I am arguing with Parking Eye over my stay in a hotel car park back in July.

I paid £5 for up to five hours parking, not knowing that I could have given my registration number to the receptionist and parked for nothing, as I was using hotel facilities.

I was meeting some colleagues for afternoon tea.

I stayed for 2 hours 36 minutes.

I got a Parking Charge Notice telling me I'd overstayed, miraculously found my ticket, and then noted that the machine had only printed £4.50

- I have no idea why, as I most definitely put in five pound coins, but of course, there's no way of proving this.

I appealed, Parking Eye rejected that,

I appealed via POPLA, having received a letter from the hotel to send to them confirming that I had been using hotel facilities and that I was, therefore, entitled to complimentary parking.

The assessor stated that whilst I had provided evidence that I'd been using the hotel, she'd not seen any evidence that I was entitled to park for nothing, but really, that's exactly what the hotel's letter stated!

Unfortunately, a couple of days after receiving this rejection of my appeal, my husband fell seriously ill, and strangely, the PCN moved down my list of priorities.

I got a "Letter before Court Action" from Parking Eye dated 31 October, quoting the Barry Beavis judgement to me, which I have no doubt is to try and terrify me into coughing up without delay, but I really don't want to unless I have absolutely no choice

I've drafted a letter to them, continuing to point out that I was entitled to park for free regardless of how much I did or didn't put into the ticket machine.

What tends to happen with this lot?

Am I right to continue to argue my case?

The hotel have tried, without success, to persuade them to withdraw the charge.

Thanking you all in advance for any help.

SO youre saying that the landowners told Parking eye to back off and they refused? Id be forming a formal complaint and demand that the landowners ORDER parking eye to back off.

please complete this:

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?462118-Have-you-received-a-Parking-Ticket

the hotel will not be the land owners.

Dear dx100uk and renegageimp - I will fill out the form as soon as I can. I have just found out that the hotel leases the car park from the local council, who are the landowners.

Back later, and thank you so much.

just copy n paste the Q's and your answers here

if it council land PPC cant issue speculative invoices..end of

Ask the council if they have a contract with PE as a FOI request.

When you get the answer "NO" you can use this to beat PE about the head when they try their luck with either a proper lba or a court claim.

You have to understand, they arent going to suddenly become reasonable about this just because they are in the wrong.

They lied to the Supreme Court in the Beavis case but got away with it because his team didnt pick it up soon enough.

The council wont have a contract with PE so they cant refuse the hotel's instructions and that means you were allowed to be there and they actually owe you a fiver.

If the hotel employs PE to look after their car park then PE should do what the hotel tells them! Has the hotel actually contacted PE or just given you a letter to send to them?

DX - not even if the Council have leased the land to the hotel? I'm working on posting up the Q&As for you.

no only the land owner can enter into contracts.

If the hotel employs PE to look after their car park then PE should do what the hotel tells them! Has the hotel actually contacted PE or just given you a letter to send to them?

The hotel told me that they emailed PE yesterday to ask, again, for the charge to be revoked, and got the following response: ‘The motorist paid on the machine for 2 hours, however they stayed on site for 2 hours and 36 minutes. Therefore overstayed.

Just letting you know that this case has gone to POPA and the decision has been made in ParkingEye’s favour so we wouldn’t be able to cancel this one if you requested ‘. I should add to this that I actually paid for more than 2 hours, it's just that their dratted machine did not register the full amount I entered, but still issued a ticket.

This is looking reasonably promising, DX!!

I'm hoping my answers to the Q&As will appear just below:

1. Sunday 15th July 2018

2. 18th July 2018

3. 20th July 2018

4. Yes

5. Yes – me entering and leaving, and times

6. Yes and yes

7. Parking Eye

8. Car park adjoining Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton

I appealed via POPLA, Independent Appeals Process.

No other correspondence other than the “Letter before Court Action” one dated 31 October.

The Hotel have advised me that they lease the land from Southampton City Council, and they have tried, and failed, to get Parking Eye to withdraw the Charge Notice.

thread title updated

you will need to know what the hotel actually did so as for copies of the correspondence . email is the most likely method of them communicating wiht PE so ask for a copy to be forwarded and if they muck you about demand it as a SAR cos it is your personal data.

Look up the list of Directors and try phoning and asking to speak to any of them or at least get an email address. Once you get to the top of the tree they may well decide that they can tell PE what to do after all or risk having to fund your battle with them. An Andrew John Fish is the only current director I can find, company secretary is Ms Kelly Adair.

Start being awkward, you cnat breach a contract that doesnt exist even if you fed their parking machine out of the pity you hold for PE

I was lucky enough to correspond with someone who appears to be human, ericsbrother, so I'll try her again.

Would it be reasonable to ask Parking Eye to tell me if they have a contract with the hotel? Or with the local Council?

Grand Harbour won't forward me the email, or at least, the woman I asked tells me she is not authorised to do so.

then ask to speak to either of the 2 people named. Look up their email at ceo email website.

You may ahve got through to a human but they ignored the crux of your complaint and gave a meaningless answer. Be polite but dont take any nonsense as a last word on the matter.

You dont speak or write to PE, you get the owners to sort out this mess so they know that it will hurt them to continue to allow a bunch of bandits free rein over ther land

Way to go, ericsbrother - I WAS going to send them a "holding" response, just saying that I was seeking further advice, but I'll hold off whilst I bombard Grand Harbour and perhaps Southampton City Council re land ownership and on what basis Parking Eye operate. Thank you so much for your help so far.

Good morning,

This is a very interesting thread and has a great deal in common with the situation my wife is in at the moment.

I have followed hollysmum's lead and provided answers to the standard questions as follows:

1. 23 May 2018

2. 31 May 2018

3. 2 June 2018

4. Yes

5. Yes

6. Have you appealed? - yes

Have you had a response? - yes

7. Parkingeye

8. Car park at Grand Habour Hotel, Southampton

Appealed through POPLA and my wife lost her appeal,

The background to my wife's situation is that she attended a meeting at the hotel on the day in question.

A function room, together with refreshments and complimentary parking were part of the package that her company had booked.

My wife was told that a member of the hotel staff would collect VRNs from the meeting attendees. My wife, and one other person, were somehow missed and her VRN was not listed.

My wife did not think any more about it and, during the course of the day, the subject did not arise again. We believe the hotel is at fault and we are disputing this charge on that basis.

Having received the PCN, and lost our appeal, we received a 'gesture of goodwill' offer from Parkingeye dated 13 Sept 2018 saying they would accept a £60 payment, which we ignored.

As with hollysmum, I contacted the hotel and I have a couple of emails from them confirming that Parkingeye had been contacted and the charge was cancelled.

So we were surprised to receive a 'Letter Before County Court Claim' from Parkingeye dated 31 October 2018 (coincidentally the same date as hollysmum's letter).

I have replied to this letter confirming that my wife disputes the PCN and she expects Parkingeye to cancel the it, in line with the hotel's request.

This week I phoned the person at the hotel that I first emailed my wife's complaint to and she confirmed, verbally, that the PCN should have been cancelled.

However, it would seem that she is an intermediary and the complaint would have been handled by someone higher up in the hotel's organisation. I have told her that it is quite likely that I will need written evidence of the hotel's request to Parkingeye and, also, Parkingeye's response.

I believe that hollysmum and ourselves may be able to share some information that could be mutually beneficial. I was looking into who the car park landowner is looks like you've saved me some digging there.

From our side of things, my wife will be attending a two day event at the Grand Harbour Hotel next week (14/15 Nov).

The hotel staff member looking after the attendees is the same person I have been communicating with.

I intend to prime my wife with requests for specific pieces of information that we will need in our dispute. It may be that being there in person may be more effective.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

For hollysmum, and ourselves, maybe we can find out who the relevant managers/direcors are.

By the way, I read that the Grand Harbour Hotel has recently been sold, although I can't see how this would have any bearing on our disputes.

You need to start a new thread

Of your own...

As you say..this thread is for us to advise hollymum

Hi, Jazzman1 - what a coincidence!

My argument, too, was that, as I was using the hotel's facilities, I would have been entitled to park for nothing, but, because I did not make the booking myself, my manager did it online, and because I only work with this employer one day a week, I think she simply forgot to tell me that I could do so.

Also, I put far more than 2 hours worth of money in the ticket machine, whatever printed out on the ticket, and this was the basis of my appeal.

My opinion is that they've already made £4.50 out of me which I didn't need to pay anyway.

try getting your manager to speak to the person who accepted the booking and say that your company expects a refund of £100 to cover each of PE parking claims plus any costs associated with their failure to get the PE notice cancelled including the £5 you actually paid.

One problem many people have is not throwing stone high enough up the tree.

However, often when a small person goes to the top they get ignored as being beneath contempt so then you have to use publicity to cause them a little humiliation. Any dent in their public image usually gets a result.

I had thought of this, too, ericsbrother - she actually left in September, so I'm a bit stuffed on that.

However, I will be writing to the manager of the hotel myself, and also to Southampton City Council, who appear to actually own the land.