Parking Ticket Problems

[echoz]

Evening all, I trust we are all well?

 

After some advice from the WSCC Massive! 

 

Had a parking ticket recently, parked behind a Weather Spoons, was permit only parking, gurt massive sign that I failed to see and now i have a ticket to the sum of £100. 

 

So my question is, Should I pay it? I remember a while back that there was a thing about the laws with regards to private parking, so don't want to pay it if I don't have to.

 

The company is Euro Car Parks. 

 

Any advice on the matter, as always is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance Wuvs!

 

[XTR2Turbo]

If not council then they have no legal right of enforcement. you were lucky not to get clamped

[Mid life crisis]

Ignore it, I have had a few at Morrisons from Euro Car Parks over the past two years.

 

You will get 5 letters from them, each one more threatning, debt collectors , court, credit rating etc.

 

The last one offers to accept a discounted penalty.

 

I just ignore them and keep them in a file, they eventually give up and go away.

 

:d

 

 

Here is a link for you  http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4593957

[Captain Colonial]

Makes me wonder what you're getting up to in the Morrisons car park!         

[ACW]

Do nothing to in any way acknowledge their existence has worked for me. They could do you for trespass but would have to prove that the 100 is reasonable loss for the damage caused by the trespass.

[echoz]

Excellent, will continue to ignore said letter then Glad I didn't pay it last week no  

[Quinten]

Hang on... the advice *used* to be to ignore them...  but last October I believe a new change has been introduced in law where it allows further prosecution and this advice is no longer decent advice...  Please look on http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?s=245ed74c35d40572abd956ee660e39ef&showforum=60 for recent threads.

[Mid life crisis]

In relation to a bye law prosecution is correct.

 

 

But a PCN would involve a civil case. Private companies can't by my understanding issue fines, only a statutory body can do that.

[ACW]

I got off my last one after the update to the law. The ticket even had a little slip explaining what new powers they had.

[jay.perry]

I am currently fighting a claim against me from after the laws changed, it gives them a bit more power but it can still be avoided. They are chasing me for over staying in a free car park and have issued a court claim against me. Check out the above mentioned forum.

The advice at the minute seems to be to take your case to POPLA, the independent board, which costs the parking company £27. 

[GoSloGem]

As others have stated, do not pay this - it is not a fine, it is a speculative invoice from a bunch of scammers. 

Do check out the private parking advice on the money saving expert and pepipoo sites. Advice until late 2012 was (generally) to ignore such vermin, but changes in law mean that the advice has changed too. Although the basis of their charges are still as groundless, there are (usually) some simple appeal steps that you go through in order to quash a claim from private parking companies, and cost them some money in the process.  If you were a customer at Wetherspoons, one important, immediate  line of attack is to complain politely but forcefully to the Manager.  PPCs act as the agents of these companies to 'manage' carparks, and therefore they should take legitimate complaints seriously. There are various examples on the sites I mentioned where companies have told their PPC to cancel the 'ticket' in response to such complaints.

[WestyNottm]

To state the case for the opposition:

I have a showroom in a city centre with 2 PRIVATE parking spaces that cost me £20,000 (really!). Local apartment owners regularly park in the spaces in the evening after my showroom has closed and I sometimes have to resort to paying to park on the street nearby if I visit the city in the evening

I therefore have to resort to ticketing as clamping is no longer legal. The point of law is that by parking in this PRIVATE space you are agreeing to the contractual terms as stated by clear signage - ie a fee of £100

[echoz]

Cheers for the advice guys, ill check out them sites roight now

[echoz]

To state the case for the opposition:

I have a showroom in a city centre with 2 PRIVATE parking spaces that cost me £20,000 (really!). Local apartment owners regularly park in the spaces in the evening after my showroom has closed and I sometimes have to resort to paying to park on the street nearby if I visit the city in the evening

I therefore have to resort to ticketing as clamping is no longer legal. The point of law is that by parking in this PRIVATE space you are agreeing to the contractual terms as stated by clear signage - ie a fee of £100

 

You make a valid point fella, and if I had a parking space that cost that much, I'd feel obliged to start writing tickets too the bottom line is, I shouldn't have parked there, I know that, but if I can avoid 100 quid fine then I will, as i really cant afford it :S in my defence, there is about 20 spaces and they were all empty, it was 4pm and I was in spoons for literally the 15 minutes that is written on the ticket! 

 

Doesn't make it right but in the famous words of someone "give a guy a break"! ticket men hunt me down i swear haha

[echoz]

Do nothing to in any way acknowledge their existence has worked for me. They could do you for trespass but would have to prove that the 100 is reasonable loss for the damage caused by the trespass.

 

 

This is the bit I've been thinking about, how is a £100 fine justified against me parking in a space in a private car park that was empty for 15 minutes? it's like going to the dentist, pay 50 quid and 30 seconds later your leaving with an aching face haha!