Pcn

BrianCC

Hi

I received a PCN on my windscreen from Parking Solutions. This is parking at my university and there are numerous ways to pay for this now... I pay for a monthly permit which was valid at the time the PCN was issued, however this had slipped off my dashboard and understandably the attendant gave me a ticket.

Naively I went through the appeals process through them (who are part of the BPA) and then POPLA who both stated I was in breach of the contract by not displaying my ticket.

After reading the newbies threads I now understand I have weakened my case, so my question is do I have a leg to stand on?

- I told them I was the driver on both occasions and now they have all of my details. I have received numerous texts from them telling me to call them and recently they said their "client is offering you 70% in settlement before legal action is taken, call us immediately."

- I also did not comment on the the operators reply to POPLA

A letter from Ultimate Customer Solutions has been received demanding £160.00 (£60 admin fee) and from reading the threads I know to ignore these unless it is a Letter Before Claim. Although there is no heading to say this there is the following paragraph written in this letter: "A requirement of Pre-Action Practice Directions is that prior to any legal proceedings being issued against you that a Letter Before Claim is sent to you. We hereby give you notice that if a repayment of the Balance is not made within the 7 days from the date of this letter, we will pass this matter to our solicitors, with instructions to issue legal proceedings against you in the County Court without further reference to you." Is this worded just to try and scare me or is it a letter before claim?

I was going to email the university with my complaints as suggested but after finding the relevant email, their page states that if you do not display your ticket you will get a fine, so I don't think this will be worth my time.

I want to fight this because I think it is disgusting to still try to charge me despite knowing I have paid to park (and I provided evidence of this in my appeals), however, if I have significantly weakened my case through the above it may be best to cut my losses and not have to incur court fees? Any help is appreciated.

Redx

its your choice

you only have to pay if a judge says so, a better defence may persuade a judge , it may not , there are no guarantees so nobody can say how many legs you can stand on , or not

if their paperwork uses the word "fine" then they have weakened their case because no private company or university can "fine" you (did you make that word up yourself ??? )

court is a lottery and all depends on who the judge is , the mood they are in , the paperwork presented beforehand and sometimes the demeanor of the claimant and the defendant

there is no easy answer, but we almost always say fight , not pay

UCS is a debt collector , and even if you lost in court you may pay between £100 and £200 , so no , I would not pay £160 to any debt collector

BrianCC

Thank you Redx,

Well pointed out I did write that part about the university from memory... Their website says: "If you pay for a monthly or annual permit please ensure that you display your permit clearly in your vehicle, either on the dashboard or on the front windscreen. Failure to adhere to this instruction is likely to result in the issue of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN)" so their case is not weakened I guess. This does not seem as strong as I remembered either, maybe it is worth sending a complaint.

I shall look through the relevant threads, thanks again

Redx

as mentioned in the NEWBIES sticky thread , you should ALWAYS COMPLAIN to the landholder and get it cancelled , that is ALWAYS the best solution

and I knew it would not be a "fine" , because its an invoice , called a parking charge notice

so yes complain , strongly , get the landholder to cancel it , then its job done

keep records of all paperwork , dont do phone calls , get it all in writing , emails , text messages , evidence for a judge (so not conversations or phone calls)

watch judge rinder a few times , see how the process works (ignore the hysterics and theatrics)

The_Deep

Whatever you decide, Beavis does not apply, and, if you put forward a good defence you may win on harsh and unreasonable terms in a contract. You have paid, they have suffered no loss, the "admin fee" is ultra vires, and, if you committed a similar "offence" on Council land the fine would, almost certainly, be considerably less.

They are attempting to scam you, make them pay for their hubris.

Coupon-mad

BrianCC wrote: »

Thank you Redx,

Well pointed out I did write that part about the university from memory... Their website says: "If you pay for a monthly or annual permit please ensure that you display your permit clearly in your vehicle, either on the dashboard or on the front windscreen. Failure to adhere to this instruction is likely to result in the issue of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN)" so their case is not weakened I guess. This does not seem as strong as I remembered either, maybe it is worth sending a complaint.

Their case is fairly weak and many parking firms don't try court anyway. You are worrying about nothing.

This is parking at my university and there are numerous ways to pay for this now... I pay for a monthly permit which was valid at the time the PCN was issued

Who was it, PS24? Not likely to sue you are they, look!

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Parking_Solutions_24.html

Hardly a threat, zero court claims.

Google this phrase if it was PS24, and read the results (not any older than 2015, don't waste your time reading old threads):

Parking Solutions 24 university site:forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Is this worded just to try and scare me or is it a letter before claim?

Debt collectors are not solicitors and can't send LBCs. Relax. Ignore debt collector drivel and if you pay you haven't done diligent research. Not a single person here would pay this bunch.

BrianCC

Thanks for all your help. I have decided to draft an email to the university to try to get them to stop the calls and letters, I know it is nothing to worry about but I can not be bothered with the constant reminders. Just wondering if this is strong enough? (I will omit info that could identify me)

"Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to you as landlord of the XXXX carpark to see if you can intervene and help me with an issue that I have with Parking Solutions 24.

I am a second year student and each term I have been at the university from September 2015 I have purchased a monthly permit to park at XXXXX

On XXXX I parked up as normal and when I returned I found that a notice had been placed on my car. My permit had slipped off the dashboard and fell into the footwell of the car. Unfortunately I did not notice this as I left my car.

I immediately wrote to Parking Solutions explaining what had happened and I also sent them a copy of my permit that clearly displays my registration number.

Parking Solutions 24 have completely disregarded the fact that I have paid for my permit and through the appeals process the fine has increased from £60 to £100 and it now stands at £160. Via the dialogue, Parking Solutions 24 have clearly acknowledged and agreed that this was an accident, they quote 'It is appreciated by the Operator that the Appellant clearly did not intentionally park in breach of the T&Cs of this site and the supplement retrospectively of the valid permit from the Appellant confirms this' . Parking Solutions 24 agree that I am a paying customer and they acknowledge no loss of business. Could you therefore explain why I am being penalised and harassed by the company that the University employ to enforce parking when I have clearly paid to park my car at XXXX?

As already stated, I am a second year student at the university paying £9,000 a year for a course I chose to study at XXXX. I commute to the university as I am unable to afford onsite accommodation, I certainly cannot afford a £160 fine which is completely unreasonable. In particular when it has been duly acknowledged this is not intentional and proof of payment has been given. I would therefore expect that the university would do the right thing and intervene with the hustler’s that you employ and ask them to quash the fine that they are unjustly trying to levy on me.

The continual persistent bullying and callous harassment that I am suffering at the hands of your colleagues at Parking Solutions makes me feel very nervous from parking on any university site, just in case something similar happens. It is leaving me worried and distracted in lectures wondering if I have definitely displayed my permit and has me second guessing myself when I should be focussing on my work. Surely there must be a way of knowing who permit holders are in these events? You have a duty of care to ensure I have a safe and enjoyable experience during my tenure at university, you even state that you 'pride ourselves on being a supportive and are an inclusive university'. At this moment I am feeling let down.

I must raise high concern, that in order for me to get monthly permits in future I will have to park up, walk to XXXX and return to the car to display it. Will I receive a PCN then? What would happen in this scenario? I am sure you will agree that this is a terrible system and some urgent fixing is needed.

To conclude, I confirm that in XXXX, as in most other months when the university was open from XXXX, I had a valid permit to park at XXXX. I am very sorry that my permit slipped off the dashboard and I will be very careful to ensure that this does not happen again. Neither the University or Parking Solutions have lost financially because my valid permit slipped off the dashboard and no loss of business has been incurred on your part. I am not going to pay any fine that Parking Solutions are trying to hijack me with. As landlord of the site I would like you to contact Parking Solutions and ask them to stop intimidating and harassing me as it reflects very badly on XXXX University.

I look forward to your reply confirming the PCN is dropped and they will not contact me again.

Yours faithfully
XXXX"

I'll include my PCN reference in the subject.
(I did go through the Newbies but couldn't find an actual worded complaint to a landlord to use as a template)

BrianCC

Update:
The Uni have cancelled the PCN. Thanks for advice.

Coupon-mad

That was really good - well done! And all the best with your degree.

Keep blutack in your glove box to stick any paper/laminated permit to, on the dash. I always have some in my car!