Parking company bastards - do I pay?

[parkingbastards]

I got a parking penalty notice. It is from one of those private parking companies. I was at an event at a business on the site. The business said they could cancel the charge, took my letter and said they had cancelled it there and then.

A few weeks later I got a debt recovery notice for this charge, saying that I had failed to respond to the original charge.

I got in touch with the business who said they are having a lot of trouble with this company not cancelling the charges. They said they would email the parking company again.

I have also emailed the parking company again but heard nothing.

So what do I do? As it has gone to debt recovery the charge is now £170. My husband has lost his job and we cannot really afford this. But the letter says if I have not paid by Thursday then further legal action is taken which will cost more.

Does anyone know what my legal position is?

From looking online it appears this particular company is particularly notorious and are complete bastards.

You need to call the business up again and speak to someone higher up about it.

Have you got it in writing from the business that they were going to cancel the charge?

I cannot call the business as they do not give any phone numbers. I phoned the debt recovery who said they do not have a number for the company either.

I know the people at the business well as I have been going there at least weekly for years. So I do believe that they cancelled it and they told me they had done it there and then.

Go back to the business and call debt/parking company from there get them to speak over the phone together.

The debt company were clear that this is nothing to do with them and there is nothing they can do.

There is no way to contact the parking company other than by the official appeal channel which is just online. There is no phone number and they are clear that if you try to appeal / query a penalty charge through any other channel than the official one, then they will ignore it. They are utter bastards.

Sorry this was unclear, I cannot call the parking company as the do not give any phone numbers.

I know the business I was at that day did process the letter to cancel it.

Which is the parking company, if you can say?

I doubt I can say being as I have called them bastards! I will pm you.

I had a similar experience when I parked in a Toby Carvery and the machine you had to put the registration number in was not working properly and didn't register my number but I did put it in. I got a letter saying I had parked illegally and had a £140 fine but it would be reduced to £70 if I paid within 14 days. If not it would be sent to a debt collection agency. On the letter they sent me there was an address. I wrote back to this address stating I had been parked as a customer of Toby Carvery with a photocopy of my receipt for the meal. I also stated the machine had not worked properly because I had input my registration number in. I park there every week on a Wednesday l had never had this problem when the machine was working properly. I stated I had kept the original receipt in case I needed it if it went to court and I could show a history of bank statements showing I used this Toby Carvery every Wednesday. I got a snotty letter back telling me I was in the wrong as the machine was not faulty but as I had the receipt for Toby Carvery, on this occasion they would not pursue charges. However if it happened again I would have to pay. The thing is when I put registration into the machine I didn't know it had not registered. So now, each time I go to this TC, I put my car registration into the machine and take a photo.

I am not a lawyer, I could be wrong. I am just saying what I would do.

First, you need to gather your evidence. Everything has to be in writing.

The business are the ones who can deal with this most promptly. It's really their job to sort it out, so push it. Tell them you've had debt collectors chasing you and a PCN, and you want proof it has been cancelled. This is the most direct way to deal with the problem.

If you do appeal the PCN, then you need a letter or email from the business saying you were authorised to park on the site, and the email from the business saying that they told the Bastards to cancel the charge.

Save emails as PDFs

Then, you need to follow the Bastards appeals procedure. Chose "I was authorised to park on site" and provide the evidence.

If they don't respond within 28 days, email their complaints email, saying you will report them to the BPA. If they don't respond within 28 days, report them to the BPA:

https://portal.britishparking.co.uk/compliance/LogComplaint

Keep complaining. Be a pain. They want an easy life and if you are difficult, they are likely to cancel. Tell them to tell the debt collectors to cancel the debt, and ask for proof.

For the moment, don't contact the debt collectors - they tend to give up if you entirely ignore them.

have a look at http://forums.pepipoo.com/

great forum with helpful advice on this subject.

@dadjoke Thank you so much. I will do all of this. I am going to the business again tonight so I will speak with them again.

It's Parking Eye, I bet!
I gave up with them last year and just paid them £100

Its actually not. I got a parking ticket from them too when parking at my gym - I was actually outside the 28 day appeal by the time I saw the letter, but the gym said they would cancel, it was cancelled straight away and I got a letter a few days later from Parking eye confirming this.

So I was impressed with them in contrast to the utter bastards this thread is about!

Highview parking by any chance?
"Apparently" I was at a retail park between 9pm - 5am 😅😅😅😅
The "photos" they provided were not clear and didn't show numberplate/me ect
I appealed but they rejected it and sent an email back with some generic reply about signs - I didn't appeal about bloody signs!!
Mines gone up to 170 myself and with debt collection!
No contact numbers, nothing!
Absolute bastards

Dont park against the terms and conditions you accepted when you parked and no problem.

See Beavis v Parking Eye.

I didn’t, but thanks for your uninformed opinion.

It is not clear from your posts if the business that said they could cancel the charge actually had the ability to do so. The fact they are on the site served by the car park does not automatically give them that right. Indeed, even if they are the landowner, they may not have that right. That depends on the agreement between the landowner and the car park operator.

Having said that, if the terms of the car park are clear that your stay whilst you visited this business should not have resulted in a charge, make sure you take a photo of the notices setting this out and get a letter from the business confirming that you were indeed visiting them at the time and that they have informed the parking company of this fact. If the parking company takes you to court, that will be all the evidence you need to win your case.

I spoke to the business last night and they were surprised and said they had received a confirmation email that it had been cancelled. They were actually able to give me a named person and number to call ( of the person at the parking company who said they cancelled it). I can’t call as the car is actually registered in my H’s name, so he is the person named on the charge, but he is calling today.

The business seemed clear that they have an agreement with the parking company that they can cancel charges for people who were genuinely at their business at that time.