parkingeye penalty charge is it legal

[chris]

I've received a parkingeye penalty charge notice in the post today for one my employees who parked in Morrison's car park for 4 hours to do a job over the road only problem parking was restricted to 3 hours enforced by number plate cameras on the entrance and exit. They have sent photos of him entering and leaving.

My question can they enforce the penalty charge notice legally and how would they enforce it if we don't respond?

 

[Lazarus]

Yes.

Small Claims Court.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

These car parks are usually well signed, like B&Q or Aldi car parks etc, Theyve got you bang to rights , all the info is on the sign. Sometimes there is a cheaper charge if you pay within a fortnight...(I know ,,,ive been there and got the t-shirt.)

 

[Lazarus]

Yes, PDP is right: I should have mentioned that any defence would have to rely upon you being able to prove stealth eg The absence (or obscuring) of signage etc.

Your chap entered into a Contract upon Parking there then failed to comply with the Terms of that Contract.

Round here, it's two hours max.


Pay up .................. and hit back by not buying from Morrisons for a while.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

At the time of my penalty, i had two weeks to pay £40 or it then doubled. This was some years ago i'd like to add.Since then i have always been very careful, checking times and ensuring none of my tyres are on the white lines of the parking space. Bit sad really but this is the way of this country, rules are rules i 'spose.

 

[Topper]

Yes the missus got done in Sheffield by 2 minutes in April but the £50 charge was halved if paid within 14 days, guess what, it was but be careful with the on-line payments ones, they say it will take up to 48 hours to go on line but in my case after a week it was still not live on the site and by the time I had contacted them 4 or five times to get it put on the live payments system I was left with a 2 hour slot in which to pay before it doubled, so suspect it is yet another way of tripping people up and getting double the money.

 

[Archived-1]

this should help :-).

If you get a ticket from these clowns, and thats what they are, there is plenty of advice here http://www.pepipoo.com/

read more

http://morrisonsreigatecarpark.wordpress.com/received-a-ticket-what-to-do-next/

 

[Piltdownpaul]

But its a deterrant to stop folks parking in their car park all day, if they didnt enforce it, it would become a public free for all car park. And then the average shopper wouldnt find a space because a "Mr Plumber" is using a space but working nearby. I'm not defending them but there is always someone ready to cheat or abuse the system.
If you cant pay the fine dont do the crime.

 

[Lazarus]

The key thing from those links appears to be that the Contract is with the Driver, not the Registered Keeper.

The rest of it is just embuggerance and success appears to depend upon how much effort you're prepared to invest in a challenge.

 

[Archived-1]

you don't need to challenge them just ignore them simples :-).

 

[rolfw]

But its a deterrant to stop folks parking in their car park all day, if they didnt enforce it, it would become a public free for all car park. And then the average shopper wouldnt find a space because a "Mr Plumber" is using a space but working nearby. I'm not defending them but there is always someone ready to cheat or abuse the system.
If you cant pay the fine dont do the crime.

Whilst I agree with you generally, the communication is presented as a fine, which it certainly is not and I have serious concerns on the use of DVLC records by these private parking control companies, it's clamping light. Now we got rid of that outrageous and often bullying cash cow, perhaps we need to look at controlling this one.

 

[Lazarus]

Intrigued by all this, further research shows that ParkingEye will indeed take Claims to Court and that the Registered Keeper can be pursued.

 

[Archived-1]

another link here,

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?33786-Parking-Eye

 

[chris]

Parkingeye contacted DVLA who gave them the lease company details as the van is on lease, the lease company provided my company details as the lease holder so the letter from parkingeye is addressed to our ltd company demanding payment not "can you inform us who the driver was at the time". I know I should just pass the letter on to the driver or deduct the money from his wages but I find the tactics they use to make money very harsh and unfair on the engineer.

 

[satelliteman]

I had one last year for parking at a motorway service station (a brunch meet up with Rolf as it goes).
Paid it straight away, didn't want the hassle.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Does the ticket state 'Penalty Charge Notice' or something other than that ?

If there is any deviatiion from those three words, then it is speculative and can be ignored (though it is best to write to the supermarket in question to put forward your reasons on parking for four hours, and why they contract out to muppets in the parking areas).

http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/nutsville-explain-about-parking-tickets.html


Consumer Action Group has a section specifically for this type of extortion.

 

[Riverblue]

A mate of my told of how he was driving down the M23 with a splitting headache so he decided to 'pop' into the services at Pease Pottage to get some anedin or similar. Whilst in the shop he noticed the book shelf and decided to get a book and a coffee to go with his tablets, his intention being to sit on a seat outside in the sun reading his new book until his headache went. Three or so hours passed and he felt better so of he went. About a week later whilst passing the same services on a similarly sunny day he decided to pop in again. He thought it would be nice to sit in the sun again enjoying another book and a coffee or two. Four hours later, suitably refreshed, he was on his way again. All was well until a week later when he received a fine in the post for £120 for non payment of parking fees for his stay of over 2 hours. Obviously this didn't go down well and he was getting all worked up about the unfairness of it all and how he hadn't realised that you had to pay for stays of over 2 hours, then he remembered that he'd done the same thing a week later!

I don't know how good the coffee in the services is, or whether the books were any good, but for £240 they needed to be bloody amazing!
so the moral of the story is . . . Read the bloody signs!

 

[2cvbloke]

Read the bloody signs!

What? Them things that even a passenger that doesn't have to look at the road cannot read as you pass by them cos they conveniently use too small a font and place them away from the entrances??

 

[A nonymous]

I'm just about to do battle with UK Parking Control who issued my wife with a ticket in a Free car park because the rear wheel of her car was slightly over the white line in an empty car park.

I have absolutely no intention of paying this parking charge and will quite happily let this go all the way to court if need be.

If they follow their normal practice they will first send me a demand which will be followed by me sending them an appeal which will be rejected as per the normal operating procedures of UKPC, I will then ask for a POPLA number which will cost UKPC £27 +VAT so i am expecting them to send me a made up one as per their usual procedures. I will then lodge an appeal with POPLA which will cost me nowt who will either reject it or accept the appeal providing the POPLA number is genuine. Either way the agreement with the British Parking Association states that UKPC have to abide by the decision of POPLA where as i do not. If rejected it will then be passed on to one debt collection agency (Debt Collection Plus)who will send another demand which will be ignored by myself. They will then send it to another debt collection agency (Zenith)whos registered office is the same as the first, ergo its the same company. That to will be ignored.

Then they will send a goodwill offer asking me to pay £15 to make it go away which will also be ignored. That will be followed by a threat to take me to court which will also be ignored.

The only time that UKPC have been in court was when they were taken to court themselves by somebody else. I doubt this will go to court and to be honest if it does i cant see how they could win considering it was a free car park anyway hence there was no financial loss on behalf of the land owner. Should be interesting times ahead.

Just incase anybody has had the misfortune to deal with this bunch of clowns, their registered office is as follows. Its not the easiest of companies to find as they hide behind several P.O Box

UKPC
3 Gregories Court
Gregories Road
Beaconsfield
Buckinghamshire
HP9 1HQ



Nano

 

[Lazarus]

Does this sort of thing potentially cause a risk to Credit Scores? If it were to, you could presumably get compensation for "loss of reputation" etc.

Anyway, I wish you every success with standing up to them: No doubt they will avoid Court like the plague, so rely upon most people not having the staying power to keep spurning them.