Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: TheGoober87 on December 22, 2025, 11:58:31 am
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You have 28 days from 2 working days after the date the NtK was issued to submit an initial appeal. Do NOT appeal to Parkingeye until the last possible date if you have not heard back from the centre until then.
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Thank you. I am hoping the centre will be able to sort this out.
Is it worth putting in the appeal with Parking Eye now, or just waiting to hear back from the centre?
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Please stop calling it a “fine”. It is not a fine. It is not a penalty. It is a speculative invoice dressed up to look official. I will give you £1,000 for every occurrence of the word “fine” you can point to in that Notice to Keeper. You will not find it, because ParkingEye know perfectly well they are not issuing fines and have no lawful power to do so.
Now, the £60 point: The parking charge is £100. Always has been. Always is. The £60 figure is nothing more than a "mugs discount" for early capitulation. It is a time-limited bribe designed to make the recipient feel clever for “saving” £40, when in reality they are simply paying an invoice that should never have been issued in the first place.
Calling it a £60 charge is playing ParkingEye’s game for them. This is how the trap works:
– Inflate the headline charge to £100
– Dangle a short deadline
– Offer a “discount”
– Sit back and wait for guilt, fear, and ignorance to do the rest
And it works astonishingly well, especially on people who immediately start saying things like “it was my fault” and “maybe I should just chalk it up to experience”.
That is precisely why you are being targeted. Not because you did something egregious, but because you look like low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree who can be intimidated into paying out of ignorance and fear: a compliant, apologetic consumer who can be nudged into paying quickly if the letter looks official enough.
If this were genuinely about loss or fairness, there would be no arbitrary £40 discount for paying early. Loss does not magically reduce if you open your wallet within 14 days. The discount exists solely as a psychological lever. They are demanding £100 and offering a bribe to see if you panic.
Next, stop blaming yourself. This is exactly the mindset these operators rely on. You are doing the classic “low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree” routine by immediately assuming fault and moral obligation. Unregulated private parking firms design these systems to catch ordinary users out, then rely on fear, self-blame, and unfamiliarity with the process to extract money.
You did not “forget” to do something that was obvious and clear. You attended a leisure centre, used the facilities, parked in what appeared to be a customer car park, in the dark, with no prominent warning that free parking was conditional on hunting down a tablet inside the building and manually entering a VRM. That is not reasonable consumer conduct on their part, it is entrapment by design.
This is not about whether you were a genuine customer. ParkingEye do not care. This is not about fairness. This is about automated enforcement and volume revenue. The £100 demand plus the mugs’ discount are engineered psychological levers, not a reflection of loss or wrongdoing.
You have already done the one sensible thing: you contacted the leisure centre. They are the principal. ParkingEye are merely an agent. If the centre instructs cancellation, the charge disappears. That is how these cases are routinely resolved.
Do not rush to pay because of an artificial deadline. Do not panic about weekends or dates. And above all, stop internalising blame as if you have committed some civic offence. You have not.
Wait for the centre’s response. If they cancel it, the matter ends. If they do not, then you deal with ParkingEye properly and on your terms, not theirs. But paying now out of fear simply rewards the business model.
This is not “harsh but fair”. It is a commercial trap that relies on people being too quick to say “my fault” and reach for their wallet.
If you follow the advice you receive here, you will never have to pay a penny to Parkingeye.
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Apologies, I thought it was just standard bumf and wasn't needed. Please see the back of the letter here (https://ibb.co/MxQQz5Bb).
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It does, but as per the guidance in the 'READ THIS FIRST' post, we need to see the whole notice.
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Thank you.
Hopefully this works! Image (https://ibb.co/Dgbzjhj7)
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READ THIS FIRST - Private Parking Charges Forum guide (https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/read-this-first-private-parking-charges-forum-guide/)
or
Posting Images (https://www.ftla.uk/announcements/posting-images/#new)
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Hi Richard
Thank you for your help. I have the PCN as an image file but can't work out how to attach it to a post?
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Please post up the PCN (redact personal info), and confirm where the incident took place?
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Hi all
I visited a leisure centre about a week ago, and unfortunately I didn't release their car park had parking eye and you had to enter your reg in a tablet inside (you didn't have to pay, it just covered you for parking for a few hours). I don't recall seeing any signs for it but it could just be me being oblivious. It was also in the evening and dark.
I've since contacted the centre and sent them the parking fine notice and they were going to raise it with them directly for me. They said they couldn't guarantee anything but will do their utmost for me.
In the meantime, what should I do about the fine? It says it goes up to £100 after 14 days (it was issued on the 15th), so is that the 29th or does it take into account weekends/bank holidays? Should I go through the appeals process with them as well, or see what the centre come back with first?
Appreciate it was my fault for not knowing and following the process, but just seems a bit harsh to have to pay it when I was using the facilities. If the centre can't help, is it worth fighting or is it best just to chalk it up to experience and pay the £60?
Thanks.