County Court Claim from Parking Eye

AG1952

My wife has received a claim from Northampton County Court for £165 after an overstay in a free car park at Brotherhood retail park Peterborough 28/02/2013. Parking Eye state in their correspondence that it is 3 hrs free, she stayed 4 Hrs 48, she said that she did not see the signs until she left the car park, having spoken to 2 of the stores (M&S and Outfit) they say that the signs are not prominent. Having looked at various threads on this and other sites I advised her to ignore all the letters as all the banter was that court action would not be taken, she is now threatening to pay the £165 to get the extortionists from her back, what is the best way forward. She has dated receipts proving that she was shopping in the centre within that period, and also she had coffee and later lunch during the period she attended the shopping centre, in fact my wife and her friend spent a considerable amount of money in various stores. The previous time she visited it was free all day, apparently it changed after christmas. I would appreciate some advice on what the best action to take as I understand that failure to respond to this letter from Northampton will be taken as an admittance of guilt and a ccj will be issued the letter is dated 16/10.2013 so we dont have long to reply.

prosnap

Bumping this for someone more experienced to provide an answer and stop it falling off the front page.

Coupon-mad

You do have long enough as you only have to acknowledge the claim within 14 days (not to submit a defence, you have a further 14 days for that), meanwhile you complain to M&S and the other chains (straight to the CEO) and the retail park manager (Google the name of the place and find a contact. Get on their case, as PE are their agent, demand to know - do they normally allow the tail to wag the dog when it comes to customers, etc.?!).

To save me typing loads of links & advice out, here's a similar thread I replied to in full on pepipoo where I post as SchoolRunMum:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=84555

and another one which has information from emanresu and myself, with my usual link at the end with loads of collated 'defend a small claim from a PPC' information. Links galore, you may need to look at this info more than once:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=84523

There is no quick fix unless you make an offer or get the retail park or landowner to cancel it which is very possible if it was a shoppers' car park, as you say. VERY LIKELY if you are assertive enough (but you must not take your eye off the deadline to acknowledge, then submit a defence if still needed after all.

Here is an example of a ranting complaint about PE that you can adapt for the retail park managing agents and M&S and Outfit CEO - but you would need to make it clear that time is of the essence as you have a court claim, so you need very urgent action:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=83766 {see post #2, you will notice at no point does it name the driver - it says 'we' or 'the driver'. Your defence should be the same and written from you as the registered keeper}.

I would say the order of attack is:

- acknowledge the claim and say you will defend in full

- write to Parking Eye to reiterate your defence and tell them you have complained to the CEO of xxxxxx and xxxx and the Retail Park Management, because the driver and passenger(s) were shopping that day {copy receipts if you have them!!}

- rattle the cages of everyone at the retail site, complaints galore in the strongest terms this week so they are all in urgently with copy receipts, asking for a response within seven days please as time is of the essence, and saying that you require the charge to be cancelled at NO cost to you {important}

- if any retailer seems helpful, follow them up, ask if they can contact PE for you (be ready for PE to possibly say they will cancel the claim if you pay up to £50 costs!). That's common and up to you...we normally suggest declining that 'offer' because you are in a strong position if a retailer wants the charge quashed!

- be aware that you only have 28 days all told from service of those court papers, to ultimately get a skeleton defence in, if you haven't heard anything positive about the charge being cancelled. Even if you have got that 'offer' letter from PE do not take your eye off the court deadline because it will NOT be stopped until you hear for certain that it is (from the court and PE).




HTH - and lastly, was there a reason for the overstay? Disability, age, pregnancy, baby, illness, delay at the shops, etc.? EQUALITY ACT REASON?

Coupon-mad

Any update? Got it cancelled by the retail managers yet by loudly complaining? Do update your thread. Help is out there, see this to help with your case, I do hope you haven't folded.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/do-you-have-court-hearing-with.html

A lot has happened with PE small claims in recent weeks, read the blogs there.

AG1952

My wife decided to pay the reduced amount of £50 rather than go through any more hassle, as a Financial Services Company employee she felt that any risk of a ccj was not worth the bother. I would have gone to court if it was me. Other than the receipts proving that she was actually shopping, and the fact that she genuinley did not see the signs,the defence in court would maybe not have been strong enough to guarantee a win against PE. I did speak again to the retailers but no one was prepared to help. We did not write to the CEOs of the retailers as the time limit was almost upon us.
I did receive an e mail from PE confirming receipt of payment, however as of Monday the court had not received anything from PE despite them telling me that it was sent electronically last Friday 15/11, I spoke to the court and they suggested another email to be sent from PE with court reference included, they subsequently sent an e mail with no confirmation of payment, but the car reg no, the payment ref, their ref, and the court ref. Are they just being awkward now theyve been paid. I will contact court again Monday.
Anyway £50 is a partial success, according to PE if she had appealed immediately that the thing would have been cancelled, not the case from some of the threads it would appear. I experienced a similar fate in a Hospital car park some years ago appealed and was sent a standard letter rejecting the appeal and so stumped up, a few weeks later a tv report more or less said everyone that appealed received the same letter and that there was no hospital committee looking at these cases, so I know what they are like.
I did receive a ticket in a free car park which I forgot to pick a ticket up 3 years ago and ignored all correspondence and got away with it, so I thought that the same would happen to my wife, obviously things have changed
It is not quite the end of the matter, however I must say thanks to you for all your advice and I know now more what to do if it happens again.

spacey2012

We are very suspicious of anyone who has template like post in which they immediately blame this forum for their situation.
The posts follow a very set pattern indeed and appear to be written as a "warning" to others with set phrases and set consequences.

Parking Eye have a paid dedicated member of staff to "TROLL" this and other forums emphasizing the consequences of not paying parking eye.

They appear to have used all the sleeper accounts registered within 24 hours of each other earlier this year.
So, they would be back on to brand new accounts, claiming to have read this forum extensively yet only just signed up ??.