Challenging a Parking charge Notice which has been sent to bw legal

[Tom M]

We wish to dispute a claim over parking that a relative of mine has received from a car parking company where she paid the car park fee when attending to a medical emergency following the discharge of an elderly patient from hospital and also displayed her NHS hospital note stating she was on duty and to contact the hospital should there be any issues over parking. She paid the parking fee using the Ringo telephone system but it recorded the charge against a previous car that belonged to her family. She has the proof of payment for the previous car but the car parking company has rejected the appeal and placed the matter with bw legal to recover the projected debt which they claim with their legal costs and CCJ costs would be of the order £200 for each PCN and for the two PCN's raised would therefore be £400! The parking charge for the two one hour parking sessions when she parked her car was £1.50 per hour. She also returned within the prescribed time. Can you please suggest/advise how we challenge this threat by bw legal to raise a CCJ against my relative. I plan to send a letter to bw legal disputing the charges.

[charitynjw]

Hi Tom M, welcome to Legal Beagles.

Who is the private parking co involved? (I could guess, as BWL are the solicitors, but confirmation would be an advantage.)

Has your relative identified (in writing) who was driving at the time(s) of the incident(s)?
If not, don't. (Refer to 'the driver....., the registered keeper..... etc as necessary in all future correspondence.)

How far down the 'court' road is this? (Has your relative received an official court claim (form N1) from Northampton County Court Business Centre, or a Pre-Action Protocol pack from BWL. See here ....<<<click link)

Have you tried the hospital PALS to see if they will intervene? (They may be reluctant to do so.....persevere!.) They can (& do) use their influence to get PCNs quashed, but it's a bit of a chore, so initially they make up some excuse as to why they can't. If you can get them to do so it is by far the less painful way to go.

Could you post up:-
The windscreen PCN(s) if issued.
The postal PCN(s) if your relative has received any.
(Redact personal info, but leave times & dates visible [inc the PCN 'sending' date(s)]
& lastly, pictures of the site sign(s) if poss.

We are then in a better position to give assistance.

[Tom M]

The private parking company is Premier Parking Solutions and they have instructed bwlegal to commence legal action in the form of issuing a claim against my relative in the County Court in respect of a so called balance due of £145 with an estimated total of £222.79 for each of the two PCN's issued when estimated interest, court fees, solicitors fees are added. Thus a total of £445.58 for 2 PCN's where my relative had paid 3 parking fees using Ringo at £1.55 each and also displayed the approved NHS parking document in the windscreen of the car. She has a print out of the ticket from the Ringo system showing the registration of the Golf motor car with the entering and leaving times but for a previous Golf car that belonged to me. I believe this evidence shows that the parking fee was paid and therefore there is no debt to be paid. My relative has until the 23 March to respond to bwlegal otherwise they have been instructed to issue a claim in the County Court.

My relative was the driver and authorised owner of the vehicle when parking the car. Premier Parking solutions know this and she went through their local appeals procedure which finally went to their arbitration body IAS which seemed like a Kangaroo court, as they took no notice of the evidence provided. On all correspondence the two PCN's are linked since they are exactly the same and for attending to the same poorly gentleman who had fallen after being discharged from the hospital. No account was taken of the reason for parking 3 times on over two consecutive days and that they only issued 2 PCN's. The IAS upheld the PPS case, rejecting the appeal. In December my relative handed her notice into the hospital and went to Australia, leaving her accommodation in Exeter. I have since been receiving correspondence from bwlegal as she used to live at my address (listed as the registered address of the vehicle keeper) but does not any longer. I have received several telephone calls from bwlegal wanting to speak to my relative and I have informed them that she no longer lives here and went to Australia. However, as I am now aware of the details of this case will do what is necessary to fight the case out of principal, since my relative paid all parking charges and should not have a CCJ served against her.

As for using the hospital PALS process, since she has left the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital feel this would not now be practical.

I have the original postal PCN's which states a parking charge of £100 but £60 if paid within 14 days. Since she had 2 PCN's this would have amounted to a total of £120 minimum.

I would also like to know if/when I win the case I can claim expenses for my time and also the harassment made by PPS and bwlegal to my relative.

Tom M

[charitynjw]

Could you post up (suitably anonymised) the PCNs you have? (Leave all dates/times visible, inc the dates of sending.)?

Also, could you get pics of the site signage?