Private car parking fines

[Nigel-YZ1]

I'm not sure why they are scumbags ? They presumably own the land and set the rules ? If you don't like the rules, don't park there, and if you do park there, don't break the rules ?

Usually they don't own the land. They contact the landowner and ask if they can make some cash from parkers in return for a percentage, in the name of making access to parking fair.
They get the scumbag image from still sending speculative invoices when there's four cars there at 1:30 am and 3000 free spaces. The fake debt recovery firm letters (same company) and face solicitor letters (same company) and fake DVLA threats if you move house (same company) are just icing on the cake.

Yes it's someone's private land. So put great big clear signs all over the place instead of postage stamps 15 feet up a pole. Then they can call themselves legitimate. There's a line between creating a good turnaround of parking access and just lining pockets.

 

[Andrew_P]

Dupe post

 

[Andrew_P]

It has cost them 25 to go through moneyclaim if you don't reply it is assumed guilt they have judgement, at that point they can apply for bailiffs to collect plus costs plus bailiffs fees.

Never quite sure what happens if it's contested nor what legs you have to stand on, the opening post suggests you acknowledge you broke an idiotic rule, but broken it was.

By the sounds of it your only argument would be the rule you broke was unreasonable?

At this point your debt have has risen they can and probably would accept an offer and it is a two click process to close the case without impingement of your credit record. Lose and you have a CCJ as well as a bigger debt.

Depends how far you want to push it, me I would value my time (possibly court erc) and stress level more than the £125 or low ball offer I would try first. I line everyone else realise this is what they want you to do.

No legal eagle but I have used the county court online to try and recover bad business debts.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

As asked in Post #57 who are they suing? Is it you as a driver, or you as the registered keeper, if you have not admitted that you were the driver at the time, you are under no legal obligation as keeper to provide the details of the driver and as keeper you have no legal liability for what the driver did,

 

[Pale Rider]

As asked in Post #57 who are they suing? Is it you as a driver, or you as the registered keeper, if you have not admitted that you were the driver at the time, you are under no legal obligation as keeper to provide the details of the driver and as keeper you have no legal liability for what the driver did,

Keeper liability was established in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which it seems to me did anything but protect freedom.

The parking company has to follow a set procedure in terms of what is written in correspondence, but I suspect most companies are now well on top of that, so I suspect the company knows in this case it can go after the keeper.

https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/fighting-beavis-argument/

 

[Milkfloat]

Slightly immaterial - but @Cuchilo were you just outside the lines due to the width of your vehicle or were you straddling the white line equally?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Keeper liability was established in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which it seems to me did anything but protect freedom.

I believe that it is still legal for the keeper not to disclose the driver to private parking companies, it is also a breach of the act that you are quoting to ask a keeper for the information, but I'll be honest & I don't know enough about it to be sure, hence my suggestion of legalbeagles

 

[Lozz360]

This is too late to be of any use to the OP but I thought it worth sharing for others faced with similar. I parked my car in a private car park whereby I left it in a position that was subsequently considered not a designated parking bay. This was in October last year. I returned to find I had a parking ticket on the windscreen. It all looked official and said that I could pay £40 within 14-days or if I didn't this fine would increase to £80. I remember reading somewhere that only parking management companies that are approved can access the DVLA records. As far as I know, there are two agencies that list approved companies. This particular company was not listed on either, so I ignored the ticket and I didn't hear anything more. Apparently a lot of people in this situation appeal against the charge, the company then has your name and address and probably has a justified civil case against you as you have broken a "contract".

 

[Pale Rider]

I believe that it is still legal for the keeper not to disclose the driver to private parking companies, it is also a breach of the act that you are quoting to ask a keeper for the information, but I'll be honest & I don't know enough about it to be sure, hence my suggestion of legalbeagles

Keeper liability is just that, the keeper is liable for the ticket so the parking company couldn't care less if the keeper names the driver or not, they can go after the keeper.

I don't know if that applies in every case, but it does appear the defence of not naming the driver has been largely swept away,

This is too late to be of any use to the OP but I thought it worth sharing for others faced with similar. I parked my car in a private car park whereby I left it in a position that was subsequently considered not a designated parking bay. This was in October last year. I returned to find I had a parking ticket on the windscreen. It all looked official and said that I could pay £40 within 14-days or if I didn't this fine would increase to £80. I remember reading somewhere that only parking management companies that are approved can access the DVLA records. As far as I know, there are two agencies that list approved companies. This particular company was not listed on either, so I ignored the ticket and I didn't hear anything more. Apparently a lot of people in this situation appeal against the charge, the company then has your name and address and probably has a justified civil case against you as you have broken a "contract".

Anyone - including a private citizen - can apply to the DVLA for the details of the registered keeper for a given registration number.

The DVLA has been criticised for flogging details to the parking companies, but as far as I know nothing has been done to stop them.

 

[Lozz360]

Anyone - including a private citizen - can apply to the DVLA for the details of the registered keeper for a given registration number.

You need reasonable cause which could be to enable the dishing out of parking fines. However, from a government site https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla it says,
Private car parking management companies that give out parking tickets or trespass charge notices can only request information from DVLA if they’re members of the British Parking Association or the International Parking Community.

 

[Pale Rider]

You need reasonable cause which could be to enable the dishing out of parking fines. However, from a government site https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla it says,
Private car parking management companies that give out parking tickets or trespass charge notices can only request information from DVLA if they’re members of the British Parking Association or the International Parking Community.

I expect becoming a member of the British Parking Association won't be quite as hard as joining the MCC, so in effect details are available to anyone.

The parking companies differ only in that they get discounts for bulk purchase.

Money, as is so often the case, being where the true story lies.

 

[Cuchilo]

I guess i need to reply to this to find out if i will actually go to county court so i plan to reply something along the lines of ....
Until this company starting demanding money from me i had never heard of them or a contract they claim i have with them .
Given that i have never heard of the company or the contract then it's clear that i would not know the terms of the contract so can not agree with them resulting in no contract between two parties .
Also the parking at this retail park is free so there has been no financial loss .

 

[toffee]

I guess i need to reply to this to find out if i will actually go to county court so i plan to reply something along the lines of ....
Until this company starting demanding money from me i had never heard of them or a contract they claim i have with them .
Given that i have never heard of the company or the contract then it's clear that i would not know the terms of the contract so can not agree with them resulting in no contract between two parties .
Also the parking at this retail park is free so there has been no financial loss .

Before you do I would recommend that you contact at least one of the forums already mentioned. There are some experienced bods on them about these things. Also remember that the reply is on a court document that will be shared with the other side.

 

[Gasman]

Parking Prankster is another useful source of info.

 

[simonali]

Slightly immaterial - but @Cuchilo were you just outside the lines due to the width of your vehicle or were you straddling the white line equally?

Is it immaterial though? If it was the case that the van physically didn't fit in the painted box then they are effectively excluding anyone with a large vehicle from shopping at the store.

I got a letter last year from a parking company when I went into the recently opened M&S Food Hall in Trowbridge. Big sign on the way in said two hours free parking. I was there 13 minutes and 58 seconds. Turned out the sign had about a thousand more words printed on it in a font about the size of what you is reading right now and these stated that drivers were to enter their reg into a machine and get a display ticket, even though it didn't cost anything. I obviously didnt read all of that as I was driving a car at the time. There were no other signs between where I parked and the shop entrance and I failed to spot the ticket machine. I emailed M&S who I figured would help me out, but they just said 'tough titties, you should have read the invisible sign when you exited your car'. They were then added to my no go list alongside Aldi. I then appealed with POPLA who overturned the fine, stating that the signage was crap.

Up yours, Smart Parking!