Readers’ emails: Flicking ParkingEye the Vs

From: Steve
Subject: Parking Eye

Hi,
My wife parked our car in Watergate Bay carpark Cornwall in [redacted date] she purchased a 2 hour ticket. After coming home we received the usual notice from Parking Eye saying we had been there 1hour 2 mins without a ticket. I checked the ticket and noticed she had entered the incorrect registration number replacing the letter “U” with the letter “V” (she wasn’t wearing her glasses) I notified PEye of this by way of a letter with a copy of the ticket. I have received no reply except for a second notice saying i have until [redacted date] to pay or it increases to £90. I have sent a 2nd letter today by recorded delivery. Could you please offer any advice

We’ve heard of this sort of thing frequently with ParkingEye. People pay for parking (or double the parking charge in your case) and make an honest mistake. Yet even when presented with evidence to show they have paid the ticket, they demand the £90 charge. This is completely unreasonable, and just shows that they’re just after money. Sadly, some people will pay up, intimidated by their threatening letters and unreasonable attitude.

So, advice time. You’re in a very strong position since Parking Eye are being unreasonable given you paid, and they have no demonstrable loss anyway. Perhaps offer them £5 to cover the cost of looking up your details and any postage costs they may have incurred? If they won’t back down, then you need to appeal to POPLA using the genuine pre-estimate of loss argument. Recently, ParkingEye have stopped even defending these claims since they know they lose EVERY time. And what’s more, that will cost them £27 for the pleasure – they have to fund the cost of the appeal being heard! And even if you did lose and it did go to court, then I can’t imagine a judge upholding their claim; especially since you can show you paid the charge, and offered them money to cover any actual loss they incurred. The key is to show you acted reasonably throughout and tried to settle the matter fairly.

Best of luck, PC