Parking Eye Ltd - County Court claim - HELP

ejl_37

I parked in a retail car park in London in the evening (approx 7pm) on a weekday evening - I was quite new to the area & my friend has lived in the area all her life. We knew it was a free car park & looked for signs to check the car park doesn't shut as it's an out of town retail car park where we parked but couldn't see any. The car park was very dark also.
A few weeks later, I receive a letter to my Mums address (where my car is registered to) as I was only in London part-time from the lovely Parking Eye Ltd stating I overstayed the free 2 hour time by 56 mins and owe them I think approx £70. It was addressed to me however they had spelt my surname wrong so I ignored it...I received another one and again, my name had been spelt wrong so I ignored it. It wasn't until the following week I received my tax renewal from DVLA and my surname was spelt wrong when alarm bells rung so I checked my V5C and there was a sneaky I in my surname!
I rung DVLA immediately who said it was probably a mis-read when the car dealership would have sent it off & just to send it in to correct it & these things happen a lot...
I have since corrected it & have sent it off (still waiting for it back) however I have now received a Claim Form for the County Court Business Centre for Parking Eye Ltd.
They are claiming:
£100 - amount claimed
£25 - court fee
£50 - solicitor costs
TOTAL AMOUNT: £175

I am not in a financial position to pay this, I am in ill health & struggling to make ends meet as having to pay privately to see a chiropractor & counsellor whilst waiting for my NHS referrals & spinal surgery. Although, I am working I am also only on temp contract so no sick pay etc and with a serious spinal condition I am struggling...

I am not sure how I should be responding to this - I am sending off a request to gain an extra 14 days as I have been so poorly recently.
Does anyone have any advice on how to fight this?
Worried regarding DVLA car not being registered properly - I genuinely had not seen this & rung DVLA immediately and have only owned car since may 2014.
Also, as it was a free car park how is any fine from £70 proportionate to their losses?!
I am scared as they have sent me so many letters now & regretting ignoring them but they weren't addressed in my name hence why I ignored them - my mental health has had an impact because of this.
My friend has gone back to the car park to take some photos - the sign they're saying is clearly on display is higher up on the left side as you enter car park and therefore was totally blocked from my vision & also not something I would be looking at having turned into a car park with a speed bump and corner ahead....

Anyone had this from Parking Eye & any advice?
Many Thanks

eddy1

hi


I would think your best bet would be to go to the parking prankster forum and work through the advice on there


failing that, go to the newbies section on this forum and work through posts, it gives you everything you need to fight this


good luck


eddy

Redx

read post #5 of the NEWBIES sticky thread, has full details on dealing with this

and yes of course lots of other people have had them, plenty on here, thousands more (they issued 30 thousand court claims last year)

the BEAVIS one from last year went to the court of appeal last month

no verdict yet though (expected soon)

Chei

Regarding the Beavis v Parking Eye Ltd case, visit the website below for an update of the case, which a decision was made at a court of appeal on 23rd April 2015.

parkingcowboys.co.uk/parkingeye-vs-beavis

The appeal was dismissed, based on 'commercial justification'. Try and get as much proof as possible if you are disputing. If you are basing your dispute on the charges being exorbitant, based on the court of appeal decision it leaves little hope for consumers. Parking Eye Ltd can charge what they like and claim 'commercial justification' . My understanding of this is damages Parking Eye Ltd are likely to occur as a result of a breach of contract.