Parking Eye taking me to a small claims court
Discussion
Hello all
So.. the monster that is parking eye is taking me to a small claims court having declined my appeal form the parking 'incident' which happened in November of last year, in a carpark owned by 'The Range' on newport road, in cardiff. I was parked there for about 20minutes around 10pm on a thursday night having a coffee, in an unlit carpark, with no lit signage and nothing obvious to tell me not to park there. There was heavy rain at the time, and my engine was running.
-first letter was the initial parking charge a couple weeks after i was there around mid november - i chose to ignore this £100 charge.
- second letter from them was in january (at this point i had forgotten about it!) sending the same letter again. i responded with a formal letter of appeal, claiming that the duration was wrong showing 1 hr 47 minutes, the carpark was unlit, the store was clearly closed, there was no obvious signage, my engine was running.
- third letter - mid feb - a simple, straight forward letter saying they declined my appeal. no back up as to why, just a sheet of formal headed paper basically saying get stuffed - i either pay or it goes to a small claims court. i ignored this letter calling their bluff, which has clearly now bit me.
- fourth letter from a court in Nottingham - showing that Parking eye want to take it to court, don't want to go into mediation, declined my appeal. I responded to the letter and ticked the box to request mediation - by doing this i thought i could just pay the fine and be done with it as its been 9 months on as it is and I'm sick of the letters!
fifth letter- From my local small claims court in Merthyr tydfil, saying they have taken the case on from nottingham court on behalf of parking eye. no response required.
final letter from today - Parking eye has officially addressed my areas of appeal, simplified in the case of :
1. their apnr cameras are always correct, regularly checked, which when scanning a plate goes through 'multiple' processes to ensure data collected is correct
2. suitable signage is present, they have gone as far as sending me library pics of each sign on the site, and even a site layout of where said signs are
3. very important - parking eye claim that after my appeal was declined by them, they sent a letter giving me the opportunity to go through POPLA (parking on private land appeals). they have sent a copy of the letter addressed to me on 16th december. i did NOT receive this letter!!!
4. signage by law doesn't need to be lit, according to them. in their opinion my headlights was sufficient at illuminating said signage ( even in poor weather conditions?)
Basically, i received no letter from POPLA. theres clearly no evidence i received said letter. The carpark was defo unlit, signage wasn't obvious to see, and my engine was running.. where do i stand with this in your opinion? am i going to loose and end paying a fortune in court costs and the fine itself? i question why they have given me such a comprehensive reply to my appeal now, yet the third letter i received from them was basically ''we reject your appeal'' with no justification.
its honestly doing my head in how long its been dragged out for and the hours their putting into it! I'm prepared to pay the fine to just be done with it.
i appreciate your advice.
thanks
Irfan
So.. the monster that is parking eye is taking me to a small claims court having declined my appeal form the parking 'incident' which happened in November of last year, in a carpark owned by 'The Range' on newport road, in cardiff. I was parked there for about 20minutes around 10pm on a thursday night having a coffee, in an unlit carpark, with no lit signage and nothing obvious to tell me not to park there. There was heavy rain at the time, and my engine was running.
-first letter was the initial parking charge a couple weeks after i was there around mid november - i chose to ignore this £100 charge.
- second letter from them was in january (at this point i had forgotten about it!) sending the same letter again. i responded with a formal letter of appeal, claiming that the duration was wrong showing 1 hr 47 minutes, the carpark was unlit, the store was clearly closed, there was no obvious signage, my engine was running.
- third letter - mid feb - a simple, straight forward letter saying they declined my appeal. no back up as to why, just a sheet of formal headed paper basically saying get stuffed - i either pay or it goes to a small claims court. i ignored this letter calling their bluff, which has clearly now bit me.
- fourth letter from a court in Nottingham - showing that Parking eye want to take it to court, don't want to go into mediation, declined my appeal. I responded to the letter and ticked the box to request mediation - by doing this i thought i could just pay the fine and be done with it as its been 9 months on as it is and I'm sick of the letters!
fifth letter- From my local small claims court in Merthyr tydfil, saying they have taken the case on from nottingham court on behalf of parking eye. no response required.
final letter from today - Parking eye has officially addressed my areas of appeal, simplified in the case of :
1. their apnr cameras are always correct, regularly checked, which when scanning a plate goes through 'multiple' processes to ensure data collected is correct
2. suitable signage is present, they have gone as far as sending me library pics of each sign on the site, and even a site layout of where said signs are
3. very important - parking eye claim that after my appeal was declined by them, they sent a letter giving me the opportunity to go through POPLA (parking on private land appeals). they have sent a copy of the letter addressed to me on 16th december. i did NOT receive this letter!!!
4. signage by law doesn't need to be lit, according to them. in their opinion my headlights was sufficient at illuminating said signage ( even in poor weather conditions?)
Basically, i received no letter from POPLA. theres clearly no evidence i received said letter. The carpark was defo unlit, signage wasn't obvious to see, and my engine was running.. where do i stand with this in your opinion? am i going to loose and end paying a fortune in court costs and the fine itself? i question why they have given me such a comprehensive reply to my appeal now, yet the third letter i received from them was basically ''we reject your appeal'' with no justification.
its honestly doing my head in how long its been dragged out for and the hours their putting into it! I'm prepared to pay the fine to just be done with it.
i appreciate your advice.
thanks
Irfan
ecellent responses, thanks so much for the links - i will give them a good read in the morning.
the fine their looking for is £100. which i think is insane but i guess thats their price.
the only letters i ignored was the initial one (which i suspect 98% of people do anyway?) and the second letter ignored was the one where they rejected my appeal and demanded the money again. i genuinely haven't received any POPLA letter. they attached a copy in their letter today which was all good and well, but it rang no bells, ive defo never seen it and they can't prove wether i have or haven't.
i popped by the carpark tonight - i was having food on city road so quickly nipped over.
the camera is on the wall of the building looking down, its a proper CCTV security looking camera as opposed to an APNR. the carpark is absolutely open and welcoming to drive in and out of, but there is a parking eye sign near the entrance (all signs are unlit). there was a sign on the wall of the building stating the 'no more than 2 hours etc', but i would'nt have seen that as my car was facing the main road, not the store, as proven in their camera pics. the car park was lit with very dim orange lights tonight.. it defo was not when i parked there but I'm unsure how to prove this.
guess i need to really read up and get myself a strong list of defence material to use on the 'day of judgement'... haven't been given a date yet which i assume gives me time.
its just... such nonsense.
the fine their looking for is £100. which i think is insane but i guess thats their price.
the only letters i ignored was the initial one (which i suspect 98% of people do anyway?) and the second letter ignored was the one where they rejected my appeal and demanded the money again. i genuinely haven't received any POPLA letter. they attached a copy in their letter today which was all good and well, but it rang no bells, ive defo never seen it and they can't prove wether i have or haven't.
i popped by the carpark tonight - i was having food on city road so quickly nipped over.
the camera is on the wall of the building looking down, its a proper CCTV security looking camera as opposed to an APNR. the carpark is absolutely open and welcoming to drive in and out of, but there is a parking eye sign near the entrance (all signs are unlit). there was a sign on the wall of the building stating the 'no more than 2 hours etc', but i would'nt have seen that as my car was facing the main road, not the store, as proven in their camera pics. the car park was lit with very dim orange lights tonight.. it defo was not when i parked there but I'm unsure how to prove this.
guess i need to really read up and get myself a strong list of defence material to use on the 'day of judgement'... haven't been given a date yet which i assume gives me time.
its just... such nonsense.
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