Sue Parking firm for harassment and time wasting

Eyeeel

Hi all, thank you for all the informative posts. I see a lot of posts on defending against parking companies but could really find much on fighting back for the distress caused.

I wanted to sue Horizon Parking for the appalling way they dealt with me and wasting my time, but wanted to ask opinions on weather it’s worth to pursue this or leave it.

My situation is as follows:

I work in a major retailer that has horizon parking as parking management. All members of staff including myself have their car regs on a exemption whitelist. 

I have moved working locations in June and about a week after my move I received 2 PCN’s from horizon stating that I overstayed the allowed time on 2 occasions over my last weeks on my old store. I’ve contacted horizon, identifying myself as a employee from the owner, using my company email, to request the cancellation of the PCN’s as there must have been a glitch on the system. Horizon dismisses my communication and simple refer me to their appeals process. 

I email back stating that my first email must have been misunderstood, I’m not appealing but requesting a cancellation on the ground’s that I’m authorised to park and I’m registered on their whitelist. Again they fob me off, stating that they only accept emails from the store’s email shared account. So I’ve contacted the store to ask them to pass to horizon the same information I had.

I thought it was over but a couple of weeks later I received 2 more letters from Horizon, demanding payment or they would pass my details to a debt recovery agent. This time I ignored it as I believed that with my previous communication someone would make sense of things before any further escalation.

Another 2 weeks and I received 2 letters from debt recovery plus, demanding payment. I started to get a bit worried this has gotten this far and started researching how to deal with this.

I saw that under the FCA guidance credit recovery agent’s must not ignore claims that a debt is being disputed or is unsubstantiated and should stop asking for payments until an investigation into the matter is completed. 

I rang Debt Recovery Plus (recorded) and after an hour waiting explained the situation and their obligation to investigate. First they told me that they don’t need to investigate claims of dispute and then kept pressuring me to pay. I requested to not be contacted by them again.

A week later I received another letter from debt recovery plus stating that they investigated the matter and found me liable to pay.

I started escalating the matter as well with my employer, to find someone that horizon would listen to and on on the 19th of October I was told it was going to be sorted.

On the 25th of October I received another 2 letters from debt recovery, stating that it was my final warning and if I didn’t pay until the 8th of November they would start court proceedings. 

I started doing more research to prepare for a potential defence in court and after reading the newbie section in this forum I decided to put a subject access request to horizon for all the details they had on me, but most importantly for a copy of their whitelist, that would definitely prove my right to park and that they acted in bad faith. 

I got a reply today to my SAR request, saying that they will action this with 30 days, but there might not be much information as the PCN’s have been cancelled and they delete all information after the cancellation.

I replied I still wanted to proceed with the SAR regardless, and also requested the date that the PCN’s were cancelled, as I was not informed of this and still have a live threat from debt recovery to pay by tomorrow.

All of this conduct is unacceptable, and I believe it to be a conduct of harassment. I also lost several hours of my time researching and dealing with a matter that I had no fault in it.

Can I claim compensation from horizon from this? Or it’s not worth and I should just let it go?

Many thanks,

Half_way

My thoughts:
First of all this  is a work issue and you should take this up with your work, like wise the time spent dealing with this should be done during your hours of employment.


If you have spent your own time in dealing with this, log this ie time spent, and ask for paynent or time off in leu.

Coupon-mad

I wanted to sue Horizon Parking for the appalling way they dealt with me and wasting my time, but wanted to ask opinions on weather it’s worth to pursue this or leave it.

I don't think you would get very far, TBH.  Terrible, isn't it?  But you can get your own back.

Presumably, with your research on this forum you are aware that the statutory Code of Practice (that will regulate the PPCs and DRAs - both of them) is temporarily stalled.  As such, we sincerely hope that you are au fait with the need to respond to the final Government Public Consultation to join our push to get it over the line?

Hopefully - amongst all the political disruption - it will be open later this year and into January.  The DLUHC have said it will be a 12 week consultation this time, not four weeks like before.

If PPCs manage to turn around the decision on banning the gaslighting / claim-funding 'fees' then the DLUHC will be rubber-stamping £200 parking charges and if that happens, they (Government) and the PPCs will wreck high streets and people's lives.  Whoever is responsible, if that happens (and it very nearly did in 2021) must hang their heads in shame.

Just checking you are among those ready to respond to the questions as you have personal experience of how this crap of £170 eye-watering demands actually feels?

Please come back here when it opens, and you can make sure you don't miss the Consultation:

If you are not likely to be a regular reader in the coming weeks/into 2023, to be alerted you'll need to bookmark the thread by MSE_JC at the top of the forum and enable (on your profile) email alerts for bookmarked threads.

This will be your only chance to influence the law.

Eyeeel

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately the time spent dealing with this was my own time, as I’m unable to deal with it during work hours. 

One of the reasons I asked is because I already had done some preparation in case I had to defend in court, and I would be more than willing to pay £35 to start a small claims to put them on the defensive for a change. Just not sure how much more work is needed as I never put a money claim before.

I will definitely respond to the consultation though. It’s disgusting how these companies can mess you around with no grounds, intimidate you and then have absolutely no consequences.

Umkomaas

I will definitely respond to the consultation though. It’s disgusting how these companies can mess you around with no grounds, intimidate you and then have absolutely no consequences.

You can inflict much more damage on the private parking sector by making your views known to Govt in the forthcoming consultation exercise. Issuing a small claim on Horizon would be time consuming.  You could send them a Letter Before Claim - doesn't cost you anything and you do not need to follow up with a claim. See how they respond to that shot across their bow.  

There are examples of LBCs on the internet, I think the CAB do one.