Parking Charge Question

snoopy1239

Hi,

I was just about to leave London Gateway to continue my journey to visit my parents in Birmingham when the car started making loud noises. My father kindly offered to pick me up so I waited for two hours until he arrived. He had a look at the car and deduced that the accelerator was jammed (up to around 30mph) but believed he could tail me safely back to my nearby home in London and then drive me up to Birmingham.

A few weeks later I received a parking charge notice reminder from ParkingEye saying I need to pay £60 because I'd overstayed the free two-hour period.

The car park was virtually empty, I stayed at my car for the whole time, and they will have evidence of my father arriving to assist. Although I'm sure there were signs, I didn't see any, but it was dark (around midnight) at the time.

I decided to destroy the car the following week as a result of this mechanical problem (and old age) and have a certificate of destruction as evidence.

I'm not a rich person, so should I contest this or just pay the £60 before it escalates to £100?

Thanks in advance for any advice. I really don't like the idea of paying this fine when it was unintentional, and I had no interest in staying for as long as I did.

The_Slithy_Tove

You don't have to pay. Look at some of the recent threads here, especially Parking Eye ones, so you know how to appeal. Send them a basic appeal challenging the legitimacy of their charge. When (not if) they reject it with a POPLA code, put together a robust appeal to POPLA which will surely win, as long as you get help from here, do your research, including the stickies indicating the information you need to include in such an appeal.

Guys_Dad

You contravened their alleged parking conditions and, as such, "did it". Your mitigating circumstances or any hard luck story will have no affect on either the PPC or POPLA.

That's the starting point.

So, if you can't win anything with mitigation, then you need to pay up? WRONG!!!

This forum is filled with advice on what to do. and it revolves around the PPC not having the right to charge you, failing to implement their requirements of Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA), failing to follow their own association code of practice (BPA).

So you send them a generic appeal, expecting it to be turned down, and then save your appeals for POPLA.

Let's start with the time requirement. I take it that you didn't get a ticket on your windscreen, so (a) what date did the incident occur? (It should be on the Notice to Keeper (NTK) )

And what date is the NTK dated and when did you receive it? If the gap between date of incident and date of you receiving the NTK, then they have failed at the first hurdle.

Tell us that first and if you care to look down a couple of threads on here, you will find an interesting exchange between bazster, nigelbb and me about this very point.

So come back with the dates.

snoopy1239

Thanks for the reply.

The incident occurred on June 13 starting (21:50-00:36).

I received a notice reminder in the post today, July 01. I didn't receive an initial notice, so I suspect it either got lost in the post, or they didn't send it.

Are they likely to apply pressure and hassle or intimidate me during this appeal period?

Guys_Dad

snoopy1239 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

The incident occurred on June 13 starting (21:50-00:36).

I received a notice reminder in the post today, July 01. I didn't receive an initial notice, so I suspect it either got lost in the post, or they didn't send it.

Are they likely to apply pressure and hassle or intimidate me during this appeal period?

Good news. They are out of time. Will they try to intimidate you in the meantime? Probably. It's their income at stake.

Now, is the notice to keeper dated?. What is it?

Have you got the envelope and has it got a stamped date on it?

Guys_Dad

And have a look at this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4649179.

Ignore the technical dispute between us guys, and look instead at the general points about being timed out. You can then see what we mean

snoopy1239

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Good news. They are out of time. Will they try to intimidate you in the meantime? Probably. It's their income at stake.

Now, is the notice to keeper dated?. What is it?

Have you got the envelope and has it got a stamped date on it?

I can't see a date on the envelope but the date on the notice is June 28, although I should repeat that it's a parking charge notice reminder, suggested they sent me something previously (although I didn't receive anything).

In terms of intimidation, is this just a case of them sending more letters, or can they actually call me up or/and knock on my door.

snoopy1239

Guys_Dad wrote: »

And have a look at this thread

Ignore the technical dispute between us guys, and look instead at the general points about being timed out. You can then see what we mean

Thanks. I'll take a look.

In my initial appeal, what exactly does generic mean? i.e. what should I put in the letter, what should the tone be, and does it even matter if they're going to reject it anyhow?

Apologies if there's an obvious thread that answers this. Bit overwhelmed today and this has got my dander right up.

bazster

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Good news. They are out of time. Will they try to intimidate you in the meantime? Probably. It's their income at stake.

Now, is the notice to keeper dated?. What is it?

Have you got the envelope and has it got a stamped date on it?

It isn't the NtK, it's a reminder, the NtK was never received (probably never sent, but they will claim it was).

snoopy1239

Read through a number of threads but still a bit confused.

Should I ignore or appeal?

If I appeal, am I wasting my time as the homepage information says neither ParkingEye or POPLA are likely to accept my appeal due to 'mitigating circumstances'.

If I ignore, should I expect a court summons, or just a few more letters and a knock on the door from the bailiffs?

Which is the best option?

edward123

snoopy1239 wrote: »

Read through a number of threads but still a bit confused.

Should I ignore or appeal?

If I appeal, am I wasting my time as the homepage information says neither ParkingEye or POPLA are likely to accept my appeal due to 'mitigating circumstances'.

If I ignore, should I expect a court summons, or just a few more letters and a knock on the door from the bailiffs?

This last bit. Bailiffs will only be involved if 1) it went to court, 2) you lost, and 3)you refused to pay. 1 and 2 very unlikely. 3 is up to you.