Parking Eye taking me to court

kickstart2

I parked on a private car park managed by Parking Eye in January. I paid £1.50 for two hours but overstayed by 39 minutes. Three hours would have been an extra 50p. Soon after I received a parking charge notice for £100. I immediately wrote to Parking Eye stating that their charge was disproportionate and would not be paid (as advised on Money Saving Expert site). To cut a long story short, they have written several times during 2013 demanding payment, culminating in a Court claim via Northampton Bulk Centre for £100 + £50 solicitors fee + £15 admin. I replied in defence to the court stating that this should not be paid under the terms of the Unfair Terms in Contract Regulations 1999 and the OFT guidlines on these regs regarding disproportionate sanctions for breach of contract. Parking Eye have responded with a raft of cases where precedents have been set in their favour on both my defences. The court is offering a free telephone mediation service rather than going to court and I have to reply by 20th December. Any advice would be very welcome.

BrightonandHove

At any point did Parking Eye provide you with a POPLA code ?

kickstart2

they gave me info on POPLA but I did not appeal as I felt that if I did it would imply that I acknowledged their claim as legit

BrightonandHove

Wow - so you had the silver bullet and wasted it !

Others will be along to suggest how to build a court case but in the mean time you might want to accept the offer of mediation and suggest that the mediation be carried out by the industries accepted independent mediator - POPLA. So Parking Eye will need to provide a new POPLA code.

kickstart2

I don't know if they gave a POPLA code, & as I didn't hear from them for several months afterwards the correspondence was binned

kickstart2

What I've got now is a "Notice of Proposed Allocation to the Small Claims Track" from Northampton County Court, saying "Do you agree to this case being referred to the Small Claims Mediation Service" Y/N

Guys_Dad

There are 2 different things you will have to do to save your cash.

The first is to handle your court case and decide if you want to do telephone mediation. Can't see that one winning against one of their barristers. So you might want to go for a court case with personal appearance.

In that case, you need to form a defence. Start looking at recent POPLA decisions from the sticky thread. Essentially the same arguments can be used in court. Also read the Parking Prankster's Blogspot and see his recent list of Parking Eye failures including the ones at the end where the judge threw out their case as they had no landowner interest.

Search the POPLA Decisions sticky for "Judge Jenkins".

But some better experienced contributors should be able to help getting a stay of case in order for you to get their papers to you and your case together.

One lesson to be learned, don't do the Ostrich strategy again!

kickstart2

Thanks. It wasn't a case of ostrich strategy, most info I've read about these cases have said "ignore them, they are bluffing, they won't take it to court". On this page: ticketfighter.co.uk/private.htm it says that the writer has NEVER heard of a case like this coming to court....
Based on the replies on this thread (thankyou) I'm tempted just to pay up now & get the stress over with as it looks pretty dodgy

peter_the_piper

In that case the author has been asleep for the last 9 months. You stand a fair chance of winning in court but its nowhere near a certainty, especially as it has been ignored up till now. Your choice to pay or fight.

BrightonandHove

kickstart2 wrote: »

Thanks. It wasn't a case of ostrich strategy, most info I've read about these cases have said "ignore them, they are bluffing, they won't take it to court". On this page: ticketfighter.co.uk/private.htm it says that the writer has NEVER heard of a case like this coming to court....
Based on the replies on this thread (thankyou) I'm tempted just to pay up now & get the stress over with as it looks pretty dodgy

The clue lies here :

© [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 2007-2011 Ticketfighter.co.uk[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Utterly, utterly worthless and wrong information is on that site !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[/FONT]

bod1467

The information below from Pete Jones an Advisor in Criminal Law is a helpful guide on the elements of contract law. However bare in mind it was compiled before the law change in October 2012. Unless the driver is identified, the registered keeper is now liable.

From that site.

However that site STILL promotes the Ignore option, even though it acknowledges POFA2012 and POPLA.