There have been a few threads concerning parking tickets lately, so when i came across this "snippet" in the AOL Money section i thought it may provide a starting point if you are thinking you have been unjustly done.
Parking tickets
So many local authorities now benefit from money raised by parking tickets that the financial incentive to issue tickets can be strong. So if you feel you have been wrongly issued a parking ticket - for any number of reasons - do something about it.
Start by writing a clear, detailed and very polite letter to the relevant authority, explaining why the ticket was wrongly issued. They may reply to say the ticket was correctly issued and valid. But there is almost always a second opportunity to state your case, so write, once again, a detailed and very polite letter. Remember to sound like a sane, civilised person.
Your second letter will usually go to an adjudicator. An adjudicator will read many, usually badly written and angry, letters. Your polite and reasoned letter - the more details the better - will be a welcome relief. They will almost always decide in your favour. I recently got out of a £100 fine and ticket this way (the ticket was indeed wrongly issued).
If a court date is offered, take it! Ninety per cent of the time the traffic warden who issued the ticket won't turn up and the ticket will be declared invalid. Usually the magistrate will tell you that much time is wasted by local authorities not contesting tickets.
For all complaints
Decide what compensation you want and stick to it.
If you ask for £200, you will usually get £100. So calculate accordingly.
Always complain politely and in great detail.
And keep complaining until your get satisfaction
Finally, remember that you have actually done a public service by complaining; regulations have been changed, bad commercial practices curtailed, and service industries redesigned by the feedback that complainers provide.
Jasmine Birtles is from moneymagpie.com - the website that gives you a richer life.
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Don't waste time writing, unless it is part of the correct chain - just go straight to appeal. Talk to the organ grinder and keep the monkey out of it - what does he know?
www.parking-appeals.gov.uk/IveReceived/challengePC...p
There is an urban myth that the ticket is invalid if the person issuing it was improperly dressed ie not wearing his/her uniform hat for example. Hard to prove though!
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the ticket is invalid ifthe person issuing it was improperly dressed ie not wearing his/her uniform
That wasn't a meter maid Armitage. It was a strippagram girl.
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I'd strongly disagree with taking it to court on the offchance that the issuing enforcement officer turns up. 'Court' in this instance is a small 6x6 room with 1 other guy in, and the enforcement officer is not required to be in attendence at all. THis article is misleading to the extreme. If a ticket really is INCORRECTLY ISSUED then the first letter will almost always prompt a refund. If the case is thet the ticket was issued sneakily or in a morally unfair way but conforming to the terms & conditions, it is not incorrectly issued and will stand. Go to tribunal and risk the fine doubling and wasting half a day's holiday.
I live in the borough of Camden which is known to have amongst the most punitive and over-zealous parking enforcement in the UK and have friends who live in the borough and what I have set out above has stood every single time - and we have spent over £2000 in the last 18 months on clamps, tickets, tow-away etc, just for parking incorectly outside our own homes.
I could cite 7-8 examples now when it was contested and every time, if the ticket was correctly issued it had to be paid.
I'd suggest that the article on AOL was written by a work-experience student at Carphone Warehouse who has embelished a few stories that they overheard in the pub.
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>>I'd suggest that the article on AOL was written by a work-experience student at Carphone Warehouse who has embelished a few stories that they overheard in the pub.<<
Google Search: Jasmine Birtles:
the woman whose mission in life is to de-mystify money and get people to enjoy getting their affairs in order, getting out of debt and making serious money. She's a financial expert with a twist - she can make money fun.lots of fun.
? Financial expert: Jasmine talks and writes about all aspects of personal finance, property and consumer issues. She appears as a regular financial pundit or reporter on TV programmes such as GMTV, This Morning, Watchdog, BBC Breakfast News and Sky News.
? TV and Radio Presenter: She has presented BBC1?s Homes Under the Hammer and has also presented financial series? on ITV Scotland and UK Style TV. She has been a financial presenter for Simply Money TV and a radio reporter for the BBC Business Unit.
? Author: She has written 36 books including her latest one, ?The Money Book: Control Your Money, Control Your Life?.
? Journalist: She writes regularly for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, is contributing editor for ?MoneyEtc? magazine and writes for a range of other magazines.
? Business commentator: She regularly comments on subjects such as retail trends, entrepreneurship, house price indices and interest rates.
? Lively and fun: She brings a colourful and often humorous approach to a usually dull and flat subject.
And now...she is about to launch a major money management website, moneymagpie.com. The site will de-mystify money, show how you can make more of it, how you can be greener and save cash at the same time and how to have a richer life all round. It's going live in March so sign up now for the monthly newsletter
p.s
personally i think i would be more inclined to re-act in tune with the "posters" recommended ways on here, rather than suggested by the article, but if it works for her.....................:-)
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How long have you been seing eachother?
: )
OK she's a serious journo, and CPW would definitely benefit from having her on ther payroll (if they were after business journalists), but I'm going to have to stand by what I put, as her advice is not in kilter with my personal experience, and that of my friends over the last 18 months - failed appeals, wasted time and money, at which the enforcing traffic warden wasn't obliged to , and didn't turn up. Like I said before, on the occasions when the ticket was erroneously isued, first letter always got a refund. Not just in Camden either.
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