2X Parking Tickets for Parking in my bay

ollie-ollie

Hi Guys,

I would massively appreciate any help that you can give me.

I am renting a flat in London that comes with an allocated parking space, a space which our landlord pays £5000 to use. At the end of 2017 I received 2 parking tickets on different dates for not displaying a valid permit.
There is no requirement in our lease to display a valid car parking permit so it seems bizarre that they have been able to issue a penalty charge notice. Upon further inspection I can also see that the same parking warden allocated both tickets on different dates which strikes me as a bit odd as I regularly park my car in the same space often and he/she would have undoubtedly seen my car there with a valid permit previously and still decided to give me a ticket/invoice as I now understand it too be.

I have read countless forums and would prefer not to defend something that I feel I am in the right for in court if it comes to that. I didn't appeal initially having read some of the forums and peoples to ignore PCN's on the grounds that by issuing a ticket a parking warden would be trespassing on my land if they did so and disrupting my peaceful enjoyment and right to use my allocated parking bay.

Things have now escalated and we are receiving solicitor letters from Gladstones looking to reclaim the increased amount in both cases. I feel very strongly that I am not at fault and have ultimately parked within my own parking space which was allocated to us by the landlord as a part of our tenancy agreement. What are the chances of them taking the case to court and winning?

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated. I have spent several hours searching through threads and forums and not found the exact same case yet.

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to read this. Any direction and guidance would be a big help.

Ollie

Quentin

You didn't get any advice to ignore from this forum!

All you can do now is wait and see if you get a lbcca or Court correspondence.

If you do come back and follow the advice in the Newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum on how to defend a Claim

Coupon-mad

I am renting a flat in London that comes with an allocated parking space, a space which our landlord pays £5000 to use

Ask for a copy of that agreement. Bet it says nothing about £100 penalties? That is important.

What are the chances of them taking the case to court

Very likely.

and winning?

Almost unheard of on this forum; you could not come to a more successful place to beat this at the hearing, and ordinary, scared people like you do this all the time, and win.

In 2017 we helped with hundreds of court claims, most were Gladstones claims, and 99% of people won their case, or it was discontinued without a hearing. Only TWO people lost, when fully coached here, and one of them 'won one case and lost another' so she cancelled herself out but in fairness I still count her as one of the two cases lost.

So those two then paid about £200 for the PCN and court fees, no CCJ, no repercussions or credit record effect at all.

This IS worth defending and you ARE likely to get court claim this year. You ARE highly likely to be able to win it, but much depends on your landlord's primacy of contract that he pays £5000pa for, and you need to ask nicely for a copy.

The_Deep

There is no requirement in our lease to display a valid car parking permit,

So why did you?

Read these

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/residential-parking.html

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/residential-parking/

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences. Parking Eye, Smart and a smaller company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, who have also been reported to the regulatory authority. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind most of these companies may well be put out of business by Christmas.[/FONT]

ollie-ollie

Guys,

I massively appreciate your responses as you can easily feel a bit lost in these kind of situations I have read quite a bit about this subject here and elsewhere but mostly about the initial point of receiving a ticket.

@Quentin I will definitely check out that Newbie FAQ section.
@The Deep whilst the info is good I sadly went to the parking cowboys to use the private appeal process and paid £20 there as one of my early ports of call but received no reply!? The prankster link is also useful though it is also a bit overwhelming

@coupon-mad what is not to love about your optimism and the existing cases won--I really feel strongly about 2 things 1 is man/womens right to go to the toilet and not pay and not being ripped off for parking (especially outside home

We have a copy of the agreement and there is no mention of the £100 penalties as far as I have seen.

Any further suggestions/thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks again to everyone that looks at this thread, i'm grateful also that this may help other people outside of this forum as other posts have me.

Ollie

The_Deep

If you lease does not say you must show a permit why do so? The lease will almost invariably trump some daft T&Cs put up by a scammer to entrap you.

ollie-ollie

I agree with you 100% The Deep and I would like to use the tenancy agreement as my main defence.

As It stands my concern is my lack of defence and response to these 2 parking tickets. I plan to respond to Gladstones solicitor letter immediately. Do you guys have any advice when it comes to that letter and is it worth writing to CPM or is it too late? I figured it may look better should this be taken to court. I have equally composed a letter to the landowner for what that is worth.

Thanks to the incredible advice in this forum I have taken the time to put together a witness statement and a skeleton defence argument in advance. Perhaps I am way ahead of myself but I want to be fully prepared and ready to go should they take this to court

If this matter proceeds then I will share that witness statement and defence with you all here and would greatly appreciate feedback on it.

In the meantime does anyone have any thoughts on my letter to Gladstones, UKCPM etc and taking enough action to be able to demonstrate that to the court should it come to it.

I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to win this case and really appreciate your help.

Ollie

Coupon-mad

Did you see the latest thread where yet another poster beat Gladstones & UKCPM in court today?

is it worth writing to CPM or is it too late? I figured it may look better should this be taken to court.

Too late - they will ignore it or say 'talk to Gs' - but if you want to copy UKCPM in, then do.

ollie-ollie

Thanks CM,

I was going to write in to Gladstones and have a letter composed. Are you suggesting to email them and copy in UKPCM or to send a separate letter to Gladstones and UKPCM? I would love to take the email route if that is an option but thus far haven't found a CPM email that isn't the permits one and have no reliable Gladstone email to send to either.

As for the latest Gladstones case win I've been through about 10 threads and I can't find it. I may be blind but please link me too it here.

Many thanks as always

O

thingamaBob

The latest Gladstones/UKCPM defeat was posted here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5670335

Umkomaas

have no reliable Gladstone email to send to

Gladstones email addresses here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=73894406&postcount=61