Parking fine cancelled then reinstated

JodyGray

Hi can anyone please advise or help me regarding the Holiday Inn sending me an email with intent to cancel a parking fine then, after a few days saying that because popla rejected the appeal they have rules and regulations in place meaning the fine is not cancelled.
Parking Eye and Popla do not take into account mitigating circumstances, the Holiday Inn did and told me they would cancel then changed their mind because popla rejected it!!!! This seems like nonsense. Surely the land owner has the right to cancel?
Basically I was suffering from suspected food poisoning drove into holiday Inn car park in desperation then spent the next 20 mins being violently sick in their bathroom facilities, after recovering and feeling well enough to drive I went home. I had no idea of parking restrictions as obviously my mind was on other things. A week later I get a fine - I couldn't believe it!!!
I have no intention of paying this ridiculous charge and when the Holiday sent me an email with intent to cancel the fine having taken mitigating circumstances into account I thought it was over.
Can they change their mind just like that? They are the land owner so surely they have a say? Any advice gratefully received.
It was Popla and the C.A.B who advised me to contact the Holiday Inn.......

Quentin

Throughout here you are advised never to reveal who was driving

You need to edit your post ASAP to remove details of who was driving

The ppcs monitor this forum and can use your posts against you

The hotel themselves didn't issue the ticket but escalate your complaint to their head office

Keep all correspondence you have from the hotel which will be useful if this goes all the way to a hearing

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

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.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

System

You need to edit your post ASAP to remove details of who was driving

It's ParkingEye so it won't matter as they have KL sorted.

The hotel themselves didn't issue the ticket but escalate your complaint to their head office

Keep complaining. PE will want £60 so if the get it from the hotel or the OP (after he gets the "offer") then PE will go away

Keep all correspondence you have from the hotel which will be useful if this goes all the way to a hearing

The OP doesn't want or should let it go to a hearing as PE will win. Plenty of examples of getting PE to stop once they get some cash. The issue for the OP is going to POPLA and and losing.

Half_way

who said that the previously cancelled charge, was now in effect not cancelled?

System

who said that the previously cancelled charge, was now in effect not cancelled?

It is a question of whether the manager at the HI hotel has the authority to cancel. PE often argue (successfully) that only HI HQ can cancel and they didn't.

There is are two side issues - estoppel and Contract Rights 3rd parties.

OP should escalate to the person within HI who has the authority. He'll know this when he gets the "offer"

Half_way

It is a question of whether the manager at the HI hotel has the authority to cancel. PE often argue (successfully) that only HI HQ can cancel and they didn't.

That would be up to Holiday inn to sort out, as it is the OP has been told by a representative of Holiday Inn that the charge was cancelled.

Holiday Inn sending me an email with intent to cancel a parking fine then, after a few days saying that because popla rejected the appeal they have rules and regulations in place meaning the fine is not cancelled.

It may be worth reminding Holiday inn, that the parking industry is completely un regulated, and any decision made by POPLA is not binding upon the motorist

System

It may be worth reminding Holiday inn, that the parking industry is completely un regulated, and any decision made by POPLA is not binding upon the motorist

Would you advise the OP to sit and wait until they get a claim then?

JodyGray

Hi. Thank you for responding and apologies for not replying sooner. In truth I am new to this and didn't expect much correspondence.
I have been conversing with HI through email and they are backing out from cancelling the fine simply because of popla's decision and it seems they say they have no power over 'parking eye' to resolve the issue and that's it.
I have not heard from PE as yet.... So I will get an offer?
I have a young family who depend on me both financially and morally, paying PE would be wrong and against my principles but court fees and a strong probability of losing would mean my family suffer financially. If popla rejected it then a court is likely to follow suit.
It's not big money but even a penny spent to finance these unscrupulous people is wrong, but my choices are not good.
It may be coincidental but my email box is now daily filled with weird garbage with links to viruses no doubt, since Hi sent PE a cancellation notice. I teach my kids the importance of knowing right from wrong, it's a shame that they will grow up in an increasingly seedy, greedy and unsafe culture.

KeithP

JodyGray wrote: »

I teach my kids the importance of knowing right from wrong, it's a shame that they will grow up in an increasingly seedy, greedy and unsafe culture.

Well we can try and make the world a better place, and one small step in that direction might be to write to your MP as suggested in post #3. Have a look at the video posted there first.

Coupon-mad

I have been conversing with HI through email and they are backing out from cancelling the fine simply because of popla's decision and it seems they say they have no power over 'parking eye' to resolve the issue and that's it.
I have not heard from PE as yet.... So I will get an offer?

No, not unless HI try a bit harder on your behalf. Tell HI that you have been researching it and that you KNOW HI can still cancel a PCN, but that PE will probably want someone to pay sixty quid to shut them up. Say that in other Hotel threads on public forums about unfair PCNs from PE that have gone to POPLA first, you know that Hotels have either paid the £60 as a gesture of goodwill to shut PE up, because the customer comes first, or split it 50/50 with the poor victim.

Ask them (HI Head Office) to try harder, and to put that by email to PE, that the Hotel wishes the charge to be cancelled and certainly not to face a court claim, so how much does HI have to pay to close the matter, and suggest HI offer (say) £30 which covers the POPLA cost and more.

Push and push and make yourself a thorn in HI's side, so that they WANT to shut you up as well as PE!! Tell the Hotel that you are on the largest national public forum (MSE) right now with this case, and that hundreds of readers are all watching to see how HI handle the scam that MPs' exposed in Parliament in February:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

Kevin Brennan
Does my hon. Friend acknowledge that public authorities have a responsibility not to engage private parking companies that act irresponsibly? In my constituency, I have had dozens of complaints about ParkingEye...

Stephen Doughty
I completely agree; I have had problems with ParkingEye too.

Ask what steps HI is planning to take to distance themselves from this industry now that a new Parking Code of Practice Bill in coming in (a Bill that is necessary, purely due to the outrageous scam and unfair appeals system and complete lack of regulation and no customer service ethos, that's been operating for too long?).

Ask if HI are aware of this horrendous, anti-consumer issue or are they letting the tail wag the dog & believing what PE tell them?