ES Parking - Winwick Street Warrington

Geralt2016

Hi,

Having a reviewed a few other boards about this operator, I've reached the point where I feel it's worth sharing my own experience and asking a few questions too.

A PCN was affixed to my car by this operator back in May this year.

As with others, the reason given was "Ticket Face Down".

I sent the recommended letter from the newbie thread with an additional sentence stating:
"[FONT=&quot]In advance of this information, please also find a scanned copy of the parking ticket that was purchased and displayed in the vehicle on the day in question.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]As you can see, the full parking charge was paid and the ticket was valid at the time of your PCN being affixed to the vehicle."[/FONT]

I also included scans of the valid ticket.

ES Parking then issued a letter (I'm happy to post scans of the redacted letter if anyone is interested) entitled "Appeal Rejected". This leads me to question number one - as my letter never claimed to be an appeal against the charge, does ES Parking rejecting it as such remove my actual right of appeal?

I subsequently chose not to appeal to the IAS for the kangaroo court aspect discussed at length in other parts of this forum.

I have now received another letter demanding payment of a £125 charge (again happy to post redacted scans if anyone would like to see). This leads to question number two - are ES entitled to increase the amount of the charge by £25 (all signage and correspondence refer to a charge of £100) for "further charges"? My understanding is that they cannot do so but would appreciate clarification on this element.

Finally, my overall understanding of this situation now is that I can't really do anything apart from wait for 6 years and watch out for any legally binding correspondence. I find this very frustrating and so would like to go on the offensive in any way possible. Therefore, I'm eager to hear any insight people can offer on the following:

1. Firstly, can anyone provide any clarity over what legally binding correspondence actually looks like so that I know what to look out for?
2. What complaints can I make about the operator and to who?
3. As ES Parking failed to respond to any of the questions posed in my letter to them, is there any point to corresponding with them further to try and pursue this info?
4. Is there any alternative way of finding out who the owner of the land is so that I can complain directly to them?
5. The car park itself is in a terrible state of repair (e.g. barriers loose and broken, extensive potholes all over the site, rubble piled up in various places, even a drain access left uncovered) and the machines made available are also awful - is there any kind of legal and / or Health and Safety standards that private car parks need to meet in order to conduct business?

Thanks in advance for any help offered!:)

Northlakes

For £3 you can get the landowner details from the Land Registry.

Can make interesting reading.

The_Deep

Why bother? You paid, they have lost nothing. They would be unlikely to win a court claim.

Redx

its an invoice , nothing more , so frustrating as it may well be there are no legally binding issues to deal with as this is an unregulated industry so they can more or less do as they like

its whenj it gets to a court case that things start to clarify and only then will you see what is "legally binding" , think judge rinder without the quips and comedy

Coupon-mad

Compare notes by pm with this poster:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5484250

...and come back if they/their solicitors try a small claim rather than silly letters. We help people to defend them too.

Geralt2016

Thanks all, so basically there'should nothing more I can really do?

What about complaining to the BPA / DVLA about the operator? Is anything like this worth the effort?

Coupon-mad

They are not a BPA AOS member are they? You said the rejection letter mentioned IAS so they are an IPC firm and complaints to that bunch are pointless. Maybe get copious photos of the signs and lack of signs...unreadable wording next to a ruler to show how small it is, unliek the BEavis case, etc. All useful evidence in case you need it within the six years for it to go to a hearing (rare).

You could correspond with ES but I wouldn't bother. Look out for any Letter of Claim from Gladstones though and do keep all letters, just in case you do need to defend this in the end at a proper hearing. No biggie, no risk of a CCJ as long as you don't ignore court papers or miss court deadlines.

Do not reply to anyone sending you a private message offering to 'help'. There are no useful steps to take except to tell the PPC if you move house within 6 years and to open each letter for a laugh and to check it isn't a sudden court claim/solicitor Letter of Claim.

Geralt2016

Hi all,

I have now received a "Formal Letter of Claim" from Wright Hassall.

It threatens that "unless this debt is repaid within 14 days of the date of this letter we will review this matter and may be left with no alternative but to issue County Court proceedings seeking a money Judgement Order..."

It goes on to make additional threats relating to CCJs.

I'm sure you're very familiar with the letter, and while I have searched this site and found similar threads with proposed robust responses they seem to be geared towards other parking operators, that are POPLA rather than IAS.

I'm keen to ensure I don't misuse anything that only applies to POPLA operatives and so would really appreciate any help on an appropriate form of words for a robust response.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.