UKPC parking on newly registered private land

Peteyjames

I have, along with many other drivers, been parking in a disused unit of an industrial estate for many years. Turning in to the industrial estate the barriers are always up and the ticket booth is always unmanned. I use it mainly to visit a friend who lives on the opposite side of the road so it's convenient. However the last time I visited with my partner, everything seemed the same but we came back to find the notice/ticket on my windscreen, and also the same with the car parked next to mine. It was only then that we looked around and saw the sign on the wall which is where we were parked (but not positioned at car level) and considering that neither of us spotted it (including the driver of the car parked next to mine) it seems that the sign was not clearly positioned.

Our friend who lived opposite did not tell us that the site had recently been taken over as private land which didn't help but what I couldn't believe is how a charge of £100 (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days) can be justified, especially for such a disused area such as this. I have been advised by various sources to ignore this as Private land owners cannot legally enforce fines for parking on their land. I have received letters from UKPC and I am starting to worry in all honesty as I'm not sure on the exact legalities of this sort of thing.

I drove back to the site shortly after the incident to see if I could see further notices. Because I was more aware of what I was looking for, I did notice an additional sign placed above the ticket booth, but again when you've been using this area over the years you tend to not pay attention to the booth as barriers are always up / unmanned. Because of this sudden change, and the signs are not immediately noticeable I feel that perhaps they may have been positioned that way to catch people out?

Please can someone give me some advice on what I should or shouldn't do? Am I really liable to pay? Their letters mention possible additional charges and contact to credit reference agencies, and possible court? I am a law abiding citizen and would never have parked here had I been aware of this recent change from public to private land. Why would I?

Many thanks

Dee140157

Your advice is to start by reading the Newbie thread at the top of the forum (see my signature).
When you have made sense of it, send initial appeal and sit back and see what happens.

ampersand

...all as Dee says, op, but please redeem your post by removing that ghastly f---word, at the very end of your last sentence:-), because you know now - from your reading - that these fake invoices are exactly that.

It's not a word we allow for unenforceable, speculative, scam p/w.

Coupon-mad

Peteyjames wrote: »

I have, along with many other drivers, been parking in a disused unit of an industrial estate for many years. Turning in to the industrial estate the barriers are always up and the ticket booth is always unmanned. I use it mainly to visit a friend who lives on the opposite side of the road so it's convenient. However the last time I visited with my partner, everything seemed the same but we came back to find the notice/fine on my windscreen, and also the same with the car parked next to mine. It was only then that we looked around and saw the sign on the wall which is where we were parked (but not positioned at car level) and considering that neither of us spotted it (including the driver of the car parked next to mine) it seems that the sign was not clearly positioned.

Our friend who lived opposite did not tell us that the site had recently been taken over as private land which didn't help but what I couldn't believe is how a charge of £100 (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days) can be justified, especially for such a disused area such as this. I have been advised by various sources to ignore this as Private land owners cannot legally enforce fines for parking on their land. I have received letters from UKPC and I am starting to worry in all honesty as I'm not sure on the exact legalities of this sort of thing.

I drove back to the site shortly after the incident to see if I could see further notices. Because I was more aware of what I was looking for, I did notice an additional sign placed above the ticket booth, but again when you've been using this area over the years you tend to not pay attention to the booth as barriers are always up / unmanned. Because of this sudden change, and the signs are not immediately noticeable I feel that perhaps they may have been positioned that way to catch people out?

Please can someone give me some advice on what I should or shouldn't do? Am I really liable to pay? Their letters mention possible additional charges and contact to credit reference agencies etc. I am a law abiding citizen and would never have parked here had I been aware of this recent change from public to private land. Why would I? I wonder what the driver of the other car has done about their parking fine.

Many thanks

Wow what a waste of your time to type all that out rather than just read the Newbies thread at the top of the forum and simply send the template appeal and win at the first appeal stage, or second appeal to POPLA, assuming this was in England or Wales! WE HAVE 100% WIN RATE AND THE TOP THREAD COVERS WHAT TO DO.

As ever, this is covered in the sticky thread at the top of this parking forum - which is why I wrote it. Sadly, last year it got silly as we could not keep up with all the ''help I have got a private parking ticket, what do I do?'' threads so I wrote a sticky thread BEGGING newbies to 'read these FAQS first'.

UKPC almost always just cancel when they get sent the appeal template from the NEWBIES thread, look at all these achieved by Newbies with no posting needed until they simply reported their wins:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64869779#Comment_64869779

If UKPC don't cancel 'admin error/goodwill gesture' (LOL) then the sticky tells you how to win at POPLA and explains what that is...and the charge is NOT A FINE.

Peteyjames

Thank you for your comments/advice. Apologies if my post irritated anyone in view of your comment saying I should have reading the newbie post first. I understand that now. I just wanted to explain my situation.

Anyway, regarding the use of this appeal template is it best advisable to post this to UKPC or maybe copy and paste it onto their website under the appeals section?

Many thanks again.

Fruitcake

Peteyjames wrote: »

Thank you for your comments/advice. Apologies if my post irritated anyone in view of your comment saying I should have reading the newbie post first. I understand that now. I just wanted to explain my situation.

Anyway, regarding the use of this appeal template is it best advisable to post this to UKPC or maybe copy and paste it onto their website under the appeals section?

Many thanks again.

Do both. Send the paper copy first class from a Post Office and get a free proof of posting certificate. Do NOT send it recorded delivery.


You have not received a fine so please amend your first post by removing that word.

Peteyjames

Thank you for this. I will do this indeed, though I feel pretty gutted to be honest as initially everyone told me to ignore their correspondence. It was only until I came on here that I read that I shouldn't ignore, but appeal. I have 2 letters from UKPC, I just hope it's not too late to appeal?

Regarding the post, I did go in and remove that word and it shows the correct version right at the top of this thread however it appears to have still retained the initial post containing that word further down and I can't seem to get rid of it.

Many thanks again for your advice.