PCN York Place (No.551) Ltd Paisley

lorraine80

Hi,

I received a parking charge notice from the above company who are a member of the BPA. I live in a building which stands alone but has offices on the first floor, and until December 2013 I could park outside in any bay without hassle.
Since Christmas these signs went up stating the parking bays were private property of the businesses and residents could not park in the allocated bays between 9 - 5.30pm weekdays.

Normally this is ok as I am out at work, one morning I was unwell and late leaving and I had been issued a ticket from this company operating on behalf of the business centre with the reason being 'no permit displayed' I've never even heard of 'York Place' parking but it looked on BPA and they are listed.
The notice was printed on cheap printer paper with details handwritten. I thought it was fake to begin with as looked so unprofessional.
Now the thing is, they got one digit of my reg wrong and the charge is £100 which is ridiculous as the council or police do not even charge this amount!

I made an appeal via email stating I lived in the building, was unwell and could not move my car on time but was a resident and not some random stealing spaces .... which was promptly denied there and then stating that the fine was still in place and must be paid.
I replied back saying that the registration written on the notice did not in fact match my actual reg so therefore I believe it was invalid and would seek further advice.
They sent me back a blank email with photos of my car showing the reg plate.

I am unsure what to do. It is a company car and I know if they receive letters at my head office they will just tell me to pay up, but I am really annoyed at this parking company and do not want to pay.

If it was my own car I would ignore the charge, but being company car I'm feeling a bit panicky. They wrote my reg wrong yet took photos so don't know where I stand. Also not sure if I should use one of the letter templates on here and send another email and also copy in the business centre manager too.

Does anyone have any advice?

Stroma

It's Scotland so no keeper liability, I presume you've admitted to being the driver yes? And you've provided them with your address? If not do so as they will just write to you, then just ignore them. You could inform your company that you've appealed this so are dealing with it, and not to pay anything as there is no liability at all with them

pogofish

Why on earth did you contact them?

This will only prolong the attempts to scare money out of you.

BPA membership means very little here as they are no kind of authority - just a trade body for the PPCs.

In Scotland, you simply ignore them as POFA 2012 does not apply, so there is no keeper liability.

See the pre-POFA letter chain thread here for a fair idea of the sort of rubbish they will send you over the next few months. Simply file the letters on the offchance it might go further but in Scotland, dinnae hud your breath!

bod1467

pogofish - which bit of "company car" did you miss in the OP? Lorraine is not the RK of the vehicle, so taking ownership was the right thing to do. (Even though it was done unwittingly in this case).

Lorraine - do you own the property in which you live? Or is it leased/rented? What do your deeds/tenancy agreement say about parking?

HO87

On rejecting your appeal did they include a POPLA reference number (this is a ten-digit number and may be shown as some otherwise innocuous reference)?

As members of the AOS they are obliged to supply such a reference.

Being in Scotland the Protection of Freedoms Act - that enables a private parking company to pursue the registered keeper if they do not know the driver is - does not apply. The chances are, as with the vast majority of such matters, north of the border, that you will receive a series of threatening letters and then it will go quiet. In the history of private parking companies none has ever issued proceedings in the Sheriff Court whether they were based in Scotland or not - even though at least one such company (not this rather strange sounding crowd) claims that they have.

The ticket you have received does not have the standing of a ticket issued by the local council or the police and is only enforceable in a civil court. The fact that they have mistaken your registration number is, frankly, irrelevant. As you have already given them the heads up there would be no necessity for them to contact your employers.

There is nothing to panic over. Now read through the Newbies thread which will explain the situation in more detail - there is a lot to read but by doing so you will give yourself the fullest understanding.

spacey2012

York Place parking are a DIY back bedroom self ticketing, buy your own fake tickets set up.

pogofish

bod1467 wrote: »

pogofish - which bit of "company car" did you miss in the OP? Lorraine is not the RK of the vehicle, so taking ownership was the right thing to do. (Even though it was done unwittingly in this case).

Lorraine - do you own the property in which you live? Or is it leased/rented? What do your deeds/tenancy agreement say about parking?

Its been a long day - I missed it completely. Apologies!

Then yes, this is the situation where you do contact them, in order to draw the letters to you then ignore!

lorraine80

I only contacted them as it was a company car. My company is English, based in London. Mine is the only car they have in Scotland, and it's a lease hire car from Peugeot but in my London office name.
I never supplied an address, only emailed them. I don't want them looking up details then contacting my office because my work will just make me pay to avoid dispute. I'd rather they just harassed me then I would ignore them.

Bod1467 I rent where I live and it says nothing of parking in my tenancy agreement.

HO87 they never supplied a POPLA reference. The woman who replied could not even spell properly And came across unprofessional.

My 28 days is almost up so I just want to be prepared of what may happen.
I will read up more on the newbie thread. Thanks for all the replies

Iceweasel

In order for you to move the letters (that they will undoubtedly send) from your company to you then they will need an address - your address.


Presumably your name and address will not be on the V5C so they will be writing to your company address.


I would be sending another e-mail saying that you are the 'person responsible for the vehicle' do not say driver.


Give your name and address and then ignore all future communications from them.


Everything except that is except Sheriff Court papers.


That would make you the first one I've heard of to receive them of course.


Then you have a case to robustly defend - win - and not pay.

4consumerrights

Lorraine - use the template in the NEWBIE sticky thread but change the wording from Registered keeper to "keeper" which deflects the matter even further and you will have to supply your name and serviceable address in this instance. The one thing here is to draw the attention away from the company who may simply pay up and pursue you for the money.

This parking company does not rear up very often.

As your tenancy agreement does not even mention the permit situation - you could have a word with your landlord here.

lorraine80

I used the template email in the Newbie thread and changed the wording as 4consumerrights suggested above.

I received my response letter through the post today, as suspected, a further rejection of cancelling the PCN and demanding payment within 14 days or debt recovery then court if I ignore them. I have filed the letters and will be ignoring. I expect many more letters and threats of action but will not worry myself unless they somehow find my work address or actually take me to court.

It's hard not to get stressed but I am now completely ignoring them.
Thanks for the advice and replies.