Private eye....what constitutes "parking"?

AndyEd

My wife waited in a car park for 15 minutes, I.e. Engine still running and she didn't leave the car. We have subsequently received a parking charge (not a fine or fixed penalty notice) for £100 which is reduce to £60 if we pay within 14 days. The fact that the engine was running and no one left the car, does this constitute parking? The information received states that those who "park" in the car park agree to be bound by parking tariffs. Please advise. Thanks

Umkomaas

That's 'parking' - whether the engine is running or not and regardless whether there's one or five passengers still in the car. Why would you assume anything else, the car was stationary?

So that's irrelevant now and not something you need to be arguing. You need to know how to get rid of this charge, and that can be found here. Spend some time reading this - it will pay dividends, the more you understand about the process ahead.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

Oh and by the way - Private Eye is a magazine. ParkingEye is a predatory Private Parking Company (PPC).

AndyEd

Ok, so it constitutes parking but my wife was in the car whilst I tried to pay at their payment machine. The pound coin I had kept rejecting so I went to a local newsagent to change a paper note. When I came back to the carpark all my pound coins were rejected suggesting a fault with the machine and not my coins. This took 15 minutes so as I didn't have a valid ticket we left the car park to find another space elsewhere. The cameras clocked us entering the car park and leaving 15 minutes later having "not paid". Can they do this?

Umkomaas

AndyEd wrote: »

Ok, so it constitutes parking but my wife was in the car whilst I tried to pay at their payment machine. The pound coin I had kept rejecting so I went to a local newsagent to change a paper note. When I came back to the carpark all my pound coins were rejected suggesting a fault with the machine and not my coins. This took 15 minutes so as I didn't have a valid ticket we left the car park to find another space elsewhere. The cameras clocked us entering the car park and leaving 15 minutes later having "not paid". Can they do this?

There is a requirement in the BPA Code of Practice to allow a 'grace period' for such eventualities. So in your appeal to the PPC you must make this one of your challenges - but don't hold out too much hope that it will help on its own. In fact any appeal to a PPC falls on deaf ears. POPLA is the place to get rid of this - but the 'grace period' is a bit of a movable feast as no one will confirm just what is a grace period in terms of time.

So at POPLA, whilst this will be one (rather weak) appeal point, there are many other stronger ones, which you will read about in the link I've given on post #2,

AndyEd

Cheers. Appreciated.

Coupon-mad

You'll win at POPLA, everyone does against PE right now and the details of the appeal have nothing to do with what happened/15 minutes/were you parked or not/engine was running. All irrelevant.

POPLA appeals are mainly won against PE over 'the charge is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss' so if the registered keeper wants to include those magic words in the online PE appeal now, along with whatever else (e.g. your signs are stupidly high and unreadable and in any case the driver was a customer on site so here is a copy of the receipt that day)...PE might well cancel straight away. DO NOT IMPLY WHO THE DRIVER WAS (as explained in the link you've been given already).

And complain:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4766249

It works too.