Help please! Parking Charge Notice at home whist clearly displaying Blue Badge

twinkerbell

Hi! I live in Housing Association flats. The private communal car park is patrolled by PCM, a parking company, who require residents to buy permits. However, for the 19 years I've lived here I have parked in the same disabled parking space and displayed my Blue Badge. 

Last week my mum visited, parking in a marked disabled bay with her Blue Badge on the dashboard. When she left, she'd been ticketed. I appealed for her, stating her disabled badge was obvious in all their photos. We've had no response. 

The day after, a neighbour was issued a PCN despite having parked with a disabled badge for years.

Next - you've guessed it! - yesterday I got my very own PCN.  It said I had parked without displaying a valid PCM permit. I've googled private car parking laws and can't find any change in them. PCM's signs don't even mention disabled badge holders despite there being nine clearly designated spaces. The Housing Association haven't told me the parking rules have changed or told me I need a permit.

Can anyone help me with this please?! I don't know what to do but paying idiots £100 per ticket is not an option! Thanks. 

tacpot12

You should ask the Housing Association to take this up with PCM for you. They are responsible for telling you what you need to do to legally park on their land. 

twinkerbell

Thanks for your suggestion, tacpot12. Unfortunately the HA have said many times that they won't get involved in parking disputes. Besides which they're absolutely useless at everything! 

elsien

Head over to the parking ticket subforum on here.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking
They will help. It will also help if you rummage out your tenancy agreement to see exactly what that says about parking.
 

I’m fairly sure that if the housing association have contracted the parking control scammers, they are well able to get the ticket cancelled should they choose to do so. 

F70

Why do you think you don't need a permit because you have a blue badge? 

Why don't you just get a permit?

I take it this is private land so they can dictate the parking rules.

Spoonie_Turtle

F70 said:

Why do you think you don't need a permit because you have a blue badge? 

Probably because for the past nearly two decades they haven't needed one, and they haven't been informed of anything changing?

KeithP

As @elsien says above, this thread would be best placed on the Parking Board.

I've hit the Report button below your post and asked for this thread to be moved there.

MSE_ForumTeam5

We've moved this to the parking board

UncleThomasCobley

Thankfully, your post has been transferred to the correct forum. Having recently read some of the woefully poor advice offered by some posters on other forums, you are lucky.

You should also get your neighbours/family/friends who have also received PCNs from this thuggish little company to come here for the best advice on how to deal with the vermin that infest your estate. 

To start with, you need to dig out your lease and tell us what it says about parking. What it doesn't say about parking is equally important. For example, is there any mention in your lease about requiring you to display a permit to park? Is there any mention of being liable to a third party to pay speculative invoices from an unregulated private parking company? Do you get the drift?

If you follow the advice you won't be paying the scammers a penny and neither should anyone else you know that has received a PCN from them.

Umkomaas

Last week my mum visited, parking in a marked disabled bay with her Blue Badge on the dashboard. When she left, she'd been ticketed. I appealed for her, stating her disabled badge was obvious in all their photos. We've had no response. 

It's quite likely that you won't get a response (although they do have 35 days in which to do so) as this isn't your case to deal with; it's your Mum's. She must deal with this, although you can do all the drafting of paperwork, but always in her name. 

Send off the blue text initial appeal template from the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, first post - in your Mum's name - attaching a copy of her blue badge, and stating she was a legitimate, authorised visitor. 

You need to check your tenancy agreement to read what it says about parking, and in particular, visitor parking. Some poxy signs, put up likely long after you've lived there for some time, cannot override what your tenancy documents state.