Holy resurrection parking fine

This is about UKPC for a supposed infringement on my uni campus in Edinburgh in March 2017 - yes nearly four years ago.

In spite of my displaying a permit a zealous operative decided to slap the ticket on my coupé perhaps because it was temporarily in a visitor bay, but there were no signs saying not to. There are signs now but still don't say so.

They chased it but I took the advice to ignore it, on the strength that these PCNs were not actually legal in Scotland. A further letter arrived from a debt collector threatening "court action" in June 2017.

TODAY a letter arrived from a law firm in Sheffield determined to pursue legal action unless payment of £145 is made, up from £70 originally (no early payment reduction).

Anyone on here know if this is actually legal, considering the amount of time elapsed, let alone the fact in my opinion the ticket was incorrectly placed?

Don't these things time out if the threatened court action does not take place? I took a risk a few years ago on a NIP for speeding (34 in a 30 IIRC) using the old PACE non-self-incrimination ruse (since disallowed I think) and ignored all the threats and it timed out 3 months after the date of the offence...

I don’t know the exact status of your fine but the rule in Scotland (which has got my wife off quite a few tickets) is that a company has to prove loss of income (ie there was nowhere else for someone to park and pay) and this is normally incredibly hard for them to do.

Your situation sounds a bit different but the rules in Scotland are generally quite a bit different from England I believe (just for any English input)

I've no idea whether this site is any good, but it might be useful for some background info. https://www.resolver.co.uk/rights-guide/private-parking-tickets

If haven't already, pepipoo are worth a look, they've helped me a couple of times in the past with advice on this kind of thing.

Hello Simon. I had a ticket several years ago, not from local authority. Went on pepipoo and decided to ignore claims for money. They wrote several times causing anxiety. In the end they gave up. I also believe that they have to prove financial loss. Read pepipoo.

Best wishes

Paul

Happy birthday Paul!


Thanks to the replies so far

I've re-acquainted myself with the advice given on pepipoo as well as the never-short-of-something-to-say-and-very-convincing Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert and am quite relieved to see the almost-total debunking of any of the methods employed to extort money from people caught up in their parking empires.

Well worth a read anyway just for educational purposes!

So the latest is that security at uni have decided to chase this one up - they're not too happy about the time-scale involved and the implication is that there are other cases beside mine.

Uni must be getting desperate for money, this despite the fact that students have paid the teaching fees for the year and for many also the full year of accommodation fees yet the students are mostly living at home and the Uni costs must be much lower what with not even having bothered to open the Uni campus in many cases

Well well, another identical letter threatening court action arrived from the same Sheffield "law" firm today.

Return address on both is London N17

When we got a parking ticket in London (we ended up paying despite mitigating circs), the firm pursuing us was Sheffield-based. I assumed it was an irony that even the parking enforcers for London Boroughs couldn't afford to live there.

I seem to recall that debt agencies buy claims. So the current people may be well down the line and hoping for a bite.
I would suggest that you do not respond.

If there was a valid claim for monies from you, someone would have reverted to the courts.

Best wishes.

Chin up.

Paul L

]Hi Edinburgh,

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...rities-on-enforcing-parking-restrictions


Specifically to safe you searching:

"[footnote 56].

9.3 Issuing the ‘Notice to Owner’

If the penalty charge is not paid the enforcement authority may issue an NtO. The purpose of this is to ensure that the PCN was received by the vehicle owner and to remind the vehicle owner that the payment in full is now due and, if it is not paid within a further 28 days, it may be increased.

The NtO may be issued 28 days after serving the penalty charge, and we expect authorities to send them within 56 days. The ultimate time limit, in exceptional circumstances, is six months [footnote 57] from the ‘relevant date’. There should be a very good reason for waiting that long to serve an NtO [footnote 58]. The regulations set out the information that the NtO must [footnote 59] give.There are different requirements when the penalty charge notice acts as the NtO (see section 8.2).

Authorities must [footnote 60] specify on the NtO (or the PCN when served by post) the statutory grounds on which representations may be made. Where a photograph or other camera evidence shows that the parking contravention took place, authorities should send this with the NtO as it should help to prevent unfounded representations.

Where a penalty charge is served on a vehicle with a diplomatic registration plate, but no payment is received within 28 days, an enforcement authority should not issue an NtO but keep a record of the unpaid penalty charge.

Every year the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will request details of all unpaid penalty charge notices and then seek payment from the relevant contraveners.


Hope that helps. Personally I would ignore it. They won't stump up the money for a court hearing. And Even if they do....oh you would likely get a court date for 2025 at the earliest with the current Covid 19 backdate at the courts..


Cheers

MM