Parking Eye Assistance

Lookoutapiano · 27 July 2013 at 12:40PM

I have read some really helpful posts however looking for some assistance on my recent situation.

I parked in a car park close to my work, ordered a sandwich for lunch and sat in my car and ate it. Something I have been doing on an adhoc basis since 2000.

I work ridiculous hours and recently if I haven’t been at work ive been in bed. Last weekend I caught up on my post and opened a Parking Eye Parking Charge Notice with pictures of my car entering and exiting a carpark. This offered a discounted rate of £60 if paid within 14 days or £100 to be made within 28 days. Unfortunately the 28 day period had lapsed by about a week when I opened the letter. I then continued to open the rest of my post and found a second letter covering the same information as the first but with a date 9 days later.

The following day (now 5 weeks from the date of the event), I received an outstanding parking charge notice requesting a charge of £100 and citing the requirements of schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act and payment required within 14 days.

Now I would like to respond to this letter but trying to decide on the best course. I have no idea when the first two letters were issued (other than the issue dates shown on these letters). My first thoughts were to ignore these as if I have never received them as they have not been sent recorded, and to respond to the third letter requesting more information?

It would appear the ‘free’ car park I have parked in for over 10 years has recently started to be managed by Parking Eye (some 6 months maybe). I had no idea and didn’t notice any signs purely because I wasn’t looking because it is something I have always done. I parked there for 38 minutes and apparently it is free for just 15 minutes, £100 seems ridiculous for this.

Any advice on my first course of action would be really helpful.

Lookoutapiano · 28 July 2013 at 11:03PM

Anyone able to help :j

Guys_Dad · 29 July 2013 at 9:41AM

Right.

You have missed POPLA appeal window. You could try a soft appeal to Parking Eye (plenty of examples on this forum) and hope for a POPLA code . If not you sit tight and wait for PE to issue court papers.

Any appeal to them would fail anyway.

In the meantime, you need to do 2 things.

1. Get in touch with the local council and see if there was a planning application to reduce the car park free time to 15 minutes. If there was, then you have a trump card.

2. Read the POPLA decisions thread. You will see some valid appeal points that are usable should you get court papers. There are a stock set of appeal points ( valid contract to pursue charges, signage not compliant with BPA guidelines, charge not based on valid pre-estimate of loss etc), also google Parking Prankster and read some relevant posts in his blog.

All you will ever need is in the threads on here. Mitigation doesn't work, though. (Can you imagine going to court and saying "I just didn't notice that I was in a 30mph area and it used to be 40mph??")