Help needed!

georgina.85

Dear all and many thanks for reading,

So my situation. I parked in a Private Car park, VINCI car park in Adams town, cardiff on the 26th of Sep 2013, I bought a ticket at 11:40am for 4 hrs, which I placed on my dashboard, reached into my car to grab some stuff and headed over the road to help at the Freshers fair at the University. At roughly 12:40pm my friend returned to my vehicle to inform me that a ticket had been issued?! I ran to my car, to see the PCN and also that my parking ticket that I had purchased was faced upside down on my dash (obviously blown over when I grabbed stuff from the back of the car, oops!). So I thought, well, its a bit of a pain, but as soon as I get home I will scan in a copy of my valid ticket and email it over to them, they'll see I purchased one and It was still well within the time limit of the ticket and not charge me.

OH NO! I received an email saying that my appeal had not been accepted and the parking charge of £100 was due but if paid within 14 days would only be £50, how kind! But I could appeal to POPLA. It just so happened that the two people I was travelling with on that day and needed statements from were now abroad so I left it too late to appeal through them, can I still appeal? Im not sure?

Anyway, I clearly told VINCI Park LTD that I would not be paying for the charge and that if needs be it would be taken further. I have now received a letter from a debt collection agency requesting an amount of £154! Of whom I have also informed today will not be getting their money, So what I am asking is WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE? Do I need a solicitor? Should I pay the charge? I need some advice please!

I have 2 statements from my friends with me on the day to say they witnessed me get the ticket, I have The parking ticket, the PCN and pictures of my vehicle with the upside down ticket just visible on the dash. Also the ticket had no sticky side! surely a ploy for this situation to happen over and over?!

Anyway, your help, much appreciated! Thanks x

Hot_Bring

You posted on the Newbies thread so I suggest you read it as well ! Everything you need is there.

4consumerrights

[QUOTE=georgina.85;64359143
OH NO! I received an email saying that my appeal had not been accepted and the parking charge of £100 was due but if paid within 14 days would only be £50, how kind! But I could appeal to POPLA. It just so happened that the two people I was travelling with on that day and needed statements from were now abroad so I left it too late to appeal through them, can I still appeal? Im not sure?

Anyway, I clearly told VINCI Park LTD that I would not be paying for the charge and that if needs be it would be taken further. I have now received a letter from a debt collection agency requesting an amount of £154! Of whom I have also informed today will not be getting their money, So what I am asking is WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE? Do I need a solicitor? Should I pay the charge? I need some advice please!
[/QUOTE]


You mean you had a POPLA code and didn't use it???

Why are you posting on a free forum asking if you need a solicitor's help?

The advice as per Hot Bring says is all in the NEWBIE thread.

Read it and ask if you don't understand anything.

Vinci are a tame PPC so based on past performance (though this could change) it will be unlikely to reach court stage.

Vinci also received a spanking in court themselves when a motorist counterclaimed and received damages.

Debt collectors letters can be ignored or responded robustly, denying the debt and referring the matter back to their client. However do not ignore either a letter before action/claim from either Vinci or a solicitor or court papers from Northampton. Note though that they have six years from date of debt to issue a claim.

Meanwhile make a complaint to the owner of Adam street car park to get this parking charge cancelled.

georgina.85

Hi All,

Thanks for the Replies. I did read the Newbie thread and its pretty extensive info so thought I would just put my situation out there anyway. I asked about a solicitor as I wasnt sure the charge companies legal stand point in being able to take me to court if I didnt pay. I know nothing about the judicial system and have never been down this road before, so please excuse my naivety. I do not have a POPLA code. VINCI suggested I appeal through them but had a certain window to do so and lost out because my two witnesses were abroad, so I was asking if anyone knew If I could still or should appeal via POPLA.

By what your saying am I right in thinking that VINCI do not own the car park and I could contact someone else with regards to the charge?

Your help is much appreciated and I will again read the other thread.

Redx

complain to the landowner about this

you need to appeal to VINCI and be turned down in order to get a popla code, without a popla code from Vinci you cannot go to popla

no witnesses were needed for this and popla takes weeks and weeks anyway, so you should have appealed asap

Coupon-mad

You mean you had a POPLA code or form and didn't use it in time? How late are you in using it then (date of that rejection letter?).

georgina.85

Hi Have just been through the correspondence again and I was sent a POPLA code on the 30th of september 2013 so it was a while ago. Im not sure if I can still use it?

Redx

no you cannot use it, you had 28 days to use it, it clearly says so on the popla website, unfortunately its months out of date now and you wont get another one

android26

Don't be disheartened and just pay it though.
Do as advised, read as much as possible on here. Get familiar with arguments such as not a genuine pre estimate of loss, poor signage etc.

Also, use google if need be to find out who to complain to at the place you got the pcn. Visit them if possible, complain robustly, showing your evidence of payment. Demand that this ends now, politely but assertively. Do it now.

Depending on how that goes, write/email the debt collector denying debt.

Personally, I would then invite Vinci to cancel the pcn, using the arguments you will read and learn about, telling them that no loss was incurred etc. However, do not do this unless some of the more experienced members, such as the ones that have answered you already, think that would be a useful course of action. As I said, it would probably be something I would do, in the unlikely event that it went to court, I could show that I had tried to resolve the issue before it got there. If they are not a court going parking co. it might be seen as putting yourself up for attention, if they just write letters and give up usually.

Good luck and don't lose your resolve to these parasitic !!!!!!!s. :beer: