Parking charge scum

Have you read any of the parking threads on the MSE Forum?

It’s not a conversation you appeal the charge on the basis that it is too high. The folks that issued it will reject the appeal with notification that you can appeal to POPLA. you do that, with a standard letter. They review the charge and tell you you don’t need to pay it. There is no conversation

Charlie – that used to be the case BUT IT IS NO LONGER.

POPLA are now rejecting appeals that use ‘genuine pre-estimate of loss’ or ‘too high’ as the basis – several examples on the web, eg:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=105206

Have you successfully appealed to POPLA on that basis since Beavis?

Have you read any of the parking threads on the MSE Forum?

If the question is to me – then yes.

Have you read them specifically wrt excessive penalties post Beavis?

There are other grounds for appeal but that specific appeal is no longer valid, and there’s plenty on MSE to confirm that too.

No. But it appears that many on MSE have. Also it is a very simple process to appeal these charges on a whole raft of reasons and hope one hits.

However it seems molgrips is ok with that and has a problem with the £60 letter. Well, that is much easier to justify and I can find any one of a number of lawyers who will support that in writing if he wants

Also it is a very simple process to appeal these charges on a whole raft of reasons and hope one hits.

True.

But it won’t be excessive charges that’ll be the one that does any more, which was what you said.

“It’s not a conversation you appeal the charge on the basis that it is too high”

We can’t post off, it’s a larger car park that some residents also pay to have space in, and we have frequent deliveries and visitors to us and other businesses.

If you pay for nominated bays why can’t you put a padlocked drop able post in each? That’s what the businesses around here that have a similar set-up do (shops backing onto public car park with allocated parking behind each unit, rest of car park is pay and display).

Also it is a very simple process to appeal these charges on a whole raft of reasons and hope one hits.

True.
But it won’t be excessive charges that’ll be the one that does any more, which was what you said.
“It’s not a conversation you appeal the charge on the basis that it is too high”

I’m glad we agree

On one point, we do 😉

If you pay for nominated bays why can’t you put a padlocked drop able post in each? That’s what the businesses around here that have a similar set-up do (shops backing onto public car park with allocated parking behind each unit, rest of car park is pay and display).

It’s another option, but has other problems. Interested, read on…..

The car park as a whole is oversubscribed, deliberately, because in the day time most people have their cars out at work and therefore there should be spaces. Should be, not always.

Evenings and weekends, on road restrictions are relaxed so it doesn’t matter if the car park is full there are options, it’s a first come first served basis. Daytimes, on road parking is permit only or 2 hour P&D and because we aren’t residents we can’t have resident permits, and can’t make do with 2 hours hence we have to use all day parking in the town’s car parks (or park for 2 hours on the road and hope a space comes available in the meantime)

All we ask as a business is that our spaces (marked and signed) are left free from 0800-1800 weekdays. It’s give and take (although it’s become more give by us and more take by them recently); and we don’t mind if they use our spaces out of business hours. If we used a post system we’d have to lock them at the end of the business day to be sure they’d be available the next day, and also over the w/end to be free Monday morning, and the residents lose them full stop.

Hence why contracting a PPC to ticket anyone that doesn’t display a permit between the hours of 8am and 6pm Mon-Fri is looking like the most viable solution. Then people who can follow simple rules can still benefit, those that can’t get ****.

Fair enough, that is more complicated. I’m not sure I’d be so generous to the residents in your position.

Essentialy these charges can now be enforced in court but:
They may or may not take it to court.
The charge has to be reasonable to their loss of you parking where you parked etc
They have to give you reasonable notice of where to park and the charges, i.e. warning signs etc

If you are willing to pay the £100 but not the £60 then i would try offering them that. I do think that if their notices state a parking charge of £100 it is unreasonable of them to then try and charge a total of £160 off the bat, especially as £100 is already at the high end of what could be considered a reasonable charge for a days parking.

If they refuse the £100 then i would be happy for them to take me to court. armed with evidence that I had offered to pay them £100 promptly and they turned this down.

Do note though that i am not a lawyer and i dont take responsibility for any advise i have given etc 😉

Maybe. Because the judges in the Beavis case made it very clear that their ruling applied very specifically just to the circumstances involved in that case. In different circumstances the ruling doesn’t apply. IIRC Beavis involved an overstay in a car park which was free for a certain amount of time. molly’s case doesn’t appear to be for that, hence Beavis can’t be applied simply – I’ve seen judgements reported where the judge basically threw out the PPC attempting to use Beavis.

I’d be interested to see the exact wording of the signs, because IIRC cases of parking somewhere where it is impossible for anybody to park at any time without being subject to an excessive parking charge have been thrown out even since Beavis.

Regarding your parking situation, I think most people would agree it is reasonable for you to keep other people out of your spaces and have some means of deterring them. The trouble is mostly PPCs don’t act reasonably (and the majority of situations don’t involve people being inconvenienced in the way you are) – and unfortunately that is also likely to be the case if you employ one, because they are almost universally as somebody put it earlier, scum. The trouble is, it wouldn’t even be in their interests to stop people parking there – simply to get as many people as possible breaking the rules and parking there so they can issue them with charges, because that’s how they make their money.