Parking 'fine' advice please

hueydanger

HI there

I have a very overdue ticket and court summons apparently coming from a Debt collecting company but standing firm, just need to work out if I have a leg to stand on.

I missed the window to complain to Popla, but I had previously complained to Indigo the company issuing the ticket. Parking ticket was issued on train station car park (private land I believe).

I tried to pay via their app, which didnt work, and jumped on a train as I was in a rush and got a ticket. I sent them a screenshot saying their app was rubbish and I shouldnt pay. They said you should and I eventually agreed. However I tried to pay the £60 fine (within reduced price time) and their website didnt work at all. I sent them another round of screenshots of their site freezing and said they clealy had issues so why should I pay.

I've let this hang around, and they've ignored my complaints saying I should have sorted with Popla earlier and that the ticket was issued legally. However I am not prepared to pay the curre £165, so they say I'm going to go to court with them.

Do I stand a chance of winning, or at least reducing the fine back to the £60 it was when I tried to pay it? Is the argument of the app not working irrelevant as I should have used one of the ticket machines in the car park.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Kind regards

Carthesis

You can't get a court summons from a debt collector.

When was the parking incident?

As its a railway station, it's likely a byelaws case, which means YOU CAN ONLY BE TAKEN TO COURT BY THE TRAIN OPERATING COMPANY, ONLY FOR TRESPASS, AND ONLY WITHIN 6 MONTHS.

You have to do whatever you can to drag this out for 6 months from the date of the event so it becomes statute barred. Write back to the debt collector and tell them you dispute the debt and not to contact you again.

You shouldn't have phoned them and certainly shouldn't have offered to pay them anything,

Redx

POPLA currently dont adjudicate on parking events on non-relevant land like railway stations or airports or ports

as mentioned above, its a byelaws issue and the TOC should have issued the "summons" to a magistrates court within 6 months of the event , so the parking ticket by INDIGO is a bluff which they often use despite it being tantamount to fraud

if it went to civil court as they are threatening , it would be an MCOL, not a summons , the defence would include the fact that its land protected by byelaws, not POFA2012 and only the driver (if known) can be held responsible

drag it out past 6 months , ignore the debt collectors who are powerless and are bluffing

I doubt the word "summons" was ever used at all

Coupon-mad

hueydanger wrote: »

HI there

I have a very overdue ticket and court summons apparently coming from a Debt collecting company but standing firm, just need to work out if I have a leg to stand on.

I missed the window to complain to Popla, but I had previously complained to Indigo the company issuing the ticket. Parking ticket was issued on train station car park (private land I believe).

I tried to pay via their app, which didnt work, and jumped on a train as I was in a rush and got a ticket. I sent them a screenshot saying their app was rubbish and I shouldnt pay. They said you should and I eventually agreed. However I tried to pay the £60 fine (within reduced price time) and their website didnt work at all. I sent them another round of screenshots of their site freezing and said they clealy had issues so why should I pay.

I've let this hang around, and they've ignored my complaints saying I should have sorted with Popla earlier and that the ticket was issued legally. However I am not prepared to pay the curre £165, so they say I'm going to go to court with them.

Do I stand a chance of winning, or at least reducing the fine back to the £60 it was when I tried to pay it? Is the argument of the app not working irrelevant as I should have used one of the ticket machines in the car park.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Kind regards

Of course you have legs to stand on and they don't! That's why they are sending silly letters.

Surely this must be close to timing out after the six months, as Indigo call these 'penalties'.

Read other Indigo threads by searching the forum.

As Redx and Carthesis have rightly said, debt letters are nothing and in fact cannot enforce a 'byelaws penalty' (they lie). Who are you getting letters from and do they threaten 'county court/CCJs' or magistrates court?

prjohnsonnn on pepipoo's post is worth reading:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=109759&st=20&start=20

Post #26. He knows his stuff and that's the sort of thing to use if later responding to any solicitor's letter. Do not respond to ZZPS nor 'Wright Hassall' if it's the ZZPS version (even though they are a solicitor, WH don't actually send this letter, they lend their name/letter heading to ZZPS)!

https://bmpa.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203747112-Wright-Hassall

HTH, relax, this is all smoke & mirrors. Get this past six months and it's timed out. prjohnsonn's post and the FOI request shows that no third party can issue a byelaws 'penalty' anyway.

braquo99

how can you drag it out past six months if WH are demanding payment within 14 days - what happens after the 14 days 'deadline'?

Marktheshark

The only byelaw case tried by a parking firm was thrown out of Doncaster magistrates in less than two minutes.

Bylaws can only be enforced by those with warrent such as a police officer or with devolved power such as local council.

They are no private parking contractors with devolved powers in the UK.

fisherjim

braquo99 wrote: »

how can you drag it out past six months if WH are demanding payment within 14 days - what happens after the 14 days 'deadline'?

More bully boy threats with no action maybe?

Coupon-mad

braquo99 wrote: »

how can you drag it out past six months if WH are demanding payment within 14 days - what happens after the 14 days 'deadline'?

More letters, it's only a debt collector chain unless you get a COUNTY court claim (defendable).