Can someone please help with a matter that seems outside of the POPLA remit, in that the original ticket was issued well before 1 October 2012..... My brother came to visit me at the residential flats where I live, and parked in a visitors bay with my permission. When he returned to his car he had been ticketed by OPC for failure to display a visitors permit. This was news to me as I had already lived here for 10 years by then and never been sent any such thing. In any event, we ignored their speculative invoice as per the advice at the time and thought it had gone away. Yesterday they sent a 'Without Prejudice save as to costs' letter offering to drop the penalty from £100 to £90 if paid within seven days letter. They also state legal proceeding are about to be commenced, and we cannot draw the letter to the attention of the court. I will scan the letter up when I get home, but what is the procedure for dealing with claims where POPLA cannot get involved? Do I still appeal in writing to OPC and wait for a rejection letter and possible court papers? Bit confused as to why theyve waited this long.....

I would like to know the best way to proceed with a parking ticket for someone. The OPC sign was not noticed on entering the parking site behind shops. The area has been used by the person to visit shops for years as there was not a restriction. The stay was iro up to half hour. The ticket says pay £50. There were not any more signs noticed where the person parked and you would think there should be signs clearly visible in the parking area itself if the sign entering is missed, sharp turn in off a busy road, you would see other signs.

Hi I got an OPC parking ticket back in December for blocking the road of a private estate (back of a shopping centre that has flats on the top) I was annoyed but in the end I decided it was my fault so I payed the £50. In February i was parked in the same private parking area only this time in one of the bays provided (I would also like to point out that i used to park in this place everyday for 3 years when i worked in the shopping centre and never got a ticket) and I got another ticket! i looked around and no other cars parked like me or the ones blocking the street had tickets. I looked around for the OPC sign and it was opposite the exit road so I never saw it until i went looking. I decided to ignore this ticket after reading some forums and legal pages. This morning i found a letter from them demanding payment of £100 immediately or they will take legal action! Should I bite the bullet and pay this as I do not have money to cover any additional legal costs they are threatening? Thanks

Hi, I have the same thing, I also live on Selden Hill. I have appealed saying that I have a car parking space with an OPC badge and because my working hours are long, I come home and generally there is someone in my space, and I have a 1 year old. So I parked in another space and got a ticket. The appeal was declined and the appeal letter stated court action unless I paid the fine (or something along those lines) I am now very worried as I cant afford the fine and dont feel I should pay, and secondly because I cant have a CCJ as it will affect me mortgage wise in the future so I feel pressured to pay. Help and advise would be great!

Hi, I need some help please. I live in a block of flats with private parking, electric gates. When my husband came back home one morning our parking space was occupied and he parked in a different space without checking if the parking permit was displayed. As you can imagine I have received a penalty from OPC. I wrote to them on the 25/03/2015 asking to provide a copy of the contract and evidence that they are entitled to receive the sum claimed. I have received a threat letter yesterday that they will provide those documents to the County Court, as they will proceed further. Right now I am a bit scared that a CCJ will be issued in my name. Please can you help? Shall I pay the £100?

Advice required please. I was using my dad's car and overstayed my 2 hours on a FREE retail car park. Obviously, it's my dad who received the speculative invoice for £50/£100 and is keen to pay it. I have offered to contest it for him but it's complicated my the fact I am not the registered keeper. What is the current likelihood of success? Is Not a Genuine Pre-estimate of Loss defence successful these days? To me it's certainly unreasonable. Would you advise them of the actual driver? Or just keep it generic? We have the same surname i.e. Mr XXXXX The letter states £300 as a result of not paying. Would this be an accurate figure if it did/didn't go to court? Thanks.

Hi All Experts, Recently I moved to new property (Flat). My flat got one allocated parking space in basement, locked compound. Just after moving to new property, I went on holiday for about 20 days – when I came back I saw about 7 parking tickets, 2 of them were on windscreen while others are found on ground. I was not sure why I got ticket as I parked my car in my allocated parking space. I send email to OPC people and explain this this but they reply with saying that you have to display valid parking permit - they also want me to pay 100 for all tickets as 14 days were already passed ( I was on holiday for that time) I explain to them that "I was on holiday (out of UK, can send you passport entry as evidence on request) that’s why few tickets are passed 14 days period and if I know about this, I moved my car somewhere else or get in touch with you soon to prove that parking space is allocated to me." but they are keep replying that you have to pay fine as valid permit was not displayed. At last they were agree on paying 3 ticket with £100 fine at they were late and cancel other 4 tickets. I am not sure what to do - In flat basement I can see message saying parking is controlled by OPC. Uploaded for your references. Please help me guys - I can't afford to pay that much. Thanks you in Advance!!

Hi, I received a private parking charge yesterday from a company called OPC and it had official stamp saying BPA approved operator. I had used a car park a couple of weeks before, one that I have used regularly for past 4 years, and is a free car park, and I had stayed for less than 20 minutes longer than the maximum stay. The letter confirms that they have photographic evidence of me entering and leaving the car park which proves that I had stayed over the maximum time. The PPC is for £100, £50 if I pay within 14 days. They state if I do not pay they will take me to court and I may have to pay up to £400. I had never took any notice of the signs in the car park previously and so I honestly did not realise there was a time limit for parking there. I re-visited the site and there are quite a few signs in the car park showing maximum stay and confirming you will be fined if you overstay the maximum time, I do not know how I failed to notice this, although the signs are quite small - but you don't expect to be fined if parking is free? My question is should I pay up quickly to avoid higher fees, but the fee seems very high especially as it is a free car park and it was not busy the day I parked anyway. I am an honest person and I do not want to get into trouble, the thought of court is scary but this seems very unreasonable to me. I am concerned as I am the only person insured to drive my car so it is obvious who would have been driving it, so I do not think I could argue this as suggested in other posts. Please can someone offer advice, even if it is to pay up! I have heard that they can only sue for actual losses so if it is a free car park wouldn't that make the losses nil??? I am very frightened about just ignoring this as I can not afford £400. Thanks

I have been reading up about Private Parking Companies (PPCs) on several forums (CAG, MSE, PePiPoo) for the last few days. There is an overwhelming body of support for the general advise of ignoring PPC letters until they go away. It is also nice to see testimony from numerous specific instances of people's success in acting upon this advice. Having recently received a first letter from Observices Parking Consultancy (OPC), I have paid particular attention to threads involving this PPC. There are two points/trends that I've noticed: 1 - none of the documented instances of successfully ignoring the letters involved OPC as the offending PPC. 2 - many, if not all, of the "help I'm being taken to court!" threads I've come across involve OPC. So the general impression I am getting is that OPC is not often successfully ignored. There are cases whereby OPC have successfully (or by default) been DEFEATED in court, but not simply IGNORED. I would love to hear some testimony of people successfully ignoring this PPC. A 99.9 percent chance of success in court is great. But a 90 percent chance (wild speculation!) of having to go to court at all (with OPC) may be enough to get people (me) to cough up the cash just to avoid the inconvenience. If it were any other PPC I am pretty confident I would just ignore. But I'm having real trouble finding any evidence that this tactic works against OPC. What do you say? 'Man up' and fight? Or pay up and flight?