Private Parking Companies... Fighting back!

I. Farticus

Well-Known Member
Not stalking related, but we're all blighted by these chancers...

A PPC has no power to give us parking tickets, and you can challenge them to the nth degree. Advice differs, with most saying to just ignore them and their "£100, but reduces to £60 if you pay within 14 days" tickets for parking outside of a marked bay (10" - the width of the tyre, and that was because of the poor parking to my right...).
View attachment 38813

I decided to go on the offensive to see what happened - UKPC will receive this by RMSD before 13:00 hours today...

I'll report back - probably from 'D' wing when they've stopped making me pick up the soap, and I have my weekly 5 minutes on the computer!!

*********************************************

UKPC
PO Box 1087
Uxbridge
UB8 9UR


3[SUP]rd[/SUP] March 2014

RE: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing with reference to the parking ticket that was placed on car registration number xxxxx on 28[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2014, in Wycombe Retail Park, Loudwater, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 1FY

I am giving you 14 days to respond with the following to the address above:


  1. Written proof that UKPC has the right in law to make this demand. It is an offence at law to make an unwarranted demand, and at no point did the driver enter into a contract with UKPC. It is also an offence at law to dishonestly make a false misrepresentation as to a matter of fact or law, whether deliberately or recklessly, with intent to cause loss to another or expose another to loss or the risk of loss.


  1. Written statement from the landowner, your client, original not photocopy, dated and signed on their headed paper, covering how they suffered loss as a result of the alleged parking violation.


  1. Copy of your Consumer Credit Licence for Debt Collection. As you have made no obvious offer of parking via clear signage, and you are not the landowner, you are unable to levy charges therefore you are acting as a debt collection agency.

You will be aware of the Upper Tier Tax Tribunal case of VCS v HMRC, in which the ruling was that Private Parking Companies cannot lawfully make an offer of parking, or levy charges, unless they have a proprietary interest in the land. This is binding on lower courts, including the Small Claims Court, and has been ratified by an internal memo from the Ministry of Justice to all Courts in England & Wales. The records show that UKPC have no proprietary interest in Wycombe Retail Park, therefore rendering your notices and charges unlawful and unenforceable.

If I receive any correspondence reference this matter after 14 days of the date of this letter from either yourselves, or any so-called debt collection agency, UKPC will contractually pay me an administration charge of £90 for each such letter received, and furthermore I shall invoice you an additional £90 administration charge for any response that I have to make. I shall refer you and any agency back to this letter with my invoice. I shall extend you 28 day payment terms, with a 50% discount if settled within 14 days.


Yours sincerely

*********************************************
 
We had tickets from Blackpool, similar thing, ignored them, never heard from them again.
 
Its actually an invoice that they have sent you so just refuse to pay it :)

But a lovely letter and will be copying that down with your permission of course.
 
I bet you get a letter AFTER fourteen days from the date of your correspondence - be interesting to find out if they do actually pay you £90.00 because they sent YOU a letter lol

Doesn't it cause difficulties though, now that you have acknowledged their actual existence as an entity?
 
I got one ages ago for parking my motorbike outside of the "rules" at a shopping centre. I ignored it and that was the end of that, they never wrote to me even once.
 
Parking Ticket

I got one of these private parking tickets a few years back, i did as advised with all my other colleagues who recieved them and didnt pay, got a letter saying if i paid they would reduce from 100 to 60. then a reminder, then a final reminder then they passed it onto a debt collection agency who wanted 150 then another wanting 200 then a final letter saying if i paid 45 the matter would be dropped. Just ignored all the letters and never herd anything after the final debt collection...............when i went to re-mortgage i had a black mark on my credit history due to these fu*%ers as a none payment!!!! will be three years before its off my file!! not that it made any difference but just not impressed they even managed to do this!!!!!!!!
 
Not sure that this will win any writing awards, but if anyone wants to share, then please do so with my blessing. Anything that gets the message out that we should not be held to ransom has to be a good thing.

Interesting that they managed to get a CCJ against one bigboab29, but worth contesting that to see if you can get it removed... You could write to them with a Small Claims Court threat - use the detail of the Upper Tier Tax Tribunal case of VCS v HMRC that I mentioned above - and include an invoice of £90 for administration fees :D

Cheers
iain
 
You should apply for that to be removed from your credit history on the grounds that it has been applied illegally.

The 'contract' for a parking charge is established between the driver of the car, and the parking company, not the owner or keeper of the car. In law they have no right to demand to know who was driving, unlike a parking fine issued on public roads, where you would be illegally withholding information.

As they cannot legally discover the name and address of the driver, as the owner or keeper is not obliged in law to reveal this, they cannot legally place a black mark against the credit history of the owner or keeper either, for an unpaid parking charge unpaid by a third party.

Even if the PPC employs a Debt Collection Agency, the third party is unknown and cannot be established, and nothing can be enforced, therefore the attack on an innocent party's credit history is also unjustified in law.

Indeed, you may have a case for Blight, which is a spoiling of your history, preventing your ability to be able to obtain a Mortgage and move house, possibly causing you financial difficulties or losses. In which case you can take either the PPC or Debt Collection Agency to Court for compensation.

If they don't respond within 21 days to a Legal Notice, called a Part 36 Offer to Settle, that you intend to take the matter to Court, you also would not be stuffed for costs if you lost. As is the usual practice for PPCs and Debt Collection Agencies, they will usually ignore your letters, and stuff themselves for all the costs, whether you win or lose your case.

Obviously your offer would contain a provision to accept a sum of money outside of Court to cover your losses, and the PPC or Debt Collection Agency would likely ignore this, and thus you would not incur any legal charges for the costs of taking them to Court. A Part 36 Offer is best made using your Solicitors, who would use the correct form of words applicable to your situation, and also ensure that the Offer is legally binding.
 
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There's a great website to check out if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, even on public roads:

PePiPoo: Helping the motorist to get justice

I got a ticket for overstaying outside Spittlefields Market one weekend - can't remember the exact fine but it was exorbitant. I posted on the above site and some kind chap who lived nearby went and measured up the parking bays and markings for me, sending me the dimensions and photographs. The bays were not marked in accordance with the Road Traffic Act so I told them so and refused to pay - never heard anything back!

There have been a couple of others too - one where I was fined for parking a motorcycle on a pavement. Truth was, I only had the back wheel on the kerb to enable me to lock the wheel to a signpost. I argued that the kerb was "the portion dividing the pavement from the roadway" and so was a separate entity and not part of the pavement at all - again, I got no reply after the initial few threatening letters :eek:

Nick
 
Dropbox - uknotice.pdf-page-001.jpg

aChNF54UaQ_4tLWG1YiDInJ0cD_JijJ7DV0w4zfuaeY
 
Double page article in yesterday and todays Dundee Courier about this.
Final advice is "do not pay, totally unenforceable in law".
 
never mind PPC's!! challenge all of them always!

these feckers are on commission and the more you pay the more they will issue PCN's

I was given a ticket in Edinburgh City Centre because the see through "alarm" sticker in the rear quarter window was "obscuring" the last digit of "2014" on my resident's parking permit

I sent them a bill for £50 and a "cease and desist" letter
needless to say I did not get £50 for my "admin" but I did get a snivelling diatribe from some slack jawed idiot detailing their higher moral ground in cancelling the ticket "as a gesture of good will"

w@nkers
 
You should apply for that to be removed from your credit history on the grounds that it has been applied illegally.

The 'contract' for a parking charge is established between the driver of the car, and the parking company, not the owner or keeper of the car. In law they have no right to demand to know who was driving, unlike a parking fine issued on public roads, where you would be illegally withholding information.

As they cannot legally discover the name and address of the driver, as the owner or keeper is not obliged in law to reveal this, they cannot legally place a black mark against the credit history of the owner or keeper either, for an unpaid parking charge unpaid by a third party.

Even if the PPC employs a Debt Collection Agency, the third party is unknown and cannot be established, and nothing can be enforced, therefore the attack on an innocent party's credit history is also unjustified in law.

Indeed, you may have a case for Blight, which is a spoiling of your history, preventing your ability to be able to obtain a Mortgage and move house, possibly causing you financial difficulties or losses. In which case you can take either the PPC or Debt Collection Agency to Court for compensation.

If they don't respond within 21 days to a Legal Notice, called a Part 36 Offer to Settle, that you intend to take the matter to Court, you also would not be stuffed for costs if you lost. As is the usual practice for PPCs and Debt Collection Agencies, they will usually ignore your letters, and stuff themselves for all the costs, whether you win or lose your case.

Obviously your offer would contain a provision to accept a sum of money outside of Court to cover your losses, and the PPC or Debt Collection Agency would likely ignore this, and thus you would not incur any legal charges for the costs of taking them to Court. A Part 36 Offer is best made using your Solicitors, who would use the correct form of words applicable to your situation, and also ensure that the Offer is legally binding.
Very impressive, sounds like a man who knows his stuff inside out !
 
Why waste your time with these idiots? Just ignore them. There are many forums in which members of the public post the letters they receive from these companies, and the 'legal teams' and debt collectors. Always come from the same address, signed by the same guy, who has not been a lawyer for years (he got struck off for fraud or something, I believe) and are made to sound like they are legitimate threats. All they do is hope someone will bottle it and pay.
 
I got an 'invoice' whilst in the services at Stanstead. Had a kip at 2am waiting for clients to arrive.
Advice followed was, don't respond, don't communicate and don't pay. I did and after 3x letters they went away. No black marks either as recent mortgage was fine.
don't respond, don't communicate and don't pay
 
look up the 'parking prankster' he's on facebook etc with blogs and such, he's really getting under the skin of some of these parking companies
 
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