Parking Charge Notice

austin

Well-Known Member
got a Parking Charge Notice (not a council one) through the post. Car park in Porthleven, Cornwall, in the car. Pics of car, me driving, entering and leaving the car park about 4 hours apart. Deffo me, I deffo parked there, and We deffo bought a ticket. PCN says no record of payment. You had to type your reg number in so most probably it went in incorrectly (Wife paid and input the ref so she is getting all the blame). Of course we no longer have the ticket and paid in cash. So no evidence.

My options seem to be: pay up to avoid the hassle. It’s £100 or £60 if paid within 28 days.

Appeal. Looking at it objectively it’s my word against theirs unless I can get them to produce a list of registrations input around the relevant time, together with pictures of each such car entering and leaving the car park. We should finds registration so close to ours and no picture of a car with that plate. At that point it should be unarguable. From what I can see about appeals incorrect reg is not a defence and it costs £25 for the appeal. So it could easily end up at £125. Although I could always ignore the outcome.

Ignore the letter and all subsequent correspondence until it goes away. The risk is that they do actually go to a small claims court where I would be relying on the same defence as at appeal, although I reckon if there was a reg number one letter wrong at the time we paid the small claims court would dismiss the case. Risk is my defence fails and the charge plus costs adds up to £500 or more.

Write to the parking company outlining my defence, asking for the evidence but being clear I had no intention of paying up - ever - hoping it all just goes away, or ends up in small claims court.

Someone must have been in the same position. What do you reckon???
 

Hudders

Moderator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Looks to me like pay £60 and have done.

I got one in Wales at the Welsh Invasion when Russ paid on his debit card.
It printed a ticket but we didn't read it. The ticket actually said transaction failed.
I found it in the bin when the fine came through.
They wouldn't have any of it, it was up to us to read ticket.

Always keep any tickets from parking in the van now for a few months.
When in Cornwall used a parking app with my details already in, van reg ect.

Sent from my S41 using Tapatalk
 

austin

Well-Known Member
Looks to me like pay £60 and have done.

I got one in Wales at the Welsh Invasion when Russ paid on his debit card.
It printed a ticket but we didn't read it. The ticket actually said transaction failed.
I found it in the bin when the fine came through.
They wouldn't have any of it, it was up to us to read ticket.

Always keep any tickets from parking in the van now for a few months.
When in Cornwall used a parking app with my details already in, van reg ect.

Sent from my S41 using Tapatalk

Yeah I reckon you are right. It’s just so galling when we have already paid £3.20. Parking companies: Bastards the lot of them.
 

Hudders

Moderator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Yeah I reckon you are right. It’s just so galling when we have already paid £3.20. Parking companies: Bastards the lot of them.
Very true.

I had change in the van for parking, didn't know he had used card.
Wasn't happy myself, but end of day should have checked it.
Won't happen again! [emoji6]

Sent from my S41 using Tapatalk
 

Lowflyer

Well-Known Member
We were caught out in a Lidl car park in Edinburgh. Rushed in to a hotel foyer for 5 minutes when the store was or about to be closed.
Got sent an bill for £60 or thereabout.
I was going to pay it but my eldest son " bullied" me into binning it :D
I didn't pay, just kept getting letters advising of subsequent court action, but ignored them.
In the end it just fizzled out, heard no more.
Don't know what the set up is down south, might be slightly different.
Tbh, it's a hard shout and looking back paying the sixty quid would have relieved of all the stress when the postie arrived, but it's the principle of it all.
Robbin fekers :mad:
Would I do it again ??

Don't honestly know.
 

austin

Well-Known Member

Yup, that’s about it. Would I go to Porthleven again? Nope. Would I recommend a visit there? I would like too but probably wouldn’t.

At first I was in the mood to shred the PCN letter and let them bring it on. That’s what my son said to do too. I suspect we would get increasingly threatening letters before it fizzled out as they have to take you to a Small Claims Court for the money. But, £60 to make all that stress and possible hassle go away. It seems worth it, but perhaps we shouldn’t encourage them - the bastard parking companies that is.
 

Axe

Member
I spent a couple of years as a wheel clamper (over 25 years ago when that particular profession earned a lot of money)
at the time it was all bullshit, "If you don't pay we will tow your car" etc, but I never did (most people paid, anyone that didn't had the clamp removed for free when I wanted to go home)
since then I've not had much experience other than my step son who went through a faze of getting and ignoring a whole load of tickets, all ignored, all went away (he didn't give a shit) but for me I couldn't defend him as he was always in the wrong, I was surprised when the companies all gave up.
I'd have to agree, £60 for the peace of mind is probably worth it, but If you decide to dig your heals in and can ignore the threatening letters and all the bullshit that goes with it then you will almost certainly not be chased through the courts for payment. If you decide to ignore it then DO NOT REPLY to anything they send EVER, they will see that as an admission of guilt and will use it against you in court if it gets that far (it will strengthen their case if you admit anything) don't reply to any of their letters, they will lose interest quicker if they get no response.
 

steveR

Member
Not sure what the present state of legislation is with the Private Operators, but when something similar happened to my daughter 4 years ago in a shopping centre car park, I went online and grabbed some advice. The car was registered in her name but had 5 drivers insured to use it!

The nub was to admit nothing and put the onus on the Operator to identify the driver. Essentially, the argument used was that the Operator had to to identify the "offender" to serve any legal paperwork that they might fancy. If you admit to driving it (as in starting an "appeal", you are stuffed)

I responded initially asking them to please produce their evidence of any breach and they supplied 2 CCTV pics of the car and reg no. There was no pic of the driver that could identify who it was. I replied to their communication and said that there were 5 possible drivers and I could not help them any further with the enquiries as they have not identified the person driving.

The threatening paperwork then started and was consigned to the grey filing cabinet under my desk... After the 4-5th such letter they dried up... 6-7 months later, maybe longer, a final rather sad letter arrived asking for payment again. It was ignored and I've heard nothing since.

Council run parks are different as they have Statute supporting their parking policies :(
 

austin

Well-Known Member
After browsing around the Parking Trade body’s website I decided to appeal as it says their members are not in the business of penalising people for small mistakes. So an appeal is in to the company in the first instance and then to the trade body if unsuccessful. I have no intention of paying anything regardless of the appeals.
 

Axe

Member
Not sure what the present state of legislation is with the Private Operators, but when something similar happened to my daughter 4 years ago in a shopping centre car park, I went online and grabbed some advice. The car was registered in her name but had 5 drivers insured to use it!

The nub was to admit nothing and put the onus on the Operator to identify the driver. Essentially, the argument used was that the Operator had to to identify the "offender" to serve any legal paperwork that they might fancy. If you admit to driving it (as in starting an "appeal", you are stuffed)

I responded initially asking them to please produce their evidence of any breach and they supplied 2 CCTV pics of the car and reg no. There was no pic of the driver that could identify who it was. I replied to their communication and said that there were 5 possible drivers and I could not help them any further with the enquiries as they have not identified the person driving.

The threatening paperwork then started and was consigned to the grey filing cabinet under my desk... After the 4-5th such letter they dried up... 6-7 months later, maybe longer, a final rather sad letter arrived asking for payment again. It was ignored and I've heard nothing since.

Council run parks are different as they have Statute supporting their parking policies :(

Just to be clear, all carpark owners are protected by Statute, the doctorine is "Damage, Distress, Phesante" (probably spelt wrong) if your neighbours sheep strays onto your land and starts to eat your grass you can keep hold of that sheep until the sheeps owner has paid you for the grass, the statute extends to everything (statute is basically law that has existed for a very long time and can be adapted to many situations) So the parking basis is that the offenders car has taken up the space that an authorised car could have used (whether there were other available spaces or not) so "Technically" you can clamp a car to stop it leaving the carpark until a fee has been paid, this has been twisted over the last 15-20 years to include retrospective charges (hence the requirement to have video/photo evidence) to prove the car was in a carpark outside of the permitted restrictions. If you start the appeals process you are admitting you were there and contravened the posted rules, so you are more likely to be found in the wrong, the PCN issuer will use this against you and pursue you for payment (in my experience the governing body is a bluff to defend the parking companies (it's a voluntary scheme)) it's too late now as you have already contacted them so you will almost certainly have to pay the full fine. Unless you have cast iron proof that you were not in the wrong you will probably have to pay the fine or get a CCJ.

In my experience council car parks with the full weight of the law behind them are more likely to drop the charges than private companies.

Please accept that all of the above statements are based on me working as a wheel clamper about 20 years ago or my step son getting a lot of parking tickets in the last 10 years, non of it is gospel, just my experience.

Axe
 

austin

Well-Known Member
I understand what you are saying Axe. But, we did pay the fee just input our car reg incorrectly (or their machine is knackered). So all we are guilty of is a minor breach of contract with respect to entering our registration. There was no loss to the land owner as they had their money for our car.

Can I prove this though. No, not without the ticket or the help of the parking company. I threw the ticket away (lesson learned - hang onto them for at least two weeks). I asked in my appeal for them to check the list of registrations around the time I entered the car park for registrations close to my own for which they also had no photos of said registration entering or leaving the car park. No mention of this in their reply to my appeal.

I also looked up their governing body - The Independent Appeals Service. Their guidance (for the parking companies) includes that simple mistakes in entering registrations should not be punished. I have written to them again asking that they reconsider the appeal in light of that guidance.

So, if they did go to the small claims court for their £100 it would be reasonable that the court asked to see all evidence (I have none, but they obviously do) which would show a registration similar to mine entered into the system but no photo of that car in the car park. Case dismissed I would hope.

What do you reckon.
 

austin

Well-Known Member
I would hope they see sense and admit it was a simple mistake, good luck

I don’t think these people have sense of reasonableness. Just an opportunity to earn some money from the most minor of transgressions. I have a feeling I won’t be hearing from them again about my further appeal, just a threatening letter.

It’s probably worth £60 just to make it go away.
 
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