Paying private car park fines?

CaveDweller

CaveDweller

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Paul
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I got a parking ticket through the post yesterday asking for £100 for parking over two hours at a local retail park that has always been free parking. I went to check the area out last night and they have put signs up everywhere saying that it's private property and there are number plate recognition cameras upon entering/exiting the car park. With being a regular I didn't notice because it's been free for decades.

I've looked on some local Facebook pages and there's a massive uproar about these private parking schemes turning up everywhere just now and not to pay them. Is it true that you don't have to pay the private parking companies because the court fee's out weigh what they will get out of you? Or is it just a bunch of unhappy punters that have been caught out like myself?

There has been no warning about this scheme and what jammy forkers to introduce it this time of year without warning. Especially round all the most popular shops for Christmas like Argos, B&Q, Currys, Tesco etc etc. For those two hours I was an hour in Argos alone with the ques, then I had to visit other shops. Not a lot of time at all really.
 
Ultimately if the signs were up when you entered then you should have paid. As the signs are sure to have said, by parking you accepted their terms. You could try offering to pay a reduced fine though it would be admitting guilt or holding out and not paying to see where it goes. If you decide not to pay you might find problems using the car park later on if they also have live attendants with the ability to check your number. If this was in Scotland at least they can't clamp you or otherwise prevent you from removing your car.
 
Personally on these circumstances I'd point blank refuse to pay and have done so with Council Tickets in the past.
 
I use a non local Starbucks regularly on a service station with these 2 hour limits. We give our regs to the manager there as are often meeting friends there and chatting for well over 2 hours. Anyway first time we got a fine he said just ignore it there isn't anything a private company can do. The letter had a shot of the front of the car with reg plate and time arriving and leaving. Fortunately we were ok as the manager knew we were there using his facilities and he likes our custom so he got our fine revoked and now keeps our reg on file. Apparently they'll just keep sending letters and threats as majority of people give in and pay so it's easy money.
 
Easy answer when it's someone else with the letter in front of them, and not yourself!

If you don't pay the charge will keep getting larger and it becomes a who will back down first situation.

Apparently these "charges" are unenforceable.
 
Don't pay it. Firstly do an appeal to the parking company. They'll refuse probably. Then you appeal to POPLA with it not being a genuine pre estimate of loss and they cancel the ticket and cost the parking company money. POPLA don't do mitigation of any kind unless you have a protected characteristic under the equality act. Being a genuine shopper is also ignored by them. If it is parkng eye then their ANPR system doesn't meet evidential standards anyway as the times aren't probably synchronised so the pictures prove nothing.

If it is parking eye definitely do not pay it as these low life thieves deliberately introduce difficult to use parking systems into hospital car parks and take disabled people and the elderly to court.

Money saving expert has a dedicated board to fighting the tickets. Read their how tos. If it is a FREE car park then the net loss is £0. They've created losses by pursuing it.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

If you have any doubt what a scam these tickets are and the kind of lies these companies are prepared to tell then have a look at the parking prankster website.

There is a company that will fight the ticket for you, the service costs about £20 I think.

If you go to a retail park and use the retail park for the time you are parked then these companies have no business billing anyone such ridiculous sums. Write to all the managers of all the stores you visited and tell them you won't be visiting any more due to them having these people around as you don't want to have to keep clock watching while you're shopping just to avoid having the hassle of getting a ticket.
 
Thanks all. A bit busy just now but I'll have a good read over everything later on (y)

Steep said:
Ultimately if the signs were up when you entered then you should have paid. As the signs are sure to have said, by parking you accepted their terms. You could try offering to pay a reduced fine though it would be admitting guilt or holding out and not paying to see where it goes. If you decide not to pay you might find problems using the car park later on if they also have live attendants with the ability to check your number. If this was in Scotland at least they can't clamp you or otherwise prevent you from removing your car.
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It wasn't "pay and display", it was just a maximum wait of two hours. I've been down in Wales for a few weeks and I got the letter to my house in Scotland so my boss rang me when he checked my house. It's down here in Wales where I got caught. My other halfs family live here and they didn't even know because it's been free normal parking for decades. No warnings about it or anything and with being a regular it's not something you really look for with being used to it being free for so long.
 
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Steep said:
Ultimately if the signs were up when you entered then you should have paid. As the signs are sure to have said, by parking you accepted their terms. You could try offering to pay a reduced fine though it would be admitting guilt or holding out and not paying to see where it goes. If you decide not to pay you might find problems using the car park later on if they also have live attendants with the ability to check your number. If this was in Scotland at least they can't clamp you or otherwise prevent you from removing your car.
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Do not do anything! Do not speak to them, write to them do NOTHING. This is not a fine it is an invoice and even if it went to court which it won't the £100 does not represent a loss.

They will write to you with ever increasing threats and then give up. I know this not as a lawyer but from practical experience.

Anyone saying yuu should pay etc is merely encouraging them

If you were a member of my family and I was confident that you wouldn't contact them I would pay the resultant fine myself

Check out Consumer Action Group
 
Don't pay the £100 as they have no authority to impose fines - in fact they don't use the word fine, they use parking charge. All you owe is whatever it would have cost to park there.

However, if there was no facility to pay for parking in excess of the free two hours - tough!

The implication is that you entered into a contract to park there - however, you didn't.

They work on the theory that most people will think it's an official fine as the letter states all sorts of laws and looks scary and will pay up.

Whilst they can persue you through a court, they would have to show a loss and they cannot possibly have lost out by £100 by you parking for a bit too long.


Steve.
 
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ChasG said:
Do not do anything! Do not speak to them, write to them do NOTHING. This is not a fine it is an invoice and even if it went to court which it won't the £100 does not represent a loss.

They will write to you with ever increasing threats and then give up. I know this not as a lawyer but from practical experience.

Anyone saying yuu should pay etc is merely encouraging them

If you were a member of my family and I was confident that you wouldn't contact them I would pay the resultant fine myself

Check out Consumer Action Group
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Steve Smith said:
Don't pay the £100 as they have no authority to impose it. All you owe is whatever it would have cost to park there.

However, if there was no facility to pay for parking in excess of the free two hours - tough!

Steve.
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thats old info.

as someone said above go down the POPLA route.
 
If you're living in Scotland and the vehicle is registered in Scotland then keeper liability doesn't apply under POFA and they can only pursue the driver. The registered keeper doesn't have to say who the driver was so they can do diddly squit in all probability. They can't take someone to court that lives in Scotland either.

I think others have made complaints to the BPA about such behaviour depending on the wording of the invoice as to claim any kind of keeper liability when the vehicle is registered in Scotland is a fib.
 
ChasG said:
Do not do anything! Do not speak to them, write to them do NOTHING. This is not a fine it is an invoice and even if it went to court which it won't the £100 does not represent a loss.

They will write to you with ever increasing threats and then give up. I know this not as a lawyer but from practical experience.

Anyone saying yuu should pay etc is merely encouraging them

If you were a member of my family and I was confident that you wouldn't contact them I would pay the resultant fine myself

Check out Consumer Action Group
Click to expand...


BAD advice. Several years ago this was the case, not now though. You must appeal the ticket through POPLA.

If you do nothing, you are wide open for a court appearance.
 
Not done anything and don't have to either. I got talking to the manager at B&Q where I was shopping as well that day and he asked for my receipt from that day. I showed him and he took it away. Five minutes later he came back and said he rang the company who gave me the fine and said it's been cancelled, also they have stored my reg number so I can stay over the two hours from now on since I have two disabled kids. Doesn't help anyone else who have been caught out though. Still, he didn't have to do what he did so quite happy.

win win for me lol
 
Now you're asking. It's in Pontypridd where B&Q and Argos are. There might be some locals on the forum to that area but not myself. I stay here now and again to visit family. Taking an extended holiday this time since I won't see them over Christmas (y)
 
CaveDweller said:
Now you're asking. It's in Pontypridd where B&Q and Argos are. There might be some locals on the forum to that area but not myself. I stay here now and again to visit family. Taking an extended holiday this time since I won't see them over Christmas (y)
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(y) Ynysangharad Road

Bit out of the way for me, but I know where you're talking about now.
 
SarahLee said:
(y) Ynysangharad Road

Bit out of the way for me, but I know where you're talking about now.
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blah blah blah road lol aye that's the one. Don't even ask me to pronounce any Welsh, even worse at it than when I did French in school.
 
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OK not read all of the above - wife parked riverside norwich about 3 years ago and was genuinely shopping for ages, got a "parking invoice" ...

Upon consultation on here and MSE.. chose to ignore everything, not even acknowledge.. got about 5 or 6 increasingly snotty and threatening letters... bailiffs coming round - not without a court order they're not.

They gave up. If it went to court defence would have been proof of shopping, and a free car park anyway so what revenue have we deprived them of?

Google it. There's a huge difference between a fine and an invoice!
 
CaveDweller said:
No warnings about it or anything and with being a regular it's not something you really look for with being used to it being free for so long.
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No it wouldn't be in their interest to advertise in advance, they'd want to 'catch' as many people as they could early on.
 
I had one of these about 5 years ago as well.
Parking Invoice, just ignored it and as per other folk got a fair few letters and then zippo.
 
Just remember the law has recently changed, so whilst 18 months ago ignoring these things was OK now it is better to deal with them.
 
Lynton said:
OK not read all of the above - wife parked riverside norwich about 3 years ago and was genuinely shopping for ages, got a "parking invoice" ...

Upon consultation on here and MSE.. chose to ignore everything, not even acknowledge.. got about 5 or 6 increasingly snotty and threatening letters... bailiffs coming round - not without a court order they're not.

They gave up. If it went to court defence would have been proof of shopping, and a free car park anyway so what revenue have we deprived them of?

Google it. There's a huge difference between a fine and an invoice!
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Do that now and your up the creek.. The law is different, you must appeal it through POPLA. Anything else is leaving you wide open to a very big court bill.
People shoulnt hand out advice from years ago as it doesn't mean it's right now.
 
Updated on post #15 for those who are lazy like me and don't read everything ;) All sorted now and pleased with the result (y). But thanks for all the info. Handy in case I get caught out somewhere else. Mind you now I will open my eyes a bit more
 
Never paid a private ticket, had 4 of them, they always send a couple of letters then forget as it would cost them more in fees to chase up the fine than they would make
 
jakeblu said:
Looks like they are enforceable and seemingly reasonable.
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11 months later and we have an answer :D

CaveDweller said:
I showed him and he took it away. Five minutes later he came back and said he rang the company who gave me the fine and said it's been cancelled,
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Although for the OP at least it was sorted :D
 
The guys on the moneysaving expert helped me successfully appeal a charge before it got to the POPLA stage even though the scamming company refused the initial appeal.

In my case I'd actually OVER PAID the maximum time stay as I was photographing a gig and didn't know what time I'd get back. The park went free after 10pm until 7am but their machine didn't recognise the times so printed out a 10pm exit time and I was ticketed at 10.20pm :D
many often hilarious emails back and fwd trying to get them to see that the ticket was issued in the FREE PARKING time as they expected me to come back before 10 and re-park after 10 while they totally ignored the fact i'd paid enough to cover a full days parking anyway.

Absolute tools !
 
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