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Received a Parking Charge Notice through the post around the end of September/start of October. I have gone through their own appeal service, failed, and now have also been unsuccessful with the independent appeal service. I still do not want to pay the charge as I am certain it is completely unfair.
I am not sure if I should:
1) just ignore the charge and face the risk of going to court and losing.
2)pay the charge ‘in protest’ and then seek to reclaim the cost through court.
I will explain the case for context and understanding. Upon entry, I went to the parking machine, paid £1.20 and printed a ticket. I still have this ticket and have been using it as evidence. The ticket states expiry time is 19:16 and I left over half an hour before the expiry time. However, terms and conditions of parking state that a registration number must be entered when printing a ticket (for ANPR), which I had not realised at the time. So in turn the company have charged me for ‘no trace of payment’ and have argued that regardless of whether I paid for a ticket or not, I did not fulfil the conditions required for authorised parking and therefore am still liable for a charge. I have argued that if entering a registration was required, the ticket machine should not have accepted my money and should not have printed me a ticket. In my opinion, and whilst I admit and accept I did not enter my registration, the ticket that I was printed is in itself authorisation to park there. The Independent Appeal Service states that they are not able to acknowledge ‘fairness’ or mistakes, but can only look at the law of the contract and I did break the ‘terms and conditions’. I now am unsure whether I would stand a good chance in court so do not know what course of action to take from here.
Thanks for any advice.
I am not sure if I should:
1) just ignore the charge and face the risk of going to court and losing.
2)pay the charge ‘in protest’ and then seek to reclaim the cost through court.
I will explain the case for context and understanding. Upon entry, I went to the parking machine, paid £1.20 and printed a ticket. I still have this ticket and have been using it as evidence. The ticket states expiry time is 19:16 and I left over half an hour before the expiry time. However, terms and conditions of parking state that a registration number must be entered when printing a ticket (for ANPR), which I had not realised at the time. So in turn the company have charged me for ‘no trace of payment’ and have argued that regardless of whether I paid for a ticket or not, I did not fulfil the conditions required for authorised parking and therefore am still liable for a charge. I have argued that if entering a registration was required, the ticket machine should not have accepted my money and should not have printed me a ticket. In my opinion, and whilst I admit and accept I did not enter my registration, the ticket that I was printed is in itself authorisation to park there. The Independent Appeal Service states that they are not able to acknowledge ‘fairness’ or mistakes, but can only look at the law of the contract and I did break the ‘terms and conditions’. I now am unsure whether I would stand a good chance in court so do not know what course of action to take from here.
Thanks for any advice.
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