Parking Charge ongoing pursuit - SCOTLAND

[ESBalloch]

After following multiple forms of advice regarding parking charge notices at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, advice being to ignore them, I’m being contacted again. It relates to a charge back in 2016, the letter is from QDR solicitors acting on behalf of ZZPS who are acting on behalf of APCOS. The letter states that if the balance of £142 is not paid in 14 days they “might” forward onto a Glasgow solicitor Yuill and Kyle to pursue court action. The letter refers to the case of the nurse in Ninewells and the successful outcome for the claimant.
Citizen’s Advice website still states that these private PCNs can be ignored. However, I’m now hearing that in Scotland, things are changing and Sherrif Courts are upholding the charges. There are 3 PCNs for my car however, I wasn’t the driver. Also why has the charge jumped to £142??

[Amethyst]

Citizen’s Advice website still states that these private PCNs can be ignored

Just checked the CAB advice on the matter for Scotland and it says this ( after a fair bit about dealing with parking tickets )

If you decide to do nothing

If you get a ticket and you don’t think you should have to pay, you can decide not to pay and not to reply to the parking operator. You should keep the ticket and any other paperwork or evidence. It is possible that the parking operator will take enforcement action in order to recover the charge. In practice a threat of this nature may not be followed through as the amount of money being demanded is usually quite small. A parking operator has no power to recover a parking charge without first taking court action.

The company may continue to send requests to pay and if you continue to ignore these they may decide to take you to the sheriff court. If the parking operator does take you to court, you may be able to defend the action, for example, on the grounds that the signage in the car park was unclear and/or that the fee being demanded is unreasonably high. In July 2015, an expert legal opinion stated that consumers can challenge tickets issued by private car parks, and for the first time has set out the grounds on which they can do so, although it was made before the court case about high charges. A court may decide that you did breach a contract with the parking operator and that you must pay the charges.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/sc...rivate-land-s/

So just wondering where it is they still advise to ignore the tickets outright as they will be needing to update somewhat.

I'll move your thread down to the parking forum for you for help xxx

[ostell]

Those claims where the parking company won was because the defendant admitted to being the driver but continued parking because they claimed that the parking company had no right to charge.

In Scotland POFA does not apply so they can only claim against the driver, there can be no transfer of liability to the keeper. If they do not know the identity of the driver then they are are bit lost. Note that the state that they "might" transfer the matter to a solicitor.

You may want to respond then respond as the keeper and state that the must stop harassing you as the keeper cannot have any liability for the actions of the driver at the time of the alleged breach. This is assuming that there have been no hints at the driver identity in previous letters.

[Badger99]

I am a Scottish solicitor and I am dubious about some of the advice out there on this subject. If you were definitely not the driver then you are in the clear because there is no "Keeper liability" in Scotland. However, it is likely you will require to disclose the name of the driver if you are taken to court.

[ostell]

Is there any reason that the keeper would be required to name the driver? Not being stroppy but forewarned is forearmed. POFA, which the parking companies try to use, makes no mention of a a requirement to identify the driver. If the keeper does not identify any witnesses then surely they can't be questioned? As these are civil matters and not criminal there is surely not a requirement to identify someone else.