Premier Parking Solutions fine received. Please give advice!

sam2807

Hi all,

I moved into a new rented property about this time last year, 3 of us live at said property and each of us have cars. About 3 months after moving to the property, we began seeing Premier Parking Solutions signs appearing around the place. The signs warn you not to park there without a valid permit or risk fine of up to £100.

Nothing came of this for several more months until finally we received 1 parking permit in the post from PPS. We immediately contacted them stating we are in possession of 3 cars and to please send us 2 more permits. From then we displayed the permits every day we parked however noone had seen a traffic warden for about 6 months (up until august this year).

In august, we finally saw a parking attendant from PPS who was simply unclear of the rules of where you can and cant park. At this time, the permit was not in the car - I had removed it to clean the car. He stated that I may park my vehicle in the visitor bays without a permit.

2 days later, I received a parking fine from PPS. It so happened that the car had not moved since the attendant made the statement and I had forgotten to put the permit back in the car.

I immediately sent a appeal letter stating I have the right to park outside the property that I am a tenant of and sent photo evidence of my permit. I also issued a witness statement to the fact that the attendant had misinformed us.

They did not respond for over a month and when they did there was no mention of the appeal, they were simply demanding payment with threats of court, debt collectors and the rest.

I responded again (this time by email) asking them to answer the points in my appeal and of course they responded saying they never received my appeal letter and I now must pay the increased charge of £100 or debt collectors, court etc. They also specified that the appeal period is now finished and if I wish to appeal futher I may do so through the Independent Appeals Service.

What is the recommended course of action here? Shall I pay it? Should I be worried about their threats? I have done a fair bit of research online about this company and some people have just ignored it until it went away. Others seem to have been issued with court order charges.

I definitely do not want to pay the £100 fine. I could maybe pay the £60 which was the charge if paid within 14 days however their choice to ignore my appeal letter was the reason for the 14 days expiring in the first place.

Carthesis

Did you send the appeal letter with proof of postage of any kind? If so, that's your first line of attack.

Secondly, theres an EU Directive that ADR must be available to consumers for at least a year, so the arbitrary 28-days is just that - arbitrary. Point this out to them when you respond again.

Coupon-mad

I responded again (this time by email) asking them to answer the points in my appeal and of course they responded saying they never received my appeal letter and I now must pay the increased charge of £100 or debt collectors, court etc. They also specified that the appeal period is now finished and if I wish to appeal futher I may do so through the Independent Appeals Service.

What is the recommended course of action here? Shall I pay it?

No, we do NOT suggest you pay it.

See post #3 of the NEWBIES thread to see the answer to 'what happens if I do not try to IAS?' (and DO NOT try the IAS!!).

Oh, and do not reply to any private message from a poster with less than 1000 posts to their name here. We deal with these issues openly on the forum and any pm could be from anyone at all (even the parking firm) and is not recommended to be replied to/read.

sam2807

Thanks for the responses!

In answer to Carthesis' question no I did not send it recorded . In fact I actually had the letter returned to me by Royal Mail yesterday which obviously meant my stamp didn't cover the costs! Which is rather unfortunate but probably means they did not receive the letter and they are telling the truth about that.

The point you raised about theyear long EU directive is interesting however I will certainly bear that in mind.

Coupon-Mad: Thanks for the advice! I am going through reading the POPLA appeal information in that thread you noted. Unfortunately I feel I may have implied myself as the driver. Whether this is the case or not do I call my appeal hopeless now?

Secondly, once my POPLA appeal is submitted do I need to respond to the PPC to let them know I have appealed with POPLA?

Also I have just seen the "IPC" stamp at the bottom of their response letter. Does this mean I cannot use POPLA?

pappa_golf

sam2807 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses!

In answer to Carthesis' question no I did not send it recorded . In fact I actually had the letter returned to me by Royal Mail yesterday which obviously meant my stamp didn't cover the costs! Which is rather unfortunate but probably means they did not receive the letter and they are telling the truth about that.

The point you raised about theyear long EU directive is interesting however I will certainly bear that in mind.

Coupon-Mad: Thanks for the advice! I am going through reading the POPLA appeal information in that thread you noted. Unfortunately I feel I may have implied myself as the driver. Whether this is the case or not do I call my appeal hopeless now?

Secondly, once my POPLA appeal is submitted do I need to respond to the PPC to let them know I have appealed with POPLA?

Also I have just seen the "IPC" stamp at the bottom of their response letter. Does this mean I cannot use POPLA?

not enough postage fee of invalid address?

sam2807

Not enough postage fee. The returned letter was sent on the 4th August and returned 6th of september! The letter had a "1.50 fee required" stamp on it.

Apparently what this means is that they will have been issued a charge of 1.50 for the letter which they refused to pay.

Coupon-mad

Coupon-Mad: Thanks for the advice! I am going through reading the POPLA appeal information in that thread you noted.

No point going through POPLA info because this is PPS who aren't in the BPA and because your appeal was never received (should have been done online if that was offered). Too late to appeal now - you have NO POPLA - not sure why you think you do? I said 'DO NOT do IAS' and did not point you to read about POPLA = irrelevant.

Sit tight then.

Unfortunately I feel I may have implied myself as the driver. Whether this is the case or not do I call my appeal hopeless now?

No your position isn't hopeless - you have NO APPEAL chance but then again that was always the case before 2012 and we never told people to pay then, either. Every single person with an IPC firm PCN is advised to sit tight.

It is easy enough to search & read threads exactly like this every day of the week here, any IPC threads are like yours.

sam2807

Coupon-Mad, thanks again - appreciate the advice. I will keep the thread updated of the progress of this.

This morning I just received another Notice to Keeper demanding the money.. I cant help but feel debt collection letters will be next.

pappa_golf

sam2807 wrote: »

Coupon-Mad, thanks again - appreciate the advice. I will keep the thread updated of the progress of this.

This morning I just received another Notice to Keeper demanding the money.. I cant help but feel debt collection letters will be next.

then resist the urge to buy bog paper at asda tomorrow

Coupon-mad

sam2807 wrote: »

Coupon-Mad, thanks again - appreciate the advice. I will keep the thread updated of the progress of this.

This morning I just received another Notice to Keeper demanding the money.. I cant help but feel debt collection letters will be next.

Of course, but you will be ready and informed to laugh at and ignore them, as we've all done for years. I've ignored them myself and wouldn't tell you to do anything with any significant risk.

Worst case scenario as long (as you do not move house and not tell them your new address, and get an unknown CCJ in a couple of years as described on the Theresa May thread here) is merely a small claim.

Even a person who defends and loses at a hearing doesn't get a CCJ if they THEN pay (typically £160 - £175). No black mark, zero effect on credit rating - and debt collectors cannot litigate so those letters do not mean it's getting serious.

And most cases never go there:

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Premier_Parking_Solutions.html

A tiny number, compared to the number of PCNs issued. And some will have been won by the Defendant. Sit tight. You have done enough:

I immediately sent a appeal letter stating I have the right to park outside the property that I am a tenant of and sent photo evidence of my permit. I also issued a witness statement to the fact that the attendant had misinformed us.

sam2807

Thanks for your continued advice.