Can anyone shed any light on this baby for me?

A couple of weeks ago we were given a parking ticket by a private parking company. Used to be able to park in this place free of charge but they have recently changed it so that you have to have a permit.

It is a Pay and Display, but there are signs up saying that parking restrictions are in place. (I didn't see the signs as I was so used to parking there for free).

Anyway, we have been issued with a £50 fine if paid within 14 days, or £90 after that. I have been told by a mate that as it's from a private company, they can't legally pursue us in court, and that I should ignore the ticket.

Have any of you had the same experience? Or know of anything similar?

Rich

Look at http://www.mse.me/privateparking if you are sure it was a private car park.
Everything is there.

My brother lent his car to my brother in law who collected a private ticket in Maidstone. They are chasing my brother for the money as he is the registered owner and are turning nasty. He doesn't need to tell them who was driving but that doesn't stop them making threats

Good Luck.

Whilst being dropped off at Luton Airport, we got charged one pound for being dropped off. Two blokes in shiny outfits and brand new parking enforcement cars driving around. One pound for 30 seconds. This is pure theft. Why do they do it?

Got a parking ticket on Sunday at 11.am on the seafront.
Where blind Pugh stuck the parking fine on my windscreen-right below on the middle of my dashboard was my pay and display ticket valid for another 41 mins.

Unfortunately this twit was not in the car park when i returned to get an earbashing from me

i told them where to stick their fine and sent them in a copy of my ticket.

currently phoning daily for them to view the so called proof that i did not have a pay and display ticket.

Mysteriously their pictures of my car have been misplaced- maybe the fact it showed clearly my ticket embarressing their pisspoor penny pinching outfit as not worth the cheese around my helmet.


I'll be phoning again today.


,,

I got a parking ticket from a private company on a B&Q car park about a month ago. I overstayed by 30 mins and received a £110 ticket, £80 if paid within 10 days.

I have not paid it and have absolutely no intention of doing so. I am using the militant approach and simply ignoring everything they send me. Three nasty letters so far threatening court action which is surely not likely, it is not in there interest to haul me through the courts for £110.

I cant really see what they can do?

Please do keep us informed, I've always wonder what lengths these companies go to get money off people. If they go for tiger kidnap, it might be time to consider your options though

Could the court make you pay the court fee's?

Also check out www.pepipoo.com for some expert advice
The general gist is that nobody knows of a single successful prosecution by a private parking firm without the defendant admitting somewhere that they were the driver.
The problem for them is that you can only take a person to court. Private firms can only obtain registered keeper details and you have no legal obligation to tell them who was driving
The advice is just to ignore them

My wife and mother-in-law both got one of these a couple of years ago. Moneysavingexpert was a great help. Myself and father-in-law were the registered keepers, so we got the tickets. We both wrote to the company, told them we weren't the drivers and had no intention of telling them who was (you're not legally obliged to), and never heard from them again. Seem to remember MSE did say not to lie about anything that could end up in court, so if you are the registered keeper and were the driver, you might have to take a different route.

Also had a mate who got a ticket for parking badly in his street (assume the council gave it to him). He refused to pay and they took him all the way to the verge of court action, then dropped it. I remember him telling me at the time he'd seen something on Working Lunch that apparently 90% of parking ticket appeals are successful, but hardly anyone bothers to appeal.

I followed the advice on money saving expert after receiving a parking ticket from a private company after going 10 mins over a 2 hour limit in a retail park car park. As they predicted I received 3 letters in very quick succession over a 2 week period that I just ignored. One even had a nice pic of my car leaving. Didn't even bother to appeal or send shopping receipts. 3 months down the line and heard nothing - and dont expect to. Ignore it. Robbing b*****ds!

(Wouldn't do the same with a local authority/council ticket though)

As for the council tickets...i think it's always worth an appeal
I got a bus lane fine many moons ago for a car i had sold, but the council would not believe me. lol....they sent many threatening letters, and i replied in writing each time that i would like to appeal (which each letter always said the next letter would let me do). They gave up in the end.

My best mate has appealed two parking tickets and won both as council find it too expensive to send anyone to the arbitration meeting so he automatically won

Yeah, I imagine they could and would. Im hoping it doesnt go that far tho


I was very tempted to go down the route of saying I wasnt driving and Im not gonna tell you who was but I didnt really want to start lying, to be honest I dont even want to acknowledge them.


Will keep you posted as to how im getting on

Well...I think it's safe to say they have given up

Not had a letter for nearly 6 weeks now, ignoring everything they sent me seems to have done the trick. I don't for one minute believe this would have worked if I had been given a ticket from a local council numpty but it appears these private firms have very little power to make you pay up. Good times!!!

Ditto

We haven't heard anything back either. We didn't even receive a letter!

Happy days indeed!

Spoke to soon, just had a text from "her indoors", letter received this morning.

i take it your fine has doubled.

£90 and they have included a photo of our car "illegally parked".

Mrs is scared it's going to effect our credit rating (highly doubtful) and that she is going to end up in court (again highly doubtful).

Needless to say i got off with this one although got off is not the correct wording when i had a eff ticket all the time.

Since then picked my daughter up at the station earlier in month just by taxi rank and next to bus stop where i would safely hazard 1,000 others do per day, and i got a parking ticket from a snnop bubble car with a giraffe camera neck.
I hadnt even stopped the nengine but had got out to rub a smear off the window but its picture was that well taken as it wove behind me whilst moving it snapped my car looking for all intents and purposes empty and parked; my daughter had already got in the car and you could see my shadow on the side of the car.

I was driving my sons car so the fine was in his name, my wife duly paid the 35 quid but i have seen the snoop car a couple of times since as it goes around the roundabout about 4 times and snaps anyone picking up family , like millions of us do every day up and down the country outside train stations. I have stood infront of this car a few times and cynically clapped and shouted obscenities, its a eff old beady eyed doris driving this bubble car which looks like noddys eff car.

The only way this could affect your credit rating is if you get taken to court,lose the case, fail to pay, and then get a ccj against you. You have more chance of joining Elvis for tea on the moon
There is barely a single example of a private parking company taking anyone to court and not one of them winning without the defendant admitting something in court.
Just keep ignoring
They word everything in such a way as to use fear to make you pay.
They are just criminals

It's my full intention to keep ignoring. And having read this thread and looked at MSE again I am in no doubt that we will get away with it.

It's just Mrs Richt does have a tendancy to worry a little. (Fair enough, the letter and car etc is in her name, so I can see why she is concerned). But I know we have no reason to be.

It is all about scare tactics.

I have to be honest, I was tempted just to pay when I received a letter threating to send debt collectors round

Obviously that will never happen. 95% of people will just pay-up with no questions when they get a letter like that.

Tell the Mrs to stay strong

No matter what happens, your credit rating is safe.

Well that's it. We are totally effed!

The Mrs has received a letter this morning from the debt collection agency demanding £150. (I am not sure of the full wording in the letter).

But this will now totally eff up our credit rating (her's wasn't fantastic before) and will stop us from getting a mortgage.

I would take a closer look at the letter. Is it actually from a debt collection agency?

The last letter I received threatened to pass the debt over but it never happened.

Unless you end up going to court and not paying the court fees, this CANNOT affect your credit rating.

The last letter we received from them said that if we didn't play then they would pass our details onto a debt recovery agency.

This letter we have received this morning appears to be from a debt recovery agency.

Richt
Seriously, go to pepipoo or moneysavingexpert and search the names of the debt collectors and parking company
I bet the "debt collectors" are the parking company sending you letters
Stick with it, this is just them trying to extort money form you, merely the next stage

The only way they can have any affect on your credit rating is to take you to court, win, and then you fail to pay and get a ccj
It ain't gonna happen

won't the debt recovery agency be hired by the parking ticket company though for recovering the money on a 'no recovery / no fee basis'?!

it just sounds like a further scare tactic to me - still don't see what they can do.

fwiw I got done in Dublin a few years ago - just ignored all correspondence and it fizzled out eventually.
also got clamped once by a private company - jacked the car up and let the tyre down and took off the clamp, put my spare on and handed the clamp in at the local police station the following day. Got a letter sometime after from the cop shop saying no-one had claimed it and I could collect if I wanted to!! Needless to say I didn't bother. Was funny though!

good luck richt.

We are so close to just paying it. Mrs is shitting herself as it's in her name.

I am going to google the name of the debt recovery company when I get home tonight to see how legit they are......

If you have it to hand, stick the names here mate and i'll do some digging
Legit and private parking company =

I'll text the Mrs

Thanks.