Charge for not displaying permit

Ricey87

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere. I have had a search but couldn't find the right advice.

My wife recently got a charge from a private parking company that run her work car park. The charge was for not having or displaying a valid permit.

We appealed the charge as she did have a valid permit for that day, but it had blown down the side of a seat when she got out of the car, due to the high winds that day. We included the valid permit in the appeal, plus proof of the weather that day, but the appeal was rejected on the basis that it is the drivers responsibility to make sure the permit is displayed correctly (it does state this on the permit itself).

Is it worth appealing to the IAS regarding this? or should we just pay the fine now whilst it is reduced?

On one hand it was technically her fault, but on the other hand it is very harsh as she was not parking there without permission.

The_Slithy_Tove

Ricey87 wrote: »

Is it worth appealing to the IAS regarding this? or should we just pay the fine now whilst it is reduced?

It's a matter of debate whether you bother with IAS, as they will most likely reject your appeal, whatever you say. The "I" bit of IAS is a complete misnomer, as they are not independent at all.

Either way, you don't pay a penny. Even if you appeal to IAS and lose, you still don't pay a penny.

Carthesis

You're making the typical mistake of newbies:

You're assuming the PPC are reasonable, caring, loving people who will apply common sense and logic to a situation, rather than just being blunt, steadfast, blind to facts and will say and do anything to separate you from your cash.

They would always reject the initial appeal, and unless your number comes out of the magic hat, IAS appeals are generally worthless.

Your wife should go and complain vociferously to her company and insist they instruct the company to cancel the charge.

Carthesis

[deleted for double-post]

Ricey87

Carthesis wrote: »

You're making the typical mistake of newbies:

You're assuming the PPC are reasonable, caring, loving people who will apply common sense and logic to a situation, rather than just being blunt, steadfast, blind to facts and will say and do anything to separate you from your cash.

They would always reject the initial appeal, and unless your number comes out of the magic hat, IAS appeals are generally worthless.

Your wife should go and complain vociferously to her company and insist they instruct the company to cancel the charge.

To clarify, you are saying that even if an appeal is rejected then you would still refuse to pay the charge?

Ricey87

Carthesis wrote: »

You're making the typical mistake of newbies:

You're assuming the PPC are reasonable, caring, loving people who will apply common sense and logic to a situation, rather than just being blunt, steadfast, blind to facts and will say and do anything to separate you from your cash.

They would always reject the initial appeal, and unless your number comes out of the magic hat, IAS appeals are generally worthless.

Your wife should go and complain vociferously to her company and insist they instruct the company to cancel the charge.

It is several businesses that use the car park, so I'm not really sure who she would go to regarding that. The owner of the building that houses the businesses probably won't really care.

yotmon

Ricey87 wrote: »

To clarify, you are saying that even if an appeal is rejected then you would still refuse to pay the charge?

Yes, it is not a fine, so cannot be imposed on your wife. It is a 'speculative' invoice for money that they believe they are entitled to. You disagree. So, to extract any monies from you they will have to sue. This involves them making a claim through the Small claims court.

They may do this, but on the other hand they may not. So do not give them any money unless instructed by a judge.

yotmon

Ricey87 wrote: »

The owner of the building that houses the businesses probably won't really care.

You will never know unless you ask.

These parking companies were brought in to protect the legitimate driver to enable them to park and to prevent 'fly' parking in their allotted space. They certainly weren't engaged to hound the legitimate motorist for a slight mishap with a parking permit.

As had been said many times before on this forum, if they were there to legitimately manage the car park, then they would have a list of all the vehicles that park there, which would make them exempt from being ticketed, but they don't as this would reduce their revenue.

Ricey87

yotmon wrote: »

Yes, it is not a fine, so cannot be imposed on your wife. It is a 'speculative' invoice for money that they believe they are entitled to. You disagree. So, to extract any monies from you they will have to sue. This involves them making a claim through the Small claims court.

They may do this, but on the other hand they may not. So do not give them any money unless instructed by a judge.

If a judge at a small claims court instructs us to pay, are we risking the costs being more than the £100 charge?

yotmon

Yes, but not by a great deal. It may be as little as an extra £50 - £75 to cover costs.

But I wouldn't worry about that seeing as at the present time you are not being sued.

Have a read of some of the court cases on here to see the outcomes and what costs were awarded to the claimant.

By the way, who is the ppc, as some of them never do court, so worth checking.

Ricey87

yotmon wrote: »

Yes, but not by a great deal. It may be as little as an extra £50 - £75 to cover costs.

But I wouldn't worry about that seeing as at the present time you are not being sued.

Have a read of some of the court cases on here to see the outcomes and what costs were awarded to the claimant.

By the way, who is the ppc, as some of them never do court, so worth checking.

It is UKCPS.