Do you think you'll end up paying? I remember when I got clamped in Brough by that massive tail spanker Pete Del Grosso and his cowboys. I was ****ing furious but had to pay, I had no choice.
There are two issues. Public road and private land. Public Road...pay up, it will cost you dear not to. If a Bailiff knocks on you door expect to pay £540 for the privilege. Private.....You could ignore it, but the best way in my opinion is to admit that you made a mistake (if you did). Send a letter, enclosing postal orders that equal the short term parking payment due in the nearest car park (work it out from the airport web site) add £10 admin fee and send to the issuing company stating that the payment is a reasonable amount to have to pay for the mistake that you made. Do not put a Cheque in, postal orders are legal tender. Copy everything that you send including the numbers from the order. Enclose a copy of the notice. Any charge has to be reasonable. If you pay a reasonable amount, the chances are that a court will accept that and the companies know it. But and this is a big but... Be honest, if you made a mistake admit that, everyone makes mistakes, but if you tried to avoid paying a car park fee that is different. The reason is simple. If you had used the car park for 15 secs it would probably have been free. So £60 is unavoidable. In the past I used to advise cutting clamps off on private land. Wind the clamper up so that he either hits you or threatens to, whist videoing it all. To say I hate private clampers is a understatement. Mind you I hate County Court bailiffs, consumer debt collectors and citizen advice councillors as well.
Melu, on the letter it says "This PCN is issued to vehicle registrationmark **** *** for allegedly breaching the terms and conditions of the use of the privatley operated access roads. Why allegedley??
I think legally they can only sue the driver if it's on private land. There's no obligation to reveal who was driving the vehicle. **** 'em
Because you may have a valid reason for parking and they are not aware of it until you tell them. To be honest the use of PCN is wrong as are notices that look like Local Authority Parking Notices. The use of batten burg stripes and official sounding words like fixed penalty and fine are contrary to acceptable practice. Unfortunately if you stopped and got out of your vehicle or even sat in a bus lay by at an airport they will have you by the balls. They can play the anti terror card. They provide 15minutes of free parking as well and therefore if you dropped off or picked up passengers they could just say that because you stopped where you shouldn't have you caused them extra expense and so the charge was reasonable. Do the bit with the postal orders and write a letter like this. Dear Sir, Re your PCN ........... I am sorry that I parked in the wrong place, I was under pressure and became confused. I realise now that there could be good reasons for not parking in the bus stop. I made a mistake and I hope that you will consider my payment of £12.50 as a reasonable sum due in the circumstances. I can assure you that I have learnt a valuable lesson from this.
Thanks Melu, i didnt get out my vehicle. The passenger was waiting in the bus stop for me he opened the door as i pulled up (sliding door) jumped in and i was gone id argue i didnt even stop
I ignored repeated demands for escalating amounts of money for "over parking " at a retail outlet.There were photos of the alleged offence with times shown.My partner ,who did go there on the date, said she stayed nowhere near the times indicated.So far things seem to have gone away(after solicitor/debt collector letters). Non of the letters where recorded delivery. Cannot remember company name but most on the internet advised ignoring it. Not sure if this is a good tactic for you. "alleged" sounds like they are talking bollocks. If my partner is telling the truth(as she always does) the company is possibly suffering from poor technology-timing devices
Yeah strangley enough the 2 pics they have taken of my cab have 21:38:00 and 21:39:00 underneath them but the times on the actuall pics are 21:38:59 and 21:39:04. Not sure if theres anything in that but i was only there for seconds but they have 2 pics exactly a min apart
If you read the threads on money savings expert, so many stories similar, and they tell you exactly how to get out of it. It may take you half an hour to follow their instructions but will save you time. If you admit you did wrong pretty certain they will enforce the full amount on you as you have admitted your guilt and they know that they would win if it went further. If you ignore it i had a customer of mine recently get bailiffs come round to collect the money, this was from parking in that new Wilkos on Hessle Road mind. I would just follow the instructions on money savings expert and you will be fine.
Sorry I didn't know that you had a cab. That's different all together. Write and tell them pointing out the times. I wouldn't pay anything personally as in my view, you are a public service vehicle.
I have spent years fighting the rubbish that gets posted on forums about debt collection. Every time a member of my family, or someone in my circle of friends gets a parking charge on private land, my method gets them off, why, because the companies cannot take the case any further as a reasonable amount has been paid and this has been as low as £1.00. Writing pre formatted letters taken from advice forums only makes the company review the case. Bailiffs collecting private parking fines...they're not bailiffs. They are debt collectors and should be told to get to ****. They have no right to be on your property and are trespassing if they don't leave when asked. Now if I knock on your door you are in the mire.
If they were gonna go down the terrorism route they would have involved the police not a debt collection department. They probably couldn't pursue a trespass claim as you have permission to be there. If they were gonna go down that route they wouldn't issue the notice they did. All they can probably do is threaten to sue you for breach of contract. To do that they need to know who their contract is with. It's not enough (despite what their letters say) to know who the vehicles registered keeper is. You are at a disadvantage in running a black cab so more likely to know you were driving. Even do, all they can claim is the losses they suffered as s result of your breach of contract. By the sounds of it they haven't suffered any loss so they cannot claim anything from you. A contract term that you pay 60 quid for overstating your time (for eg) is likely to be a penalty clause and liable to be unenforceable. Finally, they are almost certainly not going to take anyone to court for a claim of 60 or 100 quid. It will cost em more than that to go to court, and as its s small claim they could only recover court fees if they won. I ignored all the correspondence that was sent me by one of these firms. They threatened court proceedings but never issued a claim and ultimately gave up. Personally that's what I'd do if I were you.
"Humberside International Airport is increasing the free parking allowed for dropping off and collecting passengers in a bid to cut out parking on double yellow lines around the terminal. At the same time, from 13th May Sheffield-based company Vehicle Control Services Ltd will make sure drivers park where they should. The airport’s Commercial Director Paul Litten says it’s time to get tough on those who feel they can park where they like. “This is the first time the airport has introduced this enforcement and clearly there is a very strong security reason for doing so.’ Alongside the security factor, the new parking arrangements will help improve the flow of the many bus services along the airport’s roads every day as well as make the pavements safer for pedestrians. “Until now we’ve had drivers who’ve pulled up onto the pavement across double yellow lines and in some cases travellers with heavy cases were having to walk on the road to go round the vehicle. That won’t happen anymore.’ Says Mr Litten." As I say airports and train stations use the same government backed reasons.
True Mel, but at the end of the day their only course of action is a breach of contract claim unless a car has been abandoned, raising suspicion that it could have a boot full of semtex. In that case they wouldn't use a debt collection firm anyway, but call the fuzz to deal with it.
Last year the law changed, but it exempted airports and train stations on the grounds of security from some of the changes. My point is that a reasonable charge can be increased compared to other places. Private clamping is still allowed on airports and train stations. i maintain the view that if you have a charge it must be reasonable. Overstaying by 10 minutes should not bear the same charge as overstaying by 1 hour. Making a mistake is one thing, avoiding payment is another. Parking companies know that nearly 60% of appeals made are successful, which also means that overall if they apply the same numbers to those who write in, they should expect to write off the same amount. the problem is that since the changes in law many of the forums are out of date. There is an appeal process and the company will point that out. If you ignore the charge, there is now a greater chance that a solicitors letter will follow. I am only saying that this is different in Geos case, black cab, bus stop, airport. £60 for member of the public, I don't think that it could be avoided. £60 for Geo could. The law has also changed regarding the keeper of a vehicle. I would never be able to advise anyone to ignore a lawful charge. How could I, as I have spent too many years collecting money from people who have done just that. Cowboy clampers have been dealt with and the industry is now more focused on lawful collection. I still believe that the use of terms like PCN and fine alongside the use of official looking paperwork should be condemned. Have a look at the following. http://www.theaa.com/public_affairs/reports/parking-tickets-private-land.html
Well my appeals gone in based on the facts that the times of the pics etc, I didn't actually park ,and at 21:38 on a Friday evening at humberside airport the only thing missing Is tumbleweed it's that quiet. So the fact I may have been in that bus stop for 4seconds didn't obstruct or inconveience anyone in anyway therefore £60 is excessive
