Designed to mislead?

bubblegoose

Hi all. After a bit of advice. Today September 13th I’ve received a parking fine for £140 for 2 hours parked in a business car park that offers free weekend parking. That’s what I thought at the time. 

Even though the business is closed on a weekend and an evening I’ve since found out they limit the parking, it’s free between certain times only! 

I saw the free weekend parking and must have assumed I was hood to park there. 

Do I have a leg to stand on to appeal this £140 ticket? This is also the first correspondence I’ve had from Civil Enforcement (Liverpool), the car park is in Bramhall, Stockport. 

Any help or advice appreciated  

FlaatusGoat

Yes, you may have a leg to stand on to appeal the £140 parking fine. The fact that you saw a sign that said "free weekend parking" and parked there in good faith is a mitigating factor. You may also be able to argue that the parking restrictions were not clearly displayed.

To appeal the fine, you will need to contact Civil Enforcement (Liverpool) and follow their appeal process. You will need to provide evidence to support your appeal, such as a copy of the sign that you saw. You may also want to take photos of the parking restrictions.

If your appeal is successful, the fine will be cancelled. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you will have to pay the fine.

Here are some additional tips for appealing a parking fine:

• Be polite and professional in your correspondence with Civil Enforcement (Liverpool).
• Explain the circumstances of your parking violation in detail.
• Provide evidence to support your appeal.
• Be prepared to pay the fine if your appeal is unsuccessful.

I hope this helps!

Grizebeck

FlaatusGoat said:

Yes, you may have a leg to stand on to appeal the £140 parking fine. The fact that you saw a sign that said "free weekend parking" and parked there in good faith is a mitigating factor. You may also be able to argue that the parking restrictions were not clearly displayed.

To appeal the fine, you will need to contact Civil Enforcement (Liverpool) and follow their appeal process. You will need to provide evidence to support your appeal, such as a copy of the sign that you saw. You may also want to take photos of the parking restrictions.

If your appeal is successful, the fine will be cancelled. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you will have to pay the fine.

Here are some additional tips for appealing a parking fine:

• Be polite and professional in your correspondence with Civil Enforcement (Liverpool).
• Explain the circumstances of your parking violation in detail.
• Provide evidence to support your appeal.
• Be prepared to pay the fine if your appeal is unsuccessful.

I hope this helps!

This is obviously from a chat bot
Ignore this poor advice with Americanisms
It isn't a fine

Fruitcake

It is not a fine. 

Plan A is always a complaint from the registered keeper to the landowner and the keeper's MP.

If that fails, then appeal using the template in blue text you will find in the sticky Announcement for NEWBIES. Mitigating circumstances won't work, so don't even try. Send the template unaltered from the keeper.
Do not pay, do not ignore, do not reveal the driver's identity. Check the NTK to see whether or not it is PoFA compliant, and get photos of the site and signage ready for the second stage appeal to PoPLA. Note that a PoPLA decision is not binding on the motorist so there is no requirement to pay even if you lose unless a judge says so, and you are nowhere near a court case yet.

Note that there are two entities operating with two different signs quoting different and contradictory terms and conditions.

la531983

FlaatusGoat said:

Yes, you may have a leg to stand on to appeal the £140 parking fine. The fact that you saw a sign that said "free weekend parking" and parked there in good faith is a mitigating factor. You may also be able to argue that the parking restrictions were not clearly displayed.

To appeal the fine, you will need to contact Civil Enforcement (Liverpool) and follow their appeal process. You will need to provide evidence to support your appeal, such as a copy of the sign that you saw. You may also want to take photos of the parking restrictions.

If your appeal is successful, the fine will be cancelled. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you will have to pay the fine.

Here are some additional tips for appealing a parking fine:

• Be polite and professional in your correspondence with Civil Enforcement (Liverpool).
• Explain the circumstances of your parking violation in detail.
• Provide evidence to support your appeal.
• Be prepared to pay the fine if your appeal is unsuccessful.

I hope this helps!

For the love of everything holy, please ignore this post OP. 

Coupon-mad

bubblegoose said:

Hi all. After a bit of advice. Today September 13th I’ve received a parking fine for £140 for 2 hours parked in a business car park that offers free weekend parking. That’s what I thought at the time. 

Even though the business is closed on a weekend and an evening I’ve since found out they limit the parking, it’s free between certain times only! 

I saw the free weekend parking and must have assumed I was hood to park there. 

Do I have a leg to stand on to appeal this £140 ticket? This is also the first correspondence I’ve had from Civil Enforcement (Liverpool), the car park is in Bramhall, Stockport. 

Any help or advice appreciated  

Please show us this PCN letter.

Cover your name & address and VRM.

It can't be £140 for one PCN so we need to understand what it is saying.

This isn't a fine.

DO NOT DO WHAT WAS POSTED BY @FlaatusGoat

bubblegoose

Here you go…

bubblegoose

Also note it took 8 days for this letter to arrive based on the date on the letter 

Coupon-mad

Ok, so firstly, you need to ask yourself why you didn't receive any earlier letters.

The usual answer is that the Registered Keeper's address in the vehicle's Registration Document(V5c) hasn't been updated following a change of address. Did you perhaps move and overlook that requirement?

Please check your V5c.

The good news is that it's very easy to make that change online at the DVLA website.

Stops a repeat problem but does not get communicated to the scammers so does not sort out this PCN.

Re the letter:

1.  Respond with a SAR and address rectification (see second post of the NEWBIES thread). 

2.  Complain to the landowner, obviously!  You already know from reading the first post of the NEWBIES thread, before you posted, that this is 'PLAN A' in every case, at every (pre-court claim) stage. A landowner or retail managers CAN CANCEL PCNs AT ANY STAGE,

and VERY IMPORTANT:

3.  Please please (please) do this and give the Government your evidence - that horrific letter shouting for £140 and threatening to increase it to £170 if you don't pay up - and tell them how receiving extortionate 3 figure demands feels:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6471857/please-reply-to-question-4-of-the-governments-call-for-evidence-re-the-level-of-parking-charges

Explained there.

PLEASE READ AND JOIN US.

It's one email. One question.  It will take you minutes.  Obviously state at the start of your email response to the DLUHC that you are a consumer and are answering Question 4 and that a threat of an increased extortionate charge does NOT encourage you to pay up. Quite the opposite!!

It is alarming harassment but you will rather see the parking firm in court, because this sort of harassment is a business model that should be illegal in the UK; unacceptable threats and extortion, especially given the £PCN on the sign was £100.  Not £140. Not £170.

The increase is a joke but it doesn't feel funny.  Say that you want the DLUHC to be strong and in the new Code, they must protect consumers and ban the added fake 'fee' that stops people even thinking about paying a private PCN.

Change the law... we already are...

bubblegoose

Morning all, thanks for the replies so far, very helpful indeed. I just wanted to confirm that all address documentation relating to my car has always been up to date, it hasn't changed in the last 7 years, so there is no reason for any letters to be 'lost' along the way, they've just not sent any.

bubblegoose

So I've been in touch with the company that use this car park. They've spoken with the parking company on my behalf and they've reduced it to £20 as a 'gesture of good will' !! 

Surely this kind of discounted rate shows what BS the initial letter is?

I'm unsure whether to pay this now or still fight my corner?

I'm yet to see any proof of the alledged offence, which I've requested.