Post by Amy :) on Jul 14, 2010 12:29:29 GMT 1
Last week I parked outside Exeter Central Station, went across the road to a shop to get change to pay the 80p parking for an hour.... and minutes later this parking attendant was writing me a ticket!!!
I told her that I'd been minutes but she wouldn't take any of it and said that there was no stopping now that she had started writing it!
So when I asked the cost of the fine... she said it was 70 quid!!!!
and the looking at the ticket, it was only 70 if you could pay in 7 days (which I cant) so then it went up to 100 quid!!
So I did a bit of research before giving up and paying the &#%&ing fine.... and it turns out that because it's not the police or council that authorised the ticket, I don't have a legal obligation to pay it.
They're a PPC (private company) and apparently PPS (Premier Parking Solutions Ltd) are well known for they're scams and sneaky ways... several people had exactly the same thing happen in the same car park, and when trying to appeal, all get the same standard letter, with threat of debt collectors and a solicitiors letter...
but guess what?? these debt collectors and solicitors happen to share the same address as PPS, and just use different names and letter heads....
All the advice says to ignore it, even legal advisors that have appeared on Watchdog.
Apparently they have no right to harass you for the money, and they use the term PCN, which fools a lot of people into paying the fine... it infact does not stand for Penalty Charge Notice (which is legally binding) but stands for Parking Charge Notice (which is unenforcable).
It's also illegal for them to try to immitate a legally binding contract in the form of a ticket....
Anyway, loooong rant over, your thoughts? Advice is more than welcome....
I told her that I'd been minutes but she wouldn't take any of it and said that there was no stopping now that she had started writing it!
So when I asked the cost of the fine... she said it was 70 quid!!!!
and the looking at the ticket, it was only 70 if you could pay in 7 days (which I cant) so then it went up to 100 quid!!
So I did a bit of research before giving up and paying the &#%&ing fine.... and it turns out that because it's not the police or council that authorised the ticket, I don't have a legal obligation to pay it.
They're a PPC (private company) and apparently PPS (Premier Parking Solutions Ltd) are well known for they're scams and sneaky ways... several people had exactly the same thing happen in the same car park, and when trying to appeal, all get the same standard letter, with threat of debt collectors and a solicitiors letter...
but guess what?? these debt collectors and solicitors happen to share the same address as PPS, and just use different names and letter heads....
All the advice says to ignore it, even legal advisors that have appeared on Watchdog.
Apparently they have no right to harass you for the money, and they use the term PCN, which fools a lot of people into paying the fine... it infact does not stand for Penalty Charge Notice (which is legally binding) but stands for Parking Charge Notice (which is unenforcable).
It's also illegal for them to try to immitate a legally binding contract in the form of a ticket....
Anyway, loooong rant over, your thoughts? Advice is more than welcome....
turns out the council hadn't re-applied for the right to fine people.
(only A level...)
.