Private Parking Fine - do I pay?

ElleMay_2

Today I recieved a parking fine letter from Parking Eye Limited. Admittedly, due to mitigating circumstances, I was 20 minutes over the alloted time but the car park was empty and I can't see how this warrants a £100 fine (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days).

I have heard people referring to these private firms as parking cowboys and that such fines should be ignored. IS this advisable? Has anyone had any recent experience of a Parking Eye fine?

Guys_Dad

ElleMay wrote: »

Today I recieved a parking fine letter from Parking Eye Limited. Admittedly, due to mitigating circumstances, I was 20 minutes over the alloted time but the car park was empty and I can't see how this warrants a £100 fine (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days).

I have heard people referring to these private firms as parking cowboys and that such fines should be ignored. IS this advisable? Has anyone had any recent experience of a Parking Eye fine?

Lots of people! Just do a search on this forum while waiting for people to tell you what they have told countless people before.

Your argument about only 20 minutes over as the car park was empty is the same argument about doing 100mph on the M1 because it was empty and it was 3.00 a.m.

The police wouldn't treat that as mitigation. Neither will the Parking company, who have even less incentive than the police as any charges are their income.

Having said that, the police have the right to fine you, the PPC is trying it on.

You don't pay, but neither do you write to them with your mitigation as stated above.

As I say, read some other posts and stay tuned. Incidentally, date of "offence" needed please to see if Parking Eye are out of time with their letter.

Tilt

Ignore. So you have parked on a private car park which is free to do so but with a time limit on it. You were 20 minutes over that limit thus you have incurred them with what losses? If they took you to court they would have to explain how they get £100 in losses (or damages) which what they could put a claim in for. All you would need to say is that as far as you are concerned, they have in fact issued you with a penalty and as such, they cannot legally recover the same from you as they have no legal status to do so.

edward123

ElleMay wrote: »

Today I recieved a parking fine letter from Parking Eye Limited.

That's impossible. Parking Eye cannot "fine" any one. They are one of many private parking companies that have no statutory authority. Their tickets are merely 'speculative invoices."

Admittedly, due to mitigating circumstances, I was 20 minutes over the alloted time but the car park was empty and I can't see how this warrants a £100 fine (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days).

You are right. Nothing you did warrants Parking Eye's asking you to pay them 1p let alone £60.

I have heard people referring to these private firms as parking cowboys and that such fines should be ignored. IS this advisable? Has anyone had any recent experience of a Parking Eye fine?

The advice now is to use their appeal procedure rather than ignore(though the latter is an option) which they will reject....then they, at the same time, should send you a code with which you use to appeal to POLPA which costs PE £27 plus VAT.
There is a timescale to do this and also whatever POPLA decides is not binding upon you.
If you choose this then let us know and someone here will advise with relevant details.
What you should never ever do though is pay Parking Eye any thing.

ElleMay_2

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Lots of people! Just do a search on this forum while waiting for people to tell you what they have told countless people before.

Your argument about only 20 minutes over as the car park was empty is the same argument about doing 100mph on the M1 because it was empty and it was 3.00 a.m.

The police wouldn't treat that as mitigation. Neither will the Parking company, who have even less incentive than the police as any charges are their income.

Having said that, the police have the right to fine you, the PPC is trying it on.

You don't pay, but neither do you write to them with your mitigation as stated above.

As I say, read some other posts and stay tuned. Incidentally, date of "offence" needed please to see if Parking Eye are out of time with their letter.

.

Could not agree with you more on the speeding analogy and if I'd broken the law I wouldn't question any fine issued. My immediate reaction was to get this one paid ASAP, but remembered hearing something about these private parking companies, which made me question it. Thanks for your post.

Date of offence, 21 march.

ampersand

Just check the signature at the foot of every one of coupon mad's excellent posts.
Ticket in a private car park?... DON'T PAY IT! ''These supposed fines are the new Wild West - cowboys at supermarkets or housing estates - they're often unenforceable...they have no power to fine.'' (Martin Lewis).

CLICK on '>Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking>' end of the small blue 'Home>Forums>' link, top of the page, to see current threads.

Coupon-mad

ElleMay wrote: »

.

Could not agree with you more on the speeding analogy and if I'd broken the law I wouldn't question any fine issued. My immediate reaction was to get this one paid ASAP, but remembered hearing something about these private parking companies, which made me question it. Thanks for your post.

Date of offence, 21 march.

It's not an offence and not a fine. You won't be paying them any money.

Were you held up due to any mitigating circs that would be covered by the Equality Act? Disability, any longterm medical issue, an elderly passenger, feeding a baby?

Read other Parking Eye threads on here and you'll see that the advice is usually to appeal (if in England/Wales) and then appeal more strongly to POPLA. You'll also find loads of threads about POPLA on the forum too:

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

Start at the top (except don't bother with 'Park Right') and read any thread about any private parking ticket, and particularly look for those about PE and POPLA - which is a lot of them!

spacey2012

Not all advice is to use POPLA, my opinion is it gives them an invokable loss to produce in court and at the very least they will get the £27 + vat back plus court costs.
You can not argue over a contract and appeal a contractual term then turn up at court and say you did not have one.

Parking companies are not as stupid as some make out, they are multi millionaires out of this scam.

My advice is always to Ignore them 100% until they put up or shut up in court.
they still only have the same argument and no Genuine loss of £27 to start the ball rolling.

Guys_Dad

ElleMay wrote: »

.

Could not agree with you more on the speeding analogy and if I'd broken the law I wouldn't question any fine issued. My immediate reaction was to get this one paid ASAP, but remembered hearing something about these private parking companies, which made me question it. Thanks for your post.

Date of offence, 21 march.

That's a shame. Hoped they might be outside their time to contact you.

Coupon-mad

spacey2012 wrote: »

Not all advice is to use POPLA, my opinion is it gives them an invokable loss to produce in court and at the very least they will get the £27 + vat back plus court costs.
You can not argue over a contract and appeal a contractual term then turn up at court and say you did not have one.

Parking companies are not as stupid as some make out, they are multi millionaires out of this scam.

My advice is always to Ignore them 100% until they put up or shut up in court.
they still only have the same argument and no Genuine loss of £27 to start the ball rolling.

I don't think there are any circumstances where the PPC can claim back the POPLA cost. I am fairly sure it cannot be passed to the motorist (stated clearly somewhere, by the DFT maybe or in the BPA code?) so can't be listed in a small claim as a loss.

Chrisk

Coupon-mad wrote: »

It's not an offence and not a fine. You won't be paying them any money.

Were you held up due to any mitigating circs that would be covered by the Equality Act? Disability, any longterm medical issue, an elderly passenger, feeding a baby?

Ooh that's useful! In my case I honestly did not see the signage and was hit for overstaying in a free car park. I did have children with me and I did actually feed them in the car before setting off. HAd they not been such a royal pain on that occasion I may of not been so pre-occupied so as to miss the signs and probably been in and out of that carpark substantially quicker.