PCN from Parking Eye at Lee Valley Tennis Centre - Should I go to court?

BenjaminK

Last September I visited Lee Valley Tennis centre in Stratford, London to play tennis, I hadn't seen the signage which states you need to go inside and validate your ticket / vehicle reg to get free parking whilst using their facilities, and a parking ticket for £65 followed a fortnight later. (Parking is free for people playing tennis there)

I appealed this via POPLA - and this was rejected, now I am facing a bill of £175 or going to County Court to fight the case. I have a letter from the Tennis centre confirming I was playing tennis that day. I wanted to get advice from this forum on what my chances are if I go to court (rather than accept the £175 charge)?

And if I lose this case will the judgement be on my credit file, potentially blocking any mortgage applications?

The_Deep

You cannot take them to court, but they can, and probably will, take you to court, where you would be very unlikely to lose as their signage is usually so flawed that it could not possible form a contract, read this.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading

In any case, a judge is likely to view such a claim as a waste of court time,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_minimis

and an abuse of process. Complain to your MP. as it a scam.

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 become so widespread that MPs agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Hopefully, this will become law by Easter .

twhitehousescat

"take them to the county court" ,,, umm no , its them that will take you

there is no fine , the charge was £60 /100 or whatever

letter from tennis club" , no enough , if the tennis people hired PE , get THEM to contact PE and get it cancelled , or there will be an empty tennis club as you and your friends leave and comments on twitter /faceache and trip advisor

fisherjim

We tend to ignore polls on here not really that helpful it's more involved that that.



Pity you didn't come here first I suspect your POPLA appeal was about what happened, rather than the technicalities etc.


You don't just get a CCJ or bad credit report from losing in court, if you then pay up.


In my view it's worth a punt if the rules signage and validation device weren't obvious, especially if the tennis club are supporting you with a letter. But they should be helping you now, though suspect that it is the overall land owners that engaged the parking scammers rather than individual clubs in the complex.

BenjaminK

Thanks for your replies - I should have rephrased it differently because yes it is them taking me to court for not paying so far.

Coupon-mad

Take them to county court

Didn't even need to read your first post.

I ticked the 2nd option 100%, regardless of facts.

There is no fine and you can't take them to court but you should defend it if they do.

if I lose this case the judgement will be on my credit file,

Nope, it doesn't stay there AT ALL if you pay within 30 days of judgment. These scams - for this is a scam industry - are always worth fighting and would cost no more than about £175 even if you lost (rare here).

You really should have followed the first plan in the NEWBIES thread, no not appeal first - you should have complained to the Tennis Club Management first and got it cancelled. These are usually easy to cancel as the retailers/businesses are all given a P/Eye user manual with an email or phone number to cancel any PCN they want, for patrons.

Try that now but it's an uphill battle now you have cost PE a POPLA fee.

BenjaminK

"take them to the county court" ,,, umm no , its them that will take you

Thanks for your reply but that wasn't actually what I wrote. Yes it is Parking Eye that intend to take me to court.

The_Deep

If their signs are anything like those in my link at post number 2 I predict that they will struggle.

ShakeItOff

Worth checking the NEWBIES post 2, to see what a Letter Before Claim looks like - familiarise yourself with the process, and you're on the right path, ahead of time.

You might also want to search this board (use advanced search: this board only) for "another one bites the dust". This is the tag line given to all successful court cases, defended with the help of this board. You'll seem PE on there quite a lot - hope that will give you some confidence.

KeithP

BenjaminK, what is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

BenjaminK

Issue date is 4th March Keith