Do I pay Parking Charge??

ckoj2020

I have today received a Parking Charge Notice for £100, the letter is headed at the top 'Britannia Parking' and also the opening statement on the letter says "The signage displayed at the entrance of the car park and throughout states that the site is private land operated by Britannia Parking (the creditor)."

I do remember the day when I parked there as I was attending a job just around the corner. There was a minimum charge or around £2 from memory so I wanted to check the customer was home first, which they weren't so returned to my vehicle and left, total duration in the car park was around 14 minutes.

The charge notice is for £100 but this can be reduced to £60 if I pay within 14 days of the Date Of Issue which is stated on the letter as being the 6th May.

I've tried to have a read through the Newbies thread along with some others but if I'm honest, I'm getting a little confused.

Should I just pay this or should I do something else??

Would be hugely grateful for some advice on this

Redx

Your choice

If you want to appeal it as keeper , then use the blue text template from the first post of that newbies thread

Then appeal it to popla using the third post of that newbies thread

No blabbing about who was driving

Download and read the BPA CoP , especially the part about Grace periods

Chances are that any win on your part would be a POFA failure , or no landowner authority , or poor and inadequate signage

In future , follow the parking rules and signage , so pay up promptly on a pay and display car park , regardless , never chance it , because if you tell Brit or popla your story you will lose

Big brother cameras are everywhere and they clocked the vehicle entering and leaving

ckoj2020

Thanks Redx, yes I know it was pretty naive on my part.  I also wasn't too sure if charges for parking were being applied at this present time as I've been to lots of places through work the last few weeks and parking meters have been switched off.  There were other cars in the same car park at the time and none of them were displaying tickets so I sort of assumed it may not be necessary.

Fruitcake

Nobody here will advise you to pay a parking scammer. If you are going to follow Redx's advice then you need to edit your initial post to remove information about who did what. Only ever refer to The Driver and The Keeper, who are two different people in law.

Always start with a landowner complaint. Even if The Driver didn't use the site facilities at the time, they or the keeper make have done in the past. 
Get pics of the site and signage, and carefully compare the company name on the signs with those on the PCN to see if they are identical as opposed to similar.
Britannia sometimes forget there are two companies with similar names and the wrong one ends up sending the PCN.


As already advised, if a driver is using a car park they should read the Ts and Cs and follow them, and pay if required no matter how long or short the stay. Alternatively leave and park elsewhere.

Do complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

MistyZ

I've seen off a Britannia PCN for a 14 minute overstay.  And that was via a landowner complaint.  Mighty big international company too but they had some sympathy for little 'ol me & not a lot for Britannia.  Don't underestimate how important a step the landowner complaint is. 

Where was this car park?  Not always easy to identify the landowner but worth doing & quickly so name the car park in case someone already knows who owns (or manages) the land.  

Then you submit the appeal to Britannia - the one in blue text in the Newbies'.  No alterations necessary, just submit it.  

And as soon as possible, if possible, get your own photos of signage all around the car park.  Britannia aren't great at signage, few of the PPCs are.  If you can't get photos, get screenshots from Google Streetview.  Take a long hard look at the images - does that signage really inform and alert motorists?  I suspect that if this goes as far as POPLA, signage will be an important section.

But meanwhile, find landowner and lay it all on the line.  £2 is a fair whack for what may well have been a very brief period of parking, especially if the job you were due to carry out wasn't particularly well-paid.  You sound well-intentioned, not just a chancer so get that across to the landowner, they are the only people who may be understanding of your situation on that day.  After that it's all down to technicalities.  

ckoj2020

Thank you MistyZ, just to confirm, no I'm not a chancer this was merely a case of wanting to check I needed to pay before actually doing so.  I do service visits, majority of which are house calls, this particular one was located in an area of Bristol which is awful for parking.  A lot of places where I do jobs have the 30 min free parking so long as you display a ticket, when you get  to ones like this though I really begrudge paying £2, going to knock on the customers door only to find they're not home, I've been caught out by these too many times and leaves me out of pocket against a job which I've not actually attended, I always try and make sure there is someone home before paying parking fees now.  In this case I even called the customer but with no answer, another reason why I really didn't want to to be paying for parking I possibly didn't require.

The car park in question was Bedminster Car Park on Dalby Avenue

Redx

But the major problem here is that the driver was liable within ten minutes , hence the PCN

Your posts above have identified the driver , the driver was liable from the time they parked up , so the fee was payable , even if the reason for being there could not happen , it's nothing to do with Britannia why the driver was there , or if a customer was in or not

My point ?

The driver is in breach of the parking rules and so is liable for the default parking tariff of say £100

If appealing it , the keeper needs to win on a legal technicality , not the story

As the newbies thread and Mistyz say , a landowner cancellation is best

Now that you have been educated about this topic with bespoke advice , the choice of what to do and how is yours

But all the me , myself and I stories are a surefire loser , self implication means a loss , hence why you were told to edit your posts , not add to the errors , the words my , me , myself & I should never be used

For clarity , the driver parked on the day , the keeper received the NTK PCN , the keeper appeals , not the driver , only 2 words are used , keeper & driver , nothing else

Coupon-mad

just to confirm, no I'm not a chancer

None of us are, yet we never pay private parking charges here.  Britannia are beatable and also often have their landowner contract in the wrong Britannia SERVICES LTD name (as seen recently, reported in detail in the POPLA Decisions thread just weeks ago).

What's the date of event then?  No doubt they missed the 14 days (I hope) and you can get them with this appeal:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6121242/landowner-for-ncp-st-judes-birmingham/p4

Never pay a private parking charge, not even if you lost at POPLA appeal. 
Read the NEWBIES thread which is where the appeal advice is...no saying who parked/was driving!

D_P_Dance

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 has been known to get the charge cancelled.

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, when life gets back to normal, it will become impossible for those scammers who are left to continue their vile trade, 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.

Scrapit

Fighting is can be difficult and time consuming. It may take up to 6 years to conclude. You will need to research and may need write alot. You may be facing a trip to court. You will most likely repeatedly receive threatening letters from "legal" types and debit collectors. Do you want that?
The decision is yours.

KeithP

All sorts of things may happen.

We may be able to go and watch a football match next week, but on the other hand, we may not.