Does anyone know what the crack is with these lot at the moment? I.e. whether they can actually get money out of me or whether I should just ignore letters etc.

The GF took my car to work a couple of weeks ago and instead of popping my number plate into the ticket machine put her own cars number plate in there, hence the ticket.

What’s the consensus? Pay or ignore or appeal (as she paid… except it was for the car sitting at home! Arrrrggh!!)

They ticketed me a while back, I’m in the “ignore” stage which looks like it will be the only stage.

It’s a frustrating thing, where there’s a reasonable appeal but to do so, you need to engage with the ****s. There should be a way of appealing first, then ignoring them 😉

Do not ignore… They are doing court summons for people who ignore.
You need to appeal. You don’t need to pay, however you need to do some work
Go to pepipoo and read up on how to appeal using no genuine pre estimate of loss
Do it sooner rather than later or you might find papers from Northampton county court on the door step…

Ah, hang on- I was forgetting the law is different in England and Scotland, it could be my comments are unhelpful!

Thanks for the advice. I’ll check that website out. Cheers

Just had a second letter.
12 mins late = £100.
How the heck are they £100 out of pocket…
Ckin scandalous.

Do we not democratically vote a government in to serve & protect us every 5yrs…well Mr Cameron FFS, serve your public & put an end to the misery that this bunch of scumbags cause & shut them down.

£100! ‘kin scumbags!

Anyone recommend whether I should just pay and then appeal or appeal without paying? It goes from £40 to £70 on 22nd Feb and I’m not confident they will be swift at evaluating an appeal before then..

I don’t want them to just reject it and then end up another £30 out of pocket..

Cheers

Get on the pepipoo forums straight away for proper advice to sort it and make it go away without paying a penny. A simple POPLA appeal sorts it all.

I got one last July have completely ignored, they stopped.

Right,
Go read advice on pepipoo.
What you need to grasp is they will reject your appeal. In doing that they HAVE to supply you with the code to go to an independent appeals prosess (popla) there is a very very good success rate at popla if you appeal using the tack of not a genuine pre estimate of loss…
It will make sense if you read….. Don’t pay, don’t ignore.

Popla …invoke their (Parking Eyes) appeals procedure they will say your appeal is unsuccessful get a POPLA number from them which is an INDEPENDANT APPEAL costs Parking eye 27 quid

One of the main things to point out is regardless of time spent everyone pays a 100 quid fine , not fair charges and loss must be apportioned on a scale of time etc the parking company has to be able to demonstrate that the charge is a genuine pre-estimate of loss and therefore you put it that any REASONABLE individual would agree it cost 100 quid for anyone to use a carpark when the charge is only 1 quid ,for this to happen you would use 100 of their spaces for free for an hour

Get as many points in to countermand their silly pointless forms ,point out how they are in the wrong ,incorrect signage above head height not visible poorly cut trees hiding signs, and the kicker are they even entitled to collect on that site as some think its a blanket policy and the rules are different from carpark to car park.

Been through this and made money out of them.

Do we not democratically vote a government in to serve & protect us every 5yrs…well Mr Cameron FFS, serve your public & put an end to the misery that this bunch of scumbags cause & shut them down.

Nothing to do with anything. Go through the correct process and revel in the fact you cost them £27 by making them give you a popla code

There’s two basic reasons to appeal based on the size of the ‘fine’ – and it’s in inverted commas because it can’t be a fine because that’s not allowed under this part of law. (There are loads of others re technicalities, like not displaying the proper signage, and so on)

It’s either a contractual thing- you entered a contract by parking there, in which case you have to appeal that it is an unfair contract as the costs are way out of line with the company’s incurred costs and value of the contract.

Or it’s a fee to cover their costs, in which case you challenge based upon the fine not being an accurate pre-estimate of their losses. How can it be accurate when A it’s such a high and round number, and B if you pay up quickly the losses are 40% lower?

You need to ascertain, what their charge is actually for and then counter appropriately. If they don’t answer, counter with both and also that if they don’t know then how can you counter it effectively. And ask that they cancel or if not then issue you with a POPLA appeal number.

Loads on the web, but also on the CAB website.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_cars_and_other_vehicles_e/consumer_driving_and_parking_e/consumer_parking_tickets_e/consumer_parking_tickets_on_private_land_e/youve_got_a_parking_ticket_from_a_bpa_parking_company_what_can_you_do.htm

I had a penalty charge mailed from Parking Eye this summer after overstaying my time in Watergate Bay carpark, Cornwall (hard to estimate time when you’re having so much fun surfing).

Ignored the threatening letters and then after about the third letter I decided to phone them up. I basically told them I’d be happy to pay for what they’ve lost in parking revenue (about £2) but that was it, and they wouldn’t be getting a penny more.

I gave them three clear choices:

1. Either send me an invoice for the £2 of lost revenue which I’d be happy to pay.

2. Keep wasting their own time and money by continuing to send threatening letters, which I would continue to ignore before filing in the waste bin.

3. Or they could just get on with it, make good on their threats and take me to court.

They did none of those things and after the phone call the letters simply stopped coming. 😀

Don’t forget that these companies make money from the vulnerable, the scared, and those that don’t understand contract law. Fight your corner and they’ll soon move on to much easier prey.

Ignored two from one year and three months ago, threats of action then nothing, yet.

Im with northwind. Last February I went into a carpark in shef and the only ticket machine wasnt working. So I figured out of use meant dont worry about it. Anyway I got several letters through.

I did contemplate contesting it – but that would have involved talking to them. So I ignored it – got a few letters and have heard nothing more since last summer

Unfortunately my car is owned by my employer who is terrified of even a whiff of court action against their squeaky-clean name so I’m under pressure to pay when I get caught. I did ignore a cinema car park ticket a few years ago and they went away but I believe the law has changed slightly since then in favour of the car park owner.

To kill a couple of myths:

1) If you ignore the letters, they’ll go away – no longer true.
2) There has been a recent change in the law – there hasn’t.

What has changed is that these parking companies (don’t know about this one specifically) are generally more willing to pursue these, including to court if they think they’ve got their ducks in order. So, where a couple of years ago the advice to “ignore it and it will go away” generally held true, it is no longer wise advice. Simply, the “ignore it and it will go away” advice had spread so widely that hardly anyone was paying up, so the firms have had to show that they will actually pursue cases to court to keep the money rolling in.

The advice above about formally contesting / appealing the charges is the way to go.

There has been a recent change in the law – there hasn’t.

Actually, there has. The Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) came into effect last year and that has changed the game. Previously the parking companies could only pursue the driver at the time of the alleged parking infringement. The POFA now allows the parking company to pursue the registered keeper if they fail or refuse to identify the driver. This is why Parking Eye are very litigious as it was impossible to prove who the driver was, but now the RK can be held liable they’re far more willing to take people to court.

Regardless, as above it can be killed with a simple POPLA appeal.

Honestly I don’t know why people worry about stuff like this. Why not just tell them to get on with it and let it go to court? The likeleyhood is minute that it will get this far – it’s just not worth their time and money to pursue cases to court. Plus they can only claim in court for actual loss suffered by the landowner plus an amount towards fee/expenses if they can prove these are reasonable and they win. Highly unlikely, but save yourself the bother – just tell them to put up or shut up.

+1 on you cant ignore now. True, they may give it up as a bad job, but if they do decide to pursue to court and you haven’t been responsive at appealing through the correct and available channels up to that point, then it counts against you at that point when you use the same arguments that you had the opportunity to use before, plus their costs in pursuing to court will be higher.

Is someone able to post up the parking T&Cs, or email them to me?

Sounds like liquidated damages are being presented as a “fine”? I’d be quite keen to see how they’ve put that together. LD’s are a sensitive beast at the best of times, never mind in circumstances like this.

+1 on you cant ignore now.

Wrong, of course you can ignore their letter, the same as you can legally ignore an one else’s letter that arrives through your letterbox. Despite the recent small change in the law meaning that the PPC’s can pursue the registered keeper, a private parking charge is just as unenforceable as before. See this link for what to do and how unlikely the PPC are to win even if you’re one of the TINY handfull of cases annually that actually go to court, but I’d save yourself the bother and just ignore.

Private Parking Ticket – What to Do.

+1 on you cant ignore now.

Wrong, of course you can ignore their letter, the same as you can legally ignore an one else’s letter that arrives through your letterbox. Despite the recent small change in the law meaning that the PPC’s can pursue the registered keeper, a private parking charge is just as unenforceable as before. See this link for what to do and how unlikely the PPC are to win even if it does go to court, but I’d save yourself the bother and just ignore.

Private Parking Ticket – What to Do.

Pepipoo is littered with forum posts about people that ignored the letters. The next thing they know they’re getting court papers. Some are ignoring those and getting default judgements against them. Some are turning up in court with pisspoor defences and the parking companies are winning in court.

The advice for England and Wales is definitely do not ignore anymore. Parking Eye take ignorers to court without fail. They rely on both the ignorance of the RK or driver, and also in some cases the courts.

There are two options:

Option 1
Appeal to parking eye – use arguments from Pepipoo e.g. GPEOL, PPC has no ability to offer contract
Parking eye will reject it
Demand POPLA code. This will cost Parking Eye £27
Appeal to POPLA again using guidance from Pepipoo. GPEOL is a guaranteed winner

Option 2
Ignore everything Parking Eye sends you until they file a court claim
Turn up in court and argue your case
Run the risk of capitulating, self incriminating yourself or having a judge that sides with Parking Eye

Option 1 is the only sensible choice, it costs you nothing and will infact cost Parking Eye £27 for the POPLA appeal.

Difference is, that they now can legitimately pursue the RK, so you can’t hide behind not telling them to make it difficult to issue papers. You / the link quotes 49 cases annually; actually that is the number that were contested / went to court, there were closer to 1000 issued and you can’t ignore court papers or you’ll get a judgement against by default. Sure still a small number as a % of threats, and a small number going from papers issued to actual proceedings (stats don’t record why 95% dont end up in court, but will include those that do admit and cough up after papers were issued). And that number is for a year that predates the law change, so with papers being issuable against the RK now, it’s a lot easier for the PPC to simply sling more mud in the expectation that 5% of a far bigger number is a bigger number.

As I said – appeal direct to them for legitimate reasons, then if / when they reject your appeal go to the POPLA appeal process, which already costs them 27 quid, and which they rarely win. And then finally if they do win, you can still refuse to pay and they’ll have to take to court anyway.

[Edit, took a while to write my post / look up numbers, so covered also by the post above]

Pepipoo is littered with forum posts about people that ignored the letters. The next thing they know they’re getting court papers. Some are ignoring those and getting default judgements against them. Some are turning up in court with pisspoor defences and the parking companies are winning in court.

The advice for England and Wales is definitely do not ignore anymore. Parking Eye take ignorers to court without fail. They rely on both the ignorance of the RK or driver, and also in some cases the courts.

Really? I doubt very much. It is even rumoured that PPC’s have been posting on Pepipoo posing as punters being taken to court to try and scare the public even further that the rumours about court are true. Can’t be bothered to trawl through the forums but I assume you have plenty of proof?

but I assume you have plenty of proof?

I have ignored them, now I have received County Court Papers

I ignored all correspondence

I ignored the letters they sent

etc etc

Try this from the freemen on the land(please let me know if it works):-
“””In care of:
{your address, less Postcode}
Near: [{your Postcode}]
{date}
Re: FIXED PENALTY NOTICE {reference} – {issued date}
Notice of Discharge of Outstanding Penalty Notice and Request for Clarification.
{their address}
You have apparently made allegations of criminal conduct against me. You have apparently made demands upon me. I do not understand those apparent demands and therefore cannot lawfully fulfil them. I seek clarification of your document so that I may act according to the law and maintain my entire body of inalienable Natural Rights.
Failure to accept this offer to clarify and to do so completely and in good faith within 7 days will be deemed by all parties to mean you and your principal or other parties abandon all demands upon me.
I conditionally accept your offer to agree that I am legal fiction ‘person’ {NAME} and that I owe £{amount demanded} for services rendered by your company, upon proof of claim of all of the following:
1. Upon proof of claim that I am a ‘person’ and not a human being.
2. Upon proof of claim that you know what a ‘person’ actually is, legally speaking.
3. Upon proof of claim that you know what the difference between a ‘human being’ and a ‘person’ actually is, legally speaking.
4. Upon proof of claim that I am {NAME} and not {Name}.
5. Upon proof of claim that the charge was the result of a lawful investigation unmarred by prejudice.
6. Upon proof of claim that I am a member of the society whose statutes and subsisting regulations you are enforcing.
7. Upon proof of claim that I showed you some sort of identification.
8 Upon proof of claim that there is a nameable society that I belong to and that the laws covered within this alleged transgression state that they apply to me within that named society.
Sincerely and without ill will, vexation or frivolity
{Signature}
Without any admission of any liability whatsoever, and with all Indefeasible, Natural, Rights reserved.
Notes (read carefully). Replace items in Curly Brackets, “{}”, with the specific information.
{your address, less PostCode} – What it says, do not add the PostCode here.
{your PostCode} – What it says, leave this enclosed in Square Brackets.
{date} – Date your letter as normal.
{reference} – The Reference Number on the PCN.
{issued date} – The Date of the PCN.
{their address} – The return address given on the PCN.
{NAME} – Type the name exactly as it appears on the PCN, using capitals letters as they will appear in the letter to you, example JOHN JAMES ARTHUR SMITH.
{amount demanded} – Type in the amount demanded on the PCN.
{Name} – Type your Given Names and Surname in upper and lower case as normal, example John James Arthur Smith.
{Signature} – Handwrite (as normal) using upper and lower-case as normal. Either sign as all your Given Names hyphenated, followed by a colon, “:”, and then your Surname OR all your Given Names hyphenated, followed by the colon, “:”, followed by “of the {Surname} family”.
Examples:
John-James-Arthur: Smith or
John-James-Arthur: of the Smith family.
*** DON’T FORGET TO REMOVE THIS PAGE. In fact the safest thing to do it to copy/paste the first page only, into an original/new file in your own documents. And work from there. This should prevent ‘accidents’(?)***”””

Just in case anyone has picked up a fine at Aldi.
they have 1hr free parking then parking eye start fining you.
My SIL who is disabled picked up a fine for staying over the hour, when i saw it i went fairly mental and rang aldi, i asked for the manager of the store, and they said is it about parking? we have are own team that deals with PE fines! WTF! you employ these people to manage your car parks and then set up a team to manage the bad PR.
They were very pleasant and the fine went away in moments (SIL reg number was added to the extended parking list.)
so if you get one at aldi speak to them not PE.

Just in case anyone has picked up a fine at Aldi.
they have 1hr free parking then parking eye start fining you.
My SIL who is disabled picked up a fine for staying over the hour, when i saw it i went fairly mental and rang aldi, i asked for the manager of the store, and they said is it about parking? we have are own team that deals with PE fines! WTF! you employ these people to manage your car parks and then set up a team to manage the bad PR.
They were very pleasant and the fine went away in moments (SIL reg number was added to the extended parking list.)
so if you get one at aldi speak to them not PE.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4660007

If you do that freeman crap I’m going to beat you with a stick. Just sayin.

BoardinBob – Member

but I assume you have plenty of proof?

I have ignored them, now I have received County Court Papers

I ignored all correspondence

I ignored the letters they sent

etc etc

I’m sorry but not one of those links refers to an actual court case where someone has actually been taken to court and the PPC has won. Receiving court papers or a solicitors threat of court action in not the same thing as actually being taken to court – it’s merely the last threat the PC can use in the hope to scare you into paying up, nothing more, nothing less.

Cheers for the info all. First appeal letter written and sent explaining; incorrect reg entered, no ability to offer contract, GPEOL.

Just gonna wait for them to reject and then go down this POPLA route.

Thanks again

Receiving court papers IS being taken to court.
It is so easy to appeal and win I can’t see why people don’t. It costs the ppc’s real money to supply a popla code

I’d be really interested if any of the parking eye ignorers on here could post back if they get genuine court papers.
They’ll be from Northampton county court, it’s the bulk clearing centre for these things. Remember they have up to 6 months to bring a claim so you might have got to the end of the letter chain recently and think they’ve just left you alone. The next thing is the court claim.

Oh, and that freeman of the land nonsense is just that, nonsense!

If you do that freeman crap I’m going to beat you with a stick. Just sayin.

At first i thought you were talking about Nick Freeman and wondered why on earth you’d not want him…but then I realised it was freeman of the land. It makes my blood boil when i see those youtube videos of people trying to avoid police by hiding in their car and spouting that pish. I’d vote for a statute which prohibited reference to freeman of the land 🙂

I’m sorry but not one of those links refers to an actual court case where someone has actually been taken to court and the PPC has won. Receiving court papers or a solicitors threat of court action in not the same thing as actually being taken to court – it’s merely the last threat the PC can use in the hope to scare you into paying up, nothing more, nothing less

I ignored this…I have been ordered to pay over £260 including costs as I did not reply to the claim form

I just told my dad to ignore their scary letters…Bailiff showed up…out of pocket almost £3000 (with bailiff and court charges)

I did a bit of googling and read a few threads which advised to ignore this…I have been ordered to pay over £260 including costs as I did not reply to the claim form

Receiving court papers IS being taken to court.

No it’s not, going to court is being taken to court. Receiving court papers is just a necessary step before this can happen – it doesn’t mean you’re actually going to court.

BoardinBob – Member

I’m sorry but not one of those links refers to an actual court case where someone has actually been taken to court and the PPC has won. Receiving court papers or a solicitors threat of court action in not the same thing as actually being taken to court – it’s merely the last threat the PC can use in the hope to scare you into paying up, nothing more, nothing less

I ignored this…I have been ordered to pay over £260 including costs as I did not reply to the claim form

I just told my dad to ignore their scary letters…Bailiff showed up…out of pocket almost £3000 (with bailiff and court charges)

I did a bit of googling and read a few threads which advised to ignore this…I have been ordered to pay over £260 including costs as I did not reply to the claim form

I’m sorry but that first and second link sound very fishy. Like I said it’s well known on Pepipoo that there have been PPC’s posting as forum users trying to say how they have been shafted by the court after ignoring letters from a PPC. Seems like a pure scare tactic to me.

The last link is in a council car park. You can’t ignore stuff from the council, you’ll either have to appeal or pay up. Private stuff is completely different.

Do you have any genuine links to real cases you can post as I’d be interested to hear.

“Receiving court papers IS being taken to court.”

“No it’s not, going to court is being taken to court. Receiving court papers is just a necessary step before this can happen – it doesn’t mean you’re actually going to court.”

If you receive court papers your case is in court , if you do nothing the next notice will be “judgement in default” ie you lose for the full value of the claim if you receive court papers respond filling a defence within the time limit you then get the chance to “strike out” their claim if they do not act.

Ignore the freeman stuff I posted I was trolling.

do you have any genuine links to real cases you can post as I’d be interested to hear.

POPLA appeal denied, judge refused to overturn it