Parking Eye sent me a ticket in the mail

If you received a parking ticket, parking charge notice, or parking fine then your options in dealing with it are to:

1. Appeal the notice to Parking Eye.
2. Seek the help of the retail park where the notice was issued.
3. Ignore the notice.
4. Pay the amount on the notice.

(Note, this page only applies if you received a ticket in the mail.  If you have not received a ticket in the mail yet – i.e. you have only received a windscreen ticket, then refer to this page instead).

These four options are explained in more detail here:

1. Appeal to Parking Eye and ask them to withdraw the ticket.

This is the recommended option.   I have instructions on how to make your appeal here.  A lot of people think its not worth appealing because they hear that Parking Eye reject most appeals.  However, the appeals process is now regulated by the British Parking Association, and if your appeal to Parking Eye is rejected, you have the automatic right to appeal to an independent appeals tribunal called POPLA. It costs nothing to appeal to POPLA and the majority of appeals to POPLA end in the ticket being withdrawn.  However, you are only permitted to appeal to POPLA if you have firstly appealed to Parking Eye.  So, the first step is to appeal to Parking Eye and the appeal process, including a proforma letter, is outlined here.  You must appeal to Parking Eye within 35 days of receiving your ticket.  If your appeal to Parking Eye is rejected by Parking Eye, then this website also describes how to appeal to POPLA.  To lodge your appeal with Parking Eye, click here.

2. Contact the Retail Park Managing Agent and ask them to request Parking Eye to withdraw your ticket.

If you have decided to appeal to Parking Eye, then after you have lodged your appeal with Parking Eye, it is also worth your while to contact the manager of the retail park where you received the ticket.  However it is important to lodge your own appeal with Parking Eye first, as it can take sometime to track down the manager of the retail park and get a response from them, and the 35 days you have to lodge your own formal appeal can run out. There is also no guarantee you will find the retial park manager, or that if you find them, no guarantee that they will help you.

The first step is to find out who the Retail Park Managing Agent is.  And once know who the Retail Park Managing Agent is, you contact them.

a) Find the Retail Park Managing Agent
The name of the Retail Park Managing Agent is usually displayed somewhere in the retail park complex (often inside the shopping center, or on the outside wall of the shopping center).  If yo don’t see there name on a sign, then you can often pick up who the owners or operators of the retail park are by googling the name of the retail park and seeing what comes up. If that doesn’t work, you can contact one of the retailers at the retail Park and ask them who the managing agent of the retail park is.  Finally, you can also contact the planning section of your local council and ask them who the managing agent or operator of the retail park is.  The retail park will probably have applied for permission to council to create a car park.

As an example of using the googling method, lets say that you received a parking charge notice at the Telford Bridge Retail Park.  So you google “Telford Bridge Retail Park”
and you arrive at this website http://www.telfordbridgeretailpark.co.uk  You then try the contact page there, and voilia! it tells you a) the property is managed by “Savills Property Mangement” and it also gives you the name, phone number and email address of Savills’ Regional Facilities Manager.

b) Find the contact details of the Managing Agent
Once you know the name of the Managing Agent, you need to find out how to contact them. There phone number might be on a sign somewhere in the complex, or alternatively, you
can google the name of the managing agent and hopefully find their webiste where you will find their email address and phone number.

c) Contact the Managing Agent to check their process
If you have found the managing agent, then call them explain the situation, tell them you are a genuine customer and ask them if they can contact Parking Eye for you.  The retail park managing agents (or whoever at the park has contracted with Parking Eye) have a clause in their contracts with Parking Eye (known as the “genuine customer exemption”) that allow them to direct Parking Eye to withdraw a fine.  They do this in order to be able to protect their genuine customers.  The purpose of this phone call is simply to ask them if they are the correct entity to be contacting (i.e they have some sort of relationhip with Parking Eye and have a contact at Parking Eye) and to confirm the correct method of making your request.     Typically, they will say yes, they are right body, and they will give you an email address to contact them.

d) Lodge your request with the Managing Agent
It is best to email or post your request. However, if you lodge it verbally or by phone, then make sure you write down the name of the person who you spoke to.  Three example templates can be found on this page.

3. Ignore the ticket.

This used to be the recommended option until October 2012.  Before October 2012, it was possible to ignore the ticket and/or demand that Parking Eye name the driver.  Of
course, Parking Eye couldn’t do that, and so the ticket was, in effect, unenforceable and Parking Eye rarely took anyone to court because Parking Eye knew they could not identify the driver.  However, following a change of legilsation in October 2012, the registered keeper of the vehicle is now responsible for the ticket if the driver cannot be determined. So it is no longer possible to hide from Parking Eye tickets.  Parking Eye now (since October 2012) take about 100 people to court a week, so it is not
advisable anymore to ignore a Parking Eye Parking Charge Notice.

4.  Pay the amount on the ticket.
If you don’t have time to appeal the fine, or you want to take advantage of any discount for early payment, then you have the option of paying the ticket now before the due
date for early payment.