PCN in a poorly maintained car park

M_orrigan

I recently got a Parking Charge Notice for parking in a private car park, which I appealed and It was denied. The car park in question is poorly maintained, it is wet, muddy with puddled potholes. It consists of a hardcore surface so there are no marked parking bays on the ground, just white lines on the perimeter of the ivy clad brick walls.
Is there a law where PCN's are void if it is poorly maintained car park?

Sadly I appealed and admitted I was there waiting for a friend in a none designated parking bay for 18 minuets, by the time the friend turned up, there were no spaces, so we both left to park else where. Only wish I had read the threads of this forum before appealing.

Fruitcake

Private parking is unregulated, so there are no laws about it at all, and nothing makes a PCN void.

What is the name of the PPC please? If they ae BPA members then you should have been given a PoPLA code to make a second stage appeal where you could bring up inadequate signage (which includes bay markings) amongst other things.

If they are without the BPA then you are in ignore mode unless you get real court papers. If it got to court then inadequate signage would feature prominently in your defence.

Come back here if that happens. Please don't come back if you have only received debt collector letters.

What happened when you complained to the landowner/retail manager?

Please complain to your MP using the information in red from post 1 of the NEWBIES.

fisherjim

Fruitcake has given the right advice but it is unclear why you have received the PCN it can't have been for parking in an undesignated space surely as you would have had a windscreen ticket on the day, in which case that is just a red herring.


Sounds more like you got an anpr for not buying a ticket, but admitted being the driver and just hanging around without paying which was indeed a bit silly.

M_orrigan

Thank you for your reply Fruitcake.

I believe the car park is owned by a co-operative organisation and it is Excel Parking Limited that clocked me on the CCTV entering and leaving.

fisherjim

M_orrigan wrote: »

Thank you for your reply Fruitcake.

I believe the car park is owned by a co-operative organisation and it is Excel Parking Limited that clocked me on the CCTV entering and leaving.

It isn't CCTV it's ANPR a completely different system so any talk of the unmarked bays is totally irrelevant, and there are no foot patrols or checks just a system to harvest non payers, or over stayers.


You could try a landowner cancellation but it's unlikely to succeed if you have given the game away with your story.


Excel are IPC so you are now in a waiting game to see if Excel decide to push this passed the ignorable debt collector stage.

M_orrigan

Thank you fisherjim, that is helpful. I was raised to believe that honesty is the best policy, more fool me in this circumstance!

fisherjim

M_orrigan wrote: »

Thank you fisherjim, that is helpful. I was raised to believe that honesty is the best policy, more fool me in this circumstance!

I agree, but you are dealing with a rogue industry that has been called just that by parliament who are in the process of forming a bill to sort the cowboys and scammers out.

The_Deep

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business.

Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.