Car Parking Screw-up. N.B. SCOTLAND!!

alexmi

We have a little "situation" regarding a parking ticket that my other half received on 30th September in her work's staff car park at a local university. The car park is administered by Euro Car Parks and up to last May a permit was required to park there, which she had. Since then they moved to an "electronic permit" system whereby you just had to be registered on the system to be able to park in the car park. This was duly done and both of our cars are on the system as OH sometimes uses the other car if I don't need it that day.

Fast forward to September, when random vehicles in the car park received penalty notices at the car park for not displaying a permit. Naturally, OH immediately contacted Euro Car Parks to dispute the charge, and they confirmed by email on 6th October that the parking ticket had been cancelled. Strangely, after this, the university decided that permits WOULD be required after all, and permits were issued to relevant staff, including OH, later in October.

So, fast forward to now, and what comes in the post this morning but a notice demanding payment of £70 within 28 days in relation to the fine, and if not paid it will be passed to debt collectors. Naturally, we are going to dispute this and write letters, with the evidence, as to why we are not paying it. I just wondered if there is anything particular that we need to do and what are our chances of avoiding debt collectors and subsequently being taken to court (BTW we are in Scotland so procedures might be a little different). To my mind, we have plenty of evidence to dispute the charge, but I have often seen these things go to ridiculous lengths, especially when the companies' systems are so inadequate that they don't actually cancel a ticket when they have said that they would. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Fruitcake

You obviously haven't read the Sticky thread for NEWBIES.


You have not received a fine, it is an unenforceable speculative invoice.


You live in Scotland, therefore you ignore anything and everything you get from a private parking company. By doing this you will avoid being taken to court.


Start doing it now, and keep doing it for the rest of your life.


DO NOT CONTACT A PRIVATE PARKING COMPANY, EVER, IF YOU LIVE IN SCOTLAND. If you do, you run the risk of revealing who was driving, and then they might be able to get money it of you if you don't play your cards right. However, in Scotland, only the driver is liable so as long as the keeper doesn't say who that is, there is nothing the parking scumpanies can do.
You should not have contacted them on previous occasions. That was a very bad move on your part. Please don't make that mistake again.


As an aside, everybody in the UK can ignore debt collectors letters as well. The NEWBIES thread tells you why. They have no powers and can only send you bog paper with meaningless scribbles on them. Some of the scribbles MIGHT BE IN BOLD RED FONT, but they are still meaningless.


Whilst you are ignoring the parking scammers, you should complain to the Uni that someone is putting litter on your OH's car.


Never 'phone a parking company (easy when you are in ignore mode) and never reveal who was driving, even to the landowner.

alexmi

Hi Fruitcake. Thanks for the reply and sorry for not reading the newbies notice. I guess we are just a little panicked at receiving this notice today and did not notice it. (I have been a frequent visitor to this site in recent months but mainly on the pure money sections, not this section, but that does not excuse me). I'll go and have a read of the newbies stuff now. Thank you very much.

Fruitcake

I've edited my post to explain things a little better. I'm getting ready to go to a wedding so I was a bit pushed for time initially

DandelionPatrol

Keep hold of the email for 6 years [5? in Scotland] in case you need it as evidence if you are taken to court.

Fruitcake

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

Keep hold of the email for 6 years [5? in Scotland] in case you need it as evidence if you are taken to court.

Yes, it's five years in Scotland. You only need to keep it in case you are called as a witness for the prosecution.

alexmi

Hi guys. Thanks again for the info. I have been reading some of the stuff about this and yes it was a bad move to contact the private parking company, but it just shows how we the public are ignorant of the law in these cases. It is very annoying that these companies can get away with this, but I suppose they are not breaking any law as such, they are just hiding behind that ignorance. Anyway, we shall not contact them again. OH is going to speak to her employers on Monday about it, but other than that we shall ignore the situation. OH is still worried about it though as she does not want debt collection people hassling us etc, but I have tried to reassure her that the advice given here is sound as it is from people with the experience to prove it.

One thing is slightly bothering me though. It says that we should not reveal who was driving the vehicle, but her employers may assume that she was the driver, as it is a car share scheme and the vehicles are registered for her and her car share colleague. Would this be a problem? Can the parking company assume from this that OH was the driver?

Anyway, we shall see how it goes. It's typical that these sort of letters always arrive on a Saturday morning and ruin your weekend. :mad:

So, thanks for the info again and enjoy your wedding, Fruitcake.

Fruitcake

The parking company can assume all they like, but they would have to prove it if it ever got to court, which it won't as long as you ignore them.


Again, the employer can assume it but asking them if they wold swear in court that it was a true fact might put them off a bit. Anyway, your OH should just say, the driver parked, never I parked no matter the circumstances.

alexmi

We have ignored ECP but OH had a little rant by email to the landowners' estates department about it. All they have done is pass it back to ECP. She has made clear to them that she wants a response from them and not ECP, but they just don't seem to care. If we get anything else from ECP asking for money she will go back to the landowners again and state that if she suffers any loss from this matter she will claim it back from them, including an amount in compensation for harassment.

Coupon-mad

notice demanding payment of £70 within 28 days in relation to the fine, and if not paid it will be passed to debt collectors.

Edit - didn't realise you were in Scotland - please edit your thread title so it's clear.

alexmi

Sorry, I thought we were to ignore ECP as we are in Scotland?

And doesn't appealing give some legitimacy to the charge, which should never have happened in the first place as it was due to lack of communication between the landowner and ECP? Plus the charge was supposedly cancelled in the first place, so an appeal seems inappropriate to me.