Parking Fine / Parking Eye

caryan1967_

Please help. My future daughter in law booked to stay at the Days Hotel Sheffield as part of her training. She received confirmation in writing via email that her stay included bed & breakfast and free parking. She was advised to supply her car registration on arrival as the car park belonged to Parking Eye. She did this and it was documented at reception. 

Within a month of her stay she received a £95 fine for parking. She contacted Parking Eye and sent via email all her booking reference including her free parking. 

She then heard nothing from Parking Eye and assumed it was sorted. To her dismay 8 weeks after this correspondence was sent she received a letter from her advising if she did not pay the £95 then Parking Eye would apply for a CCJ against her. 

She replied once again to Parking Eye and to cover herself sent all information to Days Inn Sheffield. 

She then received not an email but a phone call from Days Inn advising her it was a technical error and to ignore any further correspondence as they will be dealing with it. 

Nothing more was heard therefore she thought it was sorted. 

My son owned his own property before meeting her and when she eventually accepted him constantly asking her to move in she did on one understanding his decor had to go. Bless her. 

On visiting a furniture store she noticed some new fitted wardrobes would look good in the spare room and as it was offering free credit buy now pay later decided to purchase them. 

She was absolutely mortified when the store came back and said she had been rejected for credit as she had a CCJ against her for an outstanding parking fine at Days Inn with Parking Eye. 

Being extremely upset we downloaded a credit score to her mobile and found it. I then contacted Parking Eye by phone who said they would look into it. 

Two weeks later she received a letter at her old address saying she had failed to acknowledge letters or correspondence summoning her to court which is absolute rubbish. 

As a result the judge had found in Parking Eyes favour and not only was a £95 fine but the court costs of £100 were now applicable totally £195. As a gesture of good will if she paid this in 14 days her CCJ would be removed. 

I was bouncing and as a result sent all her original correspondence to the CEO Geoff Ballotti the overall major CEO for Wyndham Hotels to be completely ignored. 

Digging further I found an email address for the European CEO for Days Inn Dimitris Manikis and included all documents to him. 

In all fairness he actually acknowledged my email, raised his concerns and advised he had a staff meeting the following day and would take this forwards. 

Todate we have never heard from him again. I have sent him another email and have not received anything back. 

Now my son and Lauren want to extend the property up. He can’t on his wage alone but can with Lauren’s. However the mortgage advisors have said the CCJ on Lauren’s credit score will affect her for another six years until it’s automatically removed. 

This is so wrong and unfair. They’ve never had debt. They don’t even have credit cards just debit cards. Both have excellent healthy bank accounts. She’s a Physio he’s an area manager but until this is cleared they won’t be accepted. 

I do not see why she should have to pay something she’s not liable for and ask for advice as to how we can take this forward and get the hotel to accept responsibility of failings are on their behalf or Parking Eye to own up to the fact they can’t be bothered to register documents later sent to them and just want to frighten and abuse vulnerable people through their bullying antics to pay fines without questioning. 

Please help we are ripping our hair out. 

Many thanks 

D_P_Dance

There are hundreds of threads on here and much more on the internet about how to deal with CCJs, most of which are issued due to a change of address and failing to update the DVLA with the new address  Usually It is no-one's fault, it is bad law.  I am doubtful that the either the hotel or ParkingEye are to blame.

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP., it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and in some cases, cancellation.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Le_Kirk

Find the NEWBIE sticky and read it - it is a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits type read - and search in the second post for set-aside.  Given what correspondence you had from ParkingEye, it should be fairly easy to get a set-aside by consent and might even get your fees back.  Also search for and read threads (discussions) by henrik777 as he is very knowledgeable about set-asides.

Castle

Is there a breakdown of the £100 court fees; since there was no court hearing, I'd expect it to only be £75

caryan1967_

This is the letter Lauren received. At the time of the original days inn booking and right up to 6 months before this correspondence she remained at this address. There was no mistake in addresses not known to DVLA. Plus at the time she never ever received anything to that address summoning her to court. Advising the case was going to be heard. 

We have everything in writing including her booking and every other contact to then receive this letter to her mums address. 

caryan1967_

Sorry the previous picture was blurred. 

KeithP

That paragraph tells me that ParkingEye, having received no response at all from the address supplied by the DVLA, had made no attempt to check whether they had the correct address for the keeper.

They should never have send the County Court Claim to an unconfirmed address.

That's a clear cut reason for a set aside. Keep that letter safe.

Weeze34

Can anyone help?  I received a parking ticket in September last year for parking on the forecourt where I was not aware that it was not for customer use.  The area consists of shops and a local MP's surgery.  There was no signage driving into the car park,  there are however some very small signs on the wall placed outside some of the shops, which you would have had to have left your vehicle in order to be able to read them.  My sister also received a parking ticket on the same day in the same place. She was parked for 4 minutes and myself for 6 minutes.  She was told as soon as she got into the shop that there was no parking on the forecourt so moved her car.  I was told the same thing but a couple of minutes later than she was told, hence the time difference of 2 minutes before I very quickly moved my vehicle.  We both appealed the ticket for the same reason, my sister was let off her ticket and I subsequently was not and was demanded to pay £100 immediately.  I appealed again, but the debt to be transferred to a debt collection company zzps for £170.  I appealed to them and received a second demand from them still at £170 this came two weeks later.  I then wrote to them again as they had only sent a duplicate for of the same letter. Two weeks on from this I received a letter from reportedly a solicitor QDR Solicitors asking for £182.00 to be paid immediately, I contacted CAB who put me in touch with a debt help company and couldn't advise me directly with the parking matter. I received a secondary letter from QDR asking for the same amount, which I received on the 2 January 2020.

I then wrote to my local MP to ask her for her help as she has her surgery and wanted to know if she was aware of what One Parking Solutions were doing. She offered to write to the company on my behalf.   I, until today have not received or heard anything, so assumed that the matter had been resolved.  I received a letter in the post from a fourth company dcbl today, who claim to be on a popular TV program on channel 5 Can't Pay? We'll take it away!  who are now asking for £160.00 to be paid in 14 days from the date of the letter.  The letter was written on the 7th April 2020 and it's now the 15th April. Giving me only 7 days to try to appeal this. I currently work on the Front line with the NHS in the Critical Care Team, so am already under a lot of pressure and do not need this on top of everything else.  I find it criminal that any parking facility can charge anyone £100 for parking for 6 minutes.  There signage for not parking was not clear as you couldn't read it without getting out of the car.  So effectively you would still be fined for having read their signs.  I desperately need to know what to do and how to manage this. Any help or advice with this would be gratefully received.

Le_Kirk

You can go to the NEWBIE sticky (front page of the parking forum) and read about what the debt collectors can do to you - NOTHING.  I am afraid you are in a wait and see mode, i.e. wait and see if you get a formal letter before/of claim followed by real court clam forms.  A proper letter before claim will give you 30 days to respond, will often contain financial forms or links to them (and you do not fill these in) and should give full particulars of the claim and the evidence they are going to rely on as to why they have a proper claim.  When you have read the sticky and, if you still have questions, please start your own thread and you will receive bespoke help.

Coupon-mad

I received a letter in the post from a fourth company dcbl today, who claim to be on a popular TV program on channel 5 Can't Pay? We'll take it away!  who are now asking for £160.00 to be paid in 14 days from the date of the letter.  The letter was written on the 7th April 2020 

Yes but this is all over the forum and I am helping some local Brighton people in person who also have these BORING letters. 

Can we be spared any more posts about DCBL's letters that have arrived?  Please read the other OPS threads and learn from them and if you are in Worthing/Brighton/Lewes area, I will help you in person in court in the end.  

FORGET THIS, OMG this is so depressing to see again, how hopeless the CAB are with useless advice thinking this is a real debt:

I contacted CAB who put me in touch with a debt help company and couldn't advise me directly with the parking matter.

You don't have a debt.    STOP ASKING THE CAB OR DEBT ADVICE LINES!
But you will need our help to defend a court claim & win!