HELP - Premier Park "Offer to settle to avoid court proceedings"

VIxie83_2

Would love a bit of help with what I do next. I have appealed to POPLA and that was rejected and now Premier Park have sent me a letter stating that if I don't pay by 19 January they will instruct their solicitor. Is there another letter I can send? I'm finding this all very confusiong and a bit of a mind field. I don't want to give in to them. £100 for 9 mins parking where I don't feel the signs were clear!!

Thanks in advance!

Umkomaas

There's no magic letter that changes the situation. You either pay or see if the PPC is bluffing. Even if it went to court it is very defendable with help from here.

What did you say in your appeal to POPLA? On what grounds was it rejected? Give us a bit of background, something to go on!

Herzlos

You're as well ignoring anything apart from court papers now. If it does go to court, you're unlikely to pay more than they are asking now, and they likely won't settle for less.

If you wanted, you could offer them a settlement figure of about £10 to cover their costs, as long as you're careful that you're not accepting any liability.

Have you had a go at the landowner and getting them to cancel it?

Redx

9 minutes is within the BPA CoP grace periods (clause #13) which allows up to say 10 minutes before actually parking and a minimum of 10 minutes to leave after parking

so how did you manage to lose at popla when you were within the grace periods of the BPA CoP ?

you should have asked on here and got a strongly worded popla appeal to start with !!

no idea how you managed to lose

VIxie83_2

Hi all thanks for your reply. I know I should have seeked help from here sooner. I've had a lot to deal with the last few months. Anyway, here is the decision from POPLA:

The terms and conditions of the site state “Vets4Pets customer must enter their full correct vehicle registration inside the practice for free parking only for the duration of their stay. Maximum duration of each stay is 2 hours, If you enter or park on this land contravening the terms and conditions displayed, you are agreeing to pay: Parking Charge Notice £100”. The operator has issued a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) to the appellant because the appellant parked at the site without registering their vehicle. The operator has provided photographic evidence of the appellant’s vehicle L******, entering Vets 4 Pets Car Park on 26 August 2016, at 08:36 exiting at 08:45 for a total stay of 9 minutes. The operator has provided a system generated print out, showing a search for the motorists’ vehicle registration number. This confirms that the vehicle was not been registered on the system for a ticket on the date of the event. The appellant’s grounds for appeal are that the particular space they parked in did not have a Vets 4 Pets sign where as all the other spaces do display such a sign. As the appellant has questioned signage from the site, it is evident I must consider signage at the site. The British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice, section 18.1 states: “A driver who uses your private car park with your permission does so under a licence or contract with you. If they park without your permission this will usually be an act of trespass. In all cases, the driver’s use of your land will be governed by your terms and conditions, which the driver should be made aware of from the start. You must use signs to make it easy for them to find out what your terms and conditions are”. Furthermore, Section 18.3 of the BPA Code of Practice states, “You must place signs containing the specific parking terms throughout the site, so that drivers are given the chance to read them at the time of parking or leaving their vehicle. Keep a record of where all the signs are. Signs must be conspicuous and legible, and written in intelligible language, so that they are easy to see, read and understand”. Within its response, the operator has provided a number of photographs documenting the signage at the location. On review of the photographs supplied I am satisfied the operator has adhered to the BPA Code of Practice in regards to the signage at the location in question, while the space the appellant parked in may not of had a bay sign, I am satisfied that the signs at the site highlight that there are parking restrictions in place. When looking at appeals, POPLA merely considers whether a parking contract was formed and, if so, whether the motorist kept to the conditions of the contract, POPLA cannot allow an appeal if a contract was formed and the motorist did not keep to the parking conditions. From the evidence provided to me, it is clear that the appellant had parked without registering their vehicle, the terms and conditions had not be complied with, therefore I am satisfied that the Parking Charge Notice was issued correctly. As such, I refuse this appeal.

Redx

the real question is :-

what did you put in your woeful POPLA appeal ?

clearly you failed to use the correct legal arguments from the NEWBIES sticky thread here

VIxie83_2

I can't find a copy of my appeal. But it was stating the signage was unclear in the car park. Obviously I should have looked here properly first and I think I panicked and just wanted to get something down. I'm kicking myself! I have just emailed VETS4PETS to see if they can get the charge dropped which I'm sure they'll say no but worht a try.

Umkomaas

Did the PP car park signage specifically state that your car RM must be input? If it doesn't then get some photos of what it doe say. Let us know.

Somehow I can't see PP taking this to court over a mere 9 minutes, but they're all a pretty unpredictable so can't guarantee anything.

VIxie83_2

The sign on the way into the car park states to refer to signage within the carpark. I saw a space without VETS4PETS on the wall and parked in that space. I didn't notice the other signs which apparently there are after seeing the evidence from Premier Park in their appeal. I have parked there before with no problems but I think they had recently signed up Premier Park to take it over. The other spaces all have VETS4PETS and 2 are for private flats. I feel like they are trying to catch people out with the bay that doesn't have sign by it. I'm not sure how to post photo's on here.

Redx

you cannot post photos on here, its not a hosting site

put them on tinypic or photobucket and use a dead link in your reply , changing http to hxxp , or changing www to xxx

fisherjim

If you weren't a customer of VFP I doubt they will help, and some ppcs charge them an admin fee to cancel, and yes ppcs do set traps its all about scamming money.