Private Parking Tickets

unhappy2014_2

I have received a ticket from a private parking company at a retail park after exceeding the time limit set for parking (which stated on parkapedia that this particular retail park has FREE 24 hour parking). I have been visitng the retail park in question for a number of years now as my children attend the school not far from there so I am often nipping on for bits and bobs before having to collect them. I remember parking signs going up not that long ago but I assumed that they were to stop people from parking on the retail park and then going into the town centre. I was under the impression that as long as you were shopping on the retail park you were able to park there for as long as it took you to complete your shopping.
The reason I have not took much notice with regards to the new signs are mainly because; they are dotted about so not always where you are actually parking (out of sight out of mind), they are in tiny writing which you would not see unless you went directly to it and even then if in need of glasses for reading you would struggle seeing what it said; and lastly they are not at eye level which also makes it more difficult to read.
As I stated earlier, with the fact that I have been shopping here at least twice a week for the last 5 years, I ask the question why have I never noticed that there is a ''maximum stay' limit? Surely if this was clearly displayed I would know this?
On the day I received the ticket I had collected my child from nursery and was with my mother. We went onto the retail park to do a bit of shopping and have some lunch before having to collect my other child from school. We stayed for 3 hours and 29 minutes when apparently the maximum stay is 3 hours.
Anyway, the question I would like to ask is if it would be worth contesting this ticket? They have given an early payment discount taking the ticket from £100 to £60 (which I assume is to try and get you to part with your money as quickly as possible). I personally think that the charge is excessive for parking 29 minutes over as it would not have cost the company this much for me taking up one parking space for that amount of time. My only worry is that it says about the 'fine' being passed to a debt recovery company and I do not want people at my door demanding money and upsetting my children. Any advice is welcome. Many Thanks.

Guys_Dad

This forum exists to help people avoid paying charges to PPCs, so to ask if it is worth paying the charge is like asking "should this forum exist".

Please read the NEWBIES sticky thread at either the 1st or 2nd entry in this forum.

Digest it.

Come back if you need more help.

Hot_Bring

OK first some points :

1. It's not a fine
2. It is ALWAYS worth appealing
3. Debt Collectors cannot and won't turn up at your door regardless of what you do
4. You need to name and shame the parking company ( and advise can be different depending upon the company it was )
5. Please read the NEWBIES sticky thread at the top of the main page.

Custard_Pie

As Hot Bring stated, this is NOT a parking ticket. Only Police and Council appointed traffic wardens can issue them. You can not be arrested or dragged to a criminal court, so don't worry.

What you have is a demand for monies in the shape of an invoice over and alleged breach of trespass against the landowner.

Do your research on how to avoid paying a penny. Unless you damaged the property by trespassing, or cost the landlord money through a genuine pre-estimate of loss, then the remedy for the trespass is zero. They could take you to court if the driver of the vehicle continues to tresspass, but it's all about making money.

unhappy2014_2

The company that have issued the ticket is UKPC.

I have read post after post but there seems to be a lot of talk about court papers being issued and charges being recovered by debt collection agencies. Is this due to people just ignoring the letter regarding the initial charge or does this happen if you appeal? Which this also confuses me as it states somewhere on this site that you do not say you are appealing as this means you are agreeing to their terms and conditions of contract, it suggested to state that you are refusing to pay because of reasons listed? You can understand how these companies get away with it because it seems less hassle to just pay the £60 ticket charge as much as I don't want to as I really do not agree with it.
If i did appeal, stating my reasons why, and then I was refused the appeal, the charge will increase so does this not put you in more hot water than when you started?
I'm worried as to what exactly happens and I don't want to make the situation any worse?

Feedback is appreciated.

da_rule

You won't make your situation any worse.

Lets just get some facts about what actually happened:
1) Where was this (England/Wales etc)?
2) Was this a notice stuck to the windscreen or through the post?
3) Are you the registered keeper?

ColliesCarer

This really is no biggie - It will be fairly simple to get a UKPC ticket cancelled
The forum has an excellent record at helping people win and you have a better than 99% chance of paying nothing - zilch - nada
For the moment stop reading other posts because other people's confusion can be .... confusing!
Concentrate on reading the advice in the Sticky Newbies thread
Check out the template 1st appeal
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

and take a look at the flow chart to understand the overall process (scroll to last page to find most up to date version)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4922055

unhappy2014_2

Thanks for all the info/advice.

I live in England and this is where the 'charge' was issued. I received it via the post and yes, I am the registered keeper of the vehicle.

da_rule

Ok, appeal using the template in the first post of the Newbies sticky thread.

fisherjim

unhappy2014 wrote: »

The company that have issued the ticket is UKPC.

I have read post after post but there seems to be a lot of talk about court papers being issued and charges being recovered by debt collection agencies. Is this due to people just ignoring the letter regarding the initial charge or does this happen if you appeal? Which this also confuses me as it states somewhere on this site that you do not say you are appealing as this means you are agreeing to their terms and conditions of contract, it suggested to state that you are refusing to pay because of reasons listed? You can understand how these companies get away with it because it seems less hassle to just pay the £60 ticket charge as much as I don't want to as I really do not agree with it.
If i did appeal, stating my reasons why, and then I was refused the appeal, the charge will increase so does this not put you in more hot water than when you started?
I'm worried as to what exactly happens and I don't want to make the situation any worse?

Feedback is appreciated.

You are taking UKPC far too seriously, they are just lowlife scammers that have hit on a way of extracting lots of money out of gullible people for nothing.
Follow the advice on here and don't worry about increasing charges as you will be costing them money not paying them anything.
Anything they send you is all part of their frightening tactics, they just write any old rubbish they can think of to scam you into giving them money, the more the better!

Redx

the important thing here is that you came here for help and have got it and will continue to get it

you send the template appeal in asap, as RK only , to UKPC and keep proof of postage if done at the POST OFFICE (free certificate of posting)

then when they reply they are likely to reject the RK appeal, issue more threats and "should" give you a popla 10 digit code as well

you check its valid and the expiry date using the checker from the NEWBIES sticky thread

then you draft up your popla appeal in notepad (winning examples are linked in the same sticky thread) and copy and paste it here for checking before sending in to popla (or doing it online)

then you wait 6 to 8 weeks for popla to uphold your legal points appeal and cancel the ticket , job done , zero owed , panic over