Unfair Parking Tickets: Have you appealed or spotted a loophole?

toxic_shock

does anyone have experience with getting a parking ticket in BRIGHTON? stayed at a friends, didn't wake up in time for 9 O clock to move the car and got a ticket. £35 if i paid within 14 days. whatever. the thing that irks me, is that they a) got the car colour front b) said my tax disk was 'obscured' - when maybe 5 milimetres of the top were. c) it was just shoved under my windscreen wiper, not even affixed properly. it could've easily blown off. d) i found another parking ticket on the floor when i was walking into town and it was £10 cheaper than mine!

i'm thinking i deny ever receiving a ticket. if anything just to give me 28 days to pay the thing!

VHE

We recently received a £30 ticket (if we paid within a few days or £70 if not) for using a 'parent and toddler' space without having our toddler in the car when we parked and when we left.

Basically, my partner was trying to be considerate by dropping myself and our toddler directly outside a specific shop on a Retail Park. He then proceeded to park our car in the 'parent and todder' space. We then returned to our car together.

I've tried to appeal with the above information and been told that the fine still stands as we didn't as our toddler wasn't actually sat in the car when it was park in the 'parent and toddler' space.

I tried appealing again, stating that the signage in the car park doesn't say you MUST have a toddler sat in the car when parking and leaving but I've just received a one line letter saying their original decision stands.

I don't want to have baliffs knocking on our door but feel that this is totally unfair. Also, if their operative saw my partner parking the car, its a very sneaky to wait for him to leave the car and instantly give us a ticket, why didn't he just ask my partner do move the car to a generic parking space !!!

Has anyone got any advice ???

loveangel

toxic shock

Yes I have had a Brighton & Hove pcn. i was parked up for 3 days and i had hotel parking vouchers - special parking vouchers which have 24 hours to run on them you state the particular 24 hours by scratching out the relevant parts.
anyways wheras the book of tickets that the hotel had did have an upper portion that coudl be folded over and closed in the nearside window displaying the voucher, i wanted to pop three tickets on the dashboard and leave the car for three days. one voucher slipped off the dashboard and i got a pcn next morning.

I requested a copy of the council's discertionary parking appeals procedures - which councils are advised to have by PATAS - the independant tribunal who you eventually appeal to in london - it's the parking tribunal service elsewhere in england(previously NPAS - national parking appeals service).

The PCN was not fixed to my windscreen as the sticky tape was not removed from the back of the plastic envelope - this therefore is evidence and i have won a case on it before.

Brighton and Hove however appeared uneasy about disclosing their discertionary appeals procedures and in stead told me they would let me off thsi once in the letter of cancellation - how very nice of them. i suggest you do the same if your pcn had fallen from the windscreen, or if the voucher you bought had fallen.

As i say i nearly alway win and was hopeing to hear today about whether the Central London Court Bailiffs section had collected my £385 that i have successfully sued TFl for regarding twoing my car away, unfortunately they have a shortage of bailiffs at the moment, so i'll have to wait for the good news - personally i like to video the bailiffs going in but they won't allow that unfortunately. I mut point out though that the issue was mishandled during ken livingstone's tenure as mayor as opposed to the champion of motorist Boris who is looking to retract the western extension of the congestion zone - hip hip hip horray! and kids and be safely ferried to school without perents being nailed for £25 - hip hip hip horray!

hope the brighton advice is useful

regards

PCN terminator

bargepole

VHE wrote: »

Has anyone got any advice ???

There's loads of advice available under the "Parking Tickets" section on the forum at pepipoo.com

Basically, the position is that what you have received is an invoice, not a fine. It is based on a presumed contract between the driver and the private car park operator, and cases have shown that it is not enforceable in law.

Parent & Toddler space markings in retail parks have as much legality as graffiti on the wall saying "Kilroy woz 'ere".

The Private Parking Companies are operating a complete scam, with their official-looking tickets, and threats of court action, bailiffs, etc., but it's all rubbish. You should never reply to any of their letters, and "appealing" is also a waste of time - your letter will be laughed at by some hobnail-booted thug in a portakabin, who will probably be saying "hey lads, we've got another right mug here."

Tony_Montana_3

Hello

Wonder if any one can help me with this one.

May Bank Holiday Monday - parked in Edgware Road London, thinking Sunday rules/restrictions applied.
how wrong was I, appealed once, fine now £120 waiting to for hearing.

Any help/advice would be grateful before sending my letter of defence off.

Thank you

stokesy01

Hello. I just received a fine for overstaying at a car park in town. It has 3 hour limit and is run by one of those private firms. Before the 3 hours were up, I moved the car to another space in the car park. I contacted the company but they say that doesn't count and I would have needed to leave the car park. I only moved it to stay on to go to Asda to do my shopping.

Does anyone know if that is the case that moving to another space doesn't count? I am sure you can do this when you use on street meters, that's why I thought the system would be the same. Really annoyed as car park was half empty anyway. And why are Asda penalising people via these parasitic car park operators for shopping in their store? I might write to Asda and ask them for a contribution!!

any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

tomstickland

Private parking invoice - just ignore the letters.

bargepole

stokesy01 wrote: »

Hello. I just received a fine for overstaying at a car park in town. It has 3 hour limit and is run by one of those private firms. Before the 3 hours were up, I moved the car to another space in the car park. I contacted the company but they say that doesn't count and I would have needed to leave the car park. I only moved it to stay on to go to Asda to do my shopping.

Does anyone know if that is the case that moving to another space doesn't count? I am sure you can do this when you use on street meters, that's why I thought the system would be the same. Really annoyed as car park was half empty anyway. And why are Asda penalising people via these parasitic car park operators for shopping in their store? I might write to Asda and ask them for a contribution!!

any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

No you haven't received a "fine", it's an invoice from a private company, and is not enforceable in law.

Check out the forums at Pepipoo and CAG for shedloads of advice on this, but in a nutshell:

Do NOT pay them a penny
Do NOT contact them
IGNORE all their letters
IGNORE all their threats of Debt Collectors, Court, etc.
After about 5 or 6 letters, they will realise their SCAM won't work, they will go away and try to con some other mug

stokesy01

Thanks for that advice but I am still worried as they have threatened debt recovery after 28 days. I know nothing of these matters but surely they can and do act sometimes? I could ignore it but then the charges would increase and I don't want to end up thinking I could have paid the £40 rather than the hundreds it could turn into.

Has anyone ignored these letters and then had further action taken against them?

Thanks

bargepole

stokesy01 wrote: »

Thanks for that advice but I am still worried as they have threatened debt recovery after 28 days. I know nothing of these matters but surely they can and do act sometimes? I could ignore it but then the charges would increase and I don't want to end up thinking I could have paid the £40 rather than the hundreds it could turn into.

Has anyone ignored these letters and then had further action taken against them?

Thanks

Of course they threaten debt recovery, court bailiffs, damaging your credit rating, etc., it's all part of the scare tactics these fraudsters use.

There are no known cases of PPCs winning in court against a defended case, but plenty of examples of Judges throwing out their claim, because it's based on a Penalty Charge, which we all know from the Banks saga won't stand up.

If you pay them, I'm going to issue you with an invoice for £10 million pounds, and take you to court if you don't pay up - get the picture?