13 Outstanding Parking Tickets

chachaslide

Yes I know THIRTEEN is ridiculous. By way of background I park in one of those private APCOA carparks and then walk to the station. The machine is NEVER working to get a tickets so I have the online app on my phone. A few times (yes I know 13 is extreme) I have forgotten to buy a ticket until I get to work or sometimes as late as 3pm but have paid the £4 a day when I have remembered. Unfortunately the car by this time has already been ticketed. I have appealed and had these rejected in the normal way but at the weekend I got another lot of letters for the fines all now having crept up to £145 EACH. this is clearly a hell of a lot of money given the original parking tickets were only £4. On occaision I had completely forgotten to buy a ticket and when I had called the APCOA customer line in the evening when I got back to my car they wouldn't accept the payment. Im obviously concerned now the original car parking fines were £50 each increasing to £85 in X amount of days. The appeals failed so they went up to £85 but I didn't have £1000 spare just hanging around to pay the tickets. They now are up to around £1400. I don't want it to go to court as I am trying desperately to clean my credit file and the last thing I want is a CCJ. Before I do anything else can I appeal to them again to have the original fine price reinstated and try and almost bargain with them to clear the debt?


Needless to say I don't park there any more.

BeenThroughItAll

No doubt someone will appear with a way to get out of it based on the private parking rules... but basically, you're looking for an excuse to get out of paying for a service you've received; and all of which could have been avoided were it not for your own incompetence and lack of organisation... Thirteen times.


I can't see that's going to work out well whichever way you argue it. Once maybe. Twice, possibly. But thirteen times? Really?


If you can't afford the payment of the charges, then you should really have remembered to pay the £4 a day at the time and avoided it coming to this.

AdrianC

If you'd forgotten to pay the parking, got back to your car and found you HADN'T been ticketed, would you have phoned them to pay the £4? No, of course you wouldn't. And that's why you can't pay the £4 AFTER you've been ticketed... Because that's the only time anybody would ever pay the £4...

If you really can't remember to pay for your parking daily, do they offer a season ticket? Is there somewhere else you can park? Can you cycle or walk all the way to the station? Get the bus?

pogofish

Get yourself into the Parking Tickets Subform and start by having a good read of the Newbies Sticky - that outlines your situation and the various ways of challenging them.

Searching for recent threads on your particular PPC/car park might help you choose which approaches are most suited to you but stick to the last few months only and don't place faith in older threads as things have moved-on.

soolin

Moved to the sub board for better responses

Aylesbury_Duck

chachaslide wrote: »

Before I do anything else can I appeal to them again to have the original fine price reinstated and try and almost bargain with them to clear the debt.

You can, but you're not exactly negotiating from a reasonable position. Your position is that you were prepared to deny them ticket revenue of at least £52 (I say at least because I assume there were occasions where you weren't ticketed?) and now you want them to show leniency. Not a great standpoint.

chachaslide

Genuinely, I have always paid my tickets. For three of the tickets issued there was no yellow post it thing on my windscreen and when they have been unable to produce any photographic evidence so have let those ones go. I have walked through the carpark of an evening and seen kids taking them off of other people's windscreens and putting them on other vehicles. I have been ticketed previously and have already paid the fee online - this carpark has been renowned for being an absolute nightmare. There is no CCTV it doesn't have auto recognition. The machine for manual tickets is always broken or vandalised. It is very easy to forget to buy a ticket when you have just done the school run and are ambling to get to work on time. APCOA are able to see from my online account that Ive always bought a ticket.

Coupon-mad

Luckily:

- this is APCOA who don't sue (and I believe their standard contracts don't even give them a right to sue).

- APCOA don't use the right paperwork to hold a registered keeper liable.

Sadly, you said you 'had appealed in the normal way' which makes me think you didn't research it first and come to the right forum (this parking forum that your thread got moved to today!) and didn't appeal as keeper. You said who was driving didn't you? NEVER do that!

However you did pay the tariff every day:

A few times (yes I know 13 is extreme) I have forgotten to buy a ticket until I get to work or sometimes as late as 3pm but have paid the £4 a day when I have remembered. Unfortunately the car by this time has already been ticketed

So, APCOA are highly UNLIKELY to file a claim and if they do it's defendable (and no, not saying 'there has been no loss'). We will help you if you need a defence.

I assume you are merely getting tedious debt letters, which the forum has consistently told people to ignore, since time immemorial:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035663

Ignore and DO NOT contact the likes of Debt Recovery Plus/Zenith (same bunch of losers). Come back if APCOA try a small claim.

I don't want it to go to court as I am trying desperately to clean my credit file and the last thing I want is a CCJ.

Same here. Luckily, defending a small claim does NOT lead to a CCJ unless you:

(a) ignore the court papers or deadlines, or
(b) fail to turn up to the hearing and lose by default, or
(c) turn up but lose, then refuse to pay within 30 days (the Judge allows 30 days grace to pay - NO CCJ even if a case is lost).

Not likely to happen, is it, especially not with APCOA! Defending a small claim does NOT get you a CCJ.

No doubt someone will appear with a way to get out of it based on the private parking rules...

Yes.

but basically, you're looking for an excuse to get out of paying for a service you've received; and all of which could have been avoided were it not for your own incompetence and lack of organisation... Thirteen times.

Not true at all, he says he paid every time, albeit late but whilst the car was still parked on site.

I can't see that's going to work out well whichever way you argue it. Once maybe. Twice, possibly. But thirteen times? Really?

Yep, really, it will be OK. The worst perpetrator is the parking firms who have no valid reason to exist.

If you can't afford the payment of the charges, then you should really have remembered to pay the £4 a day at the time and avoided it coming to this.

He did pay. Read his posts.

Aylesbury_Duck

It's not me you need to convince. I still don't think you have a credible defence. Not after 13 occasions of forgetting. Thousands of parents make the school run every day, it's hardly a hassle that's unique to your situation. Good luck with it but I just don't see how you're going to succeed.

Coupon-mad

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

It's not me you need to convince. I still don't think you have a credible defence. Not after 13 occasions of forgetting. Thousands of parents make the school run every day, it's hardly a hassle that's unique to your situation. Good luck with it but I just don't see how you're going to succeed.

He will.

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

You can, but you're not exactly negotiating from a reasonable position. Your position is that you were prepared to deny them ticket revenue of at least £52 (I say at least because I assume there were occasions where you weren't ticketed?) and now you want them to show leniency. Not a great standpoint.

Not true. He paid every time.