Thetownend.com

I recieved a parking ticket the other week for parking in the coop car park for longer than i shouldve done. I was 15 mins over the time. Anyhow this car park is supposed to have an agreement with my employers that we can use it if there is no space in our car park so i did. I got fined £50. I then received a letter last week saying because i hadnt paid it had gone up to £70, and to pay in 28 days or it gets referred to debt collection agency.

I received a letter on saturday from said debt collection agency charging me £95 quid even though the 28 days has not yet elapsed.

Imo they were wrong to send it to me????

Also was i wrong on wringing them up and calling them a bunch of robbing fuckers?

No you were correct since they are robbing bastards, but I doubt it will help :)

I guess it's going to be tricky to wriggle out of now the debt collection agency is involved?

You need to get your HR dept to contact them and challenge that, If you have an agreement with them they should honour it. If however you technically weren't supposed to be there, you're probably stuffed. They have no mercy, i've been done for 1 minute over!

Ring the local paper and give it some Hero Fire fighter bullshit.

Maybe your Union legal people could help as its an agreement?

I was thinking exactly the same thing.

There claiming there is no agreement as it is not an official agreement, just a local one between the two.
The union wont do anything about it though as its not within their remit i dont think.
Theyve dropped the charge to £50 though now.

Robbing cunts mind.

Ill pay it, but a nice letter will be going to Watchdog and the local rag about the siutuation though i reckon...

Tart

My experience with parking tickets is if you whinge enough you get out of it - every time you appeal the time given before the fee goes up is supposed to be frozen until the outcome of the appeal.  I think you can appeal 3 times.

I appealed three parking tickets if only to buy more time til I had time to pay it, and each time the soft councils involved dropped it!   :D

Its hardly an agreement then is it. Its actually more like entrapment. 

Walrus is right, kick up a fuss and eventually they usually drop it, especially as in this case they've escalated it to a debt collection agency before the 28 days. I would imagine as they've gone against procedure it makes your ticket null and void, especially as they've admitted this by reducing the fine back down to £50

I've used this site twice now and they've got me off both times.

http://www.appealnow.com/AppealNowabout.php

I land a new client last week who has a problem with parking tickets. As a bit of brown nosing I did some research from him and this is an extract from my email which maybe of help:

 OPC’s tickets are issued on the premise that you are in breach in contract for parking where you have. 

As you are probably aware Private Parking Companies rely on the law of contract as the basis for claiming and enforcing penalty notices.  This differs from notices issued by police or local authorities that are issued pursuant to the Road Traffic Act 1991. 

The long established remedy for breach of contract is damages and the measure of the same is to put the injured party in the same position had the breach not occurred.  Clearly, therefore there can be no loss if the car in question was parked in one of our spaces that have already been paid for.

It is for you to demonstrate the loss you have incurred due to the breach.  It is trite law (Wilson v Love 1896, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre v New Garage Motor 1915 et al) that you cannot charge a penalty for breach of contract, i.e. where the sum bears no relation to the potential loss.  Indeed, it is noted that you even refer on the ticket several times to it being a penalty.   

Additionally, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999 and related Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 2083, in particular at section 5 states that unfair terms are:

(1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

(2) A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.

(3) Notwithstanding that a specific term or certain aspects of it in a contract has been individually negotiated, these Regulations shall apply to the rest of a contract if an overall assessment of it indicates that it is a pre-formulated standard contract.

(4) It shall be for any seller or supplier who claims that a term was individually negotiated to show that it was.

(5) Schedule 2 to these Regulations contains an indicative and non-exhaustive list of the terms which may be regarded as unfair.
 

There is also the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 that states in section 4 that:

(1) A person dealing as consumer cannot by reference to any contract term be made to indemnify another person (whether a party to the contract or not) in respect of liability that may be incurred by the other for negligence or breach of contract, except in so far as the contract term satisfies the requirement of reasonableness.

(2) This section applies whether the liability in question –

(a) is directly that of the person to be indemnified or is incurred by him vicariously;

(b) is to the person dealing as consumer or to someone else.
 

Clearly the charging of £50 (increasing to £100) is wholly unreasonably.

Private parking companies rely on motorists ignorance of the law and most people pay up, indeed you paid the first few tickets.   

Notwithstanding, if anyone receives a sealed Claim Form from OPC and or the court then I will happily draft a defence for you (no charge of course).   

Good man gazza!

hehehe thems the same laws that you blag your bank charges back through!