Parking Ticket

[snoopy1239]

Anyone ever been given a private parking ticket by ParkingEye? They sent me a charge notice after I broke down at London Gateway (M1) and had to stay there for over the two-hour period. I didn't notice any signs, but apparently I should have purchased a ticket at this point, and now they're charging me £60 (then £100).

Searching Google it seems as though there's no pressure to accept appeals (either by P.E. or POPLA) for mitigating circumstance like mine, so I'm just trying to work out if it's worth the hassle.

Anyone know what I can expect from them? Is it just letters, or are they going to bother me with phone calls and door-knocking? If the appeal is rejected, do I just pay up the £100 if I don't fancy court and then that's it? Not sure how it works.

Really annoying 'cos it was midnight and the place was virtually empty, and I even ended up destroying the car a week later so would be paying a penalty for a vehicle that doesn't even exist. Tilt.

[celtic]

Have you called them?

My plan would be to call them and explain it was broken down, you didn't have any money on you to purchase a ticket. Tell them you can provide proof it had broken down etc. if that doesn't work then they're a bunch of *****.

[redarmi]

Just letters.  Had a very similar situation once and after doing some research I decided against paying and they just let it go after a while.  Apparently they will pursue you longer if you do appeal but I'm not an expert.

[snoopy1239]

£60 for it to just go away is tempting. If I could be sure that my appeal wouldn't be rejected then I would refuse to pay. But £100 and a load of hassle for two or three months isn't floating my boat at the moment.

[tikay]

Pay the £60, move on.

We have better things to do with our life than get stressed over a £60 parking thing.

You & Dana are like Posh & Becks, loaded, right?

[kinboshi]

Might be +EV to pay the £60 early than appeal and then be faced with letters, waiting, etc., and then £100 to pay instead.

[ripple11]

The general rule for these "invoices"...not legal tickets ,is to ignore, don't engage at all with them.

I did it in the past and nothing happened. Since then a "new law" seems to be quoted by these dodgy companies to scare you to pay up......but nothing seems to have changed re advise:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4312425&page=1

[kinboshi]

The general rule for these "invoices"...not legal tickets ,is to ignore, don't engage at all with them.

I did it in the past and nothing happened. Since then a "new law" seems to be quoted by these dodgy companies to scare you to pay up......but nothing seems to have changed re advise:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4312425&page=1

I thought it had:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/private-parking-penalties/

[outragous76]

I got one 12 months ago

Took the advice to ignore it and heard nothing

If you don't contact them, I'm not sure how they can justify having your details (how did they get them?)

Ignore it and take the spin. What's the worst that can happen? They just prey on people paying them!

[snoopy1239]

I got one 12 months ago

Took the advice to ignore it and heard nothing

If you don't contact them, I'm not sure how they can justify having your details (how did they get them?)

Ignore it and take the spin. What's the worst that can happen? They just prey on people paying them!

Purchased from the DVLA.

[kinboshi]

Guy, your incident would have happened before the change in the law:

"A new Law from 1st October 2012 (part of the Protection of Freedoms Act) changed liability for parking on private land from the driver of the vehicle to the vehicle’s registered keeper, unless the keeper clearly identifies who was driving the car at the time."

[snoopy1239]

Guy, your incident would have happened before the change in the law:

"A new Law from 1st October 2012 (part of the Protection of Freedoms Act) changed liability for parking on private land from the driver of the vehicle to the vehicle’s registered keeper, unless the keeper clearly identifies who was driving the car at the time."

I don't understand the relevance of this. I was both the driver and registered keeper, as was Guy by the sounds of it.
Have I missed something?

[ripple11]

From figures compiled by the British Parking Association, over the last year, 1,800,000 Private Parking Charge tickets were issued. Of these, 31% went unpaid, leaving 1,242,000 paid.

figures submitted by the BPA were that between 2% and 5% of  tickets issued resulted in court action. This equates to between 36,000 and 90,000 of the 1,800,000 tickets issued.

But a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Justice shows that, in fact, members of the BPA registered only 845 small claims court actions, of which only 49 cases actually went to a contested hearing in the small claims court.

Interesting stats from the honest john site quoted by Kin.

A lot of info and debate can br found, but I think the odds are well on the side for ignoring.

[kinboshi]

Guy, your incident would have happened before the change in the law:

"A new Law from 1st October 2012 (part of the Protection of Freedoms Act) changed liability for parking on private land from the driver of the vehicle to the vehicle’s registered keeper, unless the keeper clearly identifies who was driving the car at the time."

I don't understand the relevance of this. I was both the driver and registered keeper, as was Guy by the sounds of it.
Have I missed something?

In the past, you could say "I wasn't driving it" - and they wouldn't be able to prove you were, and they couldn't fine you for just being the owner.  Now they can fine the owner, who it appears has to pay, unless they name the person who was driving.

That's how I read it anyway

Might still be able to ignore it, and they'll go away.  I'd speak to someone who has legal knowledge though about that.

[bobAlike]

I wouldn't pay the fuckers. Scamming tnucs. Try consumer action group website for all the relevant info. I payed once and then realised I was the tnuc for paying. Since then I've had 6 parking charge notices and ignored them all.