Parking Eye PCN - Weighing up whether to pay now or worst case payment if goes to SC court?

stubbornAF

First time posting on this forum and any advice re following issue would help:
Received PCN from Parking Eye December 2019 @ £70 (£40 if paid immediately) - 23 mins over at retail car park.
No contact made with Parking eye - Currently taking the 'militant' approach!
Received a letter 30 June 2020 now stating it is with debt recovery agency 'DCBL' amount of £140
I am weighing up whether to pay £140 or wait for Small Claims route which I understand would be approx:

• £25 FOR ONLINE APPLICATION - YES
• £40 Court allocation fee – to get the claim to the court (if claim is over £1,500). NO as it is not above £1500
  
• £25 - £325 Hearing fee – paid if and when your case gets to court (when done online).

My estimation of worst case would be 25 (online filing) + 325 (hearing fee) + 140 (current charge) = Total £490
Am I correct? trying to weight up cost of paying now against the chance is goes to SC court.
any advice appreciated.

Le_Kirk

No, normally maximum £200 IF you lose at small claims court.  Check out the civil procedure rules by asking Auntie Google; also read the NEWBIE sticky on this forum.

Fruitcake

The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given here since the law changed in 2012. If you are intending to use the dreadfully advised militant approach detailed on the "official" MSE page, don't! We have repeatedly asked MSE Towers to remove or amend the awful advice there for several years, but nothing has been done.

If you lose in court it will typically be £75-£100 plus the original PCN, so in your case, under £175. If you win you could get up to £95 in ordinary costs.

You can safely ignore debt collectors. The fourth post of the NEWBIES explains why it is safe to do so. The debt crawlers have added on a fake £70 which is unrecoverable, so the original amount of £70 is all that can be claimed.

If you get real court papers/LBC then follow the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in the second post of the NEWBIES. Come back here if that happens.

What happened when you complained to the landowner?

Get pics of the site and signage ready in case you do get a court claim.

Where did the alleged dastardly deed occur? Was the NTK PoFA complaint or did the keeper get a "Golden Ticket"?

Umkomaas

Once a PE case has been farmed out to debt collectors, all the evidence points to the likelihood that PE have more or less given up on collection themselves. Furthermore, no PE case (to forum knowledge) has progressed from debt collectors to court. PE, with their own in-house solicitors and legal team are more than capable of instigating court proceedings without any third party involvement - and are not shy in doing so, until recently being the country's most litigious parking firm. 

Just keep your head down for now and see where this goes, there's nothing you can do other than paying or a getting a landowner cancellation to kill this off quickly. 

nosferatu1001

The hearing fee is £25, they add £50 to file it and £25 filing fee, for a total of £170 at play
We have never known PE to go to court once a debt collector is involved. Never. 

D_P_Dance

ParkingEye's signs leve much to be desired, too wody, to hign, print to small.  Often jydges throe them out because of this, read this

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

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,

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

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