Parking fines in Scotland - Edinburgh

Fiona4444

I have just paid a parking fine - £136 - after three threatening letters. This was for parking in the Hermiston Gait car park, I was 20 minutes over the 3 hour limit. The signs are there but I didn't see them. I am not from Edinburgh. I decided to pay the charge to stop getting harassing letters as they are now saying they may take me to court. The original parking charge was £60, it went up to £100 after two weeks and then it went to £160. I managed to get it down today to £136. I now plan to contact the landowner (if I can find out who they are), does anyone know? and get complete clarity as to what people should do when they get these fines. Are they legally enforceable in Scotland or not, will they actually take you to court, will you have to pay the £160 plus court costs, can they actually take you to court up to 6 years after the parking fine is issued. I know I have maybe paid £136 for nothing but I don't want the risk of being taken to court and having to pay more charges. There needs to be a change in the way these car parks operate. I will never shop in Hermiston Gait again.

Car parking company UKPC. Who are their regulatory body?

Umkomaas

You've just been conned. Who conned you (who did you pay)? You'll just have to write this off as an expensive learning experience. Don't waste your time chasing shadows with any further enquiries, build a bridge and get over it.

what people should do when they get these fines.

Come here first and read the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #1 which gives unequivocal advice on dealing with private parking tickets in Scotland.

waamo

You paid them? You were robbed.

In future ignore threats in Scotland. They can only persue the driver so if you don't blab they don't sue. That's why silence is golden.

Fiona4444

If I have been conned I want my money back. It was a debt collection agency called DRP. It isn't too late for me to contact bank and stop the payment but I need to know if it is a con or not. If these letters are a con, they need to stop.

waamo

If you've paid then let it go. In legal terms they have given you an invoice not a fine. In that respect it's not a con. They are perfectly entitled to do this.

Having made a payment you would be on shaky ground if you cancelled it. There is a very good chance they could recover it through the court.

Fiona4444

My point is that I want to know the legal facts. If this company is legitimate or not. Are they legally allowed to enforce these charges in Scotland. Will they take people to court up to 6 years. That is what I was told today. They need to stop scaring people and threatening or do they have rights. I will not be the only one who has paid up. I can't take the risk of being taken to court I do not want extra charges. A lot of people say ignore these charges but these companies are greedy and if they are legally wrong it needs to be highlighted.

beamerguy

waamo wrote: »

Having made a payment you would be on shaky ground if you cancelled it. There is a very good chance they could recover it through the court.

With DRP rubbish they make false claims and no doubt
put pressure on the OP with even more lies

The OP would be entitled to a charge back if they were
misled (easy to prove with DRP )
There is then the "distance" contract

waamo

As I previously said they are perfectly entitled to give you an invoice. If they know who the driver is they have 5 years in Scotland to start legal proceedings.

You are also perfectly entitled to not respond to their invoice. In Scotland only the driver is liable for the charge unlike in England and Wales where liability can be transferred to the Registered Keeper.

That's why the advice is to ignore it. People often write and drop themselves in it by blabbing who the driver was.

The landowner can cancel these tickets. If you can contact a landowner and not blab who was driving then an even better option is to get them to cancel it. Sadly I'm coming to the conclusion that doing this is beyond the wit of a great many people.

waamo

beamerguy wrote: »

With DRP rubbish they make false claims and no doubt
put pressure on the OP with even more lies

The OP would be entitled to a charge back if they were
misled (easy to prove with DRP )
There is then the "distance" contract

My concern is that the op appears to have negotiated some sort of settlement. I suspect that in doing so they will have unknowingly dropped themselves in it.

A court win in Scotland is a real feather in a cap for any parking company and this one has the feel of a winnable one for them if they get their act together.

beamerguy

Fiona4444 wrote: »

My point is that I want to know the legal facts. If this company is legitimate or not. Are they legally allowed to enforce these charges in Scotland. Will they take people to court up to 6 years. That is what I was told today. They need to stop scaring people and threatening or do they have rights. I will not be the only one who has paid up. I can't take the risk of being taken to court I do not want extra charges. A lot of people say ignore these charges but these companies are greedy and if they are legally wrong it needs to be highlighted.

You are confused and have been subject to a scam.

DRP and debt collectors in the parking industry CANNOT
take people to court .... it's not their debt to do so.

UKPC, whilst known scammers are entitled to issue
tickets and obtain details from the DVLA

They can take you to court in Scotland if they know
who the driver is and that is why in Scotland you are
only the keeper

The PPC's know this but still carry on passing to DRP
and cranky useless debt collectors with their lies
knowing it will scare people, just like you, to pay.

Yes, expose DRP to the press, expose DRP to your
MP .... it may well help others.

Would DRP take you to court if you applied a chargeback,
probably not as such a case would expose their scam
to everyone in scotland

They did put pressure on you with lies and fabrications
did they not ????

Umkomaas

You're pushing at an open door here with us .....

In the legal sense, it's not strictly a con, but pretty much akin to one.

DRP does not own any debt, they act on behalf of a parking operator. They have simply asked you to send them £160 (£100 for the Operator, £60 for DRP). DRP could never take you to court, never ever over this. Of course they threaten all sorts of hellfire and damnation against you in order to get you to open your purse to them - and it seems to have worked. In Scotland they have 5 years to pursue a debt, so whoever told you 6 years is hardly well-informed!

By paying them you've more or less admitted culpability. If you think the bank will stop payment, let us know how you get on.

Only the parking operator could issue court proceedings and only then against the driver, not the keeper (as they can in England/Wales) as the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 does not apply north of the border. If they don't know who was driving there is no chance for them. Guess who can only provide them with the identity of the driver?

We have never seen a single case in the Scottish courts for a single £100 Parking Charge. You would need to have received multiple tickets (probably dozens) and never paid them to make it worthwhile for a case to be put in front of a Sheriff Court.

As I said above, you've been [STRIKE]conned[/STRIKE] mislead and are now paying for your lack of early research and a general naivety as to how this stuff works (I'm not criticising you here, that same naivety runs right through the British public).

You might like to know, though little comfort to you right at this moment, that Parliament is putting through a Bill which will hopefully curb many of the excesses of the private parking skimdustry - but it won't alter the British mentality of succumbing to minimal pressure to pay a penalty for something they have been told they've done wrong.

Grab yourself a cuppa and have a read/watch the following links. They should give you a better understanding of how out of control the situation is, fuelled and funded by those who too quickly put their hand in their purse/wallet and supinely hand over their hard earned money.

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

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

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/d5550515-cce9-4185-83ec-754dadb7524a

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=542818572836763&id=215232008599719&_rdr