anythig else?

answer the above, provide more information.

And after that you should complain strongly to Morrisons, if possible pop in and ask to have a word with the manager, be polite but firm and demand that he/she cancels this charge, remind them that they are responsable for the actions of their agents if that is their car park - in this case parking eye
Check also the VOA website, if they are making charges for parking there then they should be paying tax on that land http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/basic/find

HappyMJ

The letters do look very threatening. Ignore them until actual court papers arrive.

Coupon-mad

Ignore it for the moment, if you can't invoke POPLA then ignore the letters except if a real small claim is ever attempted (very rare and very defendable).

But it would be interesting to see that letter.

My understanding is that the registered keeper can appeal and then appeal to POPLA - and if they never saw a fake PCN on the windscreen then the 'Notice to Owner/Keeper' would be their first chance to do that.

When did they send that, what date, or did you never get that?

See this link about mandatory stuff for a Notice to Keeper:

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/keeper-liability/

I would post about this on pepipoo as well as there are experts there with a lot of in depth understanding of the POF Act, the BPA CoP etc:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60


HTH

Half_way

HappyMJ wrote: »

The letters do look very threatening. Ignore them until actual court papers arrive.

you can ignore them, but in my opinion attempts should be made to stop them before they file papaers ( thats if they get that far) and the store responsable for letting them on thier car park should know what this company is up to should be at the receiving end of a strong complaint, that store is responsable for the actions of their agents ( parking eye) who are acting on the stores behalf, and representing them.

[edit] These companies survive by making threats they dont keep to ( hence the term threat o gram ) dont worry other wise I will come round your place and kick you in the nuts.[/edit]

michaelwdownie

Ok, here it goes:

It is a camera based system

I never received the notices in December/January, the letter on the 14th of this month was the first I knew of it.

They're claiming that I haven't paid.

Now, I put the postcode of Morrison's Chester Le Street into that VOA website and it can't find it, so I'm not sure where to go from there.

It's also worth bearing in mind that on both letters I have received they have spelled my name wrong. They've addressed me as "Micheal", rather than "Michael". Not sure if that helps anything

All this advice is great. I'll be wandering to have a word with their manager soon

HappyMJ

Half_way wrote: »

you can ignore them, but in my opinion attempts should be made to stop them before they file papaers ( thats if they get that far) and the store responsable for letting them on thier car park should know what this company is up to should be at the receiving end of a strong complaint, that store is responsable for the actions of their agents ( parking eye) who are acting on the stores behalf, and representing them.

To me it's a waste of time. How many cases ever actually get to court? Very very few. Although many people do pay before then.

HappyMJ

michaelwdownie wrote: »

Ok, here it goes:

It is a camera based system

I never received the notices in December/January, the letter on the 14th of this month was the first I knew of it.

They're claiming that I haven't paid.

Now, I put the postcode of Morrison's Chester Le Street into that VOA website and it can't find it, so I'm not sure where to go from there.

It's also worth bearing in mind that on both letters I have received they have spelled my name wrong. They've addressed me as "Micheal", rather than "Michael". Not sure if that helps anything

All this advice is great. I'll be wandering to have a word with their manager soon

Is the name spelt correctly on your registration document? Maybe that might be missplet...maybe they just can't spell Michael...It doesn't help you much anyway they mean you. You could cross out "not known at this address" and return the letter as the person who goes by the name Micheal does not exist.

michaelwdownie

HappyMJ wrote: »

To me it's a waste of time. How many cases ever actually get to court? Very very few. Although many people do pay before then.

We have no intentions of being bullied into paying them, 85.00 "fine" for a 40p car park is outlandish. I however wish to nip it in the bud before proceedings are issued. It's a headache I don't need.

Half_way

It may be a waste of time complaining, but recently parking eye have been sending out court papers ( see the various threads on pepipoo )
The aims of my advice on this are to:
1: Stop parking eye from stressing the OP - the origianl poster (OP) has nothibng to worry about in the grand scheme of things, but im guessing would ant the situation resolved ASAP.
2: Make the store aware that Parking eye are not a solution to a pakring problem , but the problem is parking eye and their methods.

To the OP, the reason why i sugested the VOA search was that if they are charging to park, then they should be paying the correct tax for that land, if its not a charge then its a penalty and therefore as they cant levy penaltys or fines the charge is null and void.

As for the 14 day buisness, if the ticket is issued by scamera, then they should contact you within 14 days, I beleive this is part of the BPA's code of practice - note the BPA is not a regulatory authority, just a trade association set up to look after the interesets of the parking industry and nothing much else.

If they are claimng you havent paid, is this a pay car park, or a free car park? if its a pay car park you should offer them the cost of the original parking fee as a full and final settlement, if its a free car park with an unfair contract term such as " you agree/are contractulay obliged to pay £100 if you stay longer than 2 hours" you owe them nothing as this is a penalty, and private companies can not levy penalties or fines, they can only sue you for any genuine losses caused by your overstay/parking.
If this car park is free that loss is zero, if its a pay and display and costs £1.20 for one hour, £1.75 for two hours and you stayed over by one hour you will owwe them that rate ( ie their loss )

As for complainn to the store, this should be done as the car park owners should see the PPCs as a liability and not an asset.

Half_way

michaelwdownie wrote: »

We have no intentions of being bullied into paying them, 85.00 "fine" for a 40p car park is outlandish. I however wish to nip it in the bud before proceedings are issued. It's a headache I don't need.

in that case after complaining to the store./car park owner send a postal order to parking eye for £0.40 to cover the parking fee as a full and final settlement to cover the loss caused by your parking.
you may at your own discression wish to send them £2.90 to cover the loss caused by parking as well as their costs to access the DVLa database.
If they reject this then you can show you have been reasonable in trying to recompensate them for their loss, should this go as far as court ( unlikley )