ParkingEye Fine, which we ignored... Help!

Righteous_Parker

To make it a bit clearer. I had never set foot on the Money Expert forums before, I entered from a link in a google search, it took me to old threads and by reading them I found the newer information, but it's not as straight forward as some of you think.

Anyway, thank you all for your help. My problem is sorted now and only today I pointed another young lady in the direction of these threads. The RIGHT threads, the NEW ones.

Coupon-mad

Mjkpio wrote: »

Thank you so far.
1: the driver and registered keeper is the same person, does this therefore nullify your reply ColliesCarer?
2: ok, I get that it's not a fine, it's an invoice. But with the changes is it still enforceable by ParkingEye or the courts?
3: RedX - I didn't know the law had changed and my google searches hadn't brought up the new information. I wouldn't have ignored it if I had! However we're outside of the 28day period so not sure how relevant some of the stickies are for us now?

Challenge it anyway, the NEWBIES sticky tells you, even if you think you are too late to appeal. Nowhere do I say 'you do have to pay the fine' because:

1. You don't have to pay, and
2. It's not a fine (as others have pointed out)
3. For various reasons it would be madness to pay PE right now!

However as you've ignored your easy & best chance to kill this at POPLA (which you would have done by now if you had appealed) you are now going to have to be very proactive to avoid a small claim defence situation. Not that it's impossible to defend, particularly given everything that's been happening this year and all the wins we've achieved, and some posters have achieved alone! All documented in the NEWBIES thread under 'small claims' in post #5 of that sticky thread.

As you have a "letter before county court claim" I would do as CC advised at first and respond robustly by snail mail, as per the LBCCC Fightback guidance thread.

As well as sending your letter of formal acknowledgement and robust response basically telling them to 'do one', you can also rattle PE's cage by emailing them to suggest POPLA as the suitable ADR. If/when they refuse to allow you the ADR of POPLA because they'll say it's too late, don't believe this and save money on postage by entering into some email tennis with them. Don't believe a word they say BTW!! But keep emailing back and insisting that POPLA can be undertaken at any stage and the courts don't take kindly to refusal to allow dispute resolution, since a small claim should be a last resort. DO NOT talk about what happened (and I would remove the detail of the parking event above from your posts right now).

PE's email addy is [EMAIL="enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk"]enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk[/EMAIL] and get really assertive in replies as you state that you know about the Cambridge* test case, will not roll over and pay and that you require the ADR of POPLA (Google the acronyms and read the NEWBIES thread). There's an example of an assertive letter demanding POPLA which I added to the LBCCC Fightback thread, as an example of what to say when they refuse POPLA. You can use that sort of wording in your emails.

Keep ALL letters and all emails and DO NOT wait to see what happens - reply to every single letter/email. You've missed a trick so don't do the same now.





* To find out more about the Cambridge test case, search this parking forum for 'Cambridge' as a keyword. The decision is imminent and will more than likely go to appeal - so it would be a daft time to pay PE off!

Mjkpio

Perhaps the old and irrelevant threads should be archived as they are on another forum I'm a member of! I've liked MSE for years; get the emails and check the threads for interesting advice and deals, (I'm also very tech savy!) but when panicking about the parking "invoice" I did some very specific searches that DIDN'T bring up the new advice - just because it's there on MSE doesn't mean it always shows up in all searches, especially if you don't know anythings changed! As RighteousParker says I didn't not find that thread deliberately!

Anyway, back to the point, we'll go and check the car park and see how obvious the signage is and take some photos. Potentially contact the landowner, explain the situation and hope for the best.

Worst come to worst we may just have to stick up the "fine" (which is kinda what it is if they're able to enforce it) move on. Neither of us have the time to get into potential court stresses and appeals!


ps: In response to "Providing the registered keeper and the driver are different people" - how often is this really the case? I never lend my car out!

Mjkpio

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Challenge it anyway, the NEWBIES sticky tells you, even if you think you are too late to appeal. Nowhere do I say 'you do have to pay the fine' because:

1. You don't have to pay, and
2. It's not a fine (as others have pointed out)
3. For various reasons it would be madness to pay PE right now!

However as you've ignored your easy & best chance to kill this at POPLA (which you would have done by now if you had appealed) you are now going to have to be very proactive to avoid a small claim defence situation. Not that it's impossible to defend, particularly given everything that's been happening this year and all the wins we've achieved, and some posters have achieved alone! All documented in the NEWBIES thread under 'small claims' in post #5 of that sticky thread.

As you have a "letter before county court claim" I would do as CC advised at first and respond robustly by snail mail, as per the LBCCC Fightback guidance thread.

As well as sending your letter of formal acknowledgement and robust response basically telling them to 'do one', you can also rattle PE's cage by emailing them to suggest POPLA as the suitable ADR. If/when they refuse to allow you the ADR of POPLA because they'll say it's too late, don't believe this and save money on postage by entering into some email tennis with them. Don't believe a word they say BTW!! But keep emailing back and insisting that POPLA can be undertaken at any stage and the courts don't take kindly to refusal to allow dispute resolution, since a small claim should be a last resort. DO NOT talk about what happened (and I would remove the detail of the parking event above from your posts right now).

PE's email addy is [EMAIL="enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk"]enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk[/EMAIL] and get really assertive in replies as you state that you know about the Cambridge* test case, will not roll over and pay and that you require the ADR of POPLA (Google the acronyms and read the NEWBIES thread). There's an example of an assertive letter demanding POPLA which I added to the LBCCC Fightback thread, as an example of what to say when they refuse POPLA.

Keep ALL letters and all emails and DO NOT wait to see what happens - reply to every single letter/email. You've missed a trick so don't do the same now.





* To find out more about the Cambridge test case, search this parking forum for 'Cambridge' as a keyword. The deiciosn is imminent and will go to appeal - so it would be a daft time to pay PE off!

This was posted while posting my reply above so ignore the contradicting info!

Will follow your advice and let you know what happens. Thanks

Redx

Mjkpio wrote: »

Perhaps the old and irrelevant threads should be archived as they are on another forum I'm a member of!

Anyway, back to the point, we'll go and check the car park and see how obvious the signage is and take some photos. Potentially contact the landowner, explain the situation and hope for the best.

Worst come to worst we may just have to stick up the "fine" (which is kinda what it is if they're able to enforce it) move on. Neither of us have the time to get into potential court stresses and appeals!


ps: In response to "Providing the registered keeper and the driver are different people" - how often is this really the case? I never lend my car out!

only the forum admin staff can do this, so that is up to them, but its a good idea if they would do so

many homes have more than one driver of a vehicle in the family, myself and my wife both drive our car , but ONLY I am the actual RK

we see many threads on here where somebody posts as RK but the driver was somebody else , or vice versa

pogofish

Mjkpio wrote: »

I did some very specific searches that DIDN'T bring up the new advice - just because it's there on MSE doesn't mean it always shows up in all searches, especially if you don't know anythings changed! As RighteousParker says I didn't not find that thread deliberately!

You did - stop trying to wiggle out of it!

Righteous_Parker wrote: »

To make it a bit clearer. I had never set foot on the Money Expert forums before, I entered from a link in a google search, it took me to old threads and by reading them I found the newer information, but it's not as straight forward as some of you think.

You lie! Its very straightforward indeed.

So there is no point denying it - In order to post here, both of you clearly indicated that you had read and understood a basic guide to the boards and posting that explains the structure of the boards, the difference between threads and posts, where the stickies are and why you need to read them, and that you will not bump/hijack threads. Which provides you with all the basic resources you need to find and use the current information without stepping on anyone's toes or timewasting on an incredibly busy board!

So if you were actually neglectful enough to not read the guide, but still agree to it, its a case of "hell-mend-you" - so stop moaning about it and actually learn something that will help you to help yourself and everyone else you know who might land in the same boat properly.

Guys_Dad

No need to fall out.

Regulars try to get newbies' mindsets correct by reinforcing that this is not a fine. I got bo*****ed at first for calling them penalties - which I maintain they are, only not legal ones - but regulars try to get people on the right track by pointing out that they are no more than speculative invoices.

We also would like if old threads could be closed to save newbies doing a Lazarus on them, but this forum seems to be lacking in any way to remove misleading old advice. I should add, of course, that newbies should look at the dates of advice and should always look for latest advice.

So, remembering why people ask and others help, remember who the common enemy is and concentrate on hitting them, not each other.