Parking Eye - do I ignore or appeal?

RufusAWaterman

Evening all, really after some advice and I know you're the ones who can help

I have received a parking 'fine' from Parking Eye for overstaying by 1 hr and 22 minutes at a local retail park. They have the car on camera entering and exiting the car park and got hold of my details through the DVLA. As I had moved house around the time of the parking ticket being issued (February) and hadn't yet updated the DVLA with my new address I didn't receive the original letter dated 16 Feb. They have since found my new address by contacting credit reference agencies and re-sent the original letter along with another one saying they will let me pay the reduced fee of £50 if paid within 14 days of receiving the second letter. The higher amount would be £85.

First off the second letter is dated 12 April however I only received this on 18 April, I am putting this down to the bank holiday so post has taken longer to arrive. This means I have lost 6 days already which I believe is unfair.

Also, I don't know why it has taken them so long to resend the letter to me so I feel I could argue it is too long past the date of the parking 'offence' for me to pay it. Would this carry any weight at all?

I have checked my bank statements and have evidence that I can send to show I made purchases in 4 of the shops on the retail park to justify my 5 hr 22 min shopping trip. One of these was lunch with a toddler in Debenhams which undoubtedly takes longer than perhaps if I had just been on my own, with nappy changes involved as well.

I was also unaware of the 4 hr parking limit, although I don't know if there are clear signs but I know for a fact that I did not see these.

I would just like some advice on whether people think I should ignore the letter completely, complain to the managers of the shopping park (Savills in London), or the managers of the shops I made purchases in on the retail park, or just appeal the charges with Parking Eye. Or all of them! If I am following the deadlines given on the letter I have until tomorrow (26 April) to pay the reduced rate!

Thanks in advance for any help or advice. I really don't feel I should pay, I was a paying customer legitimately using the shopping park and spending my money in the businesses located there and was completely unaware of the parking restrictions.

Redx

only an absolute FOOL would ignore a pcn issued by Parking Eye, a company that took BARRY BEAVIS to 3 courts and won every time, plus a company that issues up to thirty thousand court claims per annum

so if you are a fool, feel free to IGNORE

PE have 6 years to try a court claim using MCOL

if you are not a fool , read and follow the BPA advice in the NEWBIES sticky thread near the top of this forum

and yes complain to the landholder or MA and insist on a cancellation , that goes without saying !!

these have been cancelled by PE many times when the blue text template is used in the initial appeal on the PE website with an addon stating that occupants of the vehicle were patrons of the shops and businesses and enclose copies or scans or photos of the receipts to prove patronage

SAVILLS have also cancelled these invoices on a similar basis , so yes try it with them

ditto for the shop managers too , so yes , all of them

Coupon-mad

They have since found my new address by contacting credit reference agencies and re-sent the original letter along with another one saying they will let me pay the reduced fee of £50 if paid within 14 days of receiving the second letter.

Forget the bribe to 'pay less' and submit an appeal this week online to PE because this tracing letter does open an appeal window and you should get a POPLA code - and we win pretty much every time at POPLA.

Or PE will cancel when they see the proof of spending at the shops.

DO NOT imply who was driving, choose 'registered keeper' on the appeal page. This protects you in case you do have to proceed to POPLA stage, means you can use an extra appeal point at POPLA stage because the NTK was not properly served in time to the keeper.

Use the blue writing template in the newbies thread and upload scans of those receipts and add:

The occupants of the car made purchases in 4 of the shops on the retail park to evidence a genuine family shopping trip with children at the time of the end of the January Sales. One of these receipts was for lunch with a toddler in Debenhams which undoubtedly takes longer than a single driver alone, considering nappy changes involved as well as it being slower to shop at the various retailers. Proof attached.

RufusAWaterman

Thanks for your advice Redx and coupon-mad.

I ain't no fool so I will definitely not ignore it. I was coming across old advice online pre-beavis which was saying to ignore so thankfully I have found some better advice!

I submitted an appeal via the Parking Eye website yesterday and have also written to Savills to complain using the blue text you both suggested, with some adaptations. Thank you for your guidance. I will update this post when I receive a response. Fingers crossed!