Penalty at the Peel Centre - court action threatened

Ginger89

Hello,

I'm wondering if people can offer some advice on my situation.

On 19 July last year, I went to Nando's on the Peel Centre, Stockport. I arrived at 19:52. I had a friend with me who was wheelchair bound. I spent time unloading the wheelchair, getting her in and taking her into Nando's. At that point, it was 8.00pm so I didn't think I'd need a ticket. I was sure the payment time was up until 8.00pm from when I've been on previous visits there but it now says 9.00pm, although of course it could have changed since July.

I've been reading so many threads for advice since yesterday but now I'm completely confused as to which track to go down - apologies for starting a new thread when there's already so many out there.

So, I got my first letter in August 2014 and advice from friends was to ignore it. Little did I know (up until this week) that the ignore tactic is no longer favoured. I've continued to ignore the letters until the one I got yesterday which has made me feel really uneasy.

It's saying they are passing my file back to Excel parking who now have no option but to take court action. If they do not receive payment in the next 7 days, court actions will proceed.

I'm scared! I've never had any bad credit or anything like this in my name before.

I'd be grateful of any advice... Thank you in advance.

The_Deep

Is the signage clear? Have a look at this at the same car park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwFdPYxvJAA

Coupon-mad

The signs actually changed in July 2013 - not sure if the terms changed earlier but the signs took a while to be updated. 'Bondylad' might know as this is his patch.

Anyway you need to write a strong letter to Excel stating that you are the registered keeper (don't say who was driving) and that on this occasion the driver had a disabled passenger in a wheelchair and the driver spent time unloading the wheelchair, getting the passenger safely in and taking her into Nando's. You understand July 2013 was when the signs were in the process of being changed and the driver believed that there was the usual 15 minute grace period then no payment was needed after 8pm. If this was not the case on that date then it was certainly not clear from any signs at the disabled bays beside Nandos. You are aware that their signage at this car park was found to be unclear in Excel v Cutts and no doubt that is why the signs were in the process of a changeover in July 2013. The BPA Code of Practice requires all terms to be on a low enough sign to be seen at the disabled bays along with a close by payment machine. There was nothing close to the disabled bays except a sign about Blue Bagdes. In any case, the charge doesn't represent any loss as the occupants of the car were customers of Nandos and you believe that Excel merely has a bare licence to issue tickets, for which you believe the site owners pay for the service. So neither Nandos, the Peel Centre owners nor Excel have suffered a loss in this regard.

Enclose a copy of the Blue Badge and invite them to cancel the charge. If not then say you will see them in small claims, and remind them that they have not issued any Letter before Claim but you felt they should be made aware of the circumstances and given a chance to cancel, since the debt collector letters are tiresome and harassing in the extreme. If they wish to take the matter further you will of course, formally respond to a Letter before Claim which must be fully compliant with the Practice Directions.

Redx

and you wont get better advice than the above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

if they are stupid enough to issue an LBC or court papers after you have done the above then come back here for further help on replying to their LBC, or if it came to court papers from northampton (or salford)

bear in mind that that car park is a 24/7/365 pay and display car park (has had 3 signage changes in total), has no drop off or pickup times and the anpr clocks you from driving on to driving off the car park at its main entrance, checked against the ticket machines

also bear in mind that the BB has no actual relevance on private land but the EA 2010 does , no harm in mentioning both however

your friends should take some responsibility for this fiasco in that they told you to ignore it, very , very bad advice. I hope you now realise you should have appealed it to excel and then to popla , it would be over and done with by now and nil cost too

read this https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822 , and in future appeal these tickets and tell your "friends" to do so too

Ginger89

Thank you all so much! This is fantastic advice. I've been an anxious mess worrying about it all day! I'm so thankful to return home from work to see your replies.

I'll draft up my letter and send it off first thing tomorrow morning as recorded delivery!

You're all fab x

Hot_Bring

Ginger89 wrote: »

Thank you all so much! This is fantastic advice. I've been an anxious mess worrying about it all day! I'm so thankful to return home from work to see your replies.

I'll draft up my letter and send it off first thing tomorrow morning as recorded delivery!

You're all fab x

Don't use Recorded Delivery - just get a free proof of posting from the PO.

bondy_lad

dont use nandos,but on my next patrol of the peel centre i will check out signage directly in front of nandos,incidentally op did you display a blue badge or not??? i will post again re findings but it may be fri/sat before i can do,,good luck against these cretins.

Ginger89

Thank you, Hot, I will do that x

Bondy, that's so kind of you, thank you. I didn't display a blue badge as we hadn't intended on driving there and therefore did not take it out with us. We parked in a normal bay because of this. I did still obviously take time getting the wheelchair up and in though.

My friend with the badge is currently in hospital having a major operation and so I can't get a copy of the badge from her but she has said to put in "available upon request" if they do need it.

Redx

bear in mind that the BB isnt relevant on private land but the EA 2010 is , so due to the facts of this case the landowner has to take reasonable steps in helping the protected person, badge or no badge

but its a p&d car park and not sure when it went 24/7 whereas before there were certain time limits so the signage now is not necessarily relevant to the signage back then

so any defence should hinge on the usual suspects

not a gpeol
no locus / standing / contract
bad signage

normally you have to pay and display for using the car park especially near nandos and BB holders are not exempted from paying on that car park either

but if you do get an LBC or court papers then you could try to steer it towards POPLA as a valid ADR and use those legal appeal points to win, same if it actually went to court

Ginger89

Thank you so much for the pointers. I'm unsure of some of those acronyms so I'll look into it fully in depth when I can get some Internet access (I'm on my incredibly slow phone now) and I'll take that on board in my letter.

Thank you xx

Umkomaas

Ginger89 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the pointers. I'm unsure of some of those acronyms so I'll look into it fully in depth when I can get some Internet access (I'm on my incredibly slow phone now) and I'll take that on board in my letter.

Thank you xx

All relevant acronyms contained within the NEWBIES sticky.

Try not to worry about this, you've got friends here to see you through.