Euro Car Parks - Paid fee by Telephone service - Received £60 Penalty Charge Notice

dcellwood

Having no change and there being no attendant available at a Euro Car Parks car park , I opted to pay my fee by the advertised telephone service.

My advice - DON'T BOTHER.

You then go through a long automated system of setting up an account with your card details and registering your location and vehicle registration.

In a hurry I input one of the letters wrong in my vehicle registration and paid the appropriate fee.

I returned to a £60 Parking Charge Notice.

I appealed to ECP explaining the genuine error and the fact that I have a bank statement with the £5.30 fee on it, covering my stay.

They have rejected my appeal, under a contravention of Code D 'Your Vehicle Was Parked Without A Valid Pay & Display Ticket'.

The last line in the letter reads...

This decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

I think this is harsh. Can anyone advise on my next move.

frank_potter

Have a look at the parking section on the forum at:

http://www.pepipoo.com

In particular look on the section that concerns private parking

In a private car park they can only claim damages from you and can't (under civil law) claim a penalty. I doubt very much that they have suffered £60.00 damages!

I had a nasty run in with Euro Car parks about three years age after receiving one of their tickets in a Chesterfield car park. I resisted payment and eventually they backed down.

My advice is don't pay them.

dcellwood

Thanks Frank.

I am working my way through that forum at the moment.

I paid the relevant fee of £5.30 covering my stay, so there are no damages.

The company is simply trying to bully £60 (in 7 days it will become £80) from me.

Did you continue to write to ECP, or just ignore them.

Dave

frank_potter

I wrote to ECP however at that time I did not have the information available to me that I do now.

The ECP penalty notice is no more than an invoice. Appealing to them is usually a waste of time and it is not unusual for Private Parking Companies to resort to bullying tactics. The only way they can make you pay is for them to make a successful County Court Claim against you. In the circumstances that you describe they would be very unlikely to succeed.

I would however recommend that you ask specific advice from the kind people on the pepipoo forum

reduceditem

I never pay any parking fines unless they are council ones. I've never been taken to court, never had anyone at my door and its never affected my credit rating.

dcellwood

reduceditem i like your philosphy on it.

Do you normally simply ignore them ? Or continue to write to them ?

dcellwood

Here's my letter:

Dear ,

RE: Parking Charge Notice XXXXX at VICTORIA BUS STATION ��" MANCHESTER

With further reference to your letter dated XX/XX/2007, appealing against the above Parking
Charge Notice.

This notice was issued due to contravention of Code D 'Your Vehicle Was Parked Without
A Valid Pay & Display Ticket'. The signage at this site is quite clear in its intent, you failed
to display the correct documentation, and therefore this charge must stand.

Please be advised that we have checked our telephone service and found out that no payment
has been made regarding VRM XXXXXXX.

The car park in question is on private land and upon entering such land vehicles are subject to
the Rules and Regulations of parking as shown on the signage. This signage conforms to the
Voluntary Code of Conduct laid down by the DVLA relating to enforcement of parking
regulations on private property.

Please forward payment of £60.00, making your cheque/postal order payable to Euro Car
Parks Limited and posting to Euro Car Parks Ltd, 30 Dorset Square, London, NWl 3QJ. I
would remind you that this amount is now due, with payment to be made within 7 days*.
Please quote the Parking Charge Notice number on the reverse of your cheque or postal order.

Alternatively payment can be made on-line by visiting our wehsite at https://www.eurocarparks.com

This decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

Yours sincerely



Administration Team

Parking Charge Notice Department



*The charge will be held for 7 days, after which time the higher amount of £80.00 will apply.

reduceditem

never write to them...never phone them. Do nothing which confirms your address.

mroller

Was about to pay my 50£ "Parking charge notice" from EuroCarParks and thought I would be better checking MSE before. Glad I have checked as I have no intention of paying now.

They say it's for unauthorized parking, but it was parked for 10-15 min in a Sainsbury petrol station (clapham junction) in a space clearly marked as a parking space . Have no idea why it would be unauthorized.

My only worry is that it was a rented car, so the renting company may pay on my behalf and charge my credit card. (or refuse to rent a car to me again unkess i pay).

tincanali48

HI ALL I'm glad I am not the only one involved with this despicable company I have received several threatening letters from them demanding increased payments for a fine issued in February 2007 which was paid in March 2007. I have confirmation on a statement and a photo copy of the cheque from my bank to say they have received payment. I just need confirmation of the address where the fine was sent so I can be sure of the bank account into which they cashed the cheque. If anyone can help with this I would be grateful. I am looking forward to being taken to court as a relative is a solicitor in one of Birminghams top offices. I wrote in April after receiving the first letter to inform them of the payment but only received further threats. I am considering putting in a claim for damages for slander and defamation of character in the small claim court which will cost me nothing. Please let me know if anyone has tried this course of action and how it panned out. I will keep youinformed of my developments.

markwood1969

I recently used the park and ride at derbys meteor centre. I have used it before without problem but not for some time. Last week I parked my car, caught the bus and paid my 2 pound park and ride fee. When I returned I found a penalty notice stating that I had overstayed the 2 hour limit! It turns out you can only park in certain parts of the car park if wanting to use the park and ride. The rest is 2 hours only. Its very confusing. The signs say please park in marked bays but none of the bays are marked any differently. I found all this out after the event. This is a con. Locals told me that dozens of visitors are getting caught out. The stupid thing is that if you just want to leave your car there all day, just park in the park and ride area and no-one will do anything! So much for trying to get people to use these schemes.
I have written to euro carparks appealing and telling them i am not paying anyway. I suspect that they are not members of any independant adjudication scheme.

Has anyone els been caught out at this venue? I would also like to know if this company does sue people who refuse to pay after appealing