Car Park Tickets

[Guest benpducker]

A colleague of mine has sent the following in relation to a parking ticket he got from ASDA in their car park, I stress, only do this if you receive a ticket in a civil car park, not one owned by the council or local authority and certainly not one regulated by traffic wardens or the police. Also do not use disabled bays as this is just plain unfair, however i digress read on:

 

 

Firstly dont pay.

Secondly dont communicate with the company or reply to any letters from them or

any debt recovery agents

Thirdly just wait till they stop writing and go away.

 

You have not broken any law of the land other than breach of a civil

contract. Contract law is vast and coplicated but basically there is an

implied agreement to the terms of parking when you pull onto the car park.

But the argument is that you didn't agree with the terms as posted on the

signs (which must be there and readable and plenty of them, not just a

little one tucked away) and had no opportunity to negotiate individual

terms as stated in contract law. You believe the fees were/are unreasonable

and not proportionate and you didnt agree intended to pay that amount.

 

If you breach a contract, you can be taken to court for damages i.e. loss of

revenue. So if the car park charges were £1 per hour and you stay for 1

hr, in theory you have prevented someone else parking there and paying a

pound. The loss(damages) is therefore £1 and thats all they can take you to

court for. If they say pay up within 7 days or it goes up by £40 they are

imposing a penalty which they are not allowed to do.

 

A penalty is defined as a charge for late or non payment, which is more

than the original debt.

 

The first thing they do is write to say you haven't paid. They will give a

date and say if its not paid by that date the fine will increase by some

ridiculous amount.

 

They might repeat this as a final warning that if its not paid they will

pass it to a debt recovery agent and court action MAY follow. IT WONT.

 

Then a debt recovery agent will write making demands for payment. They are

not bailiffs, they cannot come and seize your property in lieu of payment

like bailiffs can. Bailiffs act on the orders of courts and have the power

to lawfully seize property. Debt recovery agents just act for the private

parking company to try and get you to pay. Sometimes they may even be someone

on a different desk in the parking company to the one that deals with the

'penalty charge notice'.

 

These notices are made to look like fixed penalty tickets but really they

are nothing more than the parking company's invoice and cannot be enforced

by any Act or Section of law.

 

The above only applies to car parks on private land run by private parking

companies. Council car parks, on council owned land, run by council

employees are totally different. They are covered by Traffic Management

Act and are enforceable and they will take you to court and their charges

are nationally set and agreed.

 

This is the bare bones. The attachment, below, is from a website called

www.pepipoo.com. Every time they write to you friend you will get cold feet

and think they aren't going away. Thats the time to read these attachments

again and stand firm and ignore the letter. Look on the website and go

into the 'forums' section about private parking companies. I've had a few

'invoices' now that I haven't paid and James and Linda too

(plus several people that have contacted me. You (if you don't

bottle out ) will be another

Private_Parking_Companies.htm

[GambolGold]

Or, in this case "Parking Charge Notice".

 

I stayed too long in an Aldi car-park, which is overseen by ParkingEye. This is because I took my family for a meal in a local pub before shopping in the Aldi, which ironically, took our stay 15 minutes over the 'allowed' 1 1/2 hours. A few days later I received the Parking Charge Notice for £70 (reduced to £40 if paid by 16th May).

 

I would gladly pay my 'dues' if I was confident I am legally obliged to or broke the law.

 

- I did not have to pay for a ticket

- There is clear and adequate sign-age around the car-park telling you of the 'contract' (?) you enter into by parking your car there.

- I stayed more than the displayed allotted time (1 1/2 hours)

- I will be more careful next time

 

Its a fair cop guv'! Or is it?

 

I hesitated to fork out to ParkingEye because several sources indicate the Parking Charge Notice is something not legally enforceable, but disguised as something that is. Having looked ParkingEye up on old forum entries on Money Saving Expert - as well as other material - the consensus is: ignore it, its a hoax, ParkingEye survive because some people just pay up, it will go away. Well I'd like to get a up-to-date answer in case laws have changed over the last few years Etc. so I am asking here,

 

Do I pay up (a fair cop) or do I ignore it (a new calliper for the Hood or tyre for the tin-top)?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[johnhetherington]

Simply put, you can ignore them and they will go away.

 

This explains why; http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=46975

 

(there’s even a watchdog piece on how to deal with them, which agrees;

)

 

Read this too; http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2010/10/parking_tickets.html

 

And this; http://www.justanswer.com/uk-traffic-law/42x1u-car-park-management-company-parkingeye-able-legally.html

 

Simply, do not enter into any correspondence at all. Totally ignore it. You will receive some further letters, each getting more and more threatening (including mention of bailiffs and whatever else) but they will never visit, and if they do they have absolutely no ability at all to take anything – because, to do that, you need a court order, which they will not have because their ticket is not enforceable in court and the few times companies have gone to court, they’ve lost.

 

Now, the question you must ask is “do you just want to pay the £40 and have done with it, or put up with snotty letters for a while”.

My wife did just that ignored them and they went away.

[Shaft]

i agree fully. I got a ticket given to me at Silverstone GP circuit for parking in a permit only field.

 

I had a permit but it had slid of the dash. (Poss when i shut the door)??

 

As we drove out through a gate a car park jobsworth was stood there so i pulled up, showed him the pass, gave him the

£125 fine notice whilst telling him to shove it up his arse and drove off.

 

Never heard a thing other than laughter from my passengers.

[Guest MarkB]

i have had loads off parking eye due to the fact that to get to my wifes work carpark you have to drive through a parking eye controlled carpark, my wife insists on getting the bank to email my reg to clear it off their system, i do not allow her to do so plainly because they can not restrict a right of access, i love the little photos i get as well... never paid one.....never will.

[GambolGold]

Thanks for the responses.

Its clear what I need to do - or not do.