Ignored my PCN

Ellisae

Right feeling a little anxious about all this and not sure i have the capability to fight this if i am thrown into legal. Jargon etc. 
Im not sure i should write t to care parking now as what i have read i would be admitting to the failure to pay the ticket and ignoring correspondence and being the driver saying that the machine was working. 
Will the debt just keep accruing more. So im now at 160.00 will this get larger the more i ignore the debt recoveru letters and how much may i have to pay of i say lose the case in court. 
Sorry having a right panic. 

Ellisae

Also if i complain to my mp do i admit i didnt pay for the ticket due to a faulty machine and ignored the notice. Does anyone have a template of letter of complaint that i could use please 

nosila

Hi Ellisae,  Were you in a retail park, hospital, cinema complex?
What is the date on the parking charge notice?
Have you already been in touch with the parking company?  Do they know they have got a bite?
Sounds a silly question, (and I have experience of child covered in sick too in car, in the car park of Alton Towers of all places so I know how frazzled it can make one feel) what made you want to/need to park up with a child covered in sick?
I had a PCN myself in 20 March 2015 in a retail park, Leckwith, Cardiff, which I have ignored ignored ignored. New Generation Parking.  I was in a bay less than 10 mins.  Swear they were just hiding somewhere ready to take a photo.
NPG forwarded their book of PCN's to Wright Hassell and DCBL.  But I held my nerve and have continued to ignore.  
Keeping my fingers crossed I won't hear from them in the next 14 months then it will have been 6 years.
The issue with all parking firms is once you make contact with them, they know they have got a bite and will hound you all the more.
Each charge notice has to be taken on its own merits before you decide whether to ignore so have a listen to what all the suggestions are on here.
But it is very confusing.  My gut feeling is maybe ignore.  Although I feel a torrent of comments will come on the back of saying this.

MistyZ

nosila said:
My gut feeling is maybe ignore.  

No need to rely on gut feelings.  The advice on here is to ignore debt collectors (once it gets to that stage as it has done in this case) until or unless you receive a Letter Before Claim / court papers.  

In this post, the OP has been advised to complain to the landowner, to ignore debt collectors and to consider attempting a late appeal - just an appeal, not a conversation - with the parking company.  And that's in case it helps the case later if this goes to court.

Actually it sounds as if you're taking the recommended route yourself.  Just make sure you do not ignore court letters.   I hope your PCN times out.

Edit: I notice you recently saw off ParkingEye by complaining to all and sundry.  Way to go!  But clearly that was not 'ignoring'.
 

Ellisae

We were going into stockport that morning. When she started throwing up. We were right near the car park so i just pulled in.. I went to purchase a ticket but the machine wasnt working. Lots of people had tried also so there must be a record of this. I didnt shop there just cleared her up. They have me down as being there for 39mins although it didnt feel like this. They have pictures of me i think i either on the entry or the exit which they have sent on the Parking charge notice.
I have parked there numerous times and always paid. This time i didnt. I havent contacted anyone and now it os at debt collector stage. My question is if i now write a letter of compliant to both my mp and landowner is this not admitting it and then obviously saying i am the driver? 

Ellisae

Just to be clear this was on 30th november the PCN issued on december 6th but it was well within the 14 days. I received the intial PCN then a letter from debt recovery 2 days ago saying i now owe 160.00 

Umkomaas

My question is if i now write a letter of compliant to both my mp and landowner is this not admitting it and then obviously saying i am the driver? 

Care Parking are part of the ParkingEye group and I'd be pretty certain that their Notice to Keeper is PoFA compliant, if so, not identifying the driver is not a legal loophole 'escape' for you, they have legitimate rights to pursue the RK. 

Why would admitting to be the driver to the MP or landowner be an issue?  Neither of them is the parking company!  But if you want to 'play safe', why not use the royal 'we' ..... as in, 'we were driving along <name of street/road> when our baby was sick, we pulled into your car park, we tried to pay for our parking ......'. Where in that is the driver identified?

Ellisae

But whats my excuse of ignoring the PCN to the mp or landower. 
Is it unfairness of the charge in relation to a 1.00 parking? 

Fruitcake

You don't need an excuse. The private parking industry is an unregulated scam. Our MPs have called it a scam, so why would complaining to your MP about a scam be a problem? Look at the comments in red from post 1 of the NEWBIES. Quote that to the landowner and MP. Point out that a new parking bill has been introduced in order to try and curb this sort of behaviour from the scammers.

Quote the comment in the case of Jopson vs Homeguard where the judge said that stopping to attend to a small vicissitude (such as changing a flat tyre amongst other things) is not parking. I would suggest attending to a baby covered in vomit would count as a small vicissitude.  

We are repeatedly bombarded with information telling you to ignore scams to avoid fraud. Some of that information probably even comes from the government itself. 
Whilst we do not recommend ignoring a PCN, there is a whole raft of advice to the contrary. It would be perfectly reasonable to believe it is a scam which is why you ignored it. It is only now you have discovered that whilst it is most definitely a scam, it would have been better not to ignore it.

The fact that the ticket machine wasn't working constitutes a frustration of contract. The driver could not comply with the Ts and Cs of the site despite their best efforts to do so.

I would send the initial template from post 1 of the NEWBIES to the scammers, unaltered, from the keeper. You could add a one liner that since the P & D machine was broken as they should already be aware, and thus a contract could not have been formed. As already mentioned it will probably be rejected but shows you tried to resolve this issue.

I suggest you make the complaints as advised including the comments about this being a scam, the driver tried to pay, and the reason for stopping. (Do not use the word parked.)

In future, stopping on a public road to deal with something like this would be a better idea, even if it is on double yellow lines.

MistyZ

Ellisae said:

But whats my excuse of ignoring the PCN to the mp or landower. 
Is it unfairness of the charge in relation to a 1.00 parking? 

You need to approach a complaint to the landowner and communication with your MP very differently to the appeals etc.  In the complaint / letter to MP you can 'tell it like it is'.

I don't know why you use the word 'excuse'.  I don't think you are making excuses for yourself, on the contrary you found yourself in a difficult situation made even more difficult by the fact that the payment machine wasn't working.  Think about it .... the kind of shops and businesses that are served by car parks don't want their customers to have an even harder time parking than is usually the case!  They too want working payment machines, good clear signage etc.

Did you visit any stores etc. while parked?  And have you identified who owns the land the car park is on?  When you've done that you need to compose a very assertive email insisting that they cancel the PCN and send it to the highest-up person in the organisation. 

Your MP needs to know about this because parking is a political issue.  Tell them what happened and why, tell them about the harassment and worry you've experienced.  They may be able to intervene.

Where was this?  Feel like we're all a bit in the dark here.