Parking Eye – Notice of Litigation

McEddie

Need some advice!

I received a ‘fine’ for a 20 minute overstay in a free car park run by Parking Eye back in December.

Following a good read through this forum I went with the general consensus of ignoring the letters that subsequently followed.

The letters from Parking Eye ceased and were replaced with letters from a collection agency.

I received a Notice of Litigation letter from the collection agency last week for a.

I am wondering what to do (if anything) at this point.

Whilst I did overstay by 20 minutes, I visited many of the shops and had a meal at a restaurant and ended up spending a couple of hundred quid. I am therefore very hesitant to part with a couple of hundred more!

Should I:

• Appeal against Parking Eye? Or would it be too late (sorry, I don’t have the letters to hand to find out myself)
• Write to all the managers of the shops and restaurants I visited stating my case and asking them to intervene?
• Appeal to Popla?
• Do nothing?

As you might have guessed I’m getting slightly more nervous about this as they pull out their bigger threats.

Thanks

w211

Do Nothing - assuming the "debt collection agency" is called Debt Recovery Plus.

After the Notice of Intended Litigation letter, you'll be sent a reduced payment offer letter, and they won't send any more letters after that.

Coupon-mad

Different PPC but the same letters here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=78495

And I post as SchoolRunMum over there...see how many similar PE and other threads I posted for that pepipoo poster to read. Click on them all, read the advice given time and time again; you are too late to appeal, too late for POPLA now. So, it's no biggie - and in almost all cases these letters just fizzle out - simply be aware to obviously take seriously a real Small Claim from Northampton Court which would need pepipoo help as per the top thread on this MSE forum.

Do not raise your head above the parapet when you are simply a name on a verrrrry long computer data list.

McEddie

Thanks for the advice so far. I am need of further advice though. Having ignored all the letters and demands from Parking Eye I have now been issued with a County Court claim form.
Has anyone else had this? I take it this is the end of the line and I’ll need to pay up?

zzzLazyDaisy

You are now in the court process. PE have recently starting issuing hundreds of CC claims, it only costs them £15 and basically it is another way for them to intimidate motorists. Some people will be frightened into paying up and some will ignore and get a ccj against them - they are the easy targets for PE to cash in on.

Others will file defences and they will then sort through and find the weakest and easiest ones to win - so they can build up a solid base of county court wins to frighten people into thinking the will lose if they try to fight them. The ones with the strongest defences are less likely to be pursued as they don't want to lose cases.

So the choice is yours - pay up or fight on.

But first, was this a retail park or store? If so do you have any proof that you were shopping there - credit card statement or till guarantee for something you bought? If so, it is not too late to go back and ask the Store Manager to cancel the charge. Be polite but firm and make it clear that it is unacceptable that you are being punished and taken to court for taking too much time spending your money in their store. Even if you don't still have proof of purchase, it is still worth a shot. The store does have the power to get the charge cancelled.

Then read this thread, which is a similar situation to yours

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4730763

Whatever you do - don't miss the deadline for filing the acknowledgment of service as they can then issue judgment against you, and you'll get a CCJ. Once you have filed an acknowledgment, this extends time to 28 days in total to file your defence.

Edit - you will also find lots of information about defending a county court claim over on pepipoo

Coupon-mad

McEddie wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far. I am need of further advice though. Having ignored all the letters and demands from Parking Eye I have now been issued with a County Court claim form.
Has anyone else had this?

I take it this is the end of the line and I’ll need to pay up?

Nope, IMHO if you were going to pay you would have paid at the start. And I would not have done that either.

This will resolve it one way or the other and you MAY have to pay up IF you lose the judgment. But who is to say you would?

Hope you have acknowledged the claim and then prepared a defence rebutting every point of their claim? Try to make your defence as strong as possible so that out of all the small claims they have started (thousands), yours is such a hot potato, well researched and well defended that they hopefully drop it in favour of pursuing softer victims!

You will need strong resolve (but don't be fooled into thinking court = a loss for you), read the links here as well that I posted as SchoolRunMum on pepipoo:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=81957

and this thread with someone having been given solid advice by zzzLazyDaisy:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4731184

and this thread, another one easily found:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4730977

and these cases have a defence draft posted up for discussion:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=83901&st=0&p=883618&#entry883618

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4784029

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4760868



HTH

Willyoulearn

Sorry don't know how to start a new thread

Parked on the Range car park back in June in my daughters car, received parking charge from parking eye and googled it. General consensus was to ignore and it would go away, I have now received Letter Before Action ( or my daughter has). I have a receipt from the range for the day in question, although I did overstay by 15 mins. I do not want court action to go ahead in my daughters name, what is best course of action.

Guys_Dad

Willyoulearn wrote: »

Sorry don't know how to start a new thread

.

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

Go down the left hand side.

There is a big blue button saying New Thread. If you can't see that, then no wonder you didn't see the Parking Sign :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: