Should I pay a private parking ticket?

[DanGuerche]

Well, after doing a bit of research, im going to ignore it.

 

I guess I will update this thread with each letter that comes my way, but I wont be paying their invoice for parking and spending money in the shops car park. 

[Bill Thomas]

Well, after doing a bit of research, im going to ignore it.

 

I guess I will update this thread with each letter that comes my way, but I wont be paying their invoice for parking and spending money in the shops car park. 

 

I don't think I would pay them either, I might be tempted to send a shitty letter to Sainsbury HO though with a copy of the receipt, telling them that you are now going to shop at Tesco  :Cha ching:

[DanGuerche]

There is that argument but I guess Sainsburys have made a corporate decision to rent out the car park to Euro Car Parks, take a fixed income and let them manage people who park there all day. 

 

In this case I was in their shop honestly doing my shopping. Im sure many people will try it on, however Sainsburys can measure how much money they make from Euro Car Parks in the rental income every week, what they cant measure is how much it pi$$es people off! I will write a letter to them as well. 

 

I collect the nectar points for Easyjet flights, so unfortunately Tescos is not an option for me. 

[ragwert]

The living relatives of Richard III, the last English king to perish in battle, are now faced with a bill of over £100,000 from Leicester City Council for a parking space the monarch occupied for well over five hundred years.

A spokesman for the council said: ‘We don’t care who you are; you can’t avoid Hawkeye Parking Enforcement sensors. Given that Richard arrived at the site about half a millennium before we installed the system, we didn’t clock him arriving, but we saw the whole exhumation thing. He’s been down there for ages. We are fully within our rights to issue parking fines retrospectively, even to those with alleged spinal disabilities’.

King for only two years, Richard III was fatally wounded at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and will finally be reburied at Leicester Cathedral on Thursday following his famous excavation from the car park back in 2012.

Despite this being the first occasion that a parking fine has been issued from an era that predates the car park itself, the council insist they have treated Richard fairly:  â€˜In accordance with the latest parking laws, once his twisted bones were exhumed, we were obliged to give him a ten-minute grace period to remove himself off the site completely.

‘Even after this fair and generous treatment, he still continued to just lie there, blocking the path of a Renault Megane Coupe that had already paid for a ticket.’

Defending the deceased monarch, MP Eric Pickles, who recently declared an end to the ‘war on motorists’, said: ‘Not only are we now ending the war on drivers who simply want to go about their daily business, but we will now extend this to kings who just want to die valiantly in battle and be buried underneath council-run car parking facilities without the fear of being financially penalised several centuries later. If that’s not an election winner then I don’t know what is.

[dippyhippy]

I don't know where you found this Ragwert....but I like it....I like it very much!!

[ragwert]

Glad you liked it dp.One thing i did not like that came through my letterbox today was The Herefordshire & South Herefordshire Courier.
Has anyone seen this Conservative 'rag' before as I certainly have not.
Is Jess Norman so busy that he cannot speak or put his own thoughts and voice to his campaign.
Looking at one page it has A record of action which just shows him at a Bakery,pulling a pint just like Nigel,reopening a clock tower and taking an ice bucket challenge,is this really Action?
 

[bobby47]

William, brilliant piece of work pal. Simply wonderful.

[DanGuerche]

Now into June and the first threatening letter has arrived from a debt collection agency.

 

£105 owed now.

 

"Seriously legal proceedings will follow and apply for a county court judgement against you if you do not pay. "

 

The questions is -

at what point do I get scared and pay up?

at what point do I contact Sainsburys and tell them to look up my nectar account and see how much I spend with them?

 

Or - do I ignor this one as well?

 

Everyone on these threads is so confident that "nothing happens" - I wonder if YOU would put your money where your mouth is?

 

My understanding is that the first notice was an invitation to pay - I have ignored that.

 

We are now at threatening legal action?

 

What are your thoughts? 

[dippyhippy]

Afternoon Dan!

 

I'm pretty sure that Colin appealed his ticket to POPLA, was successful, and that was the end of the matter!

 

I have to say, I'd be nervous if letters like that arrived addressed to me!

[Roger]

Apparently I was parked over the line - and as such a nice notice on my car. 

 

So my question is, is this an enforceable notice? Do I HAVE to pay or only an option to pay? 

 

I forgot to ask this earlier. Did you leave the car park within the specified free period? 

 

You may have been touching, or been slightly over, a line but did you prevent another bay from being used? 

 

It seems to me that Sainsbury's (who are the land owner) have probably suffered no financial loss by the nature of your parking. That could only really happen if every space was full and you stopped another shopper from parking their car in the car park.

 

"Seriously legal proceedings will follow and apply for a county court judgement against you if you do not pay. "

 

The way it works is that in the very unlikely event that you do receive notification of an impending County Court Case you have 14 days to respond. By paying the alleged debt, or by admitting owing a smaller amount (in your case nil). Denying owing it and going to Court. If you ignore a County Court summons then the case will be awarded against you. If you don't pay their judgment (in full within 30 days) then you would get a CCJ that stays on record for 6 years. The only loan you could get in that next 6 years would be from Wonga :-p

 

The letter should be ignored. It merely states that a process to take you to court 'will follow'. Call their bluff. Nothing to lose at all.

[megilleland]

ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN  The Independent - Thursday 03 September 2015

Teenager creates website allowing motorists to fight parking tickets in minutes

 

A teenager has created an innovative way for motorists to fight parking tickets in seconds.

 

Joshua Browder, 18, from North London, created the website donotpay.co.uk after he received numerous parking tickets in the months since passing his driving test.

 

The website directs motorists to pick 12 options, asks them to fill in their details and then creates a customised appeal – generated by the website – to the relevant council.

 

The entire process, including signing up to the service, takes less than a minute.

 

It proved so popular that the website crashed a few days after launching with the student now rapidly expanding its capacity, as well as introducing new features.

 

Mr Browder, who will study Computer science and economics at California’s Stanford University this autumn, said he realised councils operate a “tickets first and ask questions later†policy after receiving 30 tickets parking around his school in Camden.

 

“I was given the parking tickets for trivial reasons. I have had to spend around one hundred hours of valuable study time writing appeals to these tickets, many of which have been successful,†he told the Daily Mail.

 

“Unfortunately, many recipients of these tickets don't have the time, legal knowledge or energy to appeal,†he added.

 

The website was built over the summer after the student – who taught himself code aged 12 – had scanned thousands of pages of documents released by a Freedom of Information request. He had the legal complexities fine-tuned with the help of a leading traffic lawyer.

 

Mr Browder intends to keep the website free for users and claims that not only is it quick to use, it also offers the best possible chance for motorists to win their appeals.

 

Anyone used this?

[Roger]

 

ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN  The Independent - Thursday 03 September 2015

 

Anyone used this?

 

 

Nope. Sounds promising though as it seems to have been set up to challenge Council tickets which are totally different to tickets issued by cowboy firms. 

 

All the streets by me have the little yellow signs that give the timings of the parking restrictions but the little round symbol has faded on every one so you cant read it. Rather like this sign published in the Worcester News.

 

 

 

They should have a symbol visible like this below ... The red circle with the blue bit.

 

 

Could you get off if that is faded? 

[Colin James]

Here is a new useful website that may help. http://www.donotpay.co.uk/signup.php

[Roger]

Here is a new useful website that may help. http://www.donotpay.co.uk/signup.php

 

That is very misleading Colin. Your post suggests that if you sign up everything will be wiped .... It may well help .... But that is all ... 

[Colin James]

Very true. I have edited my original post.

[K.Butt]

Here is a new useful website that may help. http://www.donotpay.co.uk/signup.php

 

Good to know, thanks for sharing this information.

[DanGuerche]

Thought I would give you guys a little update on my Sainsburys ticket.

 

Got a few threatening letters about court/bailiffs - ignored them all and nothing now for about 2 months.

 

I have not contacted them and they appear to have gone away.

 

I do however still shop in Sainsburys. 

[K.Butt]

Thought I would give you guys a little update on my Sainsburys ticket.

 

Got a few threatening letters about court/bailiffs - ignored them all and nothing now for about 2 months.

 

I have not contacted them and they appear to have gone away.

 

I do however still shop in Sainsburys. 

Good for you Dan, lets hope the letters stop altogether. 

[DILLIGAF]

Received a £100 pcn today for a 3.5hr stay at brook retail park, on 16/11/15 reduced to £60 if I pay within 14 days of contravention!!!! Hmmmm.

What can I do for 3hrs down there???

No one is dying or birthing, so no hospital visit, too short for a train trip, too far to walk into town, am I missing any? NO I WASNT AT THE FC EITHER!!!

All I can think of was pets at home! But 3.5hrs really? Besides there is nowhere to eat and I "exited" 2.34pm way past my lunch!!

I'm not denying I used it, merely the time spent; for me it's rather too excessive. I'm digging out the receipts to prove it. I also would like to see a colour shot and hq copy as I have a prominent sticker in my rear window which is not shown in the photo!!

Stand by......

UPDATE:

I was there at 3:07pm the following day. I have the PAH card recipe to prove it!

I'm not contacting them.

[Colin James]

In my experience you will generally receive several threatening letters from debt recovery companies in the hope that this is enough to encourage people to pay these colossal amounts! 

 

I have always just ignored them all, in fact, I would welcome a court case because any decent judge would not accept these ridiculous so called penalty notice amounts either.

 

I had a few of these threatening letters from some debt recovery company that Corperate Services had sent my details to ofter I ignored their threats after parking for 10 mins outside the Furniture Importers in Blackfriars St at 7.30 one night (when they were closed) apparently they had put up some signage, which I had not seen at the time. Eventually, those threatening letters of court action stopped, of course.

[Ubique]

Advice please. I have read the 80+ comments on the Topic , the topic was added in 2013 and wondering if there has been much change / update in respect of the advice given ?

 

I will keep it short , for whatever reason I parked in Morrisons car park at 10.10 on a Tuesday , paid my £1 , due to circumstances I won't bother you with ( Not a hospital visit ) at 12.35 I purchased another ticket for a £1. The car park was not full .

A couple of weeks later I received a Parking Charge Notice stating that I had parked for 3 hours 48 minutes . I Appealed because I still had the 2 tickets I purchased , I included in the letter that there was no loss to MorrIsons because I had paid my dues. The Appeal was unsuccessful, rejected on the basis that the maximum time allowed was exceeded.

I realised afterward that the maximum stay is 2 hrs 30 min. With no return in under 2 hours.

Question is ....Do I Appeal to POPLA ?

Or do nothing , ignore the incoming " threatening " letters .

[adamski]

Ignore everything. Don't even enter into correspondence.

[AndyS2992]

Didn't the law change recently though making those tickets valid?

[Colin James]

Didn't the law change recently though making those tickets valid?

 

I had one put on my car about 7 months ago and completely ignored it, after a few threatening letters all correspondence from the scammers have stopped. 

 

Unless, something has changed within this time frame, nothing has changed as far as I am concerned. 

[adamski]

Google it. Plenty of advice and similar stories freely available.

[Clarkester]

My wife recently (actually March/April time) received a ticket from the nice people who look after the Lidl car park (Brook Retail Park)

She had spent a fair bit of time there to be honest:  Big shop in Lidl, look around Poundland, over to Pets at Home, and finally (the bit that sent her over the time) a prolonged trip into KFC (30 minutes+ to queue and be served!?  Fast food?)

Anyway, I followed the advice on here and appealed against the ticket...  They said "Nope, you're still paying pal!"

I appeal to Popla... Bingo, ticket cancelled.

It's worth trying.

[megilleland]

Judge finds for parking company on all 7 points at University Hospital of Wales. £28,000 costs awarded
 

The University Hospital of Wales has around 1,000 parking spaces for staff. In order to park there, staff must enter a contract with the hospital. They apply and if succesfull are given a permit to park. Around 10,000 permits are in current force.

Although issuing 10,000 permits for 1,000 spaces seems on the face of it a perfectly reasonable strategy, in practice it has not worked well. For some reason far more staff attempt to park than there are spaces for, leading to chaos and a bumper payday for parking contractor Indigo. Offsite parking can be up to a 45 minute walk away.

Tickets start at £20 and are then increased to £120 by artificially bumping them between debt collectors ZZPS and Wright Hassall.

There are currently 100,000 unpaid tickets from hospital staff worth £12,000,000 and a hearing to consider these was held on 12/13/14 July.

There were 7 points of defence.

(i) The validity and enforceability of Notice to Driver (NtD)
(ii) The validity and enforceability of Notice to Keeper (NtK)
(iii) The enforceability of the right to recover parking charges under an agreement between Cardiff and Vale Local University Health Board and Indigo Park Services UK Ltd
(iv) Signage
(v) The source and Provenance of Parking Permits
(vi) Whether a contractual offer was made
(vii) Applicability of, and compliance with, the code of practice

The judgment
DJ Coates controversially found for the claimant on all 7 points. The Prankster was not in court and so is relying on others for an accurate report of her judgment. Full analysis is therefore reserved for the time when the transcript is available.

 

Money, money, money. What a state we are in - run and backed up by grubby people.

[Colin James]

Judge finds for parking company on all 7 points at University Hospital of Wales. £28,000 costs awarded

 

 

Money, money, money. What a state we are in - run and backed up by grubby people.

This is slightly off the original topic as the staff have to sign into a contract here.

[megilleland]

Yes, but they don't read the small print in the contract. Similar to the signs you find in car parks in supermarkets and other parking places. If they said they will crush your car after 2 hours there wouldn't be a problem.