Hospital ParkingCharges

Tell you what, I am going to charge you £70 for posting on this forum but I will reduce the charge to £35 if you pay within the next 14 days. Now tell me what validity my claim has? Answer = zero. Same with Parking Eye who have no more legal standing than I do! Don't even begin to think they have any claim in law because they do not. They are entitled to cover their losses i.e. if it’s a £1/hr and you overstay by 30 mins they are only entitled to 50 pence. I'm not going to waste my breathe on the in and outs of private parking but trust me when I tell you to totally ignore all speculative invoices and all the threatograms you subsequently receive. I have given this advice to numerous friends and colleagues and NOT ONE of them has ever been anywhere near court. If you don't believe me then at least believe this fellow who is a solicitor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1bsrLFAdmk

If anyone tells you the rules have changed since the above was filmed then yes they have but absolutely nothing in princiapal has. It still remains the case that you simply do not pay any private parking company a single penny over and above the loss they incurred in your non payment of the extra time you spent in their car park - end of.
 
It won't hurt to lodge an appeal with them and when they refuse (which they will) then appeal to POPLA to intervene.

It was Parking Eye who sent us the letters and court papers. According to people on Internet they are issuing court papers more and more so don't ignore it but I wouldn't just pay it without appealing. You didn't park so technically wouldn't have needed to pay but on the other hand you can't prove that.
 
BRC, this is the exact point, it is breach of contract. By using the facility you enter into an implied contract with the owner/operator, you pay for the service of renting space for an allotted time. If you don't pay or overstay then you are in breach of contract.

The only recourse for the owner/operator is to claim for breach of contract, the threatening letter is to try and get the unwary to pay up quickly and without fuss.

Don't, if in the unlikely event that they threaten you with legal action, send a recorded letter and without prejudice make a reasonable counter offer as compensation, because that's all they can ask for, that you tied up a parking space that they could have rented.

and in your case, you didn't even park, though they can argue that you were doing somthing for 20 minutes
 
Thank you SARS you've hit the nail on the head. Have to say the first time it happened to my wife I did an awful lot of research and followed the guidance of others who had been through the mill. Exactly as they suggested we received the threatening letters, the so called debt collectors threats and finally the suggestion court papers were to be issued. In reality it was all utter bollocks designed to scare you into paying up.

This speculative invoicing works on the principal of fear because in law it is on very shaky ground. Reminds me of Getty images, who and maybe still are very keen on sending you an invoice for thousands of pounds if you have unknowingly used one of their photographic images. They didn’t/haven’t dared take a case to court because it would fail in law and their whole speculative invoice model would be seen for what it is i.e. a massive con! However, enough people are fooled into paying which is why this vile practice continues to grow ad infinitum
 
BRC said:
Thank you SARS you've hit the nail on the head. Have to say the first time it happened to my wife I did an awful lot of research and followed the guidance of others who had been through the mill. Exactly as they suggested we received the threatening letters, the so called debt collectors threats and finally the suggestion court papers were to be issued. In reality it was all utter bollocks designed to scare you into paying up.

This speculative invoicing works on the principal of fear because in law it is on very shaky ground. Reminds me of Getty images, who and maybe still are very keen on sending you an invoice for thousands of pounds if you have unknowingly used one of their photographic images. They didn’t/haven’t dared take a case to court because it would fail in law and their whole speculative invoice model would be seen for what it is i.e. a massive con! However, enough people are fooled into paying which is why this vile practice continues to grow ad infinitum
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They are taking people to court now though. They were going to take us to court until I got their 'employers' to cancel the case.
Its not wise to advise people they won't get taken to court because we are proof they might.
With that in mind its not clever to ignore all their letters. I would advise to appeal to popla and if that fails then they just may take you to court. You then either have your defence case put forward or you just pay up.
We were ready to put our defence case forward, there was no way i was paying without a fight, but the land owners came good literally at the last minute, two days before we had to put our defence in, if we hadn't we would've been found 'guilty'.

They ARE issuing court papers.
Look at all these....
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=parking+eye+court+summons
 
Carol M, they're only issuing a summons

also, there was one case (the name slips my mind) where the Judge himself asked one of the parking companies for a breakdown of the charges.

On the basis that they were not able to reasonably account for their (arguably) absurd charges, the Judge threw the case out in favour of the defendant also saying that the representative from the parking company might as well keep a toothbrush at the court and a sufficient evidence for future cases. (highly off topic I know and prior to change in legislation, but it certainly makes for good reading)

I'll have a look for the case in question.
 
NeilP said:
Carol M, they're only issuing a summons

also, there was one case (the name slips my mind) where the Judge himself asked one of the parking companies for a breakdown of the charges.

On the basis that they were not able to reasonably account for their (arguably) absurd charges, the Judge threw the case out in favour of the defendant also saying that the representative from the parking company might as well keep a toothbrush at the court and a sufficient evidence for future cases. (highly off topic I know and prior to change in legislation, but it certainly makes for good reading)

I'll have a look for the case in question.
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What do you mean by only issuing a summons? The papers we got were from Nottingham County Court asking for the fine to be paid by a certain date plus solicitors fees plus court fees. If you offer no defence the court will automatically find in their favour and you DO have to pay.
If you do defend the claim then yes, you stand a damn good chance of having it dismissed by the court.
People are giving bad advice on here based on how things were prior to the change in 2012.
It has happened to us so I have experience of what I'm talking about.
 
Reading Pepipoo on this subject seems divisive on this issue as well after the change in 2012. The previous "ignore" advice does not seem to be the default response any more with the court cases being launched.

Not sure what I would do nowadays after the changes as previously I would have taken the "sodd it" approach.
 
Here's our papers, I've covered personal info up but as you can see, they do go to the court to get the money and they will order against you if you don't defend it....

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0e1991d09c126ef18177bcc2dea46c94_zps1d32e865.jpg
 
If you do one thing OP and that is DO NOT engage with Parking Eye. As soon as you do the ball is firmly in their court. Pepipoo is your holy grail here. :thumbsup:
 
Simon_P said:
If you do one thing OP and that is DO NOT engage with Parking Eye. As soon as you do the ball is firmly in their court. Pepipoo is your holy grail here. :thumbsup:
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The advice now is to initially send an appeal to Parking Eye, or whoever issued the 'fine" they, of course, won't allow the appeal and then you go to POPLA to lodge an appeal.

Appealing to PE doesn't put the ball in their court, it is just the correct way to go about your defence of the charge.
 
Carol M said:
Simon_P said:
If you do one thing OP and that is DO NOT engage with Parking Eye. As soon as you do the ball is firmly in their court. Pepipoo is your holy grail here. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

The advice now is to initially send an appeal to Parking Eye, or whoever issued the 'fine" they, of course, won't allow the appeal and then you go to POPLA to lodge an appeal.

Appealing to PE doesn't put the ball in their court, it is just the correct way to go about your defence of the charge.
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That is not what pepipoo advise.
 
Edit: link for all to read

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=16231)
 
If you don't want to get court papers and want to try to stop the charge before hand then the advice is to appeal.
If you don't care about getting to the court stage then yes, ignore all the letters. We did but ended up getting the court papers.....



Carol M said:
Here's our papers, I've covered personal info up but as you can see, they do go to the court to get the money and they will order against you if you don't defend it....

dddf367bbbae5a563288340f84d6a65e_zps2e2ea67b.jpg

0e1991d09c126ef18177bcc2dea46c94_zps1d32e865.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Simon_P said:
Carol M said:
Simon_P said:
If you do one thing OP and that is DO NOT engage with Parking Eye. As soon as you do the ball is firmly in their court. Pepipoo is your holy grail here. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

The advice now is to initially send an appeal to Parking Eye, or whoever issued the 'fine" they, of course, won't allow the appeal and then you go to POPLA to lodge an appeal.

Appealing to PE doesn't put the ball in their court, it is just the correct way to go about your defence of the charge.
Click to expand...

That is not what pepipoo advise.
Click to expand...


Yes they do....
From pepipoo website

"There is an independent "appeals" process, operated by Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA). The grounds on which POPLA will consider an appeal look to be narrow and until the first appeals are heard we don't know the stance it will take. However the appeal costs you nothing and costs the PPC £27+ VAT, so we would recommend that everyone who is so inclined appeals. The best grounds seem to be:
"The parking charge (ticket) exceeds the relevant amount" (if the charge is not valid it should be zero), and;
"I am not liable for the parking charge" (if the charge is an unlawful penalty, or the PPC has no interest in the land to offer a contract, etc there will be no liability)
Even if you lose at POPLA, it's not binding on you and the PPC would still have to go to court if they wanted to pursue their claim. Note that you will have to exhaust the PPC's own so-called "appeals" process before POPLA will consider an appeal to them."
 
Well after reading the Pepipoo website I have appealed the charge with ParkingEye but also as advised not expecting it to be upheld. Already in the process of wording the appeal to POPLA with the help of Pepipoo contributors.
The response to ParkingEye will include a veiled threat to involve HMR&C should they state that the charges are lawful and represent genuine loss because of there costs in administering and maintaining the car park as they have done in previous court hearings (Have copies). That should cause them some concern as they have already claimed for these as normal business costs in their profit and Loss accounts to offset tax liability.
I am assuming they would rather drop the case against me than take on HMR&C. If not it may be worth it just to shop them. May even win and shop them anyway :evil:
 
Well first of all let me just thank all contributors giving advice on the subject of parking charges especially to Carol whose advice was spot on :thumbsup:

Just went through the process taking the appeal to POPLA and won easily as the parking Company did not even try to defend the case having lost every one this year already and many more before that at the tribunal and in Court

In a nutshell never ignore the PCN.
Always give details of the keeper never the driver
Take adive and copy template letters when drafting the appeal from either Pepipoo or Parking Prankster websites.
Don't be put off when your initial appeal is rejected by the parking company it is standard practice and they use template letters and threats also
Request a code and take it to POPLA
Enjoy the feeling of winning
Complain long and hard to local press and MP.

Anyone in the same position feel free to send a private message and i will be only too happy to assist :D
 
Excellent news!

We like a winner over the 'system' :thumbsup:

As long as it's dealt with in the right way then people stand an excellent chance of winning.
 
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