Free parking but still got a ticket

[Brandonflowers123]

I got a ticket from a private parking company in a private car park.

However it was free from my calculations.

1. 90 mins free according the there signs, then after that you have to pay. So I got there at 16:37.

2. After 1800 hours it's free parking.

I've been doing this for a couple of months now, but recently I got a parking invoice.

What should I do?
Am I right with my timings?

I'm pretty sure I am in the right, so I want them to see if these private companies take you to court? And if they take me to court just laugh at them at court

Or should I play it safe, and call them?

Bearing in mind my job requires a clean financial check every year

[HantsRat]

Impossible to know without seeing the contract. Can you post a picture of the signs?

[BlueMeganeII]

If things did go against you in court and you paid any monies judged to be owed and court fees etc there would be no CCJ on your credit report I believe. Hopefully someone can confirm this or otherwise.

[PurpleMoonlight]

What is the claimed transgression?

[Type R Tom]

I know with our town parking you pay to cover the time up to when it's free and that covers you until the next morning so you would think the same logic applies but this is a council one so probably not helpful.

The sods changed the free period from 7pm to 10pm a few years back in a less the subtle money making scam.

[silverfoxcc]

OP go straight to pepipoo.com and put this in the private parking thread.

RULE ONE

Do not contact the PPC until they have had a look at it

RULE TWO

NEVER NEVER NEVER give the sightest hint who was driving. It is ALWAYS 'the driver did this' 'the driver saw that' This is because these companies read pepipoo as the guys on there know the system better then the knuckle dragging ex clampers who think they do. and if they get a whiff of a name then you are toast

RULE THREE

Listen to what the pepipoo guys say and tell you to do. They do not like liars, people who bend the truth and time wasters. T
they aldo do not hold your hand and do the work for you....see RULE FOUR



RULE FOUR

Do some research on the site and ask question based on what you have found out,, you will no doubt find threads on there relating to the PPC you can gen up on


RULE FIVE

IF you post pics see the info regarding how to do it that is a sticky ( i think) on the site. And reduct all information except site, time and date.



Rule SIX

read all the above rules
Seriously, these guys will give you all the help you need but as stated they do not do the work for you. PThey will critique letters and make suggestions. I get the feeling the more a poster puts in, they more assistance is forthcoming

There was a recent post where the poster thought he knew better....he was soon on his own



Do a bit of research on the site

[Duncan Lang]

My understanding is they could only claim for lost revenue. I've only fought them for overstaying the 2 hour limit in a 'free' retail park by 14mins. In that case, the only loss they would have incurred was the 14mins I was over the 'free' 2 hours at their normal rate of 'Free' per hour (14 mins at 0/hour = 0). I pointed this out to them and they went away.


Interestingly, I got held up and was just over an hour late back to the same car park a month or so after this and didn't even get a letter so I don't know if they retain this information or what?

[Fore Left]

Many "free for x hours" car parks still require you to get a ticket from the machine to show what time you arrived. Did this car park and if so did you get a ticket? If not, you might struggle to prove what time you arrived. You could have been there all day.

[spikyone]

Duncan Lang said:

My understanding is they could only claim for lost revenue. I've only fought them for overstaying the 2 hour limit in a 'free' retail park by 14mins. In that case, the only loss they would have incurred was the 14mins I was over the 'free' 2 hours at their normal rate of 'Free' per hour (14 mins at 0/hour = 0). I pointed this out to them and they went away.


Interestingly, I got held up and was just over an hour late back to the same car park a month or so after this and didn't even get a letter so I don't know if they retain this information or what?

Your understanding is out of date. There no longer needs to be a loss for private parking companies to impose penalty-like charges, as was the outcome of the Beavis case two years ago.

That doesn't necessarily mean the ticket is legitimate, and most tickets from private parking companies can be beaten by using standard arguments. Unfortunately for the layman, the arguments need to be legally based rather than around the circumstances, although in this case it appears on face value that the T&Cs weren't breached so that would be a good place to start (but you'd need to double check the T&Cs first!)
Other things to challenge would include:

• The presence of a contract between the parking co. and the landowner
• The clarity and presence of signage
• Any ambiguous/unclear terms on the signage, or "forbidding" signage
• Compliance with the Protection of Freedoms Act

There may be others, but pepipoo will be far more useful than most of the replies on PH.

[Gren]

Fore Left said:

Many "free for x hours" car parks still require you to get a ticket from the machine to show what time you arrived. Did this car park and if so did you get a ticket? If not, you might struggle to prove what time you arrived. You could have been there all day.

The ones near me do exactly this

[Saleen836]

Gren said:

Fore Left said:

Many "free for x hours" car parks still require you to get a ticket from the machine to show what time you arrived. Did this car park and if so did you get a ticket? If not, you might struggle to prove what time you arrived. You could have been there all day.

The ones near me do exactly this

The ones near me do this also but people have still received tickets, local FB page is rife with people complaining and asking what they can do

[Duncan Lang]

Thanks Spikyone,

I didn't know it had changed (it was a couple of years ago now). Good to have the latest info.