Car park ownership

[BELLA 47]

Hello,

My husband got a PCN from a privately owned car park today. Instead of ignoring everything they send him, I thought it would be a better idea this time to write to the owners, using the template letter on this site. However, I cannot find out who the owners are, despite extensive searches. I even put the name of the car park and the postcode in the Land Registry free search website, but it didn't come up. Any ideas?

[Bombaymix]

Strange!!

 

Are you able to advise on what area the car park is in? Is it a p and d or a POF car park? Attended?

 

Regards

 

BM

[BELLA 47]

Hi Bombaymix,

 

 

It is a p&d, attended. You display a parking ticket, yet it's free for two hours in the white bays(pay in the yellow bays).It's a shopping centre car park in Wisbech called the Horsefair, privately owned.

[hightail]

http://www.nrr.co.uk/property-portfolios/the-horsefair-wisbech/

Found this, not sure if the info is up to date - the photo certainly isn't

[spb1957]

Interesting . Their website says £85 PENALTY for non-compliance

[Crocdoc]

Interesting . Their website says £85 PENALTY for non-compliance

 

Certainly is , therfore if the PPC rejects the appeal which they almost ceratianly will, there is nothing to lose by appealing to POPLA quoting the statement regarding a penalty of £85.00 and adding the Department of Transport statement.

Department for Transport .

 

Charges for breaking a parking contract must be reasonable and a genuine pre-estimate of loss. This means charges must compensate the landholder only for the loss they are likely to suffer because the parking contract has been broken. For example, to cover the unpaid charges and the administrative costs associated with issuing the ticket to recover the charges. Charges may not be set at higher levels than necessary to recover business losses and the intention should not be to penalise the driver.

 

OFT Statement

 

 

The OFT expressed the view to the BPA that when claiming liquidated damages, they must meet the requirement of being a genuine pre-estimate of loss. If back office functions are claimed, these must be directly caused by the breaches of contract. The OFT's view was that, if you have an office anyway and have to pay rent, rates, insurance, etc. this cannot be attributed to the breach and claimed as costs, as these are costs of running a parking management company. To be recoverable, all costs, whether in contract or tort, must be caused by the breach."

 

Furthermore,, where a ticket has been issued under the law of contract to a vehicle which although allowed to park on the land, is in breach of the conditions relating to parking, the driver could argue that the charge being demanded is so high that it amounts to a penalty and is therefore unlawful under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999.

What the regulations state

 

A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

 

A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated when it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.

 

 

 

After all the final POPLA decision is only binding on the PPC, threfore nothing to lose.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Crocdoc

[BELLA 47]

Thanks hightail, spb 1957 and Crocdoc,

I will write a letter to the owners along the lines of Bankfodders in 'Ignore-better to write to the car park owner' and another letter to Britannia Parking citing many of the points in the letter ericsbrother posted in the thread 'what do I do now- court claim received' and the Dept. of Transport statement and OFT statements mentioned in crocdocs post to this thread.I will keep you posted.

[ericsbrother]

If it is local to you just phone up the council planning dept and ask them who owns the land and what was put on the planning application regarding parking. The council can be very helpful in this manner when they choose to be

[hightail]

 

The council can be very helpful in this manner when they choose to be

In my experience with this council it will have to be a cold day in hell

[Tony P]

In my experience with this council it will have to be a cold day in hell

 

If it were asked as a FoI request would they not be legally obliged to answer?

(Not that I know much about the process and what is covered - as may be apparent by this post)

[BELLA 47]

There was a contact link on the Horsefair Shopping Centre website where you could ask a question, so I posted that I would like the name of the owners and they posted back to me that they were:

 

New River Retail Ltd

37 Maddox Street,

London

W1S 2PP

 

They are the same ones that are listed on the link hightail sent me, so I will now write to them. I have written to Britannia Parking listing the points of law I shall bring up if they take this to court.