Vehiclecontrol/Zenith - can anyone please help?

[hulldebtor]

Hi there all,

In brief;

 

• mother in law (77 yrs old, disabled) parked at parade of shops to do shopping
  

 

• Unaware there was a 2 hr max time, overstayed by 56mins
  

 

• Started getting letters from vehiclecontrol claiming charges
  

 

• After reading up on these matters, decided to ignore them (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing..?)
  

 

• Now getting monthly letters from Zenith threatening further action
  
• Mum-in-law quite perturbed, never had so much as a red reminder bill in all her adult life
  

 

• I've asked her to leave it with me, she needs no worries at her time of life, stated I THINK from what i've read they can only claim lost revenue, not admin charges, fees etc, but that if worst comes to worst I will pay it for her
  

 

• Reading so much vague and conflicting info across various sites, thought I would appeal to the experts for guidance - could anyone help please?
   
  Many thanks in advance
  

[armadillo71]

As zenith are involved then she could probably carry on ignoring the threats of court action.

 

Zenith can do no more than send letters.

 

If something came again from VCS then she may have to respond, depending on the content.

 

If it was anpr capture then the first letter should have been received within fourteen days from the event date.

If it was a windscreen ticket, then the first letter should have been received between twenty nine & fifty six days of the event.

That is for keeper liability to be allowed.

 

If you want to appeal it and get it cancelled... and cost VCS money, then the driver could be named to VCS, and the clock would be reset.

 

The driver ( who is not the rk ) could then start the appeal process and ultimately get the charge cancelled.

This would take a bit of time and more details would be needed...

[hulldebtor]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond Armadillo, very informative - please may I enquire though - at the crux of the matter, has she committed an offence for which she quite rightly owes them money - there is NO charge for the 2 hr parking, so I am wondering what her liability could be under the law - I am willing to pay a reasonable amount if that is the law?

[armadillo71]

She has committed no offence.

 

Need to see the signage and initial NTK, but they are claiming that she has breached the terms and conditions that she supposedly agreed to by parking the car there.

 

In law , the parking charge notice has to be a genuine estimate of the loss that the landowner will experience by the alleged breach. In a free car park that will not be whatever they are asking for...

Now have VCS got authority to issue and pursue parking charge notices as well? That has to be proved as well...

[ericsbrother]

Letters from Zenith are just paper for the bottom of tthe budgie cage, dont espond to them or they will think they have a chance of getting you to pay up and will continue sending their threatograms.

If the place she parked is local to her it may be worth enquirieng from the shopkeepers who owns the land and whether they had any input into employing VCS. If they did then they can get VCS to cancel their "charge".

[hulldebtor]

Letters from Zenith are just paper for the bottom of tthe budgie cage, dont espond to them or they will think they have a chance of getting you to pay up and will continue sending their threatograms.

If the place she parked is local to her it may be worth enquirieng from the shopkeepers who owns the land and whether they had any input into employing VCS. If they did then they can get VCS to cancel their "charge".

 

Thank you for your response