Are there any rules on this?

glentoran99

sacha28 wrote: »

It was budgeted for. When I checked the account on the 8th and saw it hadn't gone out I phoned, they said the system wasn't up and running but would be for November. I then bought coal and logs for the fire (we were going to go to a local woods to see what we could find) as this is our only form of heating. Same happened in November, we had budgeted for the permit but not for logs as we were going to go log hunting and when it didn't go out we bought logs. They then said they were doing 'everything we can' to sort the problem for December. In December, when payment didn't go out I bought a heater for my ds's bedroom as the heat from the log burner doesn't seem to reach his room. Then the letter arrived.

We are living on the breadline at the moment, every penny is accounted for, so things wouldn't have been any different if it had been going out (we have since found out that taking logs from woodland is illegal )

so you spent it, presuming you wouldnt have to pay,

They could easily have asked for the full amount, as others say you can query the amount but you will still have to pay the months owed

FireWyrm

sacha28 wrote: »

(we have since found out that taking logs from woodland is illegal )

Yes. It is theft. I'm astonished you thought otherwise.

All of the rest is utterly irrelevant. You are required to pay for a service which was provided to you. The fact that they have not yet taken the money from you is also irrelevant. The fault was yours. You should have anticipated that you would have to pay eventually and not spent the money on other things. You could have and should have made cuts elsewhere to cover it. Hoping that you would simply get out of it was naive. It wont happen and you dont have a leg to stand on (except perhaps in the question of the actual amount £40 or £50 and you need to establish which it is supposed to be).

If you are struggling to make ends meet, then this would be an excellent time to examine your finances generally and part of that, I suggest, is an envelope fund for next year to ensure you have money available and that this cannot happen again.

Use this as a wake up call. It was an entirely avoidable situation which you could have dealt with easily with some forethought.

FatVonD

sacha28 wrote: »

I wasn't asking if I should've put money aside, I was asking if it was acceptable for a company to put people in more financial hardship due to an error on their part.

Everyone seems to be in agreement that it IS reasonable, if they hadn't paid your wages because you didn't supply them with your bank details in time you wouldn't expect to forgo that months wages because it was your fault they couldn't pay you.

peaceandfreedom

FatVonD wrote: »

Everyone seems to be in agreement that it IS reasonable, if they hadn't paid your wages because you didn't supply them with your bank details in time you wouldn't expect to forgo that months wages because it was your fault they couldn't pay you.

I agree with the consensus view. You chose to spend the £30 on other things (and this is understandable) but you were always going to have to pay up. The parking company are making up for their failures by spreading the cost over the remaining 9 months, they've just messed up their calculations a bit. You can't really expect them to not charge at all for the three months their systems were not working.

Is there anywhere else you could park for free? I park 10 minutes walk away from my office to avoid parking charges and to get a bit of exercise. If there's torrential rain, I pay ad-hoc to park a bit closer but that's not very often.

sacha28

Fire wyrm, no we didn't realise it was theft. It's not like we were going to go to the woods armed with a chainsaw and axe and start hacking trees down, we were going to see what was lying around on the floor....bit of a difference, but still illegal however, which is why we haven't done this.

TTFTM, thank you for your helpful post. It's nice there are still people on here that can be constructive rather than rude and judgmental. We have tried freecycle for wood but, as most of Cornwall are off the grid, wood flies pretty quickly! Also, in answer to parking around the hospital site, the housing estates close by has been made permit holders only and the retail park across the road has a 2 hour restriction (not good on a 13 hour shift). The council have made it impossible to park within a 30 minute walking radius.

FWIW, when I realised payment hadn't been taken and I phoned about it, I offered to pay by debit card but was told they don't have the facilities to accept debit card payments. I am still struggling to see how certain people are claiming this is my 'fault' that they failed to set up their system in time and are unable to accept debit card payments. And I didn't expect to park for free, I expected them to take payment!

sourcrates

Theirs a wood near us, been taking fallen wood for donkeys years, its council owned as well, its only since wood burners became fashionable amongst the masses that anyone paid for wood.

My old mum an dad took wood every week for 50 years for there fire,

illegal ? pah !!!!!!!!

local bobby used to be worst culprit lol !!

we are all such pathetic slaves to consumerism these days.

Cant help with the parking OP, but with you on the wood !!!!!

Bobarella

Sacha - is there no other way of getting to and from work? I gave up our car in august & have pretty much walked everywhere since. I find I can now easily walk 4 miles in an hour and enjoy the exercise. But I am able to walk on safe pavements rather than country roads so this may also make a difference.

glentoran99

sacha28 wrote: »

Fire wyrm, no we didn't realise it was theft. It's not like we were going to go to the woods armed with a chainsaw and axe and start hacking trees down, we were going to see what was lying around on the floor....bit of a difference, but still illegal however, which is why we haven't done this.

TTFTM, thank you for your helpful post. It's nice there are still people on here that can be constructive rather than rude and judgmental. We have tried freecycle for wood but, as most of Cornwall are off the grid, wood flies pretty quickly! Also, in answer to parking around the hospital site, the housing estates close by has been made permit holders only and the retail park across the road has a 2 hour restriction (not good on a 13 hour shift). The council have made it impossible to park within a 30 minute walking radius.

FWIW, when I realised payment hadn't been taken and I phoned about it, I offered to pay by debit card but was told they don't have the facilities to accept debit card payments. I am still struggling to see how certain people are claiming this is my 'fault' that they failed to set up their system in time and are unable to accept debit card payments. And I didn't expect to park for free, I expected them to take payment!

I dont think anyone is saying its your fault exactly but surely you realised they were going to want payment at some stage for the months they didnt take payment, yet you chose to spend the money, they could easily be demanding full payment now as you owe them the money but they arent they are allowing you to spread it out

DawnW

I think that some are being a bit hard on the OP. Obviously in an ideal world the parking company would have got their act together, or alternatively the OP would have put the money aside. However, we don't know their circumstances - what we do know is that many working families are struggling to pay their rent, utility bills and food from static or falling incomes, and find themselves in difficulty in cases where payments are taken unexpectedly or at different times or for different amounts.

I have been in this situation myself in the past.

peaceandfreedom

DawnW wrote: »

I think that some are being a bit hard on the OP. Obviously in an ideal world the parking company would have got their act together, or alternatively the OP would have put the money aside. However, we don't know their circumstances - what we do know is that many working families are struggling to pay their rent, utility bills and food from static or falling incomes, and find themselves in difficulty in cases where payments are taken unexpectedly or at different times or for different amounts.

I have been in this situation myself in the past.

We know a little of the OP's circumstances and it is perfectly understandable that she used the parking money on other things. I have done things like this in the past myself and I daresay many others have. (My own previous financial lunacy goes well beyond this kind of minor offence.)

The OP seemed to suggest in her first post that she shouldn't have to pay for the 3 months parking for which payments were not taken because it was the parking company's mistake. Most responses are disagreeing with this, that's all.