Help needed with unfair parking fine from VCS

[Stewmang]

Hi there

 

This is my first post and I'm hoping someone can offer some assistance with what I feel is a completely unfair parking fine I have received.

 

I live in rented accommodation and the house has a garage across the road which has a parking scheme managed by VCS.

 

We pay a yearly fee for permits to park on the garage. This year my permit expired on 28/06 and so we applied for replacement permits prior to expiry of the existing ones.

 

Although the request for new permits was sent in June, payment was not taken from my account until 18th July. I noted that cars on the other garages covered by the scheme were also still parked there with permits dated the same as mine and although I frequently saw the ticket inspectors no parking tickets were being issued. Presumably this was because the inspectors were aware that new permits had not yet been sent out for our scheme.

 

I continued to park on my garage until I received a parking fine notice on 7th August at which point I had still not received my new permit. Having not seen this site or any template letters I sent this email the same day:

To whom it may concern

 

I have received a parking ticket whilst parked in front of my garage on ##### Road in Sheffield this morning. You will find if you check your records that my car ####### is registered and fully paid for the parking scheme up until 2009.

 

Unfortunately, although the new permit request was sent in June and you have taken payment for the permit on 18th July, I am still awaiting delivery of my new permit.

 

I trust my new permit has been shipped and will display it in my windscreen as soon as it arrives.

 

Regards

 

The permit actually arrived two days after me sending the email but was dated to follow on exactly from the expiry of my previous permit i.e. it became valid on 28th June and expired on 29/06/09. I received a generic response from VCS with my case number stating they would investigate etc.

 

Today, just shy of two months later, I received this letter in response to my appeal:

 

Firstly we would like to apologise for the late response to your appeal received on the 7th August 2008, regarding the above Parking Charge Notice.

 

We are sorry, but in the circumstances we must advise you that grounds for representation against the Parking Charge Notice have not been established and this letter is issued as a formal Notice of Rejection.

 

We note your comments however our signs in situ do state that a valid permit is required. As the date on the permit displayed in your vehicle had expired, the permit is not longer valid and therefore the Parking Charge Notice was issued correctly. Any issues you have with not receiving a new permit will have to be taken up with the landowner of the site in question.

 

The payment of £80.00 is to be received within our office by 7th October 2008. If payment is not received by this date the amount payable will increase to £120.00. Failure to comply may result in the issue of court proceedings whereby further costs will be incurred.

 

Yours sincerely

 

So basically, although I applied for a new permit in June and it took them until August to send a new one (which was back dated to June), they are saying I am not allowed to park on my garage in the interim because I am not displaying the permit they haven’t sent me?!

 

This compounded by the fact that I, and other members of the scheme parked on the garages for the whole of July and did not get issued a ticket even though their inspectors had been round.

 

I’m at a complete loss as to what to do now and would be extremely grateful of any advice. I can ill afford to pay £80.00 at the minute never mind £120.00 or the threatened cost of court proceedings.

 

Sorry for the long-winded post and thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far!

[Barnsley Boy]

You will simply have to call their bluff. They are threatening you with the small claims court. Do not be intimidated by this because:

 

1. There is every chance that they will not carry out their threat. Their case really is very weak.

 

2. If they did, with any sort of proper defence, you would win.

 

Sounds daunting but we come across these threats from private parking companies all the time but legal action is EXTREMELY rare, less than 1 in 1000 cases by most peoples reckoning.

 

Either ignore completely or send a short response "see you in court". Either way stop worrying and get on with your life.

[Al27]

There is no appeals process, hence why you got their standard 'Notice of Rejection'. Of course, using the terminolgy of council PCNs is venturing into the territory of fraud.

 

The whole 'fine' is a [problem]. Just ignore the clowns and keep their letters in a drawer. They will give up after 5 or 6. Don't contact them again.

 

Chances of court are miniscule. I've never heard of VCS doing court.

[Stewmang]

Thanks for the prompt responses, you've certainly made me feel a lot more confident about it.

 

I think I'll just send a quick email saying I'm not paying and if they want to go to a small claims court then bring it on.

[BaldyBaldwin]

i would just ignore them and save yourself the trouble of an e-mail

[lamma]

emailing them will just guarantee more letters and attention from them. of course that costs them money and so is a 'good thing' provided you don't mind getting them and provided that you take care what you put in the email.

[Stewmang]

OK, in that case I'm convinced. I'll just leave it at that and let the letters roll in.

[funex]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and, I too have issues with VCS. My wife has signed a contract with a landower to rent a car parking space near to where she works. On the day she received a PCN, the permit was not displayed. I took this issue on as she would have just paid. I sent my 'appeal' with proof that she was not trespassing (a copy of her permit) and replied to the subsequent letters with templates obtained from this site. We too have just reveived the notice to take us to court. Since reading the examples on this site, I get a warm glow every time we get e letter and I would dearly love to go to court to defend my wife. Sadly, I think I will hear no more.

Once this has blown over, I intend to complain to the relevant organisations as they have bullied us for the past 2 months and I think it is totally unacceptable.

[Al27]

Write 'em a letter with no postage attached, with 'check inside' written on the envelope.

 

Do it a few times, and with the £2.50 they've wasted on gaining your address, you could be making THEM pay £5 or £10.

[stooky]

I too am being actively pursued by VCS for a Parking Charge Notice issued against me whilst parking in my own leased space (of 10 years+). They had beeen patrolling the car park for about 6 weeks when they issued the notice. The reason being that the pass itself had slipped from the dash onto the passenger seat. Although it was resting face up in clear view and the car park owners themselves have been actively corresponding with VCS to cancel the charge, they continue to send letters of demand.

 

The deadline for payment to 'avoid court action' expires in 1hr and I have taken the decision not to pay.

 

I have photos from them which they claim prove it was not on the seat at the time, and they are merely a reflection of the windscreen. I have a statement from them claiming that it was 'not on the seat' which is false and which spurs me on. I have a photo myself showing it was... their word against mine etc.

 

On and on we go...

 

Good luck all.

Edited October 19, 2008 by stooky

[Stewmang]

Sorry to hear there are others having problems with VCS but at least we're all united in the fact we're refusing to pay the bloodsucking leeches!

 

After originally posting this thread in October, and in keeping with VCS throughout the whole saga, it's taken them over two months to follow up on their previous letter.

 

As I mentioned earlier in the thread I opted to ignore the last letter for fear of saying something that may play into their hands in any further correspondence.

Today I got a letter with 'NOTICE TO OWNER OF INTENT TO ISSUE COURT PROCEEDINGS - DO NOT IGNORE THIS NOTICE' in large type across the top.

 

Reading on it's just a rehash of their previous letter but crucially the warnings further down detail how they may take me to court if I still refuse to pay.

 

It really is scandalous the tactics used by these companies. Upon opening the letter they try their best to convince you that you are being taken to court, but reading on it's apparent they are just making more threats.

 

When I step back from the scenario and think that I pay these people, in order to stop others from parking on the drive of the property that I rent, yet they are behaving in such a despicable manner. It really does make my blood boil.

 

I'm sticking to my guns though, I'll just pop this letter in a drawer along with the others and hope they shut up eventually.

 

Good luck to everyone else battling these scumbags, I'll keep the thread updated with any developments.

[Stewmang]

Stooky, have you had any further developments with your case? I've just received another letter which is a FINAL NOTICE. It says failure to pay WILL result in court action. I'm assuming this is the one you'd received when you last posted.

 

Surely it would be illegal for them to state this unless they do actually plan to take me to court? All the previous letters have said may result in court action, this is the first saying they actually will take me to court.