Private Parking Fine

[Chuckie Finster]

I know these have been done before but I just want to be totally sure before I end up with big men at my door asking to take my sofa as payment.


On Saturday evening about 7pm I parked in a disabled spot (wrong i know). It was one of 3 disabled spots, all of which where empty. The car park was mostly empty so it wasn't as if i was causing old lady's to park at the other end of the car park to walk to the shops. I was stood about 10meters away from my car for the whole 15mins i was there. The reason i parked in the spot was i was talking some pictures of a friends car parked opposite. I parked my car in the disabled spot as it was out the way of the photo but close enough that i could still get my camera equipment out. My friend shouted to me that there was a parking attendant (who had walked past 2 mins before and said hello to us, so he knew it was my car) at my car. I ran over and he said it was too late as he'd printed the ticket. He took two photo's of the car before leaving.

Its a £90 fine reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

So what do I do? Do I just ignore it like a lot of websites are saying to me. Or do I appeal?

I have photo's for my appeal of me changing my wheel on my car due to a nail i ran over upon entering the car park. The spot was the only one I could park in safely to inspect my car when i heard the noise from the wheel.


Before anyone starts, yes I shouldn't of been in the disabled spot, I didn't cause any inconvenience to anyone so get over it. I'm looking for some help here, thanks.

[Mr_B]

Appealing against this ticket is akin to appealing for your money back after you were mugged, they don't care , they are out to get your money. Whatever you say in an appeal will most likely fail and just mark you out as someone concerned and will have them pestering you with threats of fines and Court action
They can't do a thing to you unless they take you to Court and win. While that does have on a very small number of times, it's maybe one in a million. I wouldn't do anything unless they do take Court action, which will likely be in the form a Money Claim Online case.
They can start this for free and online and the Court service will send you the details. You MUST respond to this. I've had the same thing, but they are able to start the case for free and they have a few weeks before they have to pay the fee to continue the case. Most of the time they don't pay the fee, in the hope that an official Court letter will have made you pay. When they don't pay, the case gets dropped automatically.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

[Caulkhead]

The general gist of being able to ingore these is because the parking enforcement company can only identify the registered keeper, not the driver at the time the contract was entered into. From your description, the parking attendant can directly identify you as the driver and so could theoretically try to pursue you throught the courts. I suspect they won't, but it is possible.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Was it a retail park and issued by UKPC?

If so - yes, perfectly safe to ignore. You'll get a few funny letters about it going to court and bailifs etc. But it's all nonsense to get pushovers to pay up.
I'm currently on the bailiff stage (letter #5) with my parking 'invoice'.

[freecar]

Caulkhead said:

The general gist of being able to ingore these is because the parking enforcement company can only identify the registered keeper, not the driver at the time the contract was entered into. From your description, the parking attendant can directly identify you as the driver and so could theoretically try to pursue you throught the courts. I suspect they won't, but it is possible.

Not what I read!

The reason private companies can't fine us is that it is the police and local authoritys job to do so.

Any other charge levied by a company can't be called a fine, if they try to take you to court all they can ask for is loss of revenue which would only entitle them to 60p or so for however long you were parked for. They have no legal recourse to apply a fine to a motorist any more than I could!

[matthias73]

what sort of carpark was it?

[Chuckie Finster]

matthias73 said:

what sort of carpark was it?

Just general parking at a Marina infront of a few coffee shops

This is the company

http://www.ldkgroup.co.uk/

[Ginger goblin]

Depends on whether it was a council run car-park or a private company-run car park. If it's the former then chances are you'll almost certainly have to pay - I'd still go through the full appeals process though. If it's the latter then, as has been said, the onus is on the comapny to prove who entered into the parking contract with them before they can even think about proceeding to legal recourse.

Have a read on PePiPoo. Very useful for all manner of driving problems. Also has standard template letters to send to the parking company should you decide to communicate with them.

ETA just seen your post. Ignnore it, unless there is some way that the company can positively identify you as the driver of the vehicle.

Edited by Ginger goblin on Monday 16th January 14:46

Edited by Ginger goblin on Monday 16th January 14:47

[Chuckie Finster]

There is a possibility I could be identified as the group of us stood in the photo he took with our thumbs up taking the piss.

[LeeThr]

If it aint council, file every letter that comes through you door from them under either B for bin or S for shred. Dont even waste your time reading them.

[Ginger goblin]

I was thinking more along the lines of a picture of you driving the car into the car park or out of the car park. Or best of all into the space where the ticket was issued. In the absence of those pictures I think the parking company struggles hence why the first correspondence you get when the initial period to pay has lapsed is a letter asking you to confirm who was driving the vehicle.

PePiPoo though is definitely your best bet for sound advice.