Parking Eye Holiday Inn Heathrow fine and county court proceedings

Le_Kirk

There is advice on WS and summary costs assessment in the NEWBIE sticky but also you could search the forum for one that has been used by another poster.  The reason for asking the hotel for the name of a witness is to focus their attention on the fact that it is now a serious issue.  If you have an e-mail trail from the hotel, that is gold dust.  Make sure that is included in your evidence.  Most importantly do NOT miss the deadline for filing and serving your WS.  Telephone hearings are the norm these days but witnesses can still "attend" providing you give the court the telephone number.

Umkomaas

Also make sure that you send PE copies of the emails from the hotel. You can't just slip them out of your back pocket at the hearing hey-presto stylee, like some latter-day Perry Mason. It's known as 'an ambush' and it will be disallowed by the Judge, especially if the PE advocate objects - as almost certainly he/she will.  

nosferatu1001

You absolutely MUST include the lack of landowner support for the claim 
must
not optional
it utterly destroys PEs main argument for their charge NOT being a penalty. There has to be a valid commercial reason behind the charge. If their principal is saying there is no commercial reason , the charge is a penalty a nd private companies cannot levy PENALTIES. 

Seanmac

All great points. Thanks a lot. Great help.

Redx

Seanmac said:

Some part good news I guess, I called the hotel a few times and was lucky to speak to a manager and he told me he will look into the emails I sent. I got a response now and the Manager agreed to cancel the parking charges but says it would be for Parking Eye to decide now. He also forwarded the cancellation request to me. I hope Parking Eye would cancel the fine and withdraw the case even if they do not do this I think my case is now much stronger given the Hotel (landholder) itself agreed to cancel the charges so they cannot really insist on a fine now. I will anyway include this with my evidence. Any thoughts?

Now you know why I told you to do it , even if it's a telephone hearing , it proves your assertions that the hotel gave you permission to park and so the PCN was beyond your control. Promissory estoppel as mentioned earlier. It also proves that Parking Eye are levying a Penalty , not allowed due to Beavis

I would email copies of those emails to the enforcement email at parking eye with a drop hands offer , where each party walks away bearing their own costs !! ASAP , today , with your details and case references

The newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum has examples of costs assessment , your costs , so no idea why you aren't looking in that thread for them

Add these emails to your witness statement as exhibits 

Umkomaas

I would email copies of those emails to the enforcement email at parking eye with a drop hands offer , where each party walks away bearing their own costs !! ASAP , today

Definitely great advice, you could get this off your back in 24 hours. 'Drop hands' is as good an outcome as any in-court Pyrrhic victory. 

Seanmac

Redx said:

Seanmac said:

Some part good news I guess, I called the hotel a few times and was lucky to speak to a manager and he told me he will look into the emails I sent. I got a response now and the Manager agreed to cancel the parking charges but says it would be for Parking Eye to decide now. He also forwarded the cancellation request to me. I hope Parking Eye would cancel the fine and withdraw the case even if they do not do this I think my case is now much stronger given the Hotel (landholder) itself agreed to cancel the charges so they cannot really insist on a fine now. I will anyway include this with my evidence. Any thoughts?

Now you know why I told you to do it , even if it's a telephone hearing , it proves your assertions that the hotel gave you permission to park and so the PCN was beyond your control. Promissory estoppel as mentioned earlier. It also proves that Parking Eye are levying a Penalty , not allowed due to Beavis

I would email copies of those emails to the enforcement email at parking eye with a drop hands offer , where each party walks away bearing their own costs !! ASAP , today , with your details and case references

The newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum has examples of costs assessment , your costs , so no idea why you aren't looking in that thread for them

Add these emails to your witness statement as exhibits 

Thanks Redx , 
I emailed Parking Eye asking them to withdraw the case as I received a confirmation from the Hotel that they cancelled the parking charge and made a request to Parking Eye to cancel. I wrote I would pursue to claim my costs if they continue with the claim and go for the hearing. 
What do you mean by this - 'It also proves that Parking Eye are levying a Penalty , not allowed due to Beavis' ? Are you saying Beavis case does not allow a penalty ? any specific paragraph references from the judgment ? 

Coupon-mad

Seanmac said:

beamerguy said:

the Manager agreed to cancel the parking charges but says it would be for Parking Eye to decide now

We have seen this before and PE would not cancel and in the end the hotel paid it.
The manager is saying he will allow the tail to wag the dog.
The hotel is the boss not Parking Eye

You guys here have seen it all I am sure. What do you think will happen ? will Parking Eye withdraw the claim or not ? what do you mean by saying Hotel will pay ? I am more concerned about the county court claim and the upcoming hearing. 

ParkingEye will continue but will likely send you an offer to settle for £60.   Tell the Hotel you expect them to settle that, given the error in failing to cancel the PCN in time was entirely theirs and they reneged on their promise and caused you actual loss and distress.

However, carry on as if the hearing will happen ANYWAY.   Except you need that Manager to confirm in writing (email) what he said - immediately.  He could forward a copy of his cancellation email he sent to ParkingEye, but you need it by tomorrow!

Hearing is in the next 15 days. I need to send the witness statement and evidence in a day. Is there any format for summary costs assessment ? Not sure how this is done. 

This is in the example linked in the NEWBIES thread of an example WS, index sheet, exhibits and costs assessment.  It's all there and easy to copy and adapt (albeit you will have to remove all the stuff at the end of the example WS about adding false debt recovery costs and the Semark-Jullien case, because ParkingEye are a rare PPC who don't add those fake costs). 

Some of your exhibits will of course be the promises from the Hotel to cancel.  I hope you haven't been doing this latest complaint by PHONE ONLY ?! 

Court is all about evidence, not phone calls that help you not one jot.

Seanmac

Coupon-mad said:

Seanmac said:

beamerguy said:

the Manager agreed to cancel the parking charges but says it would be for Parking Eye to decide now

We have seen this before and PE would not cancel and in the end the hotel paid it.
The manager is saying he will allow the tail to wag the dog.
The hotel is the boss not Parking Eye

You guys here have seen it all I am sure. What do you think will happen ? will Parking Eye withdraw the claim or not ? what do you mean by saying Hotel will pay ? I am more concerned about the county court claim and the upcoming hearing. 

ParkingEye will continue but will likely send you an offer to settle for £60.   Tell the Hotel you expect them to settle that, given the error in failing to cancel the PCN in time was entirely theirs and they reneged on their promise and caused you actual loss and distress.

However, carry on as if the hearing will happen ANYWAY.   Except you need that Manager to confirm in writing (email) what he said - immediately.  He could forward a copy of his cancellation email he sent to ParkingEye, but you need it by tomorrow!

Hearing is in the next 15 days. I need to send the witness statement and evidence in a day. Is there any format for summary costs assessment ? Not sure how this is done. 

This is in the example linked in the NEWBIES thread of an example WS, index sheet, exhibits and costs assessment.  It's all there and easy to copy and adapt (albeit you will have to remove all the stuff at the end of the example WS about adding false debt recovery costs and the Semark-Jullien case, because ParkingEye are a rare PPC who don't add those fake costs). 

Some of your exhibits will of course be the promises from the Hotel to cancel.  I hope you haven't been doing this latest complaint by PHONE ONLY ?! 

Court is all about evidence, not phone calls that help you not one jot.

Thanks for that. I have everything in email from the Hotel including the cancellation of parking charge confirmation and the request raised by them to parking eye to cancel the parking charge. I am still finding it difficult to find a cost assessment format. I will check that thread again. 

Coupon-mad

It is in the link to the only WS example...the link shows what it all looks like.  You can have this tied up and done tonight, easily.