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Didcot Station parking company fraudsters W.J. Parking represent sham appeals process as fair hearing and demand payment of "fine" before appeal is considered...
I parked in the WJ Parking Ltd Car Park at Didcot Station and paid £5 for 24 hours parking. I found only one space, and the car on the left had encroached into this space by about 1/3. The car to the right of the space was parked well to the right of his bay, and this left me ample room to park, although I encroached marginally into the bay to my right. The only reason to do this was because the car to the left had taken up so much of my space. When I returned to the car a parking ticket had been issued for my car with the reason "incorrectly parked over white lines of bay". the ticket specified a charge of £80, which would be reduced to £40 if I paid within 14 days. I did not notice any notices about encroachment across bays. The ticket also said that appeals would only be considered if made within 14 days accompanied by the payment. I regard the issue of the ticket as extremely over zealous, and the offence minor and only the result of the lack of consideration of the car parked to the left of mine. Further, I returned to my car at 14.40 hours and drove off, and the cars either side of mine were still there, so clearly I did not cause any obstruction. I feel I have grounds for appeal, but beleive that if I send any money to this outfit (WJ Parking Ltd) they will not take it seriously. Conversely, if I don't send any money, then they will escalate the charge. Can you advise me if (1) if you think I have good grounds for appeal, and (2) are WJ Parking entitled to request payment for an issue under appeal.
We have dealt with this company before. All the parking companies we have encountered routinely refuse appeals as really they are deciding whether you should pay them or not.
These fraudsters represent what is essentially a sham process as a fair hearing. They are taking your money in advance in the knowledge that it is impossible for you to get it back without taking county court action against them and that will cost you a court fee. As it stands they are required to bring a county court action against you and that requires them to incur a court fee and prove their case before a judge. Thus responding to a county court claim is the only "appeal" you should entertain.
The reality is these cases are extremely rarely pursued by the company. Please read the following guidance notes:
You have committed no offence and have been ticketed by a private company whose tickets have no validity unless a case is brought at the expense of the issuer in a civil court. Under no circumstances get involved in any so-called "appeals procedure".
The "charge" is alleged under contract law. What you have is an "invoice" (which you can contest) from a private parking company who allege you have breached their terms and conditions by parking and/or overstaying on one of the sites they manage. It has no status in law.
The reality is that they will almost certainly not be able to enforce against you and will not seek to do so. Instead they will use debt collectors who will endlessly threaten imminent litigation, references to credit agencies, personal visits, bailiffs and the sky falling on your head. However these companies are mainly "letter factories" and it is very unlikely any of this will actually turn up.
In fact they can only enforce it in law by bringing litigation in a civil court against the driver and proving a breach of prominently displayed terms and conditions. You have no responsibility to tell them who was driving (even if it was you).
Try adapting and using our free response letter (attached) and under no circumstances relent. You should not enter into any further correspondence with them and harden yourself to a barrage of post which you should throw in the bin. Under no circumstances should you believe threats of "last chance before legal action" or "legal action imminent". That is their stock in trade. The only response you should make is if you actually receive proceedings from the County Court when you need to come back to us.
However this is very rare. In the many thousands of cases we have knowledge of, this has only ever happened once.
Similarly if you cannot cope with the endless harassment come back to us and we will take action against them on your behalf...
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