Parking Eye - Tower Road

Umkomaas

My only worry is being able to afford a solicitor and for it to go to court.

You won’t need a solicitor. You do this yourself (with coaching from the forum). The small claims’ court was set up to avoid the need for solicitor representation and large costs.

There are too many hypotheticals at this stage to go into details, but the bottom line is that if you lost (and the forum has a remarkable record of wins), you’d be looking at around £175, and as long as you paid that within a month, no CCJ affecting credit rating.

Coupon-mad

No-one here uses a solicitor to fight these cases, and 99% see a win.

Marshall86

I've had a response from POPLA after sending another email:

Dear Shaun Marshall,

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Thank you for contacting POPLA complaints.

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Our lead adjudicator, John Gallagher, has asked me to respond on his behalf.

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I appreciate the time you have taken to write to POPLA as we take all complaints about our service very seriously.

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I have now investigated your complaint about our service and I am writing to let you know the outcome.

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You raised concerns that:

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·!!!!!!! The assessor has not considered a grace period in their assessment of your appeal.

Reviewing the assessment made, I agree that the assessor has not gone into a summary of the grace period. As such, I have reviewed this point myself.

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In relation to grace periods, Section 13.2 of the British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice explains that, “You should allow the driver a reasonable ‘grace period’ in which to decide if they are going to stay or go. If the driver is on your land without permission, you should still allow them a grace period to read your signs and leave before you take enforcement action.”

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I agree, as the signage does not indicate that parking starts upon entry to the site, it is reasonable for a motorist to assume the parking period starts at the time the ticket is purchased. In your case, this was 11:03. As such, you were permitted a six hour stay from this time, allowing you to remain at the site until 17:03. While I note the whitelist look up states that the end time is 17:05, this has not taken into account the two minutes between purchasing tickets. It is your responsibility to ensure you are aware of the parking session purchased, and the time you would need to return to the vehicle by.

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In relation to grace periods when leaving the car park, Section 13.4 of the BPA Code of Practice states that, “You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action. If the location is one where parking is normally permitted, the Grace Period at the end of the parking period should be a minimum of 10 minutes.”

In this case, you state that the circumstances that prevented you from leaving within the time permitted as:

“When leaving the car park, more time was taken upon exiting due to other users of the car park (in vehicles and people walking to and from their cars)”

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The operator confirms it gives a grace period of ten minutes within its evidence file. I do not consider it necessary, having considered your circumstances, to extend this minimum period of ten minutes. You left the car park at 17:16, and therefore exceeded the time at the end of the parking period by 13 minutes (if we are to consider the parking contract to have started at the time the parking ticket was purchased). The car park is not particularly large and the ten minutes is, as per the BPA Code of Practice, “to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended”. I am satisfied that if you were back at the vehicle on time, it would not have taken more than 10 minutes to leave the car park – even with normal activity such as other pedestrians and vehicles. Therefore, I see no reason that the minimum period should be extended in this case.

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Ultimately, after reviewing the concern you have raised, I do not consider your complaint to have made a material difference to the outcome reached in your appeal. As such, the decision made is final and will not change.

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I am sorry if you feel that we could have handled things better in your case and I can understand how disappointing it can be when your expectations are not met. Please accept my apologies for any shortfalls in our service to you.

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In order to improve our service going forward, I have passed your comments and concerns to our department responsible for process improvements and staff training so that they can be given further consideration. I will also ensure that feedback is provided to the individuals concerned.!

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My email now concludes our complaints procedure and there will be no further review of your complaint. We will not therefore engage in any further correspondence with you in this matter but we thank you for bringing these issues to our attention.

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Yours sincerely

Sophie Taylor

POPLA Team

Marshall86

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Send them a letter asking for a compliant LBC if they plan to proceed to at court. Find similar letters written all over the forum since October, by searching for the word 'immune'.

You had a case before and you still have a case now; this is defendable.

I'm struggling to find a letter asking for a compliant LBC - They all seem to be examples where people have received them already? Should I just send a short letter simply asking for a LBC if they are planning on proceeding to court?

Also, what if they choose one of the other routes mentioned?

Coupon-mad

Yes, just use their wording and adapt it to make sense for your case.

Unicorn51

Item #9 says you paid £8.00 for 6 hours.

POPLA appeal says you paid £6.00 for 6 hours.

If you did indeed pay £8.00 total then that would cover the daily rate of £7.20.

Marshall86

Unicorn51 wrote: »

Item #9 says you paid £8.00 for 6 hours.

POPLA appeal says you paid £6.00 for 6 hours.

If you did indeed pay £8.00 total then that would cover the daily rate of £7.20.

We did pay a total of £8
£4 for 3 hours 11:03-14:03
£4 for 3 hours 14:05-17:05

Redx

well JG squirmed his way out of that one , although it seems that your grace periods message will be passed on with suitable wordings to the lower assessors which may help other people

he clearly has not latched onto the fact there were 2 parking periods not one and the total amount paid exceeded the daily rate

all you can do now is wait for a proper PaP compliant LBC or an MCOL from Northampton CCBC within the next 6 years and let a judge decide

it should make interesting reading after that happens

and it goes without saying that you IGNORE the debt collector letters in the meantime

keep all paperwork , emails , appeals , receipts etc safe for the next 6 years

I have no idea why you talked about hiring a solicitor because you do not do this for a small claims court claim , this is not criminal court, its civil court with limited costs, been that way since 1973

Marshall86

I've never been in this sort of situation so have absolutely no idea what to expect.

If it goes to debt recovery, won't that have an impact on my credit rating? (I ask because I aim to buy a house in the next couple of years)

My other half wants me to pay the £100 to get it settled but I'm quite stubborn and don't feel it's fair purely because I would've been out the car park had I know the time stopped upon exiting (like car parks that have barriers)

Redx

Marshall86 wrote: »

1) I've never been in this sort of situation so have absolutely no idea what to expect.

2) If it goes to debt recovery, won't that have an impact on my credit rating? (I ask because I aim to buy a house in the next couple of years)

3) My other half wants me to pay the £100 to get it settled but I'm quite stubborn and don't feel it's fair purely because I would've been out the car park had I know the time stopped upon exiting (like car parks that have barriers)

1) we would not expect any different , probably 95% of the people trapped by these sc@mmers have never been in this predicament and have knowledge of the court system etc

I would be very surprised if you did know about this topic

2), NO , debt collectors are powerless and cannot come to your house nor will passing it to debt collectors for alleged debt recovery affect your credit rating

its an urban myth

they are powerless and can only send out scary letters with red writing on them, they cannot kidnap your kids , poison your animals , write graffitti on your walls or break down your door

just issue empty threats

3) so let a judge decide and if you lose in court you pay up , promptly , as martin says , IN FULL within one month to stop any CCJ and stop any issue with your credit rating

it is your lack of knowledge and ignorance about the court process and how a CCJ becomes "live" that is causing you unnecessary grief here

if you lost in court , you pay , in full , promptly , job done, its that simple