Lawsuit for car parking fines on private land ANPR

stationsidecottage

I was wondering, have any of you privately sued APCOA or Network Rail, DVLA or ICO over the car parking fines for your deeded land?

If you have Approached this from a breached contract perspective by suing the freeholder or whomever made the agreement with the

car parking company, how did your complaint go? How long did it take to get resolved if at all? Have you tried to charge the ANPR company something like

a 350 pound admin fee for each wrongful ticket issued to you or your guests? Have you tried asking a lawyer to sue the anpr company each time they wrongfully

issued a ticket? Have you thought of paying all of the tickets wrongfully issued so you can prove financial loss? What about mental anguish and stress?

Can you:

A) Provide the outcome

List which solicitor / barrister you used as I need to hire one

C)  Even if you had a positive action for yourself, did you get some relief for your visitors?

D) List some contacts for us newbies on this matter

E) Have you considered making a claim under unreasonable surveilance / human rights?

G) Whom did you contact at DVLA to ensure they don't pass on your details to the car parking company breaching your agreements?

Thanks - I just need more meat for my approach.

In short, I have private deeded land at a railway. Everyone entering gets a ticket. I got a ticket myself today!

They (APCOA) want me to 'report' every time I park or someone else parks on my land. F! Them!  This all started in April with the install of the ANPR Cameras.I am not going to let this rest.

My friend wants to sue me over the fine. I am considering either paying the fine on her behalf and then suing related parties above for financial loss and mental anguish, or just letting her sue me over the threat. She as well as all of my visitors are very upset when they get a ticket and I have a medical issue which is impacted by not having visitors.

I and my visitors are being wrongly given tickets by APCOA which has placed its camera pointing at my private deeded land.

Thanks and feel free to contact me if you are a solicitor. I am not interested in being a part of a class action suit because I can't wait for the long outcome.

In the meantime- I should state that I have a letter admitting breach of my deeds.

daveyjp

First port of call is Network Rail and go high, straight to CEO or Director.

Tell them they are interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of your land, causing upset and their contractor is harassing you and your visitors, what are they going to do about it?

If that fails if you have building insurance you should have legal cover.  Use it to begin proceedings.

Mouse007

I'm going to cross reference this thread with this one

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6355977/private-driveway/p1

Might contain some worthwhile comments for you

Coupon-mad

Easy to get these cancelled, and the ANPR camera angle moved (or a separate camera to capture and 'exclude' the vehicles of you and your visitors but ONLY if you are happy to be filmed - I wouldn't be)..

NO PAYING ANY OF THEM. STOP!

Email the Head of AOS at the BPA, Sara Roberts, attaching copies of ALL PCNs and a map of where your cottage is (plus emails from the friends confirming you can share their data/PCN with the BPA) and tell that you will go to the press and your MP if the BPA don't sort this out sharpish:

sara.r@britishparking.co.uk

Tell her you are on MSE forum and the regular posters sent you to her, because this is a serious data breach and this unacceptable ANPR camera placement invasion of privacy must end NOW.

You do not need a solicitor. Stick with us.

Once resolved you can still sue if you want to, but you still don't need a solicitor.

stationsidecottage

daveyjp said:

First port of call is Network Rail and go high, straight to CEO or Director.

Tell them they are interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of your land, causing upset and their contractor is harassing you and your visitors, what are they going to do about it?

If that fails if you have building insurance you should have legal cover.  Use it to begin proceedings.

Thanks but I already have a letter from Network Rail admitting the breach, but they say that it is Southwest Trains fault because SWT has the agreement with the ANPR company. SWT says yeah, our bad, but we are not going to move the cameras or do anything for you becaue we'd have lost revenue. So both admitted fault. And the anpr company just gave me a new ticket today omg cheeky. In the meantime I have guests getting fines and some other direct financial impact.

stationsidecottage

Coupon-mad said:

Easy to get these cancelled, and the ANPR camera angle moved (or a separate camera to capture and 'exclude' the vehicles of you and your visitors but ONLY if you are happy to be filmed - I wouldn't be)..

NO PAYING ANY OF THEM. STOP!

Email the Head of AOS at the BPA, Sara Roberts, attaching copies of ALL PCNs and a map of where your cottage is (plus emails from the friends confirming you can share their data/PCN with the BPA) and tell that you will go to the press and your MP if the BPA don't sort this out sharpish:

sara.r@britishparking.co.uk

Tell her you are on MSE forum and the regular posters sent you to her, because this is a serious data breach and this unacceptable ANPR camera placement invasion of privacy must end NOW.

You do not need a solicitor. Stick with us.

Once resolved you can still sue if you want to, but you still don't need a solicitor.

Thanks. Awesome contact and advice. A compounding issue is that what about my other visitors- I refuse to 'register' visitors with the anpr company - 1/2 the time I don't know who is coming when anyway and I need visitors because of disability. Also sometimes I let my place as an airbnb and guests are getting fined. This has affected my rating to the extent I was delisted over a complaint and of course this has nothing to do with me!  I asked to get the camera moved but they refused. I will certainly contact Sara after a further response, if she can force them to take action. I frankly just need this all to end.

Fruitcake

You could send a letter before claim to APCOA and the ToC, as well as complaining to your MP. If nothing comes of it, then issue a court claim for each and every PCN.

You should also complain to the DVLA and ask for your VRM to be put on an exclusion list, as well as telling them not to sell keeper details for anyone who visits you on your property.
Have a look at the link by Mouse where there is information about using Article 6 (1) (c) of the GDPR to facilitate this.

You are right that you should not have to tell CRAPCOA every time someone comes to visit you. They should be paying you if they want you to do their job for them.

Coupon-mad

 A compounding issue is that what about my other visitors?

Sara will give you a BPA investigation code in her first reply.  Just give that to the other people and her full name and email address, and tell them to add their tickets to the BPA Investigation under code BPAxxxxx.

They will all be cancelled and the PPC will have to move its camera.  BPA will deal with all that.

Then afterwards, I'd tot up your time and losses of Airbnb sales and sue SW trains and the parking firm for a few hundred. Send a LBC to both.  They'll settle, as long as you word the potential claim properly, maybe even at LBC stage.

@zhonguonuren has had success with suing parking firms; she might stop by here to comment.

pinkelephant12

Report it to the police immediately, if you haven't already done so, as harassment.  I spoke to a police officer in person who advised me to do this online on their website.  She told me to put the full saga in a word document so that I would have time to go through it and make sure that everything was included, then copy it across onto their online form.  There is a maximum character count so you have to be fairly concise.  I was surprised at how sympathetic they were for my 'own space' parking tickets.  You will get a crime reference number which is very useful when pursuing it with other agencies e.g. ICO, DVLA.

Only last week, 2 police officers came to visit me at home because I had witnessed a crime.  One of them was having trouble with parking tickets, so they do understand, although it depends on where you live and the officers you deal with.  

Half_way

If you have the right to pass/repass without let or hindrance, in other words an easement/right of way to the property - which will include yourself and anyone else you allow  then that should be your starting point.

Im not too sure on this step, but others should be able to weigh in...

 On a public footpath you can move/remove objects that block the way, or cause a hindrance to passage - removal would mean taking out a fence panel and laying it on its side next to where it was causing the blockage.

The camera system is obviously causing a hindrance to you and your guests passage, removing it would be difficult and not safe due to the presence of electricity, placing a sticker over the lens could cause damage when it has to be removed - as it could leave a residue, however  moving it to point an another direction could be an option as long as you use any adjustment screws/mounts that are there for that purpose, likewise placing a bin bag over the camera would work without damage.

however the immediate problem is APCOA/the train operating company accessing your/your guests  data without just cause and this is an avenue that should be explored.

 Its important that you:

1) Do not accept a whitelist

2) Do not pay or offer to pay them for anything

The only solution would be to reposition the cameras to a location where it wouldn't affect you, or for the complete removal of the camera system

any chance we could have a map link of this location?

Mouse007

Half_way

any chance we could have a map link of this location?

Unfortunately that would then identify where the OP lives, better not