UKC

I think this may have been discussed on here before, but anyway here goes.

Long story that I wont detail on here, but are parking charges enforceable??

At the moment I am happy to take a CCJ on principle that they have screwed up. I'll be damned if I am paying £130 for 10 minutes parking.

In reply to Blizzard:

IIRC yes, they are now enforceable.

In reply to Blizzard: The important question is who issued the ticket? Whether the ticket is enforceable depends entirely on the answer to that.

In reply to Blizzard:

Parking charges are enforceable

Parking fines are not enforceable unless issued by courts, or local authorities ie councils

£130 for 10 mins parking sounds like a fine to me, unless they charge everyone £130 to park

When you enter the car park you are agreeing to a contract

If you breach the contract they can sue you for damages ie they have to demonstrate a financial loss ie if the parking charge is £1 per hour and you parked without paying for 2 hours then they can sue, the most they can clam is £2

Even if it says in the cotract they will claim £130 from you, they cannot do this as they would not be able to demonstrate as financial loss of £130 due to your actions

In reply to Blizzard:

Go to pepipoo.com and follow the instructions. You'll get fully informed good advice there.

In reply to Frank the Husky:
CP Plus. (It's in the thread title.)

In reply to Blizzard:

As a general principal don't respond, and never admit who was driving to a private company, the company can find out who the registered keeper of the vehicle is and send threatening/annoying letters but the registered keeper has no obligation to tell them who was driving, any action they might take (but won't) would have to be against the driver, if they don't know who was driving they can't do anything.

In reply to Blizzard:

I think this is one of those occasions where forums other than UCK have better information.

Pepipoo as suggested, also the forums at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com are well worth a rummage.

The consensus seems to be that although the law has changed, they'll still (almost certainly) bluffing when the threaten to take you to court. I guess you'll know that for sure by about the third letter offering you one last chance to settle up before they take you to court.


Well a CCJ isn't going to happen until they've already taken you to court, and won, and you still haven't paid. So a distant prospect indeed at the moment.

Best of luck.

In reply to deepsoup: The only parking fines that are enforceable are those from local authorities and the police. Do not respond to it, do not pay and don't worry about it. Check out the well informed consumer action group forums, specifically parking charges . They will give the same advice.

In reply to EddInaBox:

Incorrect, you now have to identify the driver it or comes back to the registered keeper. This changed in September 2012.

http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/guidance-unpaid-parking-charges/guida...

However they still can't fine you and the amount they can recover is limited to provable losses. And, as the amount of loss on a carpark that isn't fully is bugger all, you can only be held to account for bugger all.

FWIW I wouldn't respond and I'd file it next to the bog in case of emergencies. Pepio has a good gallery of the "threat o grams" you might expect

In reply to Frank the Husky:

The law changed last year, and the private ones are now kinda sorta theoretically enforceable now. Though it seems in practice they're still kinda sorta not really. (Or at least, it's more hassle than its worth when the companies involved can still concentrate of making their profits from the people who panic and pay up straight away.)

PS (to the OP): This could be worth a read.. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

In reply to deepsoup: It's worth remembering that letters often come from companies called (for example) Fred Smith Solicitors Ltd hoping that people will believe they are lawyers when they are not.

I got a ticket for parking the Climbing Works van in the Climbing Works car park but in the wrong bay. I can't remember whether I am on the 3rd or 4th or 5th "we are about to take you to court" letter, they have all been recycled

In reply to deepsoup:


Can someone explain to me which law has changed?

In reply to Blizzard: Hi. A lot depends who issued the notice against you. Only a 'Statutory Authority' has the power to issue a fixed penalty (and even then only in designated areas pursuant to the Road Traffic Act). You choose to either pay a fixed penalty (in lieu of court action) or risk presenting your evidence to court and then recieving a fine from the court (only a court can issue a fine). In reality Courts will only issue a very small token fine and local authorities are usually reluctant to take someone to court for such a trivial offence because the courts seldom award sufficient costs to cover the Authority's costs.
If an excess charge was issued against you by a private operator then this uses a different course of action. Normally they pass the notice (in reality just an invoice for excess charge) onto debt collection agency who then keep upping their charges to the point of the rediculous. Snag is that's how they make their money. There are strict criteria they have to adher to ensure the excess charge was legally applied (good adequate signage which is clearly visible etc). To confuse matters a wee bit some local authorities use private companies to manage their car parks. The council take the revenue and the private operator makes their profit on the margin with excess charges (written into their contract with the Authority). So the Council don't have to worry on admin and all the excuses under the sun as to why people shouldn't pay what they should have to begin with! If it gets to the stage of a county court hearing be very sure of your facts cause you don't want a CCJ against you.

In reply to rogersavery:
"Protection of Freedoms Act" came into force Oct 2012.

A quick google turned this up, which seems to cover it:
http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/protection-of-freedoms-act

In reply to rogersavery:

the difference is that where before the driver was responsible for the trespass/breach of contract and the RK could just ignore any letters with impunity (nudge nudge wink wink) now there is some obligation on the keeper.

Overal though the other planks of the process are as shaky as ever: implied contract, trespass (whose land, who is suing), punitive fines/costs damages incurred etc
and of course the cost of doing this for a small pc of their overal operation when plenty of mugs stump up immediately!!