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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Appealing carpark fine??

31 replies

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 06:29

So this morning my DH has discovered he has incurred a parking fine for a carpark we often use of £100 which they will kindly reduce to £60 if he pays before the end of the month.

He paid for parking at an ANPR carpark and used their online system as he had no change on him. Except the car registration on the online account is his old registration and therefore the company are claiming we have not paid to park as our new car is shown entering and leaving but does not show as being paid for.

Is there any point in arguing the fine? The company have not lost out financially, he didn't over stay and it was a genuine mistake not an attempt to defraud them of £4 as they so kindly state in their letter.

Helpfully they also have no phone number. So I now also wondering what I should say to clearly get my point across in an email which will probably not even be read by a human being.

OP posts:

MyOtherProfile · 12/10/2019 06:30

Appeal. And look these up on money saving experts. Bunch of CFs in my opinion.

Oopsinamechangedagain2020 · 12/10/2019 06:31

pepipoo.com

A great forum for fighting unfair parking fines.

BonnyE · 12/10/2019 06:36

Yes. Always worth a try. They'll usually freeze the fine at the lower amount whilst it's being processed.

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 07:32

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll take a look at the sites suggested. I've finally tracked down how to appeal, feel like I deserve a PHD or admission into MI5 for doing so.

Any idea what evidence I should submit to show that the vehicle paid for used to be ours they generously give me up to 5 images to include with the appeal.

They'll usually freeze the fine at the lower amount whilst it's being processed.

As yet I've seen nothing to suggest this will happen. However it doesn't matter if they do or not because we wont be paying even the lower amount of £60. Its an outrageous amount considering their has been no financial loss on their behalf I'd love to see them justify why they think its a reasonable amount?

OP posts:

swingofthings · 12/10/2019 07:38

A picture of the old car with the registration, a copy of the insurance certificate of the old car and evidence of the recent purchase of the new car.

If he's had the car for over a year, they might be a bit less sympathetic than if he's had it for a few weeks.

pooopypants · 12/10/2019 07:44

These companies are absolutely vile in my experience (currently going to court to argue a case) and you absolutely should appeal. They're CFs of the highest order. I almost want to spit when I think about them

Please appeal!!!

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 07:47

If he's had the car for over a year, they might be a bit less sympathetic than if he's had it for a few weeks.

We've had the car for a couple of months and use the car park most weeks but this was the first time he's not had change and therefore used the app since getting the new car.

I think we only ever used the app 2/3 times with the old car in all the time we had it hence why it probably didn't occur to him to check it had the old registration number linked to his account.

I'll see if I can dig out some paperwork for the old car to show we did indeed own it.

Not sure what I'll do if they decline to cancel the fine though I'm actually pretty resentful about the prospect of having to pay such a large amount of money. It seems so disproportionate considering he actually paid them to park, albeit for a different car.

OP posts:

stairway · 12/10/2019 07:53

Sounds like at parkingeye. They will refuse buyout appeal but then you can try popla but the fine will go up to £100. There is a legal term that you have to use. Pepippoo website can help you.
I’m currently fighting parking eye. Unfortunately I lost the popla appeal as I didn’t provide the correct legal terms. I’m prepared to go to court though if that’s what they want. My fine was from a year ago so it’s a slow old process. I think it depends how you feel about it.

itsmecathycomehome · 12/10/2019 07:54

There is plenty of advice online about how to overturn a parking fine, and I hope you manage it because it would be unjust in your circumstances if you didn't. However, I do not hold out much hope. My mum, by putting a space into her registration number, missed off the last letter and still had to pay.

I don't think they've done anything wrong by issuing you the letter/fine because it was your dh's mistake, and your new car had not paid to park, but it's their inability to process an appeal fairly that really makes them crooks imo.

Miranda15110 · 12/10/2019 07:54

I had a similar situation when I'd wrongly entered the car reg online. I appealed the fine which they rejected. I then said I was taking the case to financial services ombudsman and the company backed down.

Puppymum2018 · 12/10/2019 07:57

I have done the same thing and we explained what happened and they cancelled the fine - we had paid & the ANPR knew that the old car hadn’t been parked there. They did write a letter saying they wouldn’t cancel it again if we made the same mistake.

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 07:58

Sounds like at parkingeye.

Not parkingeye although they do seem to be popping up most when I google the situation.

I'm not sure we'd have the energy to take it to court, although I applaud those who do. Equally however, I find it so immoral that they think £100 is a fair cost for this mistake that maybe I would be willing to take it that far just on pure stubbornness of not wanting to pay such a stupidly high fine.

OP posts:

Justgivemesomepeace · 12/10/2019 08:00

My dp got a fine for a similar reason. He swears he entered the whole of his reg but only the first 4 digits printed on the ticket.
He appealed based on the fact that you could clearly see on the camera footage his car matched the 4 digits on his ticket.
He lost as he had broken the Ts&Cs by not entering the full registration. He says he did but it didnt print on the ticket.
He appealed the appeal. He lost again.
It went to some ombudsman type thing and thet upheld the fine.
Next was court. By this time he couldnt be arsed and paid it. In my experience, if you have the wrong registration you wont win. We had the right one and still lost.

Funkyslippers · 12/10/2019 08:02

Definitely appeal. You have nothing to lose

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 08:05

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear so many people have had the same/similar issues. I understand it is his fault and that they sent the fine because it appears he didn't pay to park. However its the inflexible ability to apply common sense to any cases I'm reading online that worries me. Like I said I doubt anyone will even read the appeal before clicking decline.

we had paid & the ANPR knew that the old car hadn’t been parked there

I think this is going to form part of my appeal. Its obvious from their records that the old car never entered the car park. Logically it should be clear that the time the new car entered and the time the old car's registration was paid for are similar and therefore it was genuinely an error. However something tells me logic wont get me very far when dealing with this...

OP posts:

Myimaginarycathasfleas · 12/10/2019 08:45

I successfully appealed a parking fine, by telling them the car wasn't being driven by the registered owner (true, I was driving DH's).

(I wasn't parked, they had caught me entering and leaving a car park twice with a ten minute interval and conflated them into one visit).

I suspect they can only pursue a claim against the owner, so I imagine if you answer no to this question in the online form that may end the process.

GinisLife · 12/10/2019 08:48

You can print a receipt if you log into the app from a pc. Send the receipt and ask them to find the old car in the car park on that day. Explain what happened and common sense should result in it being cancelled. I say should.......

SleepyKat · 12/10/2019 08:50

The thing about declining to name the driver used to work but apparantly it doesn’t anymore. If you refuse to name the driver they can just pursue the registered keeper instead.

Find the “fight your private parking invoice” group on fb. Wealth of information and Tony the admin will do the appeal for you for £10 if you don’t want to do it yourself.

SleepyKat · 12/10/2019 08:54

And don’t believe common sense will get a ticket cancelled.

I’ve been ticketed for “not parking in a marked bay” in a gravel car park with no marked bays and they’re refusing to cancel. I’ve even spoken to the bloke who owns the parking firm and my ticket still isn’t cancelled. And they do take people to court. Friends of mine have ended up in court and lost. One in particular pays a monthly fee out her wages and went to court and proved that.....but because she wasn’t displaying her permit the judge upheld the fine. So the thing about no financial loss doesn’t wash either.

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 08:54

I suspect they can only pursue a claim against the owner, so I imagine if you answer no to this question in the online form that may end the process.

Well done on challenging and winning! I doubt this will work sadly as there's a whole section in the letter about transfer information liability nice bit of technical mumbo-jumbo and all written in capitals for maximum effect if you were not the registered keeper or the one driving the car at the time.

I'm hoping the letter I've found out showing the old car was scrapped after an accident will hopefully prove that it was a simple mistake. However, they will probably claim that this is not sufficient evidence that it wasn't parked there at the time.

OP posts:

Justyou · 12/10/2019 08:56

I’ve just wrongly had a one but from parking eye with no number on either, I drove back to where I had parked and there was a number on the signs there.
I called and got to speak to a real person & she sorted it straight away over the phone.
It might be work a try.
I got it on a Saturday & stressed all weekend and it was sorted by ten past 9 Monday morning.

zen1 · 12/10/2019 09:04

I have successfully appealed two parking fines using the info on pepipoo; once on a technicality (we proved they hadn’t followed due process when issuing the ticket) and one when our ticket had flipped over when the car door shut and they couldn’t see it. I would say it’s definitely worth appealing.

Original poster

CarparkFine · 12/10/2019 09:05

I called and got to speak to a real person & she sorted it straight away over the phone.

Good idea I'll head over to check to see if there is a number at the car park. I really feel if I could speak to a human about the problem like you did instead of a machine or automated system it would be easily resolved.

OP posts:

MarchionessOfCholmondeley · 12/10/2019 09:18

I did something similar earlier this year. I had paid by parking app for my car all week, on the Saturday I used the same app to to pay for parking my husband's car and I my hurry it didn't even occur to me to change the vehicle reg.

I was mortified to find a parking ticket on the windscreen when I got back to the car.

The council did cancel the ticket after I emailed them screenshots of my payment for the wrong car, but they were very clear they would let me off just this once.

Guavaf1sh · 12/10/2019 09:30

It’s a fundamental flaw to believe private parking companies act with common sense and decency. They don’t. They just want money and actively look for loopholes to catch you out. They are not good honest decent people

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