Has anyone ever just ignored a parking ticket?

[BalloonsAndWhistles]

Private car park I should add.

Cut a long story short, we went into a car park and were unable to pay. Machine not accepting contactless and RinGo just cutting out when we called them. We were in there for 20 mins.

About 2 weeks later, we got the invoice for £100, reduced to £60 for quick payment. We appealed. They said no, ignoring the fact we couldn’t pay. We appealed again and they declined it and reduced it to £20. We appealed it again and stated that we were unable to pay and have had another demand for £100.

What would happen if we just ignored it? Would we get in a lot of trouble? It’s not the money per se, I just feel absolutely outraged that due to them not maintaining their machines they are now harassing us for money and not listening to us.

I'm going to the small claims court in June. I've always answered all the correspondence. Never ignored them.

Sorry if this sounds dramatic but I feel like I’ve been mugged 😆 It’s like someone has just reached into my purse and grabbed £100. I haven’t yet paid it but am resigned to the fact. I’m just so terrified about DH getting a CCJ. It took 6 years for a £28 missed payment from Virgin to drop off his account and that really affected his rating (his ex-wife didn’t pass on the letters and Virgin sent it to a debt collect WTF!!) That’s kinda what’s in the back of my mind.

*drop off his credit score

@GentlemanJay I assume it’s a similar thing? Has it been going on ages?

I would've paid the £20. I can't stand things like that hanging over me

Four years ago it started.

Parked in a free car park outside a Tesco. A month or so later got a letter to say I had not parked correctly inside the bays.

They sent two pictures that showed my car parked but no sign of any markings where the bays actually was.

Todays the day they have to pay a fee to court if they want it to go to the June trial.

If they don't it's struck out. Let's see if they will. It will cost them a decent amount in solicitors fees.

With Ringo you can pay later - did you try again when you got home?

OP you clearly didn’t use the car park - you tried to pay, couldn’t and therefore left. I would 100% let them take me to court and explain on what basis you could have done anything else. They are indeed attempting to mug you.

Good for you @GentlemanJay
Seconded @Queenoftheashes
These parking companies are money grabbers OP
It used to cost them about £35 for you to appeal to POPLA so maybe tiny comfort there?
Have you looked at any online info? It's worth it when you 'win'
I can't stand these private companies: can you tell????😠

I’ve had similar. Literal robbery. I paid the reduced fine immediately to make the problem go away so I could sleep at night.

what I did do, was to never go back to that car park ever again. It obviously happened to several people as the shops that were served by that car park closed down. They were big chains and weren’t getting custom due to the nazi parking regime I reckon.

Can you? How does that work with the ANPR camera though as it would have still clocked him going in and out.

We’ve already said that we’re never ever using that company again. There are so many disgusting reviews about them online. And so many say exactly the same as me. The fine is just ridiculous as they can’t justify a £100 loss in revenue. A 1 hour ticket (assuming one can even purchase it) is only about £4 so why charge 25x that!!

I picked up a few things at Aldi once, was in there less than 20 minutes then drove home.
I subsequently received a letter and a photo of my car saying that I'd parked there overnight and well into the following day. It was ridiculous.

I appealed, attaching a copy of a ticket where I had actually parked the following day. I then received a letter saying the appeal had been refused and telling me to pay up. I ignored it and haven't heard anything since.

I ignored a couple around 10 years ago and they got fed up of writing so I didn't have to pay anything. A more recent one however was in my OH's name but my fault. I ignored for a while but then got worried he would have a CCJ against his name because of me. Once they started talking about going to court I got worried so I filled in all the paperwork they sent me but they kept sending it back to say they couldn't trace our case! In the end it was their error on the paperwork and we got away with not paying as the case was dropped. But in future I would pay as the rules on private parking companies have changed and they can take you to court and win

I've had two about 10 or more years ago.
The first one was the airport and the second was B&Q's car park.
Totally ignored them both. They both sent threatening letters for a while, then gave up.
I think at the time, I found a website about it and the overall opinion was to just ignore them.

It’s not a good idea to ignore it. When I’ve had things like this I’ve always challenged them straight away with any evidence I have. We tend to ensure in cases like this that we have photographic evidence.

You could take this to Katie Morley at the Telegraph I suppose. 🙂

Would you not rather have just paid £100 4 years ago than waste so much time and energy?

No. It has taken very little time so far. An intitial reply yes. A few on line forms for the court. Don't have to attend in person just be available for a phone call.

Why should I pay? They don't have a photo of my car showing I'm not parked in a bay.

If the judge says I have to pay I will. No problem. But not until that point.

I've been to county court twice and won both cases.

Have POPLA found in favour of the parking company or are you still waiting?

Apologies if you've said - I'm on the useless app and any posts with quotes are cut off short.

I can't see how you're at fault here. You tried to pay, and there is a grace period for getting out of the car park. Have you tried posting your issue on the Pepipoo forum? They are mercilessly unfriendly, but give brilliant advice.

Unsure if this is in response to my previous email post. My sons went to court as they had the wrong address so he had no idea anything was happening until he applied for a mortgage and was turned down to the 2 CCJs.

Whiich is why I said either pay or get legal advice.

Hi OP, sorry this is happening to you, these private parking companies are absolute pond scum!

I've just been through a mare dealing with 5 tickets issued in the course of a week in the last 9 months, won't go into too many details as outing but pm me if I can help - I didn't use lawyers and had a CCJ set aside (after they sent everything to an old address) using online forums like Moneysavingexpert,

Basically a permit for a space I rented fell off the windscreen (after being there 9 months) while I was on holiday, there was a an actual parking attendant and (allegedly) several paper tickets attached. Reason for set aside, visiting family abroad and COVID,

So things to check -

1. The 1st letter they sent you - if its ANPR they had to use POFA (Protection of Freedoms Act) to get your details from DVLA - check that this is compliant with the rules set out there
2. To comply with POFA they can't take increase the amount adding charges/debt recovery amounts above what's on the sign - there's a lot of case law around this, off hand I don't remember exactly but Somerfield was involved - I'll look it up
3. All these firms rely on the result of a Supreme Court case Beavis vs Parkingeye and state this often in their letters, particularly if Popla find against you - but Importantly this case Parkingeye won, BUT were not granted the additional fees claimed just the ticket amount based on the Somerfield case.
4. To take you to court for an alleged breach of contract (by parking here you agree to the following TCs) the parking company have to follow various procedures/steps - if they don't then there's no case to answer if you challenge them on this in court. You only get a CCJ if they win (I'd say unlikely in your case) and you don't pay within 28 days. If you're not planning to move and willing to give headspace to ever more threatening letters/threats of court I'd say ignore - they're unlikely to take you to court for a single ticket they're unlikely to win.
5. Beware of fake debt collectors - 2 I dealt with were Debt Recovery Plus and CST Law (both trade names of Creditstyle Ltc. Absolute charlatans.

To the PP upthread - your son can apply to have the CCJs set aside and taken off the credit file.. again happy to help if I can

Do not ignore the fine, OP!

Just pay it, it doesn't matter what anyone says on here, please see sense and clear that debt because for the want of a few measley quid, if it does go to court it will highly likely affect your credit rating.

Having a good credit score in this day and age is really important so see the big picture!

You'll end up with a CCJ. Just paybthe damn thing and let it be a lesson learnt

For an alternative view, I've ignored private carpark tickets multiple times, at least 15 (dodgy station carpark - most they have me a ticket while I was on the train paying for parking on the app, or trying to) and they have always given up apart from one that took it to court, but caved in and cancelled it the day before, as they usually do. The only downside of this happens is you have to do a load of paperwork and write a few letters, but extremely high chance of success if you use the advice and templates given on the moneysaving expert private parking forum or other such forum (retired lawyers doing it for fun). Basically there are a few areas where private carparks are skirting a grey area legally and it is very easy to point that out and make them back down. It depends whether you can be arsed to do some legwork and fill out a few forms.