Hi,

My wife attended a company meeting at the Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton back in May of this year. Her company booked a package that included complimentary parking and a member of the hotel staff was tasked with collecting VRN's from the attendees. Unfortunately, my wife (and another lady) were somehow missed out and, as a result, she received a PCN from Parkingeye.

We have appealed to Parkingeye and through POPLA, but to no avail. We have also ignored their 'gesture of goodwill' offer for us to pay £60 instead of £100.

The hotel has stated, by emails on two separate occasions, that the PCN has been cancelled. However, the emails are from an intermediary member of the hotel staff and not the person who has, apparently, contacted Parkingeye. So we do not have copies of the communication to Parkingeye, or their response. We also have a copy of the hotel function sheet for that event which clearly states free parking.

We received a 'Letter Before County Court Claim' from Parkingeye dated 31 October 2018, which we have responded to (in my wife's name but with my assistance). We acknowledged receipt of their letter and stated that we dispute the claim, re-stating our reasons why.

My wife is due to attend another event at the same hotel next week and we are hoping that, with her being there in person, she stands a better chance of getting the information we need from the hotel concerning their PCN cancellation request.

Apologies for tagging this on to another post earlier today I understand the need to start a new thread now. Any advice and guidance would be very much appreciated.

How have you responded? Have you involve the hotel at all? I gather that the hotel are the people who are responsible for undertaking that the parking would be free. In that case I would write to them – to the hotel manager and also a copy to whatever head office they have – the legal department and also the customer service department and explain to them what has happened and that if you are eventually sued by parking eye that you will defend and that you will also add the hotel as a part 20 defendant – in other words as a co-defendant.

If you get a claim form then post it here. We will help you do the defence. You will deny that you are liable and you will say that the liability falls squarely with the hotel and you are joining them as a part 20 defendant. Have a look on the Internet about part 20 defendant's and about how to join them in an action.

Thank you for your post. We have responded to the LBCCC, stating that we dispute the claim and will defend our position. We have also been in contact with the hotel and they are stating, by email, that the PCN has been cancelled but, as yet, we have no evidence of this. Indeed, the LBCCC was received by us after the cancellation confirmation email from the hotel.

My wife is attending the same hotel next week for another event and I will arm her with details of what she requires from them in terms of evidence.

Thank you for the advice. The situation does not seem as daunting when you know there is good advice out there.

I wouldn't rely on your wife managing to solve things simply by talking to them. This is no criticism of your wife. It is intended as a criticism of the hotel who may well start to take a defensive position. Because you are likely to end up in court proceedings I would start making sure that there is a paper trail for everything and so if I you I would take the advice I've already given to you which is start writing. Your wife can certainly start speaking to them when she visits again but don't imagine some informal chat is going to sort this out.

The more serious this becomes the less the hotel will understand how to deal with it.

You absolutely need to let the hotel know that if you end up with a court action against you that they will be involved as co-defendants.

You have already seen the effect trying to sort things out through intermediaries and you will probably understand by now that this doesn't necessarily mean that problems are resolved or the message gets through.

Start taking control – and do that by making sure that everything is in writing, sent to the right people and even more importantly copied around.

Thank you. I will get on to it.

Good morning,

I acted on the advice given here and contacted the hotel, stating that they would be called as co-defendants should my case proceed to court. The intermediary I had been dealing with at the hotel bumped my email further on and I received an email from a manager.

Progress, I thought.

After supplying him/her with the PCN reference number and my wife's VRN I received an email from this manager telling me that ParkingEye would arrange to have this charge cancelled.

The next day I received an email from the same manager telling me that ParkingEye had stated that they were unable to cancel the PCN because we had escalated it to POPLA. That does not make sense to me when ParkingEye initially rejected our appeal and then pointed us in the direction of POPLA. So, are they saying that, once you appeal through POPLA, the parking charge is 'locked in' and can not be cancelled? I find this hard to believe.

The hotel manager also asked 'Would you be able to provide us with the response from POPLA, as we will need to assist you with using this route'. I am not sure what they hope to acheive with this information as I was led to believe that a POPLA appeal was a one-shot only.

As it stands, I have not yet replied to this latest email from the hotel, or provided a copy of the POPLA response. I wanted to wait and see what the best advice would be from this forum, for which I am grateful.

did you get a POPLA decision or were you timed out?

Parking Eye want this but the hotel can cancel any ticket they want unless they have signed a contract that allows PE to decide who actually visits their premises. They are being lazy and stupid for believeing the lies PE are telling them.

Tell them that you are more than happy to withdraw your pointless appeal to POPLA if that is what will force them to actually get off their backsides to avoid being sued themselves.

Now as with the other post stop talking to the manager and write to the director of the comapny and let him know that yopu are seething and will take it out on them in the long run as any court case will involve them and you will drag their contract with PE out into the public domain so they might well be better off reading it properlya dn then use their authority to cancel thios obviously incorrectly issued ticket.

She shoud get her company involved as well, the Hotel wll listen when they see the money disappearing from the till for services already provided as a result of the hotels deriliction in duty (failure to collect reg no's)

stop being nice from now on, try local press as well and point out that it was the hotels' error that has caused the trouble but they refuse to even tell PE to behave. Make sure the directior of the co knows you are going to the press with this and suggest that it would be interesting to see if he can anwser the points you raise in the article

anyway, still no breach of contarct as the agreement with the hotel trumps the PE contract whatever PE POPLA or the hotel say.

Thank you, ericsbrother.

Yes, we got a rejected appeal from POPLA. They acknowledged receipt of an email from the hotel, forwarded by us, confirming the PCN should be cancelled. The focus of their rejection is on the terms and conditions of the car park. As far as they are concerned, my wife did not pay and 'any concerns regarding the hotel will need to be addressed with the hotel itself'.

The solution lays with the hotel, as you have stated, and I will now remove my kid gloves in dealing with them.

The PE can only lose a court claim because their authority was revoked in this instance. They are greedy and stubborn and have lost a similar battle ( well dropped it at the court door) so dont expect them to be quick to suddenly gain some sense.

Sticking it to the hotel may not make much difference in their actiopns but you can then put all of this in the public doman via various web based sites including tripadvisor, twitter, facebook etc. Give them the opportunity to sort it out but do amke them aware that this isnt going to go away because they are afraid of ther own guard dog

Email from the hotel as follows:

Regrettably, that is the response we have received from the ParkingEye. Each case that has been escalated to POPLA incurs financial costs to ParkingEye. I have discussed the matter with our General Manager, and regrettably as per terms of contract between our parties, they have a right to refuse to cancel it.

Our hotel, can ask ParkingEye to cancel the fines but we are being charged with the cancelation fee, which I was more than happy to settle on this occasion. However, I was not aware that the case has been escalated to POPLA.

We do have however an option of providing you with a written statement confirming our will to cancel the parking fine. As previously mentioned, if you could kindly provide me with the response of POPLA I would be able to provide you with appropriate evidence needed to cancel the fine.

I appreciate it is frustrating experience, however I am trying to help you resolve it as soon as possible.

tell them that you wont be paying PE but will be naming them as a co-defendant in any court action PE takes against you and will also consider a separate legal action against the hotel for breach of contract over their failure to adhere to the terms offered to your company for using the venue.

As for the hotel paying PE for cancelling a parking charge, well you have no sympathy as you should ahve read the contract with this bunch of cowboys before signing it. Whar was agreed between PE and the hotel doesnt change the contractual obligations between you and them so they may well be paying the money more than once before the matter is settled as the breach of contract now has an agreed quantum.

send this to the director of the comapny as well as a copy to the manager. In truth the manager cat make a decision so not worth even bothering with other than to be polite. Go after the only named director, see other post on this place for name. Also as the manager keeps calling it a fine you cna make hay with this later as it is clear they dont know what they are talking about

Do get the written statement as that actualy means that you ahve a superior contract that trumps PE's one and the refusal to cancel will them come back to bite them

Thank you, ericsbrother.

Finally, a result.

The hotel has paid the parking charge as a 'gesture of goodwill' and the matter is now settled.

My thanks to you, ericsbrother, for suggesting I inform them of my intention to name them as co-defendants in any court action. I included this in my last email to the hotel and, also, a suggestion that they may like to consider paying the charge, as the error was on their part in the first place.

Thank you to everyone who chipped in with advice for me.

Well done!

Great news, Jazzman. I'll alter your thread title to reflect the result.

If you want to thank people individually, you could click on the star at the bottom of one of their posts and leave a short message.

HB

good for you and serves the hotel right for employing a bunch of sharks to do a job that doesnt need doing. If they ahd to pay thousands of these they might learn something