Robbing Parking Companies

[johnny2007]

They're not penalty charge notices, they're speculative invoices.
These bandits hope that gullible people will pay up.
If you ignore their request for money they usually stop bothering you after the 3rd letter.
Sometimes they pass the bucket to debt collectors, even less power than them.
They stay well away from courts because they know they have no leg to stand.
Ignore everything unless you receive a letter before claim.
Read more on consumer action group forum or pepipoo.

 

[robinbanks]

Read more on consumer action group forum or pepipoo.

The general advice on those fora is not

ignore their request

Hasn't been for many years

 

[Vinty]

Dunno about anyone else, but I have had a few run-ins with these.

The last 3 occasions went like this:

Went to hotel to give blood. Signs up everywhere to say parking rules and regs suspended.

Got sent an invoice for £100.

Mrs S went to a FF joint with someone. They forgot their wallet, so she left and they came back shortly.
She got an invoice for exceeding the 90 mins because they counted her time from the first entrance into the carpark to the second exit.
BPA said these mistakes rarely happen but we have had it happen twice.

The latest was when Mrs S went to a place of work to supervise a client. She gave her reg to them so it could be put on the system to avoid a ticket and she got one anyway!

Hilarity ensued when they insisted we could not appeal etc etc, so I just wrote a letter and got Mrs S to sign it. It told them we were not entertaining them any more by correspondence but that we would be more than happy to see them in a court room and ask the nice judge what they thought about the situation.

Never heard another squeak.

Common to all these cases is being told that letters have been sent to us that we have never received.

This allows the parking company to refuse an appeal as you miss the deadline. The deadline you didn't know you had because they never sent the letter. We've also had no NTK letter. These tactics save the parking companies money (not printing off or sending out letters) and put pressure on the punter to cough up.

Not helping this is, knowing you are disputing the charges, the parking company forges ahead and engages a debt collection agency who then send regular threatening letters ramping up the disputed bill.

Their tactics are just plain scummy.

Joris Bohnson said he would lower the invoice limit to £50, but bless their cotton socks, these hard-working diligent people said they wouldn't be able to ply their trade, so Joris backed down.

Makes my pee boil.

Thanks! I feel better now.

They did me for 65 quid, i parked outside Lidls, after shopping, we went to Starbucks next door, the wife talked her mate for over an hour.
A couple of weeks later i got demand for 65 quid from a parking company, they said i stayed more than 1 hour, but there was only one little sign on the other side of the carpark that said there was a time limit.
My wife nagged me to pay them.
I later found out that in N. Ireland they would have to prove that you were the driver of the car in order to issue a penalty.
I complained to Lidls but they said it was nothing to do with them, it was the owner of the site who subbed out parking control to these cowboys.

 

[Vinty]

There is some truth.

I overstayed tho 90 minutes at a McDonald's.

Got a fine.

The solicitor, I was working for told me to ignore. Don't corrisponed in anyway.

I did and they eventually went away.

It would cost them too much to take you to court with no guarantee of getting paid, even if they win.

 

[SirGalahad]

It's not greed it's the freemarket. Why should there be regulation of this?

There should be no controls over this - let companies charge £1000 or whatever and drivers will soon realise not to park or overstay.

This is the way.

It's just enforcing private property rights.

 

[johnny2007]

The general advice on those fora is not


Hasn't been for many years

What are you on about?
Their (correct) advice is to

Ignore everything unless you receive a letter before claim.

Check it for yourself, I did when some cowboy parking company wanted money a few months ago and I did exactly what they suggested, ignore.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

There are cowboy parking companies, and there are perfectly legal ones.

You deal with them accordingly

 

[securespark]

It's not greed it's the freemarket. Why should there be regulation of this?

There should be no controls over this - let companies charge £1000 or whatever and drivers will soon realise not to park or overstay.

This is the way.

It's just enforcing private property rights.

But that's my whole big thing point!

I'm not sure why people are missing the obvious here.

I'm talking about drivers who have not done anything wrong. But the parking companies are taking the Michael at the very least, breaking their own code of conduct, and trying to force people to pay when there was no infraction. That needs regulation!

 

[Brigadier]

I'm not sure why people are missing the obvious here.

Me neither.

Park somewhere else?
The UK is crawling with carparks and, where they're sparse, there's almost without exception unrestricted and uncharged parking within a minute or two's walk.

 

[securespark]

Now you're doing it deliberately.

Not to mention out of context quoting.

Lastly, I disagree wholeheartedly with your last comment.

Virtually all car parks are restricted in one way or another. Even those car parks or spaces that are free have time restrictions.

And on-street parking is regulated by Councils.

But especially

where they're sparse

there will be fiercely tight regulations and restrictions.

 

[Brigadier]

there will be fiercely tight regulations and restrictions

On the car parks, yes, but I did say "where they are sparse", there will be plenty of other places to park that are free and without restriction.
In my experience, anyway.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

On the car parks, yes, but I did say "where they are sparse", there will be plenty of other places to park that are free and without restriction.
In my experience, anyway.

In all my travels I've never found plenty of places to park that are free and without restriction.

Certainly when not many car parks are around.

 

[Brigadier]

Here's a suggestion.

Each time you park, photograph the parking sign, and your car.

So, when they advise you of anything (that you claim not to have done), you've got better evidence.

Like straddling a line, for example.

 

[Brigadier]

In all my travels I've never found plenty of places to park that are free and without restriction

I'll concede "without restriction" but, for anyone with the slightest modicum of sense, they'll park considerately, and not get nicked.

Block the carriageway, access, a pavement, and you deserve nicking.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

I'll concede "without restriction" but, for anyone with the slightest modicum of sense, they'll park considerately, and not get nicked.

Block the carriageway, access, a pavement, and you deserve nicking.

I don't know anywhere with plenty of parking like that, with or without car parks in the area.

I agree parking without sense is different, but nobody is suggesting that's the issue