Should I pay this ticket?

bazza321

Hi all,

I work within a shared office with car park which requires a valid parking permit to park in (which I have clearly displayed on the windscreen).

There are signs around the car park clearly stating that you can only park in the car park with a valid permit, however there is an internal memo stating that we can only park in the numbered spaces which are allocated to our company. It is worth noting there is no such mention of allocated spaces on the car park sign.

Now the other day I parked in a space which is not allocated to our company, nor is it allocated to any other company and received a ticket from a private company which manages the car park with the reason as 'Parked in a parking place for a purpose other than the designated purpose of the parking place'.

I did dispute it and it got rejected on the ground that all tenants have internally been informed of the rules, however my argument is that car park signage regarding the terms and conditions does not include this. They have said that if I wish to take it further I can appeal to POPLA however would be open to the full fine.

I understand that some people will just say ignore it on the grounds that it is a private firm, however I have now received three or four of these tickets on the same grounds, and now a little concerned that if I am in the wrong then it may be worth their while to take me to small claims court.

Any thoughts on where I stand here.

Much appreciated.

Stroma

It's not a fine !

Demand the popla code from them, they should have given this when they rejected your challenge. You shouldn't have to ask for this! Which company is it? The other way to handle this is ignore it until day 35 after your challenge to them, that way they time themselves out of this.

In regards to the signs, if its not on there they can't claim its part of the conditions of parking normally, which makes the whole thing more invalid than what it is normally.

Coupon-mad

If you got a POPLA code then use it wisely. If you didn't get a POPLA code demand it.

What you do not do, is fire off the same appeal to POPLA because you'll lose. But don't despair because if you read other PPC threads (not just ones about 'your' PPC) you will see examples of winning POPLA appeals (long and strong!) which focus on what the PPC has done wrong, not what the driver did wrong.

So happy reading about POPLA appeals and when you've copied & pasted some examples into a draft that suits your own case (not stating who was driving unless you've already dropped yourself in it in your rush to appeal). Unless you aren't the registered keeper, we would never have advised you to respond to any windscreen fake PCN - but too late this time (next time always WAIT for the first postal notice to arrive unless it's a company, leased or hired car). At least it's from a firm that offer POPLA to win it at! Which PPC is this scumbag firm, what name?

Guys_Dad

Have a look at the BPA COP Appendix B signage. http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/BPA_CodeofPractice_2013_v1.pdf

Do the signs meet these criteria? Are they specific about what charges would be levied and under what circumstances.

The BPA COP and POFA 2012, in another appendix of the link, can actually help motorists as PPCs are generally slipshod bullies.

When you get your POPLA code, come back here and we can supply a pretty good standard appeal that you can add any deficiencies about the signage.

So get a soft appeal into the PPC that you know you will lose with, whose aim is to get the POPLA code. See any of stroma's soft appeals on current threads.