Help with Parking Eye - CCJ

unfitwellhappy · 20 October 2014 at 11:08AM

Hi - this is a bit of a long story, but hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction.

My wife and I moved from Edinburgh to Leicester approx 13 months ago and in March I visited the TravelLodge in Rugby Central as a friend was staying there. I had asked my friend where I could park to which he advised that I could park in the hotel which I did - I didn't notice any signs etc for having to pay.

Anyway - a couple of days ago my wife and I started to look in to buying a property and wanted to have a look at our credit files. Mine was excellent, but to our shock my wife had a CCJ on her file (issued in March) for £200.

My wife called the court this morning and was told that this was issued by a company dealing with Parking Eye ltd.

This is where it gets complex... with all that happened during our move South etc, we forgot to update the V5 for our car which was still registered at our old address (we did update it but it was June I think).

ALL notification about this fine/court etc etc was all sent to our old address so we had no clue about this until we carried out our credit checks..

The court said that I needed to fill out a form for a 'set aside' to be considered, but other than that I have no idea what to do..

I have no issue paying the fine if it's warranted, but it's the CCJ on my wifes file I am worried about - this will prevent us from buying a house - all for £200.. She wasn't even there.

Hope someone can help.

ampersand · 20 October 2014 at 12:06PM

You've had a shock op, but you've come to the right place.

1st - your wife was NEVER 'fined'. Only Police, Traffic Wardens and London Transport can issue fines for parking events.

Parking Lie issued scam/fake/speculative invoices, which you would have defeated following advice here, had you known in time.
All this you'll see when you read the NEWBIES stickies, still useful, despite the stage you're at.

Your circs=mitigation, which has no bearing on anything in the normal run of things. Your house-move situ parallels that of many who have posted before you on the Forum.

See:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/66574501#Comment_66574501
and c-m's #40, latter section.

I'm sure there'll be proper expert advice before long.

Welcome to mse and I'm glad you've found us.

unfitwellhappy · 20 October 2014 at 2:40PM

I hope so - I spoke to someone at at StepChange this afternoon.

I explained the situation and they said I had two options:

1) Pay Parking Eye and have the CCJ marked as 'Settled' - this will stay on my wife's credit report for 6 years.

2) Apply for the CCJ to be 'set-aside' which will cost £150(ish) which will reopen the claim and allow me to then negotiate payment to Parking Eye which would mean the CCJ would still appear (this isn't what I have read happens).

Also - there is no guarantee that the court will allow it to be set-aside.

I'm very confused...

If i'm in the wrong regarding the parking then I have absolutely no issue with paying the charge but why would I pay an extra £150 for a 'set-aside' which makes no difference to my wife's credit report...

Apologies if the above is wrong - this is what I was told by the person at StepChange.org.

Half_way · 20 October 2014 at 3:06PM

in who's car park were/are parking eye infesting?

unfitwellhappy · 20 October 2014 at 3:08PM

Travel Lodge - Rugby Central.

ampersand · 20 October 2014 at 4:50PM

..as you said in l.3 of your 1st post.
#
op - let's wait for c-m to set her brain-best at this one.

In the meantime, I'd certainly be getting back to Travel Lodge, Rugby and going right up the food chain to strongly complain.

CEO Peter Gowers is not quite a year in post:
peter.gowers@travelodge.co.uk

Customer Services, Travelodge Hotels Ltd, Sleepy Hollow, Aylesbury Road, Thame, Oxon, OX9 3AT.

Can't find a Say No alternative to this 0845 no[which annoys me greatly.]
01844 358 500

Half_way · 20 October 2014 at 5:23PM

As above, you should consider going to the top of the chain - ie travelodge.
If this does get overturned and the charge is dropped which if you play your cards correctly you should have every chance of overturning this and then having the charges dropped
If that happens then Travelodge could have some serious questions to answer, especially if through the actions of their agents you, or your wife are out of pocket or if this has caused any significant problems for you or your wife.
If it was me, I would be aiming mostly at claiming against Travelodge, in most cases Parking eye are nothing but mere agents acting for and on behalf of Travelodge/whoever allowed them to operate on that bit of land.

unfitwellhappy · 20 October 2014 at 5:42PM

Thank you for your replies everyone - you have no idea how appreciative I am.

I never considered contacting TravelLodge and to be honest do not know what I would say.

I'm not looking for anyone to draft a letter but if someone could give me some pointers regarding what should be included that would be amazing.

It might have been naive of me but I assumed that as I was visiting a friend who was staying at the hotel surely I would come under the unbrella of "guest" ...

It seems completely disproportionate that we might not be able to buy a house for 6 years because of this..

gertysingh · 21 October 2014 at 2:59AM

Hmm PE is going to be feasting on you - as you did not update your DVLA data within a "reasonable" amount of time. So you will probably waste money trying to get this set aside.

You could try contacting the Travel Lodge as you have nothing to lose.

However have you asked a couple of bank managers what conditions they would accept about a CCJ issued by a parking company? Might be worth having a conversation about what would help in order for you to obtain a mortgage. Who knows, you might find one that dislikes PPCs! Otherwise they might be fine with a satisfied CCJ. Anyway someone else might have a better angle on this.