F'sticks - Parking Charge!

[vwdan]

Gah - knew I'd forgotten to pay the very second I walked out of the station. It's a private firm so I have zero intention of paying their insane fees, but still annoying that I've got to deal with it now. £100 charge (or £60 if paid within 14 days)! I think not.

Anyone got any recent experience?

[MicrosoftBob]

I just ignore them, the current record is one I'm still getting letters threatening to take me to court from four years later

[northernladuk]

Take pictures of all the signs, location, visibility, size of wording. Make sure you capture the wording as well. Gather any other evidence of ambiguity or confusion.

Search the web for other people that have complained about or fought parking tickets in that area.
Search for the parking company to see if they have a history of bad practice.
Search for forums that give advice on fighting parking tickets and follow that process.

Gather all this in a pretty comprehensive pack with long wordy letter that deals with facts rather than just moaning.

Appeal it and just wait.

My other half has fought two and won both but the caveat is that it was parking for a group of shops. She parked in it and went over the road so they said she wasn't visiting the shops next to the actual parking. The sign was ambiguous about the 'area' of shops so we argued 40 feet over the road was the same area particularly then the further parking space from the shops they meant was over 100 feet so might have been an easy one to fight.

A mates wife racks tickets up and she appeals just for the sake of it even though she has been caught bang to rights. She appears to have about a 70% success rate. Stupid thing is the extra fines on the other 30% came to more than the whole lot if she paid up early.

[SimonMac]

Gah - knew I'd forgotten to pay the very second I walked out of the station. It's a private firm so I have zero intention of paying their insane fees, but still annoying that I've got to deal with it now. £100 charge (or £60 if paid within 14 days)! I think not.

Anyone got any recent experience?

So you didn't pay, you knew you didn't pay and you fully expected to get caught knowing you didn't pay?

WTF is wrong with you, if it was an agent short changing you you would be up in arms about suing them, you were in the wrong so just pay up and move on. If you didn't agree to the terms why did you park there?!

[vwdan]

I just ignore them, the current record is one I'm still getting letters threatening to take me to court from four years later

To be honest - I forgot to pay and I have no qualms in paying what I should have. Bounced through a few channels, but managed to get the Land Owners to talk to me and eventually got them to give up an e-mail address I can use instead of going through their tulipty "enforcement agency". Just sent them this:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I hope this e-mail finds you well.

I realise that you have a formal ‘appeals’ process for your PCN Notices through “PCN Parking Services”, but I’ve just spoken to one of your employees who agreed to hand me this e-mail address in order that we can find a resolution quickly.

The reason for this is that I find the quoted 35 day turnaround time for the appeals process to be beyond ludicrous and I’m struggling to think of any instance where this timeframe would acceptable. Importantly, I also don’t consider this an appeal as an appeal would imply I have been found guilty of an offence or transgression by some kind of legally recognised enforcement agency – this is merely a civil contractual dispute and one that I’m sure that we can resolve ourselves.

Additionally, I’d simply rather not deal with any 3rd party in this dispute and it is my stated intent to deal only with you, the land owners, directly

I received a parking charge notice yesterday for[Car Park] car park in [Town]:

PCN Number: [Removed]
Registration: [Removed]

Firstly, I make no dispute to my car being parked there – I realised as soon as soon as I stepped out of the station that I’d inadvertently forgot to pay. As such, I wish to pay the normal parking fees for the time period. This time period was from 6:30am Monday 4th to 09:30pm Wednesday 6th and I would welcome an invoice from yourselves reflecting the standard charges for that period.

However, I will not be paying the received invoice of £100 under any circumstances. This invoice is artificially high, for a service I did not intentionally agree to and I believe has been issued in deliberate bad faith in order to profiteer over an honest mistake.

I’ve also included statements from RingGo which I generally use to pay for parking. As you’ll see, I’ve used (and paid for) the car park a reasonable amount over the last few months as whenever I have to travel from [Town] station I park there. I’m sure you’ll agree that there is no evidence of any deliberate attempt to avoid your charges and that any reasonable person, as defined in law, would concur.

I would appreciate a swift response to this mail and, if I’ve yet to receive any further updates after 14 working days I’ll declare this matter closed and I will not be paying any invoices from yourselves – including the already issued “Parking Charge Notice”.

Yours faithfully,

VWDan

[vwdan]

So you didn't pay, you knew you didn't pay and you fully expected to get caught knowing you didn't pay?

WTF is wrong with you, if it was an agent short changing you you would be up in arms about suing them, you were in the wrong so just pay up and move on. If you didn't agree to the terms why did you park there?!

If I invoice the agency and they forgot to pay, I don't get to reissue the invoice with a million quid added and then threaten them do I?

[lilelvis2000]

Ignore the windscreen notice. Then after 28 days they will need to look up the keeper details and send that person a notice with 28 days. After 56 days they are not supposed to send a notice.

Check out this thread **NEWBIES!! PRIVATE PARKING TICKET? OLD OR NEW? **READ THESE FAQS FIRST!** Thankyou! - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

Don't sweat it.

[SimonMac]

If I invoice the agency and they forgot to pay, I don't get to reissue the invoice with a million quid added and then threaten them do I?

If you put it in the contract and they agree to it you can, which is what happens when you parked in their car park

[quackhandle]

I've had this when gigging away at a motorway services, the hotel had forgotten to give the parking company my car reg.

Anyway, apprently unless it is a council or police ticket it isn't enforceable. It is illegal for them to make it look like a council or police one, and it is illegal for them to charge excessive fees, something to do with loss of income, so at the very max it would be < 20 notes per day.

I sent Parking Spy company a letter saying all this and they dropped all charges.

Do a search on CAG (Consumer Action Group) loads of examples and templates letters out there.

qh

[vwdan]

If you put it in the contract and they agree to it you can, which is what happens when you parked in their car park

Doesn't mean it's enforceable. I can put that on failure to pay the agency will make me President - but it don't make it so.