Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

Neil_B · 16 January 2009 at 1:44PM

stoneman wrote: »

Got a PCN in November in Merton for parking outside the permitted markings for half on half off pavement. Scanned and posted the PCN and Neilb picked up that the 28 day to pay rule had actually been calculated as 29 days. I wrote to them declining their invitation to pay the fine, and yesterday received a letter rescinding my ticket on the grounds that the markings on the road were not up to standard

Yay! Nice one.

Not at all surprised at the reason given. We see this all the time. They won't ever want to concede their docs are illegal because the implications are too great. Always best to offer them a 'back door out' - and as you see, they take it!
-

JWF · 21 January 2009 at 10:01PM

I got a PCN issued by Medway Council in July 2008, due to parking in a residents only parking bay without a proper permit. I appealed on-line within 14 days, stating that I believed the ticket to be unfair (rather than wrongly issued) because the local authority had failed to make adequate provision for parking in the area, as they were allowing major building work to be carried out without making any provision in the planning permission for those works for parking for the people working on-site. I claimed this forced me to park in a restricted zone as there was no other parking available in the area of the property I was working on. This appeal was rejected and their letter stated that I needed to wait for the Notice to Owner and then either pay or make formal representations.

I heard nothing for a long time, then just before Xmas I received the Notice to Owner, some 5 months after the original ticket was issued.

I made formal representations at the beginning of the month, using the same justification, and received a letter today saying that the ticket was being overturned due to a 'procedural error', though it doesn't specify what that error was.

My thoughts are that most likely the period between the PCN and NtO exceeded the guidance issued by the government, and the council therefore decided not to proceed due to the formal representations. Or maybe the council are just rubbish!

Like someone else already pointed out, they couldn't resist pointing out that an offence had been committed and they would nick me if I did it again.

Anyway, the letter brought a smile to my face so I thought I would share it.

magicsnooker · 26 January 2009 at 10:29AM

Hi, my son parked his car in cardiff town on a private car park in the night - he left it there cos he was over the limit, next morning it had been towed away! We were told it would cost £300 and this cost was going up by the day! I wrote to the OWNER of the car park stating it was dark and PRIVATE signs were not clear and could not be seen! We had a letter back with a time to collect his car and will a full refund - TOTALLY unexpected - did'nt expect that:j - the car was in compound 4 days would have been about £600.- Who do these people think they are?????????

GIVE IT A GO!

greenface · 26 January 2009 at 7:50PM

Savvysal wrote: »

:mad:

Back in November I received a £70 penalty charge . I still challenged the parking penalty & was successful because I had spent over £30 in store & could prove it as I had fortunately (!) kept my receipt. :beer:

£30 quid in Aldi you must have been in there for days:eek: :eek: :eek:

Little_RAY · 2 March 2009 at 10:41PM

Who was your ticket from? A Private Parking Company called UKPC Ltd.
Which stage did you get to? I got a letter from a 'Debt Collections Agency' after not paying the parking charge within the alotted time.
How much did you get back? I didn't lose anything, just my time and a few hours of sleep while I was worrying about the whole silly thing!
Which ground did you appeal under? Insufficient signage.
Your brief reclaim tale...
Further details about my experience can be followed in the thread "Disabled Bay Insult!" (fears and all!). I wanted to record my success in this section as I partly followed Martin's advice about Private Parking Companies, and also the wonderful advice of forum members.

After parking in an unmarked bay in a car-park I was issued with a "Parking Charge Notice". I used one of Martin's letter templates to inform UKPC that I would not be paying them, providing evidence for why (erm, no signage!), and that I would not enter into any further correspondence unless they addressed the points in my letter. They replied, but not sufficiently!

I then completely ignored them (with moral support from forum members), and eventually got a letter from a debt collection agency. Using advice from a legal representative, I replied to the debt collection agency saying that the issue was still in dispute, and to refer this matter back to UKPC Ltd. I also wrote a letter to a director of the company who owned the car-park.

Mysteriously, a few days later, I received news from UKPC that the charge was cancelled....

BEST BEWARE anyone who parks in Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
Don't just pay up for 'parking charges' - you're making it easier for these immoral bullies to continue making money out of the public by use of fear tactics.

horseykitty · 4 March 2009 at 4:50PM

Always appeal - if it's successful great, if not you haven't lost anything. My hubby appealed against his last two PCNs and had them waived/cancelled.

rikgear · 11 March 2009 at 5:54PM

taffy449 wrote: »

Despite the law being changed these companies are still buying this information from the DVLA

Completely unrelated ticket wise but i'd like to add that in Jan'09 i recieved a letter from a debt collection agency (on behalf of severn trent addressed to a former lodger, and good friend. (i called him to say he had another one and he asked me to open it and read it to him) The only people that had my address for his residence were the DVLA and the people who dealt with his bankrupcy (a year ago). I can only assume the DVLA must have supplied the address to them.

mazjam · 26 March 2009 at 12:11AM

bargepole wrote: »

So slight as to be almost invisible. Well done on sticking to your guns and seeing off these scumbags. Your case also demonstrates what a complete waste of time it is appealing to these PPCs - they never take any notice of the circumstances, they just want your money. Well done.

But surely, by appealing and this being ignored, should they take you to court it shows them to be unreasonable and so the court may rule in your favour ? With 2 cases lost by 'offender' in the papers, it can be shown that some do get to court. Surely for the sake of 1 letter (sent registered post, so they can not possibly deny receipt obviously) it is worth doing ?

Crabman · 26 March 2009 at 2:17AM

mazjam wrote: »

But surely, by appealing and this being ignored, should they take you to court it shows them to be unreasonable and so the court may rule in your favour ? With 2 cases lost by 'offender' in the papers, it can be shown that some do get to court. Surely for the sake of 1 letter (sent registered post, so they can not possibly deny receipt obviously) it is worth doing ?

No!! They want one thing - MONEY!

If they accept "appeals", they're not going to make as much money.

The two PPC cases that were lost by the motorist I believe were the work of a pie munching fellow by the name of Perky. I don't know exact details (I suspect they weren't defended so it was a default win) but anyone with basic legal know-how could tell you that you can only be taken to court for the actual loss incurred as a result of you parking. They can't just pluck a random amount out of thin air then ask a court to make you pay it.

IAMRUTH · 27 March 2009 at 10:43AM

Just want to say thanks for saving me £45.00.

I was issued a parking ticket 9 days ago by UKPC, got the invoice 3 days ago, replied 2 days ago refusing to pay using Martin's template and today got a letter notifying me that the ticket had be cancelled. Just would like to say that I would have normally be the sucker who would have paid and would have whined constantly to everyone. So a very big thanks from me (and all my friends who would have also suffered!)

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Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

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