Do I have a chance against Parking Eye in POPLA/court?

Hazzoura22

Hi all,

Sorry for another Parking Eye thread...I have tried reading though a lot of related threads on here but everyone seems to either have very short overstays or very legitimate reasons and lots of proof...

I did some shopping at a Supermarket with then popped into the local town centre (leaving my car in the supermarket car park) but ended up meeting my mum for a coffee and i also had my 18 mnth old with me which makes everything take a lot longer. I was sort of aware i only had 1hr30 free parking but I've had a couple of private fines in the past 2010/11 and just ignored them so I thought nothing of it.....but I ended up staying around 3 hours in total with an overstay of another 1 hr 30

Only had the first letter so far and my first instinct was to ignore as usual but then I started reading on here to double check and found that Parking Eye have started taking people to court and the new advice is to go through POPLA first....

BUT...do I have a case with POPLA since I blatantly overstayed? What is the best angle to take? And same if it went as far as court?

Thanks for all your expert advice

spacey2012

Contact the council planning office and request a copy of the planning consent conditions for the retail area car park.
If you get them i'll show you a right trick if they stipulate anything other than what parking eye do.

The_Slithy_Tove

The overstay is irrelevant. You must appeal, and when rejected, take it to POPLA, at which point you hit them with all the other attacks you have, no doubt, been reading about, e.g. charge vastly exceeds actual losses, right to issue and pursue charges, and so on.

Umkomaas

Was this an Aldi car park?

Even if not, and you have receipts for your shopping from the store(s) attached to the car park, then PE will sometimes (I'd like to say 'often' but the jury's out on this at the moment, although there is some evidence building) cancel charges if receipts/redacted bank/credit card statements back up the fact that you did shopping there on that particular day.

It's not in the interest of the retailer(s) to have their customers persecuted by rabid PPCs as they will be avoided like the plague in future - and that's a no-brainer for even the most terminally stupid of retailers (although Aldi are getting close to knocking on that door). So, in this context have you made contact with the store and spoken to the manager about this (and I mean THE manager, not the Customer Services frump or the bacon-hand from the deli counter)? They have the power to contact PE to get this cancelled.

So a bit of stuff to try before getting into the more detailed POPLA work.

Let us know how you get along.

trisontana

Aldi don't mind their customers being persecuted by PE. If you don't believe me just speak to Rachel at Aldi's "parking department, who comes over as very aggressive, anti-motorist and very pro Parking Eye. They even agree with PE demanding £50 in "expenses" even when they have been told by Aldi to drop the court case.

Umkomaas

trisontana wrote: »

Aldi don't mind their customers being persecuted by PE. If you don't believe me just speak to Rachel at Aldi's "parking department, who comes over as very aggressive, anti-motorist and very pro Parking Eye. They even agree with PE demanding £50 in "expenses" even when they have been told by Aldi to drop the court case.

Why would any customer-facing organisation want to persist with the employment of someone who, singlehandedly, must lose more customers for them than any other member of staff?

I'm sure there's alternative employment somewhere in PPC-land for her should the P45 fairy come knocking .

Custard_Pie

Of course you do. Do they charge a tariff to park say per hour in the car park? If yes, then if anything at all, the loss to the landowner is that cost.

Do you have a chance? Of course you do as they probably don't have consent or legal standing to pursue you for any money. With the right approach and wording, you have a 99.99% chance of winning.

Hazzoura22

Thanks everyone, Spacey2012...I'm a bit concerned about how long a reply from the council would take? Is it better to appeal to Parking Eye straight away?
I don't think I even have my receipt, and I paid in cash for just a few items so won't be on my bank statement.
Is it likely that I would win the case with POPLA just based on the company's dodgy practices?

Hazzoura22

Sorry custard pie, only just saw your response after I posted mine...so just a very short generic letter to parking eye saying I dispute the charge as not representative of loss and asking for a POPLA code should they wish to take it further?

Umkomaas

Hazzoura22 wrote: »

Thanks everyone, Spacey2012...I'm a bit concerned about how long a reply from the council would take? Is it better to appeal to Parking Eye straight away?
I don't think I even have my receipt, and I paid in cash for just a few items so won't be on my bank statement.
Is it likely that I would win the case with POPLA just based on the company's dodgy practices?

In regard to approaching the council - this could take a little time, so get on with your initial appeal (the council reply is more for your POPLA appeal than for right now).

If you've no receipts, there's still nothing to prevent you going to the store and try to get them to get this charge removed (if you know them and they recognise you as a regular customer, the better your chance on this).

There is no chance of POPLA deciding in your favour on the basis that you think the PPC employs dodgy practices (as in an Arthur Daley sense) , BUT they will find in your favour if you put the PPC to proof that their practices are not dodgy in a Protection of Freedoms Act and/or BPA Code of Practice sense and they can't come up with satisfactory proof.

Custard_Pie

Hazzoura22 wrote: »

Sorry custard pie, only just saw your response after I posted mine...so just a very short generic letter to parking eye saying I dispute the charge as not representative of loss and asking for a POPLA code should they wish to take it further?

If you are the Registered Keeper of the vehicle and received a Notice to Keeper within 14 days, send them what is called a soft appeal. You can more or less put what you want, keeping it brief as they will reject whatever you put. They are a private company who exist for profit alone.

1) Response must come from the Registered Keeper and must refer to the driver (regardless of who this is) as though they are a third person. Do not reveal who the driver was.

2) Clearly stated that you are appealing to cancel the Parking Charge. You must state a reason (mitigation never works), or they will come back for more detail and say that the appeal is ongoing. They know that they will lose at PoPLA so will use underhand tactics to prolong an appeal hoping that you will pay up. Poor signage, or they do not have landowners consent are good ones.

3) Clearly state that if you appeal is rejected that you require a PoPLA code to appeal to them.

4) Do not offer them any monies as this is an admission of guilt.

When you get the PoPLA code, check the post relating to my signature and tailor your appeal to PoPLA to suit. Include as many relevant points as possible to PoPLA as The Operator has to successfully negate every one or you win your appeal. Our current success rate for those who follow our advice is 100%.