Parking eye

mynameisused

My husband parked in a pub car park, paid £2 and used the pub buying lunch for him and his friend.  We have received a fine from Parking Eye as the £2 apparently only covered 1 hour, after that you have to pay £4.  A friend paid for the ticket.  We now have £100 to pay because we outstayed by 28 minutes.

 Thank you MSE -  from reading your info, I realise this is not a fine but a charge but as we work in the financial sector, we are worried about appealing or refusing to pay as we can't have the black mark against our name. The risk of losing a case makes it too expensive to try to appeal.  We have broken the rules of the parking by overstaying the hour so I don't believe an appeal would stand. 

So far I have trip adviser reviewed the pub and facebook reviewed to demonstrate the issue that the pub welcomes its customers by using a devious and nasty company such as Parking Eye.  The parking time is clearly unfair - charging £2 an hour in a small town where the council charges much less (I will have to check on figures as I don't live close enough to pop out and check instantly) and then raising to £4 which most people will need to pay if they want to buy lunch.

Any thoughts and ideas on what I can do?

Expensive lunch which wasn't all that good anyway.  Thank you everyone

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

mynameisused said:

I realise this is not a fine but a charge but as we work in the financial sector, we are worried about appealing or refusing to pay as we can't have the black mark against our name. The risk of losing a case makes it too expensive to try to appeal.

Where's the risk of losing?

Even if this gets to court, and that's uncertain at this stage, there will only be a 'black mark' if -
a) the Defendant loses the case, and
b) if the Defendant fails to pay the court specified amount in the timescale allowed - usually 30 days.


Now, what can you do?

Assuming this vehicle isn't hired or leased, the keeper of the vehicle should send the blue text template appeal easily found in the first post of the NEWBIES thread.

Le_Kirk

No black marks (whatever they are) will attach to your name unless you go to court AND lose AND fail to pay what the judge states within the timescales he/she decides - normally 30 days.  You broke the rules set up by an unregulated parking industry!  I would be getting hold of the pub management at the highest level and telling them that neither your husband nor his friends and family will be visiting the pub again if every meal comes with a £100 surcharge.  Other pubs are available!  If, of course, they agree to get the PCN cancelled, you ALL may reconsider.  Meantime, have you done the first appeal (blue text in NEWBIE sticky) to ParkingEye?

Coupon-mad

As above.

Not sure why people might think we encourage everyone to defend a court claim if that risked any black mark!  No way would we put anyone to that risk.  It doesn't, providing you follow the process and deadlines.

You can't get a CCJ if you follow all our advice, not even if you lost at a small claims hearing, because then you'd pay (worst case under £200 including the charge).  No CCJ remains at all in that scenario.

What happened when you phoned the pub to complain?  Maybe there was a keypad they forgot to tell the driver about, that exempted the vehicle?

Few pubs operate pay and display without exempting their patrons.  Which pub and town? We'd like to look at the signs on Google Streetview.

mynameisused

Hi All thanks for the prompt response.  I think hopefully that actual problem is allayed as the pub are contacting the car parking company to stop the "fine" fingers crossed it will go ahead.    They say that they exempt patrons, I wasn't there so I can't comment on whether signposting is clear.  Thank goodness it will be cleared.
I do always worry though about appealing and taking things to court because, if you lose, you have heavy costs to pay and that would put me off. At least small claims court you say is £200 but that is twice the cost of the fine still!  Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated!

D_P_Dance

It is not a fine, please read the newbies.

PE's sgns are pants, read this and complaim to your MP.  What sort of a pub charges cusytomers to park?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading/p1