UKCP parking tickets
Discussion
Both my partner and I parked in an adjacent business unit near a ciniworld on Saturday at 4pm ( the units were shut) to take our daughter and 6 other girls for bowling and pizza.
On our return we both had parking tickets for £120 each from UKCP ( timed at 5.15pm), if we pay within 21days we get it for half price...bargain. My ticket had blown out of its plastic wrapper and I found it in a puddle!
It also appears that a sign has been put up on the wall recently highlighting that you could not park there but this was not obvious and must be a new system.
The cost is outrageous, £240. Is there anything I can do?
On our return we both had parking tickets for £120 each from UKCP ( timed at 5.15pm), if we pay within 21days we get it for half price...bargain. My ticket had blown out of its plastic wrapper and I found it in a puddle!
It also appears that a sign has been put up on the wall recently highlighting that you could not park there but this was not obvious and must be a new system.
The cost is outrageous, £240. Is there anything I can do?
rat840771 said:
Both my partner and I parked in an adjacent business unit near a ciniworld on Saturday at 4pm ( the units were shut) to take our daughter and 6 other girls for bowling and pizza.
On our return we both had parking tickets for £120 each from UKCP ( timed at 5.15pm), if we pay within 21days we get it for half price...bargain. My ticket had blown out of its plastic wrapper and I found it in a puddle!
It also appears that a sign has been put up on the wall recently highlighting that you could not park there but this was not obvious and must be a new system.
The cost is outrageous, £240. Is there anything I can do?
It's a bit of a procedure, but bear with me - take both tickets and put them in the bin.On our return we both had parking tickets for £120 each from UKCP ( timed at 5.15pm), if we pay within 21days we get it for half price...bargain. My ticket had blown out of its plastic wrapper and I found it in a puddle!
It also appears that a sign has been put up on the wall recently highlighting that you could not park there but this was not obvious and must be a new system.
The cost is outrageous, £240. Is there anything I can do?
In a few weeks you'll get some letters threatening all sorts of legal action and stupid amounts of money for fines - you'll need to bin these too.
A month or so later you may get a letter from a 'lawyer' again, the procedure is to bin them.
It's a scam, well sort of, they are fining you for parking in the wrong place - but their threats are empty, their MO is to scare people as much as possible either to pay early to get the 'discount' or through fear of 'legal action' - they never take it further than that and base their business model on a certain % of people paying up.
They're the 2014 version of the dodgy clamping firm.
As above, chuck em in the bin, the important thing is not to acknowledge them at all, do not even attempt to contact them just ignore. I've had many of these and have not paid a penny. If you get one from your local council pay up, but as for these private firms, f
k em,. Just think of it as they're sending you an invoice and your refusing to pay.
k em,. Just think of it as they're sending you an invoice and your refusing to pay.Puggit said:
DO NOT BIN!
Visit the experts at pepipoo or moneysavingexpert and fight this. It's not a simple procedure, it requires a bit of work, but you should win.
Been there, done that - got the win.
Binned loads, no comeback. Just threats, then they tend to offer me discounts later on in the game just to get something out of meVisit the experts at pepipoo or moneysavingexpert and fight this. It's not a simple procedure, it requires a bit of work, but you should win.
Been there, done that - got the win.
Warnie said:
Puggit said:
DO NOT BIN!
Visit the experts at pepipoo or moneysavingexpert and fight this. It's not a simple procedure, it requires a bit of work, but you should win.
Been there, done that - got the win.
Binned loads, no comeback. Just threats, then they tend to offer me discounts later on in the game just to get something out of meVisit the experts at pepipoo or moneysavingexpert and fight this. It's not a simple procedure, it requires a bit of work, but you should win.
Been there, done that - got the win.
By all means check out the guys on moneysavingexpert, most of them bin them too, IMHO it's the ones looking for a cause who bother fighting them.
Initially, do nothing and keep the paperwork safe. Wait for a letter from them, this will have cost them £5.00 to get details of two registered keepers from DVLA.
Only then, as on moneysaving expert, pepipoo & parking prankster websites - make a weak appeal to UKPC asking for a POPLA code if they reject your appeal, then appeal to POPLA with a stronger appeal (that the £120/£60 'parking charge' is not a "genuine pre-estimate of loss" for this event [hint: what are their actual losses for this parking event, rather than their costs of running the business, they claim the latter whereas they should be claiming the former which is at this stage £not much
] and also that UKPC are not the landholder and expand on the two points). Each appeal will cost UKPC £27+VAT and if POPLA refuse your appeal (done properly, they won't) you can then ignore. If this ever then goes to small claims court (some private parking companies such as Parking Eye are very litigious, some don't take people to court at all), it's easily winnable with the right arguments.
Rinse and repeat for the second car and you've cost UKPC £54+VAT = £64.80 + £5.00 spent at DVLA = £69.80
.
Only then, as on moneysaving expert, pepipoo & parking prankster websites - make a weak appeal to UKPC asking for a POPLA code if they reject your appeal, then appeal to POPLA with a stronger appeal (that the £120/£60 'parking charge' is not a "genuine pre-estimate of loss" for this event [hint: what are their actual losses for this parking event, rather than their costs of running the business, they claim the latter whereas they should be claiming the former which is at this stage £not much
] and also that UKPC are not the landholder and expand on the two points). Each appeal will cost UKPC £27+VAT and if POPLA refuse your appeal (done properly, they won't) you can then ignore. If this ever then goes to small claims court (some private parking companies such as Parking Eye are very litigious, some don't take people to court at all), it's easily winnable with the right arguments.Rinse and repeat for the second car and you've cost UKPC £54+VAT = £64.80 + £5.00 spent at DVLA = £69.80
.As stated above, keep the documents for a while, they'll send all sorts of guff in the post stating how they'll CONSIDER legal action blah blah blah....
They will stop after approx 6 weeks then bin them. Just dont make ANY contact with them.
This is my experience of them on two occasions in the last year, thanks to my helpful wife.
They will stop after approx 6 weeks then bin them. Just dont make ANY contact with them.
This is my experience of them on two occasions in the last year, thanks to my helpful wife.
They do however have six years to bring a case against you, just because they are not taking people to court at the moment does not mean their business model will not change in the future, its always handy to keep everything you get and file it away somewhere.
I would get it out of the way now to be honest, but wait for the notice to keeper to turn up, then a weak appeal followed by a strong one to popla-no geuine pre estimate of loss etc. doing it this was will cost them and the BPA money and you should have a 90% chance of a win. If you don't win then the decision is not binding on you anyway and you can continue to ignore. If they have a popla win though it may give them a stronger position at court although it shouldn't.
I would get it out of the way now to be honest, but wait for the notice to keeper to turn up, then a weak appeal followed by a strong one to popla-no geuine pre estimate of loss etc. doing it this was will cost them and the BPA money and you should have a 90% chance of a win. If you don't win then the decision is not binding on you anyway and you can continue to ignore. If they have a popla win though it may give them a stronger position at court although it shouldn't.
The OP and his missus both ignore signs notifying conditions of parking. They are then advised to submit spurious appeals with the specific intention of costing the PPC and BPA money and, further, to ignore the outcome of any appeals if unsuccessful?
And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
10 Pence Short said:
They are then advised to submit spurious appeals with the specific intention of costing the PPC and BPA money
They are just getting a taste of their own medicine....If the charges levied more closely correlated with the loss or a token amount - £5 I'm sure it would be paid without issue by the majority, however these companies over-inflate any charge without basis or merit, more-often when they don't have the legal ability to do so. If the public act as above, within the confines of the law how is it unreasonable for them to be treated as they like to treat others?
10 Pence Short said:
The OP and his missus both ignore signs notifying conditions of parking. They are then advised to submit spurious appeals with the specific intention of costing the PPC and BPA money and, further, to ignore the outcome of any appeals if unsuccessful?
And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
from reading the op's post again it looks as if the signs that you couldn't park there were not clear.And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
i had this with parking eye at freeport braintree, their signs at the time were about 10" square, had about 15 lines of text on and were about 20' up the poles they were on. we didn't notice them till somneone else asked me what was written on them. I had to stand on the rear bumper of my land rover to read them fully (some text bigger than others) and i don't need to wear glasses. the bloke who spoke to me would have had no chance with his age and bins he was wearing.
i fully understand that people should take responsibility etc, but the companies a) deliberately make the signs as obscure and difficult to read / understand as possible b) take the piss with charges like that.
10 Pence Short said:
The OP and his missus both ignore signs notifying conditions of parking. They are then advised to submit spurious appeals with the specific intention of costing the PPC and BPA money and, further, to ignore the outcome of any appeals if unsuccessful?
And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
Yes, my 'offence' was to park in the wrong corner of a car park UKCP managed, they had decided that one corner belongs to the customers of Pizza Hut, another to a steak place and another to a hotel - there were signs, but you'd have to walk to the edges of the car park to even notice them - and I don't know about you, but I don't tend to reccie every corner of every car park I visit. Anyway the signs gave vague instructions about parking in the right quadrant for the right place, but without the benefit of an aerial view you might come unstuck in the middle. Some of the other parks they manage are better signed, some are worse.And people accuse PPCs of being the scammers?
I firmly believe that these firms MO is to use the bear minimum of signage and fine the most vehicles they can and accept a few % of people to stump up and I'm not prepared to be in that %.
I can't prove they're related, but when they seemed to spring up over night when private clamping was banned
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