Another Parking Ticket Thread

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Soldato
Joined
25 Apr 2007
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Apologies for posting another one - I've hunted for a straight answer without finding one, so I'm looking for advice or opinions.

A few days ago I took the wife to hospital for a minor operation. The car park is covered by Parking Eye. I typed in my registration plate, coughed up the cash and thought nothing more about it, until a parking charge demand arrived today.

Fortunately I've still got the ticket, which shows I've typed in the registration plate one character out, either because the car is new, I was stressed or simply cack handed. The impression I get is that 'ignore the ticket' is not necessarily the best advice now and I feel I have an extremely strong case for appeal.

Are things enough in my favour to just appeal now via the Parking Eye website and make it go away?
 
Trouble is, if you appeal they will reject it and just harass you more. They're not there to grant your appeals, so generally they don't, even if you have a case.

POPLA are equally useless.

If I was in your shoes i'd pop it in the bin. All the law has done is changed it so that "go away, I am not the driver" is no longer valid, but they still have to prove all the other things like contract law and losses incurred to the value of the "fine", which they can't.
 
I don't like these new "type registration" parking tickets, just another scam from the people running the parking scheme.
 
appeal it and explain your mistake. you paid your money and make a mistake it could happen to anybody.
 
I went to one of these type car parks recently and it said "Enter the last three letters of your registration number". The keypad was numeric. :confused:
 
Tute said:
Trouble is, if you appeal they will reject it and just harass you more. They're not there to grant your appeals, so generally they don't, even if you have a case.

POPLA are equally useless.

If I was in your shoes i'd pop it in the bin. All the law has done is changed it so that "go away, I am not the driver" is no longer valid, but they still have to prove all the other things like contract law and losses incurred to the value of the "fine", which they can't.
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This is pretty much spot on advice. Except don't bin any paperwork, just in case you happen to be the one-in-a-million that gets stamped, official court papers (confirmed by ringing up the court).
Responding with an appeal will only get you a rejection letter, along the lines of:

"blah blah blah, it's the driver's responsibility to input the correct reg, you're now on our *Hooked Fish* database, cough up double the original penalty charge or we'll send even more threat'o'grams, with RED ink!"
Don't give the buggers any more of your time and get over to Pepipoo if you have any concerns (or get a summons).
 
Plenty of advice on the internet saying how you're best just ignoring it as it is an invoice not a fine.

I believe the owner of the car park has to be the one to take you to court, not he management company, so far no one has been taken to court, and the reasons for that is that they would only be able to claim their lost revenue (certainly no where near the amount of the fine).

If the car park was not full, they have not lost money but you parking there (besides which you have paid so again they have lost nothing) hence they wouldn't get anything through court.

There is a reason the advice is to ignore these and no one ever gets taken to court, they make their money from people who fold in to the demands for payment, there is simply no money in taking people to court for a parking fine.

I'm surprised the government haven't done something about private company parking 'fines', as the fine you agree to in the contract is designed as a penalty and nothing to do with cost to them, lost revenue etc etc therefore it is an unfair contract term and unenforceable - plenty of people get bullied into paying, they have stopped private clamping but let them bully people into paying under unenforceable contract terms?
 
I hate these car parks, I think it was parking eye that tried and failed to get my mum to pay a fine. We just ignored it and it went away. Best thing to do is to pay a bit extra and go into a well know car park.
 
On the note of parking companies, am I right in saying they can't tow you away either? Are there any circumstances where they can?
 
1. Stop calling them "Fines" - they're "Speculative Invoices for an Unenforceable Penalty Charge".
2. Since the law change on 01.10.2012, no private company can clamp or tow your vehicle for the purposes of enforcing payment of an undisputed debt.

Only the Police, Local Authority and Court appointed bailiffs (with a warrant) have that power.

3. If you need any help with the above, www.pepipoo.com have an excellent advice forum with some experienced and knowledgeable members.
 
Thanks for the advice. As it happens, I appealed it last night after following MSE's step-by-step recommendations. My appeal in no way states it was me driving or anything else implicating me personally, simply that the parking invoice should be rescinded because of the reasons above.

I am in no way shape or form ever paying them any money unless it goes to court and I lose. So I either appeal and it's rejected and goes to court with me feeling a bit more in control of events, or I ignore the letters and stand a similar chance of eventually going to court anyway.

Whatever the outcome, if they're unreasonable, I'll make extremely sure that it costs them far more than 70 quid in time and effort to claim off me.
 
Problem is they are probably going for the "failure to correctly display a ticket" (or in this case correctly fill out the details) route and will just ignore any appeal.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Hope so, then you can use the lottery money to pay the court fees :)
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From what I read there'd not be anything to pay beyond the 70 quid if it went to court and that the parking company are unlikely to be awarded costs.

EDIT and if the appeal goes to POPLA, it costs the parking company £32.40. No idea how they remain profitable - presumably people just cough up out of fear.
 
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If it went to court, and if they won, they would never win the fine as it's an unfair amount. At most they might get a few pounds, perhaps plus costs.

Profit comes from all the people who believe it is actually a fine and not an invoice, and therefore pay up out of fear.
 
I doubt they'd even get the few pounds in this case, as the OP presumably can prove he bought a ticket, hence the losses are zero.

Appealing was stupid though, you'll get harassed for far longer than you would if you'd ignored it. :p
 
To provide closure to the thread, I got a letter today telling me that the penalty charge has been waived on this occasion, but that I should be more careful keying in the registration plate in future.

A good result, but probably the luck of the draw.
 
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