pollyanna21

A question about : pollyanna21

21 I wish!!!!
Seasons greetings. First time ever used a forum of any kind. Hope I'm doing it right.
Just today (Xmas eve of all days) received through post a parking charge notice from MET Parking Services. The reason being that I was genuinely in Macdonalds with a 17 year old, (so couldn't go to the pub). Along with another friend and we were happily chatting away for apparently 20 minutes longer than we were allowed to. Must admit I didn't notice any signs, it was dark at the time but apparently they are there. They have sent me a photo of my vehicle of which you cannot see the number plate at all. They have a seperate photo of the number plate underneath the main photo. Have had a quick look round the forum and see differing things about paying and not paying etc. Is there anybody out there with any genuine advise about what I should do. Realizing it's so near to Xmas am fully prepared to wait for any kind of reply. But hey thanks anyway. p.s.am on incapicity benefit so god only knows where I am supposed to get this Ј50.00 from. Feeling abit sorry for myself at the moment. p.p.s. am bit of a goody two shoes and won't ever park my car in a supermarket and go off somewhere else. that makes it all the more annoying as I was sitting in the restuarant. Never again.

Best answers:

• Private Parking Companies (PPC) (Martin's Article coming soon) 1) PPC tickets are NOT fines or fixed penalties, they are invoices based on a presumed contract with the driver. 2) When posting, don't mention your vehicle or exact location and most importantly do NOT say who was driving, as PPC trolls do read these boards and may try to use this information against you. 3) PPC charges have been shown to be generally unenforceable in Court, and they hardly ever issue proceedings, despite the threats in their intimidatory letters. 4) Do NOT write to the PPC to 'appeal' the ticket - the appeals process is a complete sham, they just want your money and thus will reject the 'appeal'. 5) If you don't take action on the ticket, the PPC will get the registered keeper's details from the DVLA, for a fee of Ј2.50. The registered keeper has no liability, since the presumed contract was formed with the driver. And, if you don't tell the PPC who was driving, they don't have a case. 6) Opinions vary on this point, but generally the best advice is to ignore all correspondence they send you, and they will give up after 5 or 6 scary looking letters. That's from the stickies at the top. Don't contact them, don't reply to them, don't admit on any forum or to them who the driver was as any purported contract would be with the driver. As the car park is free then they have not suffered any loss.
• I have copied below a letter from ASDA regarding blue badge parking which equally applies to MET overstaying. Letter was not from me but copied from another well known forum. """I sent a letter of complaint to my local ASDA, about the signs which suggest customers can be "fined" for parking in disabled bays without blue badges. I had a reply from their Head Office customer services, and amongst all the corporate waffle about providing the best possible shopping experience for their customers, was the phrase "we realise that, as a private company, our fines are not legally enforceable".