Read Stickies - But still need help - Hospital Parking Ticket

airman1232

Hi All,

Thank you so much for your support, even the those who advise me to pay! :j

I didn't pay to park, there is a paid area, I entered the hospital at another entrance and unfortunately somehow managed to miss the paid area and just parked in the first empty space I saw.

The cost to park at the hospital for the amount of time I was there is £8 - Public Car Park.

Although I parked in the staff car park, I was not actually in a bay, ie designated parking space.

Here are the signs in their car park



This is a copy of their car park rules on their site:
1. Parking is prohibited in the following areas and these rules also apply to holders of disabled blue badges.

on double yellow lines and hatched areas
in ambulance bays
access roads
on pathways and soft grassed areas and verges
fire access routes and by fire escapes
all areas not designated for parking.
2. No stopping/waiting on red lined or red hatched areas.

3. All vehicles parking in pay and display areas must display a valid parking ticket clearly in the windscreen.

4. Vehicles must park within the marked bays.

5. Parking in areas designated for “Staff” requires a valid permit. Only holders of Hot Permits may park in the Hot Parking Zones.

6. Only vehicles displaying a valid blue badge may park in the marked disabled bays. Permit also required for Staff disabled bay.

7. Motorcycles must park in designated areas not in car park bays.

8. No vehicle shall occupy a drop off bay for longer than 15 minutes.

9. Any vehicle observed parked in contravention of the above rules will make the owner/driver liable to enforcement action for which a fee will be payable.

I have also submitted an FOI asking them for their Policy, I imagine this will take days.

On the BPA website it say's debt recovery = No maybe there are using a different company for the debt collection?

Can they commence debt collection proceeding after 28 days or do I need to receive an NTK first?

Does anyone else think I should try and negotiate pay the difference of their cost from POPLA?

Thank You

Stroma

You could offer them their loss, which would be £8 plus a small amount of admin costs, maybe another £5. But now we know you have cost them money I am wondering if paying the £20 they are offering would just put an end to the matter?

Its up to you of course, but I would be inclined to think about paying it as they can reasonably say that you have cost them about £13 whenn they get your RK details from the DVLA, and written to you about this.

Always against paying these companies money (even an NHS Trust) when the amounts are stupid, but this is in the realms of a genuine loss.

airman1232

So...

Should I send something along these lines to them?

xxx company
Parking Department

03/04/2014

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Parking Charge

Ticket number: xxx
Vehicle registration number: xxxx

Please note that I still deny any liability, but would like to see the matter resolved.

I propose to negotiate the parking charge, I will offer to pay £8. This will be equivalent to the amount revived by you once a
POPLA claim has been filed which costs £27+ VAT.

Yours faithfully

Umkomaas

the amount revived by you

Not sure what you mean by this?

For what it's worth, I'm in agreement with Stroma on this. You could be in for a lot of protracted hassle in order to save yourself £12 (£20 charge minus the £8 you're offering)., and with a lesser degree of certainty of success than the usual POPLA appellant, as this looks much more like a real GPEOL than your average PPC £100.

No brainer to me.

airman1232

That is meant to say received by you.

I am just thinking at least try and negotiate with them, if they say no then I can pay the fine.

Stroma

Well you could offer them the £8, but they may not answer you in time and the costs will go up to the £35, those costs are not the loss IMO as its excessive. But for the sake of the £12 is it worth the hassle ?

ColliesCarer

Below in blue is a suggestion you can adapt - if you decide to try to make an offer.


DATE

WITHOUT PREJUDICE SAVE AS TO THE QUESTION OF COSTS

Dear Sir


PCN XXXXXXX

I refer to Parking Charge Notice above. For the avoidance of doubt liability is denied in full.

It is my understanding that should I choose to submit a POPLA appeal the cost to the Trust will be in the order of £27.50. In addition the Trust will also have the administrative overheads caused by producing the evidence bundle in response to such an appeal. In the event that such an appeal was not upheld the maximum net amount gained by the Trust will only be around £7.50 (calculated using higher sum of £35 you are claiming for the alleged breach minus POPLA costs).

Consequently, in the spirit of disposing of this matter swiftly and conveniently for all concerned, I am willing to make an offer of settlement in the sum of [£xx] in full and final settlement of your claim.

This offer is made entirely on a 'without prejudice' basis and with no acceptance of liability.

I respectfully remind you of your duty to mitigate your losses and trust that you will seek to do so by accepting this offer.

I look forward to receiving your written acceptance of this offer within x days of the date of this letter.

Yours faithfully

PRINT NAME


But I agree with Stroma that you may lose time and have to pay the higher amount, so if you decide to go down this route request a response within a timeframe that leaves you able to pay the £20.

airman1232

Thanks for the help all.

Okay this is a bit of lazyness on my part, they rejected my offer and I went on holiday and didn't pay this. I have now had a letter come through my door from roxburghe.

I have searched the forums and it seems they can't do much, but I was wondering if I could get them to go away with a written letter before all the phonecalls start coming?

Umkomaas

hugomiguel89 wrote: »

Thanks for the help all.

Okay this is a bit of lazyness on my part, they rejected my offer and I went on holiday and didn't pay this. I have now had a letter come through my door from roxburghe.

I have searched the forums and it seems they can't do much, but I was wondering if I could get them to go away with a written letter before all the phonecalls start coming?

You've opened the door to this lot and you are likely to be getting letters and possibly phone calls over the next few months/year. Please look at the NEWBIES sticky post #4 which covers how to deal with debt collectors.