Parking Eye PCN

[ski1382]

Hi guys, following a very successful fight with Coward Howen (with the assistance of MANY CAGers) I thought I would share another experience with you all.

 

Two weeks after returning from a holiday in the South of England, I received a "Parking Charge Notice to Owner" from ParkingEye. I had been in car park in question for less than 15 mins as I was dropping off my wife and children. After they had been dropped off I then went and parked on a side road location. Having been stopped (but not parked) for such a such a short period, the idea of paying for an hour + of parking never entered my head.

 

I had a quick read on MSE website and decided I had several grounds of appeal - firstly that the vehicle was never "parked" in the first place, secondly that there were mitigating circumstances, those being the safety of my children (not wishing to drop them off on a busy road), and finally that the letter only arrived on the same day as the charge must be paid. At this point, I perhaps made a slight error in actually acknowledging the letter by writing back to them using the MSE template.Within the letter I do state that I would be prepared to pay the relevant parking fee for the amount of time I was actually on the car park.

 

I am fairly confident that, if it ever did end up in the county court, my offer to pay the fee due would be considered fair.

 

Anyone got any comments?

[Andy77799]

Parking Eye...Just ignore everything they send you and don`t pay a penny, it is not a fine but an invoice made to look like one.

Read more on here if you are unsure.

[dx100uk]

couldn't of read MSE very well then......

 

its a speculative invoice not a parking fine..

 

totally ignore

 

dx

[MARTIN3030]

Anyone got any comments?

 

Why dont you ask MSE ?

[ski1382]

couldn't of read MSE very well then......

 

its a speculative invoice not a parking fine..

 

totally ignore

 

dx

 

Yep, fair comment!

[ski1382]

 

Anyone got any comments?

 

Why dont you ask MSE ?

 

Sorry, did not realise you were mortal enemies, thought we were all in this for the same outcome - to fight unfair practices?? Anyway, enough said.

[DBC]

There is some very old advice on MSE saying write one letter to a PPC. But most posters on there now disagree with that, and just tell worried motorists to completely ignore the parking companies.

This is the latest advice on there:-

 

1) PPC tickets (referred to by some as toilet paper ) are NOT fines or fixed penalties, they are invoices based on a presumed contract with the driver.

 

2) When posting, please don't mention your vehicle make/model or exact location and most importantly do NOT say who was driving. PPC trolls do read these and other forums and may try to use this information against you. Do not post any info that may identify you. It isn't usually necessary to post the 'ticket' from a PPC.

 

3) PPC charges have been shown to be generally unenforceable in Court, and they hardly ever issue proceedings, despite the threats in their intimidatory letters.

 

4) Do NOT write to the PPC to 'appeal' the ticket - the appeals process is a complete sham, they just want your money and thus will reject the 'appeal'.

 

5) If you don't take action on the ticket, the PPC will get the registered keeper's details from the DVLA. The registered keeper has no liability, since the presumed contract was formed with the driver. And, if you don't tell the PPC who was driving, they don't have a case.

 

6) Ignore the ticket completely until they've bought your details from the DVLA (costs just £2.50) and write to the registered keeper. Opinions vary on whether to send a template letter in reply or simply ignore all correspondence, however, anecdotal evidence from this forum and others such as Pepipoo indicates that with the 'ignoring everything' option they will give up after a few scary looking letters and false threats of bailiffs/CCJs/credit record entries.

I am unaware of any animosity between the two forums.

[esmerobbo]

The problem with writing anything to these companies is you don't get an answer, they have several template letters and whoever is on letter opening duty that day, sends you what they believe to be the most relevant template.

More often then not it is totally irrelevant to the letter you wrote them.

Hence I believe the now long existing belief that ignoring them from the outset is the best way to deal with them.

 

I also echo DBC I do not think CAG and MSE have any problems working to the same end regarding PPC's.

Edited June 12, 2011 by esmerobbo