Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
My wife is required to visit her work's office regularly to hand in her rota; attend training and collect items she needs whilst she is working. The office is in a council run business park, and last week WJ Parking took over the managament of the car park there.
Whilst there are visitor spaces at the front of the business park, the office is at the rear (with parking spaces right outside). My wife as normal pulled up outside the office, got the baby out of it's car seat and went in for approx 5 mins.
When she returned, their was a ticket on the windscreen from WJ Parking due to her not having a permit. Having looked around the car park, she saw a small sign on the wall, several units down which said that a permit was now required to park in these bays. There were several unoccupied bays at the time. My wife then spent the next 30 mins trying to find the attendent who issued the ticket and they were no where to be seen.
After talking about this later in the afternoon, we discovered that the time the vehicle was seen in contravention was at 14.40, with the ticket issued at 14.42.
My wife signed out of the office at 14.35, and got straight back into the car. Whilst this may have not been the exact time, it was approximate. She phoned the office later in the afternoon to ask for a photocopy of the signing sheet and was told that other people had been caught already. The business park is not in a convenient location for shopping and there is no real reason for parking there except to use the offices within the building.
The ticket states that the fine is £100, reduced to £70 if paid within 14 days. If the fine is unpaid, they will contact the DVLA for the registered keeper details. Queries will not be dealt with unless accommpanied with payment.
Obviously we do not want to pay the fine. It has brought alot of stress to my wife who is pregnant. Having searched this and other forums it seems that WJ Parking are very unlikely to reimburse the fine. Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.
Having re-read the other posts relating to parking tickets, we will draft a letter and post it to the tomorrow.
Does anyone have any experience with this firm?
Cheers.
If you read through these many forums the first thing you will realise is that you should not write to them simply in response to having received an *invoice* stuck to your car. Wait at least until they write to the registered keeper based on the DVLA information.
Even then, you don't need to "draft" a letter other than picking a suitable one from the "Stickys" letters section at the top. If you are the registered keeper rather than your wife then better still, as you can confirm you are the keeper, advise them to contact the driver (who's identity you don't say and of course you can't remember anyway) and you can categorically deny you were driving the vehicle on the stated day.
Then ignore everything else they send to you. Job Done. (probably )
If you could scan and remove all personal details, and post the 'ticket' up here for us to see (or a link to photobucket etc).
Might also allow us to have a look for fraud act etc.
All opinions & information are the personal view of the poster, and are not that of any organisation, company or employer. Any information disclosed by the poster is for personal use only. Permission to process this data under the Data Protection act is NOT GIVEN to any company, only personal readers.
• Do not pay
• Do not contact them
• You have an unenforceable invoice. Only councils can issue fines, not private companies
• Ignore any letters you receive, no matter how threatening
• They will go away eventually
• They will not take you to court
• It's a [problem]
The ticket states that the fine is £100, reduced to £70 if paid within 14 days. If the fine is unpaid, they will contact the DVLA for the registered keeper details. Queries will not be dealt with unless accommpanied with payment.
Sorry for not having responded before but I've only just stumbled across this thread.
I'm from Devon where WJ Parking are based and am, therfore, very familiar with their modus operandi.
WJ Parking are, I believe, members of the British Parking Association (they certainly were six months ago). The BPA is categorically against its members refusing to discuss cases prior to payment and would, one hopes, think seriously about throwing out WJ Parking were it aware of their use of this practice.
Certainly, there have been lots of cases in the local press in Exeter, where I live, where people have misguidedly paid disputed fines with WJ Parking only then to be told that once paid nothing can be done.
I suggest, if it's not already too late, you call the BPA and advise them what WJ Parking are up to and then you ring WJ Parking and inform them of this conversation and remind them that what they are doing is completley at odds with BPA policy.
A similar approach worked for me. Having said that, these guys are, IMO, shysters of the first order and you'll need to stick to your guns.
Fred_Funk
NatWest: seeking unlawful charges + interest incurred as a result of those charges of £4,292.82 and contractual interest (compounded) of £4,559.41. Court claim issued 16.01.08; acknowledgement of service filled by Cobbetts on 30.01.08
I agree with your conclusions but not your methods.
Consider - you state that WJ are shysters and yet you recommend phoning them to try to reason with them. Similarly the BPA, these are not the good guys, they are merely a trade body established to attempt to give this "rogue trade" some legitimacy.
I'd suggest saving the letters and phone calls for complaints to the press and officials such as MPs, OFT, Trading Standards, AA, RAC, DVLA.
Parking ticket from WJ Parking Ltd
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by ih101
)
