Parking eye invoice sent to non-UK residents

filcaser

Hello, I am new on here. I am writing for advice as I have received an invoice from Parking Eye stating I have to pay a £70 fine, for the third time. I live in Italy and just before Christmas I was in Middlesbrough visiting relatives and I was using a hired car (Arnold Clark) in the Asda car park. I shopped their and after dealing with the Christmas rush and queues I left. In February I received my first invoice saying I had 14 days to pay my fine dated 23 December because I overstayed my parking limit. I didn't see their was a limit and I had no parking ticket. I have so far received 2 more invoices.

I would like to know:
1)Can legal action be taken out against me despite the fact I live in Italy?
2)Could I be black-listed with the car hire company?
3)Should I just ignore these invoices or should I go ahead and make an appeal?

Any advice or past experience is much appreciated.


Thank you!

beamerguy

filcaser wrote: »

Hello, I am new on here. I am writing for advice as I have received an invoice from Parking Eye stating I have to pay a £70 fine, for the third time. I live in Italy and just before Christmas I was in Middlesbrough visiting relatives and I was using a hired car (Arnold Clark) in the Asda car park. I shopped their and after dealing with the Christmas rush and queues I left. In February I received my first invoice saying I had 14 days to pay my fine dated 23 December because I overstayed my parking limit. I didn't see their was a limit and I had no parking ticket. I have so far received 2 more invoices.

I would like to know:
1)Can legal action be taken out against me despite the fact I live in Italy?
2)Could I be black-listed with the car hire company?
3)Should I just ignore these invoices or should I go ahead and make an appeal?

Any advice or past experience is much appreciated.


Thank you!

How did you discover this ? from the rental company

filcaser

This site you mean? Googling Parking Eye & Forums....

pappa_golf

how did PE get your details? , the hire Co? make sure they are informed that you are dealing with it , and not to pay

filcaser

Yes, I guess the car hire company did give PE my details but I don't know if I signed anything to say they could! I will call and check.

Fruitcake

filcaser wrote: »

Yes, I guess the car hire company did give PE my details but I don't know if I signed anything to say they could! I will call and check.

A car rental agreement will normally say the hirer is responsible for things like fines and penalty charges, but nothing about private parking tickets.
Many hire companies are ignorant of the difference and pay the PPC then charge the hirer. If the hire company is a member of the BVRLA, then they have been told not to do this, but many still do.

The most important thing for you is to make sure the hire company do not charge you. As soon as they have told the PPC who the hirer was, they have discharged their liabilty and they need to be told in no uncertain terms that they must not pay the PCN, or charge you, and that you are dealing with it.

You can then tell parking lie your address for service of the PCN, and they must send all correspondence to you as hirer to your overseas address.

Once that has happened, you can safely ignore them.

filcaser

Ok I have written to the car hire company and told them they must not pay the PCN and that we are dealing with the matter. I have just checked the address on the Parking Eye invoice and I see they have our Italian address in their system and they are writing directly to us.

Thank you for your helpful advice!

Fruitcake

Good. Whilst parking lie will probably badger you in Italy, they will not be able to do anything else as you live outside the jurisdiction of the UK courts.

They might try to use a debt collector but if you have read the NEWBIES thread you will know that they have no powers in the UK, let alone outside it.

I don't think the hire company will blacklist you, and if they haven't tried to charge you for passing on your details to the scammers, I would suggest you write and thank them. Tell them you will use them again as not every hire company understands that they are not liable and that private parking invoices do not form part of a hire contract.

Loadsofchildren123

Technically yes they could. But they'd have to comply with the rules for serving you out of the jurisdiction. I haven't got time now to look at these in detail, they are very convoluted and cannot be skim read. Here are the links to the relevant court rule and the accompanying Practice Direction


https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06


https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06/pd_part06b


Even if it's relatively easy to serve you as you are in an EEA state [European Economic Area] - remember that the PPC has to read, understand and comply with these convoluted rules. As PPCs generally issue "roboclaims" offered as a cheap as chips service by the same few solicitors firms, I can't imagine they are going to want to spend the extra money making sure they comply with these rules.


Are you a native English speaker? If not, things could also be complicated by the fact that they may have to have things translated for you (the rules make reference to this but I don't know if the rules actually oblige them to have everything translated).


If all you were doing was shopping in Asda and missed the free limit because of the Christmas queues, have you tried to get Asda to cancel the charge? You should rattle a few cages there, phone the store manager, write to the CEO at head office etc. There may be a discretion to get the PPC to cancel your PCN.

Fruitcake

There are probably other rules for the scammers to deal with as well. I don't know about EU members, but I believe that in Oz for example, documents can only be served if posted by recorded delivery. No other method is accepted.

Coupon-mad

filcaser wrote: »

Ok I have written to the car hire company and told them they must not pay the PCN and that we are dealing with the matter. I have just checked the address on the Parking Eye invoice and I see they have our Italian address in their system and they are writing directly to us.

To get the hire company out of the equation for good, so no more letters are sent to them, email ParkingEye now:

info@parkingeye.co.uk with the PCN number in the subject line xxxxxx/xxxxxx

State only that you are the hirer of the vehicle but live in Italy so you are out of English court jurisdiction so they must cancel this PCN which will not be paid. State that the driver will not be identified but as ParkingEye failed to send the documents required with the PCN (as defined in para 13/14 of Schedule 4 of the POFA) they cannot hold you liable as hirer, nor can they revert to the hire company as any liability on their part has been discharged.

Also show any receipts or Bank Statements showing the payment from Asda that day (without saying who was actually DRIVING!).

The point is mainly to touch base to stop them possibly trying a sneaky second letter to the hire firm and to show PE that indeed you are the hirer, you do exist, won't be paying, are out of jurisdiction so it's pointless suing you and you can't be held liable.

You could also (as well as emailing) copy the same text into PE's 'appeal page' choosing ONLY 'lessee/hirer' in the dropdown menu.

Could I be black-listed with the car hire company?

Nope. The above action will mean they will never hear from PE again, but you might - no big deal, bearing in mind your appeal above and where your place of domicile is.