Parking Charge Notice

[sammy2066]

My son received a parking charge and has now received a letter from the debt recovery company demanding payment, Should he pay or ignore the letter as suggested on some forum sites

[murraymints]

If it is from a private parking co. I'd ignore !

[EDDIE51]

Ignore it they will stop bothering after a few weeks, the letters will get more threatening but they will stop. They can only use Bailiffs if they get a County Court judgement and it is not paid. As it will cost them £1500 to get the judgement and they would only be awarded their actual loss not the parking charge ( courts normally award a nominal sum of £1 as the loss) and as they can not recover the court costs or ask you to pay them they will not bother.

[bazwillrun]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

should help

[sammy2066]

Its from private company he parked without a permit.

[factor-fiction]

Another factor is his age- was he under 18?

[EDDIE51]

Even better do what I did, fill a large envelope with old fag ends, seal it up and put their address on the front , then mark it 'Payment enclosed please open with care' Then post it but most important DO NOT PUT A STAMP ON IT.
The postie will deliver not deliver the letter until they pay for the delivery and the fee for no postage, they see the the Payment enclosed note and end up paying £5 for a load of dirty fag ends.

[sunny-dave]

Whilst I am aware of the iniquities of the "hide a small sign up a tree and then issue a penalty notice" brigade, most of the cases on here are not like that.

They are simply "I took a risk by parking somewhere I knew I shouldn't & got a ticket" - morally these people should pay up.

I believe that (as part of the banning of private clamping) these tickets are about to become much more enforceable?

[DSJ]

I see this from the other side. I owned a flat in the centre of Northampton with its own designated parking space. It was close to a large shopping centre, a church & a number of restaurants.

On many occasions I returned home tired at the end of the day only to find a rogue car (with no permit displayed) in my space. This meant that I had to find a space in the road outside the complex (very grotty at night) and buy a parking ticket from a meter.

Perhaps people should think before they park.

[north star]

Some private parking companies (PPC) are now becoming more litigious, are taking more people to court and apparently winning. Current wisdom appears to be to make an initial 'soft' appeal and ask for an appeal code to take the charge to a POPLA appeal tribunal and win the case there. An added bonus is that this route costs the PPC £27.50. Help always available at pepipoo.com.

[tonywiltshire]

A private company can only make a parking charge if your son entered into a contract with the landowner or their agent and to do so there must be prominent signs regarding the terms. They now have the right to obtain the name and address of the registered keeper who will be liable for the charge under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Only some 5% of people are taken to court but It will not cost anything like £1,500.00 to obtain judgment and your son may not wish to go to the level that has been suggested to avoid payment.

[bazwillrun]

dont you find it strange that whenever you see on TV the kind of people that own these sort of "parking charge" companies, that they always seem to be lowlife scummy sorts.

[sunny-dave]

Yes indeed Baz - but the TV companies are selecting scumbags to make good TV.

The honest, quiet, "we're just trying to sort out a parking problem" companies are not good box office ...

[tonywiltshire]

Well said sunny-dave.