I got a prking ticket for parking in residents bay at a friends apartment block in sheffield. I had his full permission to park from him, its his flat, his parking place. He owns the flat, its not rented.

so i got a parking ticket, asking for £80, which i tried to appeal against but got a letter telling me the appeal has been denied. So, based on some advce from mates i ignored it and let them chase me. now ive got another ‘official’ letter saying the fines gone up to £120.

can i fight this? or shall i just stump it up? am i being mugged off?

Just ignore it – it has no legal force

Your first mistake was entering into a dialogue with them.

So who gave the parking company permission to fine people in your friend’s space?

This one sounds a bit different than the usual ones but trying to get through to these idiots will probably prove fruitless so you would be best ignoring them.

Private land and enforcement contracted out to some company?

In almost all cases they can just be ignored.

Just ignore it – it has no legal force

This.

the probelm is, at present the car is still registered to my parent’s house, and my mother is kicking off 🙄 i only entered into a dialogue to appeal as i thought it was straight forward common sense that i had the property owner’s permission.

so are we sure that their bark is worse than thier bite??

Ignore. They’ll give up after a few letters. Maybe 10 or so. If you hadn’t contacted them they would have given up after 4 or 5.

TSY – you still getting letters or have they given up?

Send the letter back with the emvelope, with ‘no longer at this address’ written on it.

my mother is kicking off

Show her this thread (or a million others).

The letters are designed to scare you into giving them free money. It’s not a ‘ticket’ or a fine, it’s an invoice. They have no legal authority despite how much red ink and CAPITALS they use and how many last chances they give you. It’s a borderline legal scam, and hopefully isn’t going to last much longer.

DO NOT reply to them. DO NOT send them any money. DO tell your mother to wind her neck in. (-:

In theory, if they wanted to take it any further they would have to be able to prove who was using the car when it was parked there.. they can’t just fine the registered keeper.. and you would not have to volunteer the information.

In practice, ignore the letters until they go away.. they rely on people just coughing up – it’s not worth their while to pursue it any further.

In theory, if they wanted to take it any further they would have to be able to prove who was using the car when it was parked there.. they can’t just fine the registered keeper.. and you would not have to volunteer the information.

In practice, ignore the letters until they go away.. they rely on people just coughing up – it’s not worth their while to pursue it any further.

They can’t fine anyone 😉

just ignore it and everything that follows.

you will possibly get some scary looking letters from Graham White Soliciters/Roxbourgh debt collectors. Ignore these to

DO NOT have anymore contact with them

Have a look on pepipoo for a bit more re-assurance, and the letter chains you might expect. Its quite fun to tick them off as they arrive.

Don’t get cold feet and pay for gods sake..

Their latest desparate tactic seems to involve raising the price letter by letter, then suddenly dropping it to less than the original demand in a pathetic attempt to try and extort some cash.

You may even get the ‘there will be a home visit in 72hrs if you don’t pay up’ letter

But the question surely is – if his mate OWNS the space, then why are these people charging people to park there?

Has he given them the permission to do so?

Have they ‘fined’ anyone else for parking in his space without his knowledge?

Shouldn’t he get the proceeds from these penalties?

But the question surely is – if his mate OWNS the space, then why are these people charging people to park there?

I think if you employ these particular type of crooks – part of the contract is that they have an agreed criterea [ie anyone without a pass] and that’s what’s followed without land owner being able to overrule on an adhoc basis

I think if you employ these particular type of crooks – part of the contract is that they have an agreed criterea [ie anyone without a pass] and that’s what’s followed without land owner being able to overrule on an adhoc basis

But who do they have the contract with? Is there an association attached to the development?

But the question surely is – if his mate OWNS the space, then why are these people charging people to park there?

Has he given them the permission to do so?

Have they ‘fined’ anyone else for parking in his space without his knowledge?

Shouldn’t he get the proceeds from these penalties?

I’ve got a similar situation where I live. The property factors suddenly appointed a parking company to patrol and ticket anyone not displaying a permit. I told them to shove it and wouldn’t be displaying anything for parking my own car on my own land. I’ve no doubt the parking company and factors are in cahoots with the factors getting a cut of any money raised from tickets.

It’s hard to decide who rates higher on the Scum of the Earth scale; property factors or parking companies.

Generally with these letters, the amount of money and the level of threat increases until the point where they absolutely insist that they will take you to court, as they have successfully done with others in the past. About two weeks after this final letter, you get a letter offering you a chance to pay a reduced amount as you now appear to be their mate.

Ignore this one and they will a) stop sending letters or b) sell the debt to another firm for a minimal amount to recoup their letter writing costs. This new bunch will offer to let you pay 50 – 60% of the original fine as they only paid a pittance for the debt anyway. This is where we are at the moment. My wife was very tempted by the last letter as she isn’t as bloody minded as me and would like it to go away.

Keep the letters they’re an excellent conversation piece.

But how on earth can someone charge someone else for parking on land not owned by them (and therefore they couldn’t possibly have a perceived right to even attempt to extort money in the first place)!

Use their address to subscribe to some of the more interesting catalogues you can order products from. Though do remember to make sure you use “The Manager” as the addressee.

Think it’s only fair.

b) sell the debt to another firm for a minimal amount to recoup their letter writing costs

They don’t sell the debts on. The various debt collection companies that contact you are just another desk in whatever portakabin the crooks operate out of.

But how on earth can someone charge someone else for parking on land not owned by them (and therefore they couldn’t possibly have a perceived right to even attempt to extort money in the first place)!

Because they’re amoral bastards and people are scared of official-looking letters.

But how on earth can someone charge someone else for parking on land not owned by them (and therefore they couldn’t possibly have a perceived right to even attempt to extort money in the first place)!

They can’t, but they rely on ignorance. I wrote to every resident in my street telling them they didn’t need to display a permit and they didn’t need to pay anything.

One girl contacted me saying she’d paid loads of times as she’d lost her permit or it had fallen off her dashboard or window and she’d been parked on her own land. 😯 I helped her lodge a small claim to get her money back from them.

My wife’s employer did the same after they ticketed her company car. Again they stupidly paid the tickets and when they came to us for the costs we told them the situation (which we’d actually contacted them in advance about but they forgot). Again they took the parking company to court to get the money back.

Barmy.

the amount of money and the level of threat increases until the point where they absolutely insist that they will take you to court

Who are they going to take to court?
They can’t take the registered keeper of the vehicle to court only the driver

a. they’re not going to
b. they don’t know who it is, unless you tell them