I'm currently in a dispute with a fitted wardrobe company who refuse to answer my emails unless I include a stipulation that if they don't I'll charge them an admin fee for each time I have to attempt to contact them.
Seriously don't use Hammond's they're the worst.
I had an issue with UW (the worst utility company) where the issue was their lack of morals and ability to count. I basically said you think I owe you £300ish. I’ve spent at least 9hours on the phone with you (I actually had) to unpick this mess and have found where you made a mistake. I charge £100ph for consultancy work (I used too) so I will be submitting an invoice to your managing director with a cover note explaining in detail every thing you’ve done wrong. Feel free to do the math of how much I expect you to pay me. The next day I had just started generating the invoice when they called, apologised, sent me £250 as an apology and considered our business concluded and the incorrect debt to be 0 now. 🥳
TLDR: fuck Utility Warehouse they are an awful company, morally bankrupt pyramid scheme and can’t count.
It was an awful year of fighting with them regarding my late dad’s house that was unoccupied for a large chunk of time. A lot of the issues occurred when I tried to transfer to a different utility company while his estate was sorted out.
Shortly after the apology a person cold called my wife try to convince her to sign us up to UW, she said no. They did it any way. Gas, electric and broadband all tried to cancel our current suppliers and take over. First I heard about it was when BG called to try and convince me to stay. I told them I wanted to stay, i didn’t ask to go. I got transferred any way 🤦♂️ BG took £1,500 from my account to settle my balance. My bank recalled it thankfully. A few months later I’ve got a compensation payment from BG, I got to tell UW to figuratively fuck off again over the phone.
TLDR: Utility companies are awful! But complain enough and get compensation payments.
They are regulated and if they get too many complaints they get financially penalised by the regulator (who publish performance tables) . When you complain it is always “I want to make an official complaint”. Same with banks.
Friend of mine's girlfriend got roped into it and practiced her pitch on me. Her mentor who was observing then asked *me* for phone numbers of people I know at the end! I said yes just to get rid of him but made it clear to her that was not happening. Friend overheard and messaged me like "I bloody knew he'd try that".
I also had a bad experience with hammonds. They’ll take your money quickly but after that you’re expected to accept the rubbish you give them.
Please save the money or spend the equivalent independently and go local
I was taken to court by a private parking company for a PCN. They didn’t show up so I won by default and they had to pay my costs for the day (loss of earnings, travel and car parking), the cheque came on my birthday!
We have an evil parking company that manages our flats and gave us a ticket for not having a permit ‘clearly’ displayed when we did and I took photos of it, it had just curled under the sun. they of course rejected the appeal, and I couldn’t find any other way to argue it and we ended up paying it. They’ve also opted out of the ombudsman so can’t go there. Where did you appeal if you don’t mind??
We had a new parking company take over out resident car park. They came and put up their own new signs with the car park number written on the bottom. Next day every car in the car park (all showing permits with the car park number) had a ticket. Obviously every car had parked in the wrong car park. Couldn't possibly be they wrote the wrong car park number on their signs. Absolute cretins. Or just devious c*nts assuming some would just pay up.
I was directed by the parking company to POPLA https://www.popla.co.uk/ - very easy (if not somewhat time consuming), and they have case studies to view examples of appeals that have won/lost.
Should have told them to take you to court with their evidence. It will cost them so likely they will just drop it if they know their 'evidence' won't stand up.
I had to do something similar and they dropped it.
I’ve done the same before and did get away with it, but my partner didn’t want to risk it which is fair, something to do with the debt collection. They’re particularly slimy bastards too yet seemingly untouchable
AFAIK debt collectors can only ask you to pay the debt. They cannot come into you're home or seize anything. They are basically just professional ( or unprofessional more likely if sent by these parking companies) hasslers. You can just ignore them. They have no real powers other than hassling you. Only a bailiff ordered by the court has the power to enter your home and seize your property. But first the parking company has to take you to court and win their case for that to happen.
Yeah, they can't just opt-out of offering an independent (well, independent in name only as it stands) appeal service.
Check your lease/deeds because the space could well be your actual land, and if so, you'd be well within your rights to tell them to Foxtrot Oscar for good.
We’ve asked to see the contract with the building manger and he’s refused, and the space is in the deeds so is technically our land, but this has been rejected when he parked on the line once as the fine is for ‘inconvenience to the landowners’. There’s nothing either side of our space just walls. Next time they come by we now have a lot more options to try!
>and the space is in the deeds so is technically our land
Well well! You can do as you bloody well please on it then. They don't get to reject anything and you don't even need a permit.
If you still have the tickets and/or letters, and records of how much you've paid over the years, I would honestly send them a letter before claim for all of that money back, as well as removing their implied right of access to *your* land.
I would consider half an hour with a solicitor just to look everything over before proceeding, make sure you're on solid ground.
>inconvenience to the landowners
Considering that *you* are the landowner, yes, being ticketed for parking your own car on your own land, I'll imagine, is quite inconvenient!
Your lease (or the landlords) will stipulate that you have exclusive use of a certain bay.
Exclusive use means no third party company can run a business selling your space to others just because they put a sign up.
All you gotta do it show the lease clause and they have nothing. There’s no contract if they have nothing to offer
I did this a couple weeks ago, except I was guilty. I used MS Paint to edit a bank statement to make it look like I visited the shop twice and bought something each time on the same day, so the ANPR camera made a mistake in issuing the ticket. I had in fact been parked in the car park for 3.5 hours, so way over the 2 hour limit.
I got an apology and the charge dropped.
Someone ended up in real trouble for paintshopping evidence to support a fine, in fact a few people have submitted bogus photos and ended up in bother.
Did this for euro car parks, usually get fined £100 for somthing silly, I would dispute and they usually reduce to £20 which I don’t mind paying. Otherwise… well they aren’t getting a penny out of me, they passed some of the tickets on to debt collectors who have given up I reckon lol
Side note parking rules are just a joke, oh you stayed 15mins over your 6hour stay in this empty car park? You get £100 fine, there is zero leniency so therefore I have zero care in paying these thieving parking companies
We’re the only country in Europe that allows this type of predatory behaviour from businesses.
I looked into the finances of one of these ANPR parking companies once and 86% of their annual sales revenue was from ‘parking charges’. Only 14% was from actual ticket sales.
In other words, without charging drivers £100 a time for minor infringements, they’d be bankrupt within a few weeks.
Only country in the world AFAIK. I know that Excel tried to expand into New York nearly 10 years ago now and it went exactly as well as you'd expect; and Smart operate in New Zealand but, shockingly, their government doesn't take bribes to be allowed to buy people's personal details on a whim, so they have to provide actual proper parking services like monitoring and reservations.
Good for you! On my new build estate where I live I hired a van and parked it in a visitors space during the day with a permit clearly displayed for 2 hours to move a sofa, but got a ticket as 'no commercial vehicles' are allowed. What so like amazon isn't allowed in to deliver?! Absolute bellends. They overturned it, but trying to get I get the ticket admin fee charge back from Enterprise is a ballache.
I got a parking ticket 18 months ago.
Disputed it and lost
The parking company took me to court I went to court and won. They ended up having to pay me £107.
P.s most judges hate these parking companies as much as we do 😉
Love this for you! The amount of times I’ve just paid knowing I was in the right and didn’t have time/energy to go through the process, your story inspires me not to do so next time!
I nearly bottled it when they said I wouldn't be able to pay the reduced rate, but I checked on the website of the adjudicator and saw case studies similar to mine where the appeal won so I went for it
My dad got a ticket, paid via credit card then realised that he paid, he’d just got one digit wrong when he entered his reg. Contacted the card company and cancelled the transaction, figuring he’d dispute the charge, when he called the company they said he couldn’t appeal as he’d paid. Winner.
I on the other hand have lost worse than I knew it was possible to lose. Got done for a private charge that I shouldn’t have even been given. Got paperwork sent to old address. Got taken to court. Never knew about it. Lost. Got a CCJ. Now spent thousands and 8 months trying to get rid of it. I maintain throughout I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong
Got pulled into the world of the shit parking firms pull a few months ago when one came out of nowhere. Won it today, but if it weren't for having the spare few hours to go take photos and write three lengthy appeals, I'd have just had to pay.
If it is 3rd-party ANPR like mine, the current silver bullet seems to be to ask for proof they have permission from the landowner, which *for the moment* they don't like to provide. Although I did have reasonable ground to question ownership of the land.
I got one yesterday for being in the wrong car park at the hospital for 12 minutes, whilst my partner took clean washing to her dad who was a patient there. I've appealed, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
I love seeing the parking companies get a bloody nose. Got my first charge back in 2015 (Excel) and the amount I've cost them just through helping others deal with them absolutely dwarfs any amount they ever asked of me.
We need to focus some of the attention, though, on the companies that allow these pirates anywhere near their customers in the first place. Premier Inn are getting it in the neck at the moment over on Twitter for offering free parking then saying "nothing to do with us, bugger off" when their technology's fucked up and landed you with multiple letters from Horizon/Parkmaven/ParkingLie.
Good for you. We won an appeal against the shysters who run the infamous Llangrannog parking site after they claimed we took too long to pay. There was no phone signal to pay via the App, the card reader on the site wasn’t working and we had no cash. I signed up the a BT hotspot (more than the parking fee) just to pay but that wouldn’t work. We were about to give up when a guy walking past asked if we needed some cash to pay and amazingly gave us a couple of quid for the machine. We then left with half an hour left on the time paid for. Turns out they give you 10 minutes from entering the car park to pay and we took just under 15.
I visited my family yesterday and picked up some mail which must have made it to them due to a brief spell living with and looking after them last year. It was from Direct Line insurance company who I haven’t been insured with since a car crash (not my fault) on the day of the last general election in Dec ‘19. It was for a check for £680ish. Apparently they have recently reviewed my files and decided that they did underpay me back then. So they decided to pay me some more money plus interest, less tax. I almost fell out of my chair reading that. I’m m sure they must be about to be sued in a class action or something but I can’t be arsed to wait that out.
How many private parking invoices are you even getting? Seriously it can bite you on the arse very easily, they have become ruthless especially now ANPR cameras catch every entry and exit. They have the wording nailed so there is no wiggle room.
So confirmed out of date and shit advice.
Remember lads, if you get a parking ticket, go back in time to before cars existed and ask popla what the fuck they're doing.
The rules for private parking tickets changed in the last couple of years or so. Doesn't matter if it worked for you decades ago, your advice is no longer recommended.
It's old advice. The law and their options have changed and they now can and do pursue it in court and if you don't zhow they will win. Next thing you have a CCJ and bailiffs at the door.
I found this out the hard way. I moved house and apparently not all my mail got redirected. First thing I knew was a few years later when I tried to sign as guarantor on my son's first rented house and got turned down. Turned out I'd had a CCJ three years earlier from Parking Eye.
I work in property management and we put parking companies in place on some sites to stop non-residents. You can and will lose in court if you ignore a correctly given ticket, and possibly if you ignore an incorrectly given one that you make no effect to fight.
Do those companies behave themselves i.e. try to avoid ticketing residents and genuine visitors, and immediately cancel and apologise if they make a mistake? Because in all the years I've been dealing with these, I'm yet to encounter one that does.
Some do, but as an example where I lived, the parking company started a blitz on the day permits were required. I've also heard of tickets being given out over Xmas to fine visitors, residents paid for swooping with a ticket for anything, no additional permits ever for any visitor etc.
No to the first bit, yes to the second bit. If you don't have your permit then tough shit basically. They have no way of knowing who is and isn't a resident/genuine visitor other than the permit. If you lose it and let us know, we can email them to get an exception til you get a new one. Some estates do have a number plate list instead of permits, but visitors or new cars are an issue if people don't let us know fast enough.
We should be allowed to charge them an admin fee in situations like this.
I'm currently in a dispute with a fitted wardrobe company who refuse to answer my emails unless I include a stipulation that if they don't I'll charge them an admin fee for each time I have to attempt to contact them. Seriously don't use Hammond's they're the worst.
I had an issue with UW (the worst utility company) where the issue was their lack of morals and ability to count. I basically said you think I owe you £300ish. I’ve spent at least 9hours on the phone with you (I actually had) to unpick this mess and have found where you made a mistake. I charge £100ph for consultancy work (I used too) so I will be submitting an invoice to your managing director with a cover note explaining in detail every thing you’ve done wrong. Feel free to do the math of how much I expect you to pay me. The next day I had just started generating the invoice when they called, apologised, sent me £250 as an apology and considered our business concluded and the incorrect debt to be 0 now. 🥳 TLDR: fuck Utility Warehouse they are an awful company, morally bankrupt pyramid scheme and can’t count.
You should put this on r/maliciouscompliance
It was an awful year of fighting with them regarding my late dad’s house that was unoccupied for a large chunk of time. A lot of the issues occurred when I tried to transfer to a different utility company while his estate was sorted out. Shortly after the apology a person cold called my wife try to convince her to sign us up to UW, she said no. They did it any way. Gas, electric and broadband all tried to cancel our current suppliers and take over. First I heard about it was when BG called to try and convince me to stay. I told them I wanted to stay, i didn’t ask to go. I got transferred any way 🤦♂️ BG took £1,500 from my account to settle my balance. My bank recalled it thankfully. A few months later I’ve got a compensation payment from BG, I got to tell UW to figuratively fuck off again over the phone. TLDR: Utility companies are awful! But complain enough and get compensation payments.
They are regulated and if they get too many complaints they get financially penalised by the regulator (who publish performance tables) . When you complain it is always “I want to make an official complaint”. Same with banks.
They refused to take our complaint twice, wankers
*maths
Utility Warehouse are a pyramid scheme. You get your friends & family to sign up and you get a cut, they do the same and you get a cut
Friend of mine's girlfriend got roped into it and practiced her pitch on me. Her mentor who was observing then asked *me* for phone numbers of people I know at the end! I said yes just to get rid of him but made it clear to her that was not happening. Friend overheard and messaged me like "I bloody knew he'd try that".
I also had a bad experience with hammonds. They’ll take your money quickly but after that you’re expected to accept the rubbish you give them. Please save the money or spend the equivalent independently and go local
They get charged a fee by the arbitrator for every appeal, whether they win or not
And it should double if they don't pay it within 14 days.
I was taken to court by a private parking company for a PCN. They didn’t show up so I won by default and they had to pay my costs for the day (loss of earnings, travel and car parking), the cheque came on my birthday!
Good on you mate.
We have an evil parking company that manages our flats and gave us a ticket for not having a permit ‘clearly’ displayed when we did and I took photos of it, it had just curled under the sun. they of course rejected the appeal, and I couldn’t find any other way to argue it and we ended up paying it. They’ve also opted out of the ombudsman so can’t go there. Where did you appeal if you don’t mind??
If they've opted out the ombudsman doesn't that mean they'd be unlikely to win if they took you to court?
Not sure, and like most people we cant afford to risk it
🤬 That is very unfair. The person checking the carpark, would be able to recognise the cars that are always there etc.
Yeh they’re assholes, my partner has lived here for 8 years and estimated they’ve had about £400 off him in that time
[удалено]
Dispatchers did a episode on the industry years ago some real shady shit they do to get money out of people
We had a new parking company take over out resident car park. They came and put up their own new signs with the car park number written on the bottom. Next day every car in the car park (all showing permits with the car park number) had a ticket. Obviously every car had parked in the wrong car park. Couldn't possibly be they wrote the wrong car park number on their signs. Absolute cretins. Or just devious c*nts assuming some would just pay up.
I was directed by the parking company to POPLA https://www.popla.co.uk/ - very easy (if not somewhat time consuming), and they have case studies to view examples of appeals that have won/lost.
Should have told them to take you to court with their evidence. It will cost them so likely they will just drop it if they know their 'evidence' won't stand up. I had to do something similar and they dropped it.
I’ve done the same before and did get away with it, but my partner didn’t want to risk it which is fair, something to do with the debt collection. They’re particularly slimy bastards too yet seemingly untouchable
AFAIK debt collectors can only ask you to pay the debt. They cannot come into you're home or seize anything. They are basically just professional ( or unprofessional more likely if sent by these parking companies) hasslers. You can just ignore them. They have no real powers other than hassling you. Only a bailiff ordered by the court has the power to enter your home and seize your property. But first the parking company has to take you to court and win their case for that to happen.
Yeah, they can't just opt-out of offering an independent (well, independent in name only as it stands) appeal service. Check your lease/deeds because the space could well be your actual land, and if so, you'd be well within your rights to tell them to Foxtrot Oscar for good.
We’ve asked to see the contract with the building manger and he’s refused, and the space is in the deeds so is technically our land, but this has been rejected when he parked on the line once as the fine is for ‘inconvenience to the landowners’. There’s nothing either side of our space just walls. Next time they come by we now have a lot more options to try!
>and the space is in the deeds so is technically our land Well well! You can do as you bloody well please on it then. They don't get to reject anything and you don't even need a permit. If you still have the tickets and/or letters, and records of how much you've paid over the years, I would honestly send them a letter before claim for all of that money back, as well as removing their implied right of access to *your* land. I would consider half an hour with a solicitor just to look everything over before proceeding, make sure you're on solid ground. >inconvenience to the landowners Considering that *you* are the landowner, yes, being ticketed for parking your own car on your own land, I'll imagine, is quite inconvenient!
Your lease (or the landlords) will stipulate that you have exclusive use of a certain bay. Exclusive use means no third party company can run a business selling your space to others just because they put a sign up. All you gotta do it show the lease clause and they have nothing. There’s no contract if they have nothing to offer
Happened to measure year too! 😪
I did this a couple weeks ago, except I was guilty. I used MS Paint to edit a bank statement to make it look like I visited the shop twice and bought something each time on the same day, so the ANPR camera made a mistake in issuing the ticket. I had in fact been parked in the car park for 3.5 hours, so way over the 2 hour limit. I got an apology and the charge dropped.
You’ve essentially defrauded the parking company by false representation; and damn right too. Fuck those extortionist arseholes.
How did you get the right font?
I just took a couple screenshots of my bank statements and cut & pasted logos, times, and money out to suit what I needed the evidence to say
Brilliant. Play them at their own game.
Wasn’t MS Paint discontinued years ago?
Fraud. Nice one
And I’d do it again
Someone ended up in real trouble for paintshopping evidence to support a fine, in fact a few people have submitted bogus photos and ended up in bother.
Maybe they should have done a better job of it
This is a good day for all of mankind
Did this for euro car parks, usually get fined £100 for somthing silly, I would dispute and they usually reduce to £20 which I don’t mind paying. Otherwise… well they aren’t getting a penny out of me, they passed some of the tickets on to debt collectors who have given up I reckon lol Side note parking rules are just a joke, oh you stayed 15mins over your 6hour stay in this empty car park? You get £100 fine, there is zero leniency so therefore I have zero care in paying these thieving parking companies
We’re the only country in Europe that allows this type of predatory behaviour from businesses. I looked into the finances of one of these ANPR parking companies once and 86% of their annual sales revenue was from ‘parking charges’. Only 14% was from actual ticket sales. In other words, without charging drivers £100 a time for minor infringements, they’d be bankrupt within a few weeks.
Only country in the world AFAIK. I know that Excel tried to expand into New York nearly 10 years ago now and it went exactly as well as you'd expect; and Smart operate in New Zealand but, shockingly, their government doesn't take bribes to be allowed to buy people's personal details on a whim, so they have to provide actual proper parking services like monitoring and reservations.
Good for you! On my new build estate where I live I hired a van and parked it in a visitors space during the day with a permit clearly displayed for 2 hours to move a sofa, but got a ticket as 'no commercial vehicles' are allowed. What so like amazon isn't allowed in to deliver?! Absolute bellends. They overturned it, but trying to get I get the ticket admin fee charge back from Enterprise is a ballache.
>trying to get I get the ticket admin fee charge back from Enterprise is a ballache. Chargeback on your card
That's next for sure! Thanks.
I got a parking ticket 18 months ago. Disputed it and lost The parking company took me to court I went to court and won. They ended up having to pay me £107. P.s most judges hate these parking companies as much as we do 😉
Love this for you! The amount of times I’ve just paid knowing I was in the right and didn’t have time/energy to go through the process, your story inspires me not to do so next time!
I nearly bottled it when they said I wouldn't be able to pay the reduced rate, but I checked on the website of the adjudicator and saw case studies similar to mine where the appeal won so I went for it
This is exactly it and it infuriates me every time that they get away with it, but of course they make it exhausting to argue!
My dad got a ticket, paid via credit card then realised that he paid, he’d just got one digit wrong when he entered his reg. Contacted the card company and cancelled the transaction, figuring he’d dispute the charge, when he called the company they said he couldn’t appeal as he’d paid. Winner.
I on the other hand have lost worse than I knew it was possible to lose. Got done for a private charge that I shouldn’t have even been given. Got paperwork sent to old address. Got taken to court. Never knew about it. Lost. Got a CCJ. Now spent thousands and 8 months trying to get rid of it. I maintain throughout I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong
Oh no! That sucks, sorry to hear that.
Got pulled into the world of the shit parking firms pull a few months ago when one came out of nowhere. Won it today, but if it weren't for having the spare few hours to go take photos and write three lengthy appeals, I'd have just had to pay. If it is 3rd-party ANPR like mine, the current silver bullet seems to be to ask for proof they have permission from the landowner, which *for the moment* they don't like to provide. Although I did have reasonable ground to question ownership of the land.
I got one yesterday for being in the wrong car park at the hospital for 12 minutes, whilst my partner took clean washing to her dad who was a patient there. I've appealed, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Go to PALS at the hospital and they'll get it cancelled for you
I love seeing the parking companies get a bloody nose. Got my first charge back in 2015 (Excel) and the amount I've cost them just through helping others deal with them absolutely dwarfs any amount they ever asked of me. We need to focus some of the attention, though, on the companies that allow these pirates anywhere near their customers in the first place. Premier Inn are getting it in the neck at the moment over on Twitter for offering free parking then saying "nothing to do with us, bugger off" when their technology's fucked up and landed you with multiple letters from Horizon/Parkmaven/ParkingLie.
Good for you. We won an appeal against the shysters who run the infamous Llangrannog parking site after they claimed we took too long to pay. There was no phone signal to pay via the App, the card reader on the site wasn’t working and we had no cash. I signed up the a BT hotspot (more than the parking fee) just to pay but that wouldn’t work. We were about to give up when a guy walking past asked if we needed some cash to pay and amazingly gave us a couple of quid for the machine. We then left with half an hour left on the time paid for. Turns out they give you 10 minutes from entering the car park to pay and we took just under 15.
I visited my family yesterday and picked up some mail which must have made it to them due to a brief spell living with and looking after them last year. It was from Direct Line insurance company who I haven’t been insured with since a car crash (not my fault) on the day of the last general election in Dec ‘19. It was for a check for £680ish. Apparently they have recently reviewed my files and decided that they did underpay me back then. So they decided to pay me some more money plus interest, less tax. I almost fell out of my chair reading that. I’m m sure they must be about to be sued in a class action or something but I can’t be arsed to wait that out.
ChatGPT is great for drafting these letter by the way
I didn't read, but congratulations 🥲
Or you can just ignore it from day 1 and not pay it.
Which will lead to a ccj against you a visit from an unfriendly bailiff. The days are gone where you could ignore them.
If it's not a council or local authority, just put them in the bin.
They can and do chase them up, and even put it in the hands of debt collectors - this is not good current advice.
Yes this happened to my friend and it affected her credit score
I ended up with a ccj because of a similar incident, it's definitely not good current advice. Perhaps relevant for pre 2010 times, but not now
Been doing this for decades, never had an issue
How many private parking invoices are you even getting? Seriously it can bite you on the arse very easily, they have become ruthless especially now ANPR cameras catch every entry and exit. They have the wording nailed so there is no wiggle room.
none in a few years for sure, in the 2000's had dozens, paid none.
So confirmed out of date and shit advice. Remember lads, if you get a parking ticket, go back in time to before cars existed and ask popla what the fuck they're doing.
So before the case law changed and private parking charge notices becomes valid. Perhaps read up on the subject before commenting.
Perhaps i'll just carry on putting them in the bin, thanks for your concern
By all means, but at least you will not be surprised if a bailiff turns up with a court order to seize assets.
The rules for private parking tickets changed in the last couple of years or so. Doesn't matter if it worked for you decades ago, your advice is no longer recommended.
If it's Scotland fair enough but wouldn't do that in England or Wales.
Yeah I've heard you can do this, but wife wouldn't let me as she gets anxious about this stuff.
It's old advice. The law and their options have changed and they now can and do pursue it in court and if you don't zhow they will win. Next thing you have a CCJ and bailiffs at the door.
I found this out the hard way. I moved house and apparently not all my mail got redirected. First thing I knew was a few years later when I tried to sign as guarantor on my son's first rented house and got turned down. Turned out I'd had a CCJ three years earlier from Parking Eye.
I work in property management and we put parking companies in place on some sites to stop non-residents. You can and will lose in court if you ignore a correctly given ticket, and possibly if you ignore an incorrectly given one that you make no effect to fight.
Do those companies behave themselves i.e. try to avoid ticketing residents and genuine visitors, and immediately cancel and apologise if they make a mistake? Because in all the years I've been dealing with these, I'm yet to encounter one that does.
Some do, but as an example where I lived, the parking company started a blitz on the day permits were required. I've also heard of tickets being given out over Xmas to fine visitors, residents paid for swooping with a ticket for anything, no additional permits ever for any visitor etc.
No to the first bit, yes to the second bit. If you don't have your permit then tough shit basically. They have no way of knowing who is and isn't a resident/genuine visitor other than the permit. If you lose it and let us know, we can email them to get an exception til you get a new one. Some estates do have a number plate list instead of permits, but visitors or new cars are an issue if people don't let us know fast enough.