Settle or not?

timbo29_2

Hello guys! Been reading through the forum and some great threads. And now it is time to make my own.

November last year I received a parking ticket for £85. This was for driving into a car park to wait next to a building adjacent to the building where I was picking up my wife. I wasn't parked in the a space. I was photographed going in and out. The time I was in the car park was 10 minutes!

The entrance road of the units is a busy road, with 4 lanes of traffic, where it would not be legal or safe to pick some one up. The safest way to pick someone up is to use the car park. The night was in winter and therefore wet, dark and cold.

I wrote to Parking eye and said that this was an administration error and unreasonably. They wrote back with a POPLA application. At the time I was so busy starting a new job and did not have chance to appeal through POPLA during the 28 days.

Later I received a small claims letter from Northampton. I wrote back to them saying that there was no need to go to court and explained that I thought that the charge was unreasonably. I then asked for Parking Eye for another code so I could appeal, however they have written back to say that I should have appealed within the 28 days.

Since this time the small claims court have asked me if I wanted to mediate the claim outside of the court, which I agreed.

I went onto the website a while back to see how much it was to settle, and it had gone up to £160.

I now have received a letter to say that I can pay £85 if I pay in the next 7 days.

As a poll from your guys reading this please can you say what you would do? Settle or fight further?

I was completely unaware of the terms and conditions of this car park. The signage is insufficiently lit to the entrance of the car park, the signage is not only facing in the wrong direction of a person in a vehicle, but the information is very high up and is out of the sight line of a person vehicle - A driver must be scanning the road to be safely in control of a vehicle.

I'm personally very bitter about this! And need some advise to give me clarity!

Grimble

You are given 10 minutes to read the signs and agree to their terms, as it was dark are the signs lit? What are the exact timings?

The_Deep

Not!


If they are daft enough to take this to court they will have to convince a judge that grace periods and the BPA code of practice do not apply in your case. A veritable mountain.

Warn them that if they persist, and you win at court, you will be seeking costs under CPR27.14(2)(g) for their unreasonable behaviour.

timbo29_2

Grimble wrote: »

You are given 10 minutes to read the signs and agree to their terms, as it was dark are the signs lit? What are the exact timings?

At the entrance of the site there is a sign "It said 80p upto 30mins, Parking tariffs apply 24hours a week, 7 days a week." amongst other bits and pieces.

Lighting is quite poor, the sign is at the wrong angle, you don't see it through your windscreen as you drive in, you would have to look at the side windows. The position of the sign is poor. Most of these car parks have the signage directly in front of you when you enter the car park. There is only 1 sign at the entrance, there are no further signs on lampposts around the car park etc. There is a massive sign trying to sell season tickets on nearby fencing which is very clear.

timbo29_2

The_Deep wrote: »

Not!


If they are daft enough to take this to court they will have to convince a judge that grace periods and the BPA code of practice do not apply in your case. A veritable mountain.

Warn them that if they persist, and you win at court, you will be seeking costs under CPR27.14(2)(g) for their unreasonable behaviour.

Yes I'm confident that they won't go to court.

Do you know if any of this would like to turn up on my credit report? Presumably it only show up if I lost at court?

DoaM

timbo29 wrote: »

Do you know if any of this would like to turn up on my credit report? Presumably it only show up if I lost at court?

Not even then ... unless you didn't pay the judgment in time for some reason. (Most likely reason would be the PPC sending court papers to the wrong address and getting a default judgment, because the defendant knew nothing about the claim ... this happens more often than people may realise; indeed some PPCs deliberately do this).