Motorway Service Station Parking Fine

[ajandjjmum]

DH's mum was taken to hospital as an emergency, and there were a few dodgy days. He met his sister on her return from holiday at a convenient service station (Woodall on M1) to talk about the situation. She flew into Manchester, DH got to the service station about 9.30. Flight delayed, she got there around 11.30 and they talked and left at around 1 am.

He didn't realise he needed to buy a parking ticket - an easy mistake.

When the fine came through we responded, apologising, but explaining the circumstances. Parking Eye (aka Big Brother!!!) responding saying that we should have bought a ticket but could we give them any evidence that DH was there all of the time. By some miracle, he retained the Starbucks receipt that was timed in the middle of the period of time. We sent it off, and they responded saying the appeal was unsuccessful. Which made the searching for the receipt all a bit of a waste of time.

We wrote back and asked what evidence would be acceptable and they have just replied saying basically 'you're unsuccessful, the evidence you supplied did not meet the criteria required by the landlord and we won't enter into any further correspondence with you'.

I'm just pretty pissed off that they didn't say in the first place 'look, we're after every penny we can screw out of you, and nomatter what we ask for, we'll ignore it and the fine will stand' - or words to that effect.

Is there any ruling body I can talk to - or any other ideas?

No. They Parking Eye people at service stations are utter bastards, they do not give a F**K. I think you would have to be dead and rock up to their head office with the corpse.

Long story short, DS2 runny poo, I was there for two hours sorting him and other kids out, cleaning car seat etc etc and they did not give a damm. I send them a shitty nappy in the post with the fine - total evil twats.

As you were parked on private land this is not an official fixed penalty fine. It is a notice that they intend to take you to court for trespassing and are giving you a chance to settle out of court. There is no independent appeals process. However, if they do take you to court it is possible that the court will decide you don't have to pay if, for example, the rules weren't clear. If they don't take you to court they cannot force you to pay.

Parking Eye are members of the British Parking Association which means they have to follow that organisations code of practise. You can find them at www.britishparking.co.uk. You may also want to consider talking to Citizens Advice.

Were there adequate signs to adveritse the parking terms and conditions?

There's some information here that you may find useful. It basically says that it isn't a fine because private companies can't fine you. It's an invoice and you don't have to pay it. The company can threaten to take you to court but they have never actually done it and it is thought that they wouldn't succeed if they did try.

There's also more info on this website

Carocaro - I LOVE your method of showing what you feel - can I have one of your DS's used nappies please?

prh and nocake - thank you - I hadn't realised that it wasn't an official fixed penalty - that makes me feel less concerned about continuing the argument!

Insomnia - I don't actually know, but I'll be driving past again at the weekend so I'll go and look - without buying anything, of course!!

Thank you for all of your help.

Honest John, the motoring correspondent in the Daily Telegraph, has been very vocal on these "fines". There's something helpful on his website about what you should do (which doesn't involve paying them anything like the full amount that they are trying to charge).

you don't have to do anything - talk to them, write to them, anything

if they keep trying, just ignore

they might "pass it on" to a debt recovery company (these are often another desk in the same office ) who will keep sending you letters threatening to take you to court - these will be for an increased amount involving alleged "costs". you can ignore those too.

there are lots of threads about this on \link{http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=111155705\moneysavingexpert} & they all say the same

There was 2 articles about Parking Eye in last Saturday's Daily Telgraph in the Honest John column of the Motoring Section. To quote part of one of the article the person who received the fine wrote to the company as follows;- ''if they continue to persist in further demands for payment, consideration must be given to the offence of harrassement under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

The website for the column is www.honestjohn.co.uk and I am sure that there is lots of advice on there as to what you can write to the company.

Wow - mumsnet is brilliant for stuff like this - thank you so much.

Lilymaid and mowbraygirl - I'll have a look at honestjohn now, and I have to say Ponders, I can cope with ignoring them quite easily, although I might have to throw in mowbraygirl's harrassment phrase just for good effect.

It's a shame you have made contact as the best thing to do with these "invoices" is to ignore them.
They are not fines.............they have no power to fine you.
I successfully ignored a parking eye request to pay, and after 4 letters they gave up. I'm not sure what would happen if you ignored now as they know you are alive and kicking......

I'm alive and spitting Wormshuffler. I know exactly what you mean though, and idiot that I am, DH was in my car and I very nicely explained that to them. Had I not done so, according to 'HonestJohn' they have can't make me tell them anything.

Oh well, I'm starting a personal boycott of Woodall Services - and I'll know better next time.

A bit of an update - I'm still waiting for my reply to this letter sent on 28th September. Thank you all for your help.

Dear Sirs,

PCN No. 430004/884490

Further to the following correspondences ?

Yours notifying us of a parking charge incurred.
Mine explaining the circumstances of the extended stay.
Yours asking for further evidence.
Mine providing further evidence.
Yours saying the evidence was inadmissible.
Mine asking what evidence was admissible.
Yours saying you weren?t going to play any more.

The charge is tantamount to demanding money with menaces as it in no way relates to the actual loss suffered by Woodall Services. For one private individual (you) to demand money from another private individual (me) is against civil law.

If you continue to persist in further demands for payment, we shall give consideration to suing you for harassment under Harassment Act 1997.