Teacher refused mortgage because of Parking Eye ticket from Halfords
She says she feels her life has been put on hold
Sarah Arrowsmith, who was refused a mortgage because of a parking ticket, is pictured with fiancé Ross Tredger.A teacher was refused a mortgage on her first home because of a parking ticket that she was told had been cancelled.
Sarah Arrowsmith had been lumped with a poor credit rating because of a County Court Judgement she didn't know about.
Now the three-bedroom house she and her fiancé Ross Tredger had set their hearts on has been sold to someone else.
Sarah, 28, got a ticket after leaving her car at Halfords overnight while it was being serviced. Private firm Parking Eye said she had overstayed the limit at the Wyvern Retail Park, in Derby.
She said: “I contacted Halfords and they said, ‘You’re exempt from paying this.’ They rang Parking Eye and said it was cancelled.”
There were two more demands, but Halfords told her each time that the ticket would be cancelled.
Sarah changed address in the meantime and had no idea that the case had gone to county court with the original £60 penalty mounting with costs to £197.
“I never received a letter from the court about the CCJ,” she says. “The first I heard about it was when our mortgage application was denied. I was in tears. We had done all of the checks and were about to submit our offer.
“I had to look up what a CCJ was. I am a very law-abiding citizen and I always pay off my credit cards each month.
“We’re absolutely devastated that this mistake has prevented us from getting a mortgage. It’s hard enough for young people to get on the housing ladder.”
Sarah, of Burton, is now trying to get the judgement removed from her credit file before she and Ross, 30, start house-hunting again.
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/parking-eye-2959038
