Daisybev Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 Hi everyone In regard to Excel parking I dont come from Sheffield, but I parked on a car park in Stockport last June 2005 I parked in a disabled place although I had no blue badge I am still disabled and needed to get a motorised scooter out of my car, the parking space was marked disabled but was a good distance away from the shops I paid and displayed a ticket. On returning to my car i noticed the ticket and as soon as i got home I emailed excel to tell them my story, I got only an email back telling me they had received my email and they would contact me!!! Today 13/06/06I received a letter telling me to pay £40 before 21st if i dont it will go up to £100 and then to court. I am blinking disgusted A WHOLE YEAR to sent a letter that according to them they didnt know they had untill they did their audit !!! I am happy to fight this I know I shouldnt have parked on disable space but 1. it was miles from the shop 2. I am disabled 3. I paid and displayed...... ok what do you all think I should do, remeber we are talking about this happening a YEAR ago this is their first contact with me...... Daisy xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancs_Lad Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 Pay the fine. Blue badges need to be displayed if using disabled bay, if you don't display it you can't expect to be exempt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottf Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 Pay the fine. Blue badges need to be displayed if using disabled bay, if you don't display it you can't expect to be exempt. Im afraid that he is right, if you didn't have your badge you might have been able to find a parking spot closer that wasn't just for disabled people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisybev Posted June 15, 2006 Author Share Posted June 15, 2006 thing is surley they shoul dhave replied to my appeal 12 months ago instead of writing only when they "recently carried out an audit of their system?" you would think that a competant company would be able to reply to appeals in good time. They took a year to reply, and then demand payment in 7 days? a little unfair I should say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandit Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 beware of any car park being operated by Excel parking - they charge ridiculous fines, - scum.. to be fair you shouldnt have parked in the disabled spot without a badge.. but then again they shouldnt have taken so long to respond to you - got to your local C.A.B and see what they say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 Surely your blue badge was on display? They might have missed it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magilla Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 thing is surley they shoul dhave replied to my appeal 12 months ago instead of writing only when they "recently carried out an audit of their system?" you would think that a competant company would be able to reply to appeals in good time. They took a year to reply, and then demand payment in 7 days? a little unfair I should say I believe there is a time limit when asking for fines, though I don't know what it is. I'm not familiar with Excel, are these operating private carparks or employed to manage the councils own public carparks? If public, does Stockport run a Decriminalised Parking Scheme? If so there may be a number of ways to avoid paying. 1... What colour was the disabled bay? Most have them as yellow, but I believe that to comply with the law they have to be white. 2... Use the Bill of Rights Act (which states you cannot be fined without being convicted of an offence in court) as your defence. Either way, I wouldn't be paying if they'd taken a year to ask for the money, just ignore it and throw it away and wait to see if they bother with court (I'll wager they dont!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee_gf Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Hi. I actually work as the finance manager/credit controller of a privately owned carpark enforcement company in london. I have to tell you, unfortunately your ticket was issued correctly as you did not have a valid disable badge displayed when you parked in the disabled bay. You can appeal your ticket/fine but I unfortunately it will be declined and the fine will stil stand along with any additional charges they have thrown in. Because it is a year ago, i would only be paying for the amount of the ticket at the time of issue and not any outstanding fees they have added because they were too slack in their accounting procedures to notice the outstanding debt. There is no way to get out of the fine. i would contact the company Excell direct and try to pay to them. that way you may get away with only paying the fine and not the extra fees. if you pay to the debt collector directly (and you may well have to) they will ask for all money up front plus any fees or you can have the option of paying it off over the next few months if you are not very financial at the moment. Where I work we get a lot of disabled badge holders who believe they can park whereever the choose and not have to pay. this is not the case in privately owned carparks. there are specific rules/conditions which MUST be displayed in the carpark notifying drivers of the conditions they must abide by. if you are in briech of these conditions you will be fined like everyone else. I suggest you just pay the fine.sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHsheff Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Hi everyone In regard to Excel parking I dont come from Sheffield, but I parked on a car park in Stockport last June 2005 I parked in a disabled place although I had no blue badge I am still disabled and needed to get a motorised scooter out of my car, the parking space was marked disabled but was a good distance away from the shops I paid and displayed a ticket. Daisy xx They're a nasty bunch. What I would say is, no matter whether you decide to pay the fine or take other advice, as long as you've told them that you're appealing/taking advice, don't ever pay any extra fines. They'll start invoicing you for additional fines, before you know it you'll be up to £150 plus. They did that to me - kept threatening debt collectors and bailiffs - and all I did was write back (every now and again, when I could be bothered) and say, fine, I'll see you in court then. Eventually (it took a year of being hassled) they seem to have stopped bothering. I reckon they count on the fact that a lot of people will eventually pay all the excess charges just to be rid of them. They're a bunch of bullies. Edit: imo, if it DOES get to court (and it's less scary than you might imagine!) the fact that you DO have a disabled badge and paid anyway will go in your favour. That and the fact that you wrote to them explaining the fact. The court (imo) will probably take the common-sense view that you ARE disabled, thus were entitled to park in the space. The fact that you paid was a gesture to the fact that you didn't have the badge, but in fact you DID HAVE need of the space and thus weren't parking near to the exit (or whatever) wrongly. You weren't taking the space from someone who needed it more, and thus to continue to chase you ( especially given that you paid for your parking in lieu of displaying your badge) is unfair. It was right that you were given the ticket, but I think a reasonable judge would say that as you were in fact disabled, you were using the space in the spirit in which the space was intended, and thus your appeal to Excel should have been allowed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterw Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Edit: imo, if it DOES get to court (and it's less scary than you might imagine!) the fact that you DO have a disabled badge and paid anyway will go in your favour. That and the fact that you wrote to them explaining the fact. The court (imo) will probably take the common-sense view that you ARE disabled, thus were entitled to park in the space. The fact that you paid was a gesture to the fact that you didn't have the badge, but in fact you DID HAVE need of the space and thus weren't parking near to the exit (or whatever) wrongly. You weren't taking the space from someone who needed it more, and thus to continue to chase you ( especially given that you paid for your parking in lieu of displaying your badge) is unfair. It was right that you were given the ticket, but I think a reasonable judge would say that as you were in fact disabled, you were using the space in the spirit in which the space was intended, and thus your appeal to Excel should have been allowed. Courts cannot take the common-sense view that a person is disabled — even if they arrive in court in a wheelchair or two sticks. Before you can get a Disabled Badge you have to apply to the Local Authority which issues the Badge only after a doctor has given the applicant a thorough examination. Just paying the parking fee does not entitle a none-badge driver to park in a disabled bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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