Ukpc - residential parking

craig93

Hello, as the title suggests i am having trouble with UKPC concerning 7 PCNS that were all tagged during a 3 month period.

Some background for you, i am 22 and live in a 2bed flat with my father. We are both on the tenancy. When we started renting the property we were provided with 2 parking permits for any of the 220 parking bays within the vicinity. The bays come on a first come first served basis and no parking bay is owned by anyone. The bays however are permitted to be used by valid permit holders. Because at the time i was working night shifts and my other half working days we used to rotate the permits so that we would not get a ticket when she would visit, however sometimes on weekends and around xmas time we were both parked here but ofcourse only 1 of us had a permit to display. There was no visitor permit or visitor bays to park in. We was told by my dad any ticket given will be thrown out and forgotten because it isnt criminal and you just ignore it claiming you wasnt the driver if they chase. obviously reading up recently this was the old advice. The reason i have stopped getting PCN's is because my other half has been away traveling for 12 months since the beginning of March.

Skip a few months down the line to now 23 letters later from various groups such as zenith collections, debt recovery plus and ukpc them selves i have received a letter that has begun to worry me. Its from SCS LAW which is clearly well known here. They are using the same language as the previous letters from each company stating that i need to pay up or be at risk or court action and/or baliffs etc etc. The total tally from the 7 PCN's is currently sitting at £960. I have 14 days to pay before they are instructed to proceed with court action.

I work part time at 20 hours a week and as you can imagine this is a extreme amount of money to be claiming from me, money i do not even possess if ukpc are successful this will stop me driving all together as i would not be able to afford my insurance payments. In turn that would cause me to lose my job as i have to travel 14 miles to work and then 14 miles back home when im there. I don't know if that would be anything useful to help me if it does go to court because if the judge orders me to pay this sum i will essentially be forced to go on benefits until i find a new job within walking distance.

So now by the date on the letter it seems to me that on the 12 August they will issue court papers to me if they are serious which at this moment in time i am absolutely sure they are. I have ignored all letters from the debt recovery companys, i did however dispute the tickets through ukpc. They replied to me stating that they would reduce each pcn to £15 from £100. I in turn told them to shove it as im a permit holder and a resident at the property complex where they employ people to patrol and ticket vehicles, i showed them i have 2 parking permits and as such any ticket should be thrown out by my understanding. Previous tickets i have received in retail car parks once i proved i had purchased a ticket the whole thing was written off and no further action taken. This led me to continue ignoring ukpc as i thought by them asking for a reduced fee of £15 from £100 for each PCN they have indirectly admitted i am right and were just fishing for a bit of cash.

I am off on holiday for 10 days come the 8th of august and will not be home until the 18th of august, i am going to try to forget this whole saga as to not ruin my time abroad but i cant help but stress at the fact i know im going to be coming home to some court papers

Really would appreciate any help as to where i go from here on out, who do i contact? who do i need to write to and stating/asking what? I have never been in any situation like this before, never been in court never had to deal with a solicitor kind of makes me feel criminal all this drama. There quite disgusting these companies, jobsworth all of them :mad:

Any help is appreciated, i have read the newbie forums and several posts / templates from coupon, bargepole etc alot of the stuff i read confuses me right now but i do understand in order to fight this extortionate robbery its going to take some time

craig93

- i forgot to mention do charges not have to be of a possible value the land owner may of lossed as a result of you being parked there? Its free and residential with a parking permit system in place therefore i cannot understand how ukpc can justify a £100 invoice?

Coupon-mad

So sorry to see you got no replies but it is the heart of the holiday season!

craig93 wrote: »

- i forgot to mention do charges not have to be of a possible value the land owner may of lossed as a result of you being parked there? Its free and residential with a parking permit system in place therefore i cannot understand how ukpc can justify a £100 invoice?

NOPE. Forget that. Parking firms no longer have to justify it in that simple way.

The 'no loss caused' argument went out of the window with the 'ParkingEye v Beavis' case, thanks to the ASTONISHING decision of UK Supreme Court Judges in November. This is covered all over the forum and you can Google it to read about the case - good luck in trying to fathom why six out of seven judges decided the goal posts about the age-old penalty rule and 'pre-estimate of loss' were worthy of moving for Capita-owned ParkingEye.

Here are some threads which may help, easily found. I just searched this board for: 'SCS UKPC':

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5476500

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5470683

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5492032

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5489697

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5489157

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5427064

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5504705

Anthony 94 beat UKPC in court at a hearing regarding multiple PCNs, recently (similar to your case):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5407858

...and bargepole who posts here sometimes, beat them too:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5460756


UKPC signs are there dotted around but they are ALWAYS pale, unremarkable and VERY high in small print, not legible. And quite possibly those terms never formed part of your permit scheme contract anyway.

You say this is a tenancy so the permit 'contract' was formed when you were given those permits. So, dig out that email or paperwork. It's highly likely the permit bumf doesn't state £100 as a charge at all (it may talk about a PCN but often no actual defined £sum?). If so, therefore the £100 charge did not form part of the contract formed at the time you accepted and were provided with those permits. It cannot be added later to a contract formed when you signed for or accepted the permits, especially if the paperwork/email also failed to state that the wording on signage also formed part of the contract and applied to you/should be read before parking each time. Nor can 'admin costs' or legal fees at £50 or £60 per PCN be randomly added in a small claim; you can argue that these are a penalty in themselves, not part of any contract and unrecoverable.

Oh, and on this forum DO NOT reply to any private message from any poster 'offering to help' because they would have a vested interest and you can tell by the lack of post count (under 1000 posts and they are not a regular here). Do not reply, 'out' them by naming and shaming them here if anyone pm's you - except a high-post-count regular like salmosalaris who you'll see has assisted in some of the linked cases above.

Come back if you get a claim - do not be freaked out and do not think you 'must pay' to stop it. In fact even losing in court would likely cost you less than the inflated amount with added costs that they are trying for right now (and you may win and pay nowt).

The_Deep

Some stuff you should know about UKPC. If this goes to court be sure to bring this to the judge's attention

UKPC are former clampers who have been involved in quite a number of sordid scams, for example

Hull Trading Standards took them to court on 15 counts of fraud. UKPC won all but one, but only because they had a better lawyer, a Q.C. If I recall correctly

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=63597

They were bested by a Winchester barrister

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?377246-UKPC-liable-for-trespass-**SUCCESS**

They were involved in a large scale scam which resulted in a DVLA suspension

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11858473/Parking-firm-UKPC-admits-faking-tickets-to-fine-drivers.html

And then of course there was Tracey Kiss

http://www.tracykiss.com/product-reviews/my-ukpc-parking-charge/