Advice Parking Ticket Disputes

[Demitri_C]

anyone familar with the laws here as i am fuming!

 

i moved address and went to pick up my post the other day and I received a debt collectors letter for an unpaid ticket from may with no previous correspondence, no warnings nothing just straight to DCA and they have doubled the price of the fine to £120 because I have  not responded to the other letters.

 

I contacted them and spoke to some idiot woman who was apparently a manager explaining that i am happy to pay orginal charge of £70 but not the adds on as i had not even received any of the other letters. so if i wanst aware how could i pay?? she insists that they were sent and i tell her i have not got them and then the idiot hungs up on me!

 

she did say she could reduce it by 20% to £96 but for up to 4pm only. why should i have to pay extra when they never sent me any correspondence (ticket was issued in may) and i receivedthe DCA letter on 22/08.

 

is there anything i can do?

[bickster]

What sort of parking ticket is it? Private property? Council controlled area? How was the "evidence" obtained? Was it by warden or CCTV?

[tonyh29]

If it's an official parking fine from a council or Police then you have to pay it

 

Otherwise , ignore it and pay nothing  , they have no legal rights  to pursue  you  .... I have over 12 demands and baliff action letters from a fine Mrs H got  ... and since the last Final , Final , Final demand letter over  3 months ago have heard nothing

 

We did this on another thread somewhere recently so the search option may help you ? if not try this forum

Edited September 2, 2013 by tonyh29

[NurembergVillan]

If it was a "Parking Charge Notice" then it's a private firm and you should just ignore all correspondence.  If it's an official one "Penalty Charge Notice" then it's legal and binding.

 

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/private-parking-tickets/

[DrUnKeNbUm]

If it's an official parking fine from a council or Police then you have to pay it

 

Otherwise , ignore it and pay nothing  , they have no legal rights  to pursue  you  .... I have over 12 demands and baliff action letters from a fine Mrs H got  ... and since the last Final , Final , Final demand letter over  3 months ago have heard nothing

 

We did this on another thread somewhere recently so the search option may help you ? if not try this forum

happened to me too, i even went to the length of explaining to them that my wife wasn't parked for 9 hours, she dropped me into work and picked me up again when I finished, sent them the parking tickets for when my wife was out and about on the day and they ignored everything.

 

then I read the forum suggested above and ignored them.

[Meath_Villan]

I remember parking in dun laoghaire for a meeting a few years back and I put a ticket on my car ..went to the meeting came back and had a lovely parking fine notice on my car....rang the council told them I had a valid parking ticket and attached a scanned copy where the sent me photos the parking warden took ,,,,the shite took them at an angle that dirt on the glass covered the ticket and claimed that its pay and display and I failed to display ,,,,,I was informed I could appeal the decision but could face further fines for this and the success rate of appeals is less than 10% ....My wife paid the fine !!! as I refused 

[bickster]

If it's an official parking fine from a council or Police then you have to pay it

No you don't, it depends on circumstances.

For example, if the notice was obtained by CCTV, there are a whole load of hoops the council have to jump through. Firstly the CCTV Zone in which the image was captured has to be clearly defined and labelled with clear and readable signage (1998 data protection act). The CCTV should only be used where it is impractical to use wardens / civil enforcement officers and that is clearly defined in the guidelines by the Information commissars office as somewhere it isn't practical to patrol (so if they do patrol that area - automatically rules it out) and it cites these areas as being High Speed Roads and Dual Carriageways.

Also does the council have approval for its devices from the DfT, m,any don't (current liston DfT website is good as of Jan 2013)

Those are all reasons for appeal

[Demitri_C]

its cctv for parking in asda for 3hours when your only allowed 2hrs wont they take me to caught if i just ignore the letters?

 

wont it affect my credit rating as well if i dont pay?

Edited September 2, 2013 by Demitri_C

[tonyh29]

its cctv for parking in asda for 3hours when your only allowed 2hrs wont they take me to caught if i just ignore the letters?

 

wont it affect my credit rating as well if i dont pay?

 

 

your credit rating would only suffer if you had a county court judgement against you  ... in order for that you would firstly have to go to court , and then also lose  (both highly unlikely )

 

even if you were to lose the amount awarded would be something like £3 , which is a reasonable amount for lost revenue or something for over staying the extra hour  .. £70 or whatever is not a "reasonable" amount .. remember it isn't a " fine " being imposed by the car park agency it's a "charge"

 

 

bin the letter and enjoy the ride .... if you don't feel brave going all militant then take the issue up directly with Asda .. never going to shop there again , nor will any family members etc etc  .. you may get them to quash the "charge " 

 

but check out the money saving forum link I posted earlier , you can even find a list of the parking contractors they use ( Town and city parking I believe) and you can see a list of the letters you will get sent before they give up  .. 7 it appears

Edited September 2, 2013 by tonyh29

[bickster]

HAha, the ASDA ones are hilarious. You have the simplest of defences... I parked there on two separate allowable instances or I didn't park on one of those instances.

We have the freephone taxi contracts for ASDA in our area, our cars are in and out of the car park every few minutes and our drivers get these tickets all the time. We ignore them.

Their system reads your number plate on entry to the car park and again when it leaves. It does not take into account any actual parking at all. It also doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between separate visits as our drivers have had tickets for parking there stating they've been parked for 8 hours and more, when in reality they've been there 5 or 6 times in the day.

Who are they to say that when you went into the ASDA car park the first time, you realised you'd forgotten your wallet, drove straight out again without stopping and returned later on to do your shopping.

Also every ASDA I've ever come across has a pick up / drop off zone (which isn't parking!) in front of the store.

Ignore it, its a huge unmanned con. They are relying on technology that isn't fit for its purpose and hoping you'll give them some free money.

[Demitri_C]

sweet thanks guys as long as wont default my credit rating, thank god almost paid it today. unbelievable these crooks get away with this shite

[ender4]

i've got an outstanding one for Asda as well... i stayed for 2h 17 mins, so 17 mins over the time. 

 

i have also ignored the 'fine', and am on their second warning letter now.

 

from what i've read, they will get angrier and angrier in their letters (5-7 letters in total), and then just give up.

[tonyh29]

their Final offer will be pay £30 or court action  .. but they will raise it to £120 first of all

 

I liked how they sent me one letter on a credit agency letterhead to suggest the bailiffs would be coming around  (illegal without a county court judgement first)

 

 

they are acting totally illegally to frighten people .. there should be some form of action against them , not to mention action against the DVLA for selling on your details in the first place

Edited September 2, 2013 by tonyh29

[bickster]

they are acting totally illegally to frighten people .. there should be some form of action against them , not to mention action against the DVLA for selling on your details in the first place

iirc that one would require a reversal of a newish law, not sure which Tory Party was responsible though

[Demitri_C]

absolute to$$ers, i was on verge of paying this but thought id post it here thanks for that guys i will not pay them a penny they can just pi$$ off! so in summary the charge should be around £3 but people like me who dont know about this they exploit this and add charges and the fees go up and up. but the longer you dont respond the amount goes down as a final off chance? 

 

that is crazy how do these arsewhipes get away with this?

[mockingbird_franklin]

Until the law change that involved maknig clamping and towing illegal on private land the registered keeper could not be pursued for unpaid charge notices, however the Protection of freedoms act 2012 which came into effect in October last year gives private parking companies PCC's the ability to pass liability onto the registered keeper where the driver can't be identified, provided they comply with POFA requirements (which they usually don't) So pre october 2012 safe to ignore as registered keeper who can't remember who was driving but it wasn't me. You can still ignore post 2012 or you can take plenty of actions to get it cancelled either by the PCC or Popla (parking on private land appeals), most companies do not take anyone to court, notable exception Parking Eye who seem to be using the issuing of proceedings as a calculated attempt to scare more people into paying up. But PCC's have 6 years to issue court proceedings (and possibly get a default win as you have moved etc), so often it is better to deal with  post 2102 notice

 

Further advice and knowledge can be found at http://www.pepipoo.com/

 

Much of the PCC's around evolved from the cowboy clamping industry and hence have a very low ability to adapt practices to actually fulfill legal and trade body requirements to make their actions any where near legally binding and continue lazily following the mantra that as long as enough gullible fools pay up they have a very profitable ripoff er I mean business model.

Edited September 2, 2013 by mockingbird_franklin

[StefanAVFC]

Private companies give you invoices, not fines. Ignore it. I had one a few months ago and ignored it. Haven't heard from them.

[bickster]

Until the law change that involved maknig clamping and towing illegal on private land the registered keeper could not be pursued for unpaid charge notices, however the Protection of freedoms act 2012 which came into effect in October last year gives private parking companies PCC's the ability to pass liability onto the registered keeper where the driver can't be identified, provided they comply with POFA requirements (which they usually don't) So pre october 2012 safe to ignore as registered keeper who can't remember who was driving but it wasn't me. You can still ignore post 2012 or you can take plenty of actions to get it cancelled either by the PCC or Popla (parking on private land appeals), most companies do not take anyone to court, notable exception Parking Eye who seem to be using the issuing of proceedings as a calculated attempt to scare more people into paying up. But PCC's have 6 years to issue court proceedings (and possibly get a default win as you have moved etc), so often it is better to deal with  post 2102 notice

 

Further advice and knowledge can be found at http://www.pepipoo.com/

 

Much of the PCC's around evolved from the cowboy clamping industry and hence have a very low ability to adapt practices to actually fulfill legal and trade body requirements to make their actions any where near legally binding and continue lazily following the mantra that as long as enough gullible fools pay up they have a very profitable ripoff er I mean business model.

Ah yes that was it. Mad Blue Tory Law

[mockingbird_franklin]

 

Until the law change that involved maknig clamping and towing illegal on private land the registered keeper could not be pursued for unpaid charge notices, however the Protection of freedoms act 2012 which came into effect in October last year gives private parking companies PCC's the ability to pass liability onto the registered keeper where the driver can't be identified, provided they comply with POFA requirements (which they usually don't) So pre october 2012 safe to ignore as registered keeper who can't remember who was driving but it wasn't me. You can still ignore post 2012 or you can take plenty of actions to get it cancelled either by the PCC or Popla (parking on private land appeals), most companies do not take anyone to court, notable exception Parking Eye who seem to be using the issuing of proceedings as a calculated attempt to scare more people into paying up. But PCC's have 6 years to issue court proceedings (and possibly get a default win as you have moved etc), so often it is better to deal with  post 2102 notice

 

Further advice and knowledge can be found at http://www.pepipoo.com/

 

Much of the PCC's around evolved from the cowboy clamping industry and hence have a very low ability to adapt practices to actually fulfill legal and trade body requirements to make their actions any where near legally binding and continue lazily following the mantra that as long as enough gullible fools pay up they have a very profitable ripoff er I mean business model.

Ah yes that was it. Mad Blue Tory Law

 

Well, the bit about making clamping and towing illegal was spot on, It was in allowing the liability for a contract supposedly entered into by the driver to be transferred onto the registered keeper that was pretty bonkers, almost as bonkers as the reasoning behind it, which was to save court time and money by reducing the amount of court cases, accompanied by the stating very of dodgy statistics that went unchecked. they claimed thousands of cases went to court when it was actually something like 40 - 60 each year. since POFA introduction, parking eye alone have sought a court case in thousands of instances.

[bickster]

Totally agree MF