Alliance Parking / Moorside - PCN Advice

Jumper37

Hi

Last year we received a PCN from Alliance Parking. We paid for beach parking but overstayed 10/20 mins with rounding up the kids and packing the car. 

We appealed the PCN with the newbie thread template (I.e responding as keeper rather than driver)

We then received letters from Trace and more recently Moorside which we’ve ignored. All letters to date have been payment chasing rather than letter of claim. 

Judging by other posts on the forum about moorside its likely we’ll receive a letter of claim soon. 

I just wanted to ask some advice:

- Have we done the right thing by ignoring all letters to date?

- Should we write to moorside to appeal their letters or wait for a letter of claim before any next steps?

- What evidence will be asked to provide if we are issued with a claim / court date? We can’t remember how we paid (cash or card), who paid and for how long we overstayed. Will that be an issue?

Thanks 

Gr1pr

Yes

Much too late to appeal , solicitors don't accept appeals 

Wait for the LoC 

The Witness statement plus Exhibits bundle wont be due for several months after the court claim pack is issued 

Gather as much evidence that is available,  but if you paid for a period of parking,  then it's not an overstay,  it's insufficient payment for the time on site,  meaning that your perceived overstay was unpaid time,  occurring after the paid for period ended

Look for

Payment for the parking contract that was allowed 

The original paperwork etc

Pictures of the signage 

Jumper37

Thanks for your reply

We’ll check bank statements and of other people we travelled with. 

We definitely don’t have the original ticket though. 

Attaching the prices. May have been from 2023 though. From reading from others - they operate a zero tolerance no grace period. 

When you say “it's insufficient payment for the time on site,  meaning that your perceived overstay was unpaid time,  occurring after the paid for period ended” do we still have a strong chance of overturning the claim?

thanks again

Gr1pr

Everybody has a chance at defending a court claim,  but not necessarily based on the fact that the driver should have paid for say 3 hours but only paid for 2 , or should have paid for 4 hours but only paid for 3, or didn't buy an extra 1 hour ticket to cover the extra time on site before leaving 

So when the time comes, your defence will focus on rebutting the POC and maybe additional factors, not on what you might think,  same as all the others 

Jumper37

Thanks again for the reply. We know we weren’t over an hour longer, but per the contract any minute would class as another over stay. 

Is this still a claim we’re likely to over turn? We’d originally not paid given the advice on the forum. But your message seems to suggest that might not be the case. Just questioning whether we should have paid it in the first place. 

Gr1pr

We dont know the full facts of the case, or seen the signage or paperwork,  which is what any court case will have to look at and deal with,  so we cannot even try to predict the outcome,  that would be the job of a judge,  if it got to a hearing , and I am not a judge,  but I do know from experience  that you strike at the appropriate time, which isn't now

In future I would recommend full payment or overpayment of the tariff on site,  or purchase a second ticket before leaving,  such that the whole time was paid for by way of 2 tickets,  or park somewhere else instead 

But for now all you can do is go through the process and try to minimise any future financial damage,  so pointless paying unless you lose in court 

It may well get to a court claim,  but that doesn't mean that it's actually going to court,  the process could end partway through,  as you will see in other threads , possibly at the compulsory mediation stage,  with our help 

My definition of an overstay is what happened to Barry Beavis 10 years ago when he parked on a free to park for 2 hours retail park , but was there for less than 3, he lost in the Supreme Court due to the alleged breach of the parking contract,  the overstay.  But he hadn't paid for a pay to park ticket because there was no means to pay, the contract was breached after 2 hours and 10 minutes 

In your case I dont think that the parking company mentioned an overstay,  more likely to state insufficient time paid for,  meaning that the vehicle was not authorised by means of a paid for ticket once the expiry time was breached at the end of the paid for session. That would be the basis of their claim, that the landowner gets paid for every minute that the vehicle is on site, by way of paid for tickets.  ( the CoP allows for a short grace period to leave a car park,  typically 10 minutes,  after that is breached a pcn is generated   , hence your current problem  )

Do not pay their current demands,  we will help you to try to minimise the outcome at the appropriate times

Jumper37

Thanks really appreciate it. Will get back in touch when we receive something further from Moorside. 

Coupon-mad

Jumper37 said:

Thanks really appreciate it. Will get back in touch when we receive something further from Moorside. 

We would NEVER have advised you to pay Alliance Parking, so your stance so far is exactly on point.

Nasty bullying firm IMHO. Seem to think they are involved in 'security' which isn't surprising given the owner was a wheelclamper, IIRC.

Jumper37

Thank you appreciate it ☺️

Jumper37

Just an update on this. Had a letter of claim through the post today. 

We’re asked to complete a reply form

- A - agreeing to pay the debt in full
- B - agreeing to pay the sum of the debt and stating why we don’t owe more than that amount
- C - we don’t know whether we owe the debt
- D - we dispute the debt

Then it asks if we’re getting debt advice and then a section asking me to provide documents or requesting more information 

any advice on next steps would be much appreciated :-)

Coupon-mad

Read the LBC section of the NEWBIES thread.