‘I was fined for entering a car park for a few minutes’ |’A parking fine left a bad mark on my credit report’
Every Tuesday we get an expert to answer your Money Problems – but today we are doing things a little different.
After consumer expert Scott Dixon, aka the Complaints Resolver, tackled a reader’s parking dispute last month, we were inundated with other questions about parking fines.
So, we decided to ask him to tackle five problems in one day, starting with these two…
I received a parking notice from a private land parking company. They are claiming that I was there in parking for 6.5 hours from 11am to 18.30pm. I did enter at 11am but was out within few minutes and I entered again around 18.30pm and again out within few minutes. I have asked for camera footage for 11am to 11.10am and same for the evening but the parking operator has refused by saying that didn’t have any access to the camera and the parking system is managed by an ANPR system. Also, photos they have sent me for entering and exiting are both entering in the morning and entering in the evening. What should I do?Sharad
Mr Dixon says this scenario is known as “double-dipping” and is a well-known common error with ANPR systems, where only the first entrance and last exit of multiple visits are counted.
“The parking operator has access to the ANPR camera system, as they rely on this evidence to pursue you for a parking charge notice. Their business model is to extract money from you, hence why they have been economical with the truth on your appeal,” he adds.
He explains that evidence is key with appeals and says Sharad could use shopping receipts, dashcam footage and a mobile phone with Google location tracker to help him make his case.
“I suggest you contest their original response and appeal as keeper of the vehicle providing approximate entry and exit times for each visit and say they should check their data log, including the error log, for matches or near matches of your vehicle registration and cancel the charge,” he adds.
In another avenue, he says he could lodge a formal complaint with either the British Parking Association or the International Parking Community, as well as the DVLA and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
“Being a member of the trade association allows them easy access to the DVLA keeper database if they have reasonable cause,” Dixon says.
“In your case, they clearly did not have reasonable cause.”
The second question came from our reader Anne Page…
I alerted the relevant authorities about a change of address – however, a parking fine from Morrisons went to a previous address and I missed the court date and now have a bad mark on my credit report. What can I do to expunge this?
Mr Dixon says she must “act fast” to resolve the issue and decide what course of action to take.
“This hinges on the reason why the parking charge notice was issued and if you have a realistic prospect of defending it,” he adds.
He set out three things she needs to do to try to fix the problem:
- Contact the DVLA to get your details updated
- Submit a data subject access request to the private parking operator to retrieve all paperwork. Once you have all this evidence, you can…
- Decide to either pay the outstanding amount or apply for it to be set aside
On the court judgment, Mr Dixon says there are two options to consider.
The first, if you think the parking charge notice was issued unfairly, you can apply for it to be set aside.
“To set aside a County Court Judgment (CCJ) you need to contact the court that issued the judgment and complete application notice N244 to explain why you believe the judgment should be set aside enclosing a £303 court fee,” he said.
“You will have to attend a private hearing at the court to explain why you do not owe the money.
“Also write to the parking operator and explain why you did not respond in time and reasons for the delay in applying for the CCJ to be set aside.”
If you think the parking fine was issued fairly, Mr Dixon suggests paying the outstanding CCJ and debt.
“Paying within a month will remove the CCJ from your credit report,” he adds.
“I suggest you periodically check your credit file once the debt has been settled and write to Experian to add a Notice of Correction to add further information to an entry on your credit report, so lenders can consider the context of the CCJ.”
We’ll be back with part two of the parking Money Problem special this afternoon…
You can send us your problems on WhatsApp here or email moneyblog@sky.uk.
