Doh! I've been stupid….

Katem

And I'm having a bit of a panic about it……

I'll start by saying it's my fault entirely, but I need to know what happens next.

On December 19th my husband was taken into hospital by blue light ambulance with a suspected heart attack. I followed the ambulance and parked in the a&e section of the hospital car park. Because I was in a bit of a panic, I only took my house/car keys with me. I didn't notice any signs about parking etc, although I realise it was naive of me to think I can park at a hospital without paying a charge, but I was occupied with other things.

Anyway, just after Christmas, my husband received a notice of parking charge from Parking Eye with pics. Obviously I realised what had happened, but completely forgot about the letter. He's now received another one saying we need to pay the inflated charge.

What happens from here please? Do I have to pay the inflated charge or can I get away with the lower one? I know it's my fault but I was stressed.

thanks

martmonk

start by reading the newbies thread (sticky)

Appeal to PE if you are still in time saying whatever you want, they'll reject but what you want is the popla code. There are example appeals in the sticky.

Also appeal direct to the hospital estates team, patient experience if they have one and/or PALS - there's good success in doing that.

Finally tell us which hospital as there have been a few over time and some of them we know more about than others.

EDIT to say that if you are out of time to appeal then send PE a message outing you as the driver, this means they'll send you a notice and we can start the appeal process from the begining.

Katem

Can I call PE and just say I'll pay the amount? Obviously I'm a bit concerned that my DH will get a court summons or something like that!

Browntoa

Don't pay , there's no need

Follow the steps and appeal , the so called "fine " is not a genuine pre estimate of loss ,GPEOL , for a start but you will probably find the signage is wrong as well

On a POPLA appeal you can use these grounds

How can they claim £90 or whatever the cost is as a TRUE scale of the loss ? If normal car parking there is £4 the that is the loss. They cannot include their day to day running costs or cost of erecting signs etc

Which company is making the claim ?

Almost none of the parking companies go to court and the ones that do always fail with a well defended case.

Look at the thread called POPLA successes at the top of the thread to see how many wins there are

martmonk

Katem wrote: »

Can I call PE and just say I'll pay the amount? Obviously I'm a bit concerned that my DH will get a court summons or something like that!

That's what they want you to think. IT WON'T happen if you follow the advice and steps here. Which hospital please?

Katem

It's Parking Eye I imagine the fee is about £1/hour, I was there about 2.5 hours.

Browntoa

Parking eye are losing 100% of properly defended cases , there are people here who will "hold your hand" all the way through the process

Don't worry and don't pay

Go down the POPLA route , they will lose on GPEOL

martmonk

Katem wrote: »

It's Parking Eye I imagine the fee is about £1/hour, I was there about 2.5 hours.

Parking Eye are the private parking company, please let me know which hospital this is.

Katem

Wansbeck Hospital in Northumberland.

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have you read this?

martmonk

Katem wrote: »

Wansbeck Hospital in Northumberland.

Many thanks

that's about the best thing you could have said!!!!!

I'll send you a PM.