Car parking fines. When will the stupidity end

Car parking fines. When will the stupidity end

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bad company

19,553 posts

274 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
I’d say that the parking firm are unreasonable in this case. Hope the lady wins in Court.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k0qlpjgk2o

Alex Z

1,537 posts

84 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
There’s a line in there about how she took up to three hours to pay for parking.
If that’s proven to be the case I suspect she may be in trouble, but if she has paid at the earliest opportunity as claimed then I find it hard to believe the court will think £2k is reasonable.

Tindersticks

1,357 posts

8 months

Saturday 30th November
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"It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune."

Utter wkers the lot of them.

Forester1965

2,943 posts

11 months

Saturday 30th November
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She may have breached a term in the contract but having paid (albeit outside 5 minutes) they suffered no loss. It's a pay car park rather than free so I'd argue the well trodden liquidated damages argument is moot.

ScotHill

3,541 posts

117 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
They obviously have ANPR and the reason stated for paying within five minutes was to "mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers" - so why not just charge people who stay longer than five minutes but leave without paying?

And £3.30 a day for parking is a bargain, Derby must be a paradise to live in.

soxboy

6,793 posts

227 months

Saturday 30th November
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But I do wonder if the court may take a dim view of the fact that she’s refused to use the Independent Appeal Service and had got nowhere with mediation.

MB140

Original Poster:

4,379 posts

111 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
Just read this, can’t help but think the parking company are on to a loser here.

But does it highlight what a bunch of cowboys they truly are and that it’s about time the government clamped down even more.

What is the woman supposed to do. Myself I rarely carry cash or card anymore and pay entirely with my phone or watch.

She has paid a daily rate to park there all day. What loss has the parking company suffered by her moving to an area with signal. Nothing.

Right pisses me off companies like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k0qlpjgk2o

ChocolateFrog

28,895 posts

181 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
I hope the judge or magistrate absolutely tears them a new one.

It must break some equality laws, 5 mins Grace is outrageous and pay machine doesn't even work.

the-norseman

13,479 posts

179 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
I wish a rule would be brought in that if land owners wanted to apply parking charges to their land it had to be done through the council and not private companies.

I drove into a private car park by accident a week or so ago, at night it was dark, I drove in and straight out in about 3 minutes as had to follow a one way system, ANPR on entry/exit but I have a feeling ill get a letter from them.


Austin_Metro

1,316 posts

56 months

Saturday 30th November
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On the legalities, this differs from the Supreme Court case (Parking Eye). This one appears to turn on whether they have a legitimate interest in the five minute payment or penalty bit. It’s the bit about drop offs being a problem.


The parking co have tried to set that up as their defence. However, the court may (should) decide that where the payment has later been made, then there is no legitimate interest in fining from five minutes. Those that stay ten minutes and don’t pay could still be fined.

The lady also ought to challenge whether drops off is an actually a problem - does it affect paying users.

Robertb

2,127 posts

246 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
These parking companies are absolute pirates and it’s time the DVLA stopped handing out our personal information.

Any repeat ripoff offenders like this lot should be put out of business.


Cloudy147

2,851 posts

191 months

Saturday 30th November
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Where ever possible I use council car parks or the more expensive multi stories like NCP.

In multi stories you ‘pay as you go’ on exit, so we all pay what we should pay, nothing more, nothing less. The company gets their payment and we know we’ve paid the right amount.

And councils monitor their car parks fairly.

Whereas these organisations do not. I believe they make the rules to catch out as many people as possible and rule through fear, enforcing those rules rigidly and rigorously. Most people will pay their fines than risk the threats of bailiffs and courts, and potentially even higher fines.

Awful, awful companies.

Good luck to her with the case, given she always paid for full day parking it sounds like the company is totally taking the piss.

MB140

Original Poster:

4,379 posts

111 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
I think this might come down to unfair t&c. I fully understand that land owners have the right to charge people to park and the right to fine those flouting payment.

It’s just cases like this clearly show that there a bunch of cowboys taking the piss. I bet a lot of people pay up just to make it go away.

About 10 years ago there was a case of a parking company in Lincoln who was altering time stamps on photos to issue fines. Caught out when someone notice the same car in the background with the boot open time stamped over 2 hours apart and all the same cars were in the same places. The photos must literally have been taken within minutes of each other from different angles.

What happen to said private parking enforcement company.

They were given a verbal warning as apparently it was a clerical error. Which it later turned out they had made hundreds of times. But they were still operating at the site and still are, receiving complaints on local Facebook pages about shoddy practices still.

Should be dead simple, get caught doing these things and your access to the DVLA is revoked for a period of time. No DVLA access no fines.

There all s and shisters. As said above it’s about time it all came under government control really. Want to operate a parking company you abide by the same rules as the council. At least for them there is some oversight.

I got a fine about a year back because I read a sign in a Yorkshire car park that could be interpreted that if you were plugged in and actively charging your car then there was no parking fee.

I quickly contacted the council and appealed. I sent them evidence the car was charging (invoice), pictures of the signage, and more importantly a copy of there website which also had there T&C, they acknowledged that it could be interpreted as free parking while charging, rescinded the fine and changed the sign and website within a week.

CLK-GTR

1,247 posts

253 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
It's almost as if they want to force the government into legislating them out of existence like they did the clamping firms. Who in that company thinks this is a good one to pursue?

Torquey

1,918 posts

236 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
The parking company are the cowboys here but others that play a smaller part must include the land owners who employ the parking company, and also the DVLA for handing out personal data.

All of which should have some enforcements applied to their procedures.

jondude

2,389 posts

225 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
CLK-GTR said:
It's almost as if they want to force the government into legislating them out of existence like they did the clamping firms. Who in that company thinks this is a good one to pursue?
Might be overdoing the hope, but the clampers went mad and clamped everyone in the run up to being banned - maybe, just maybe, there could be legislation on the way to stop this. Allowing car parks 5 minutes only before issuing fines seems ridiculous in these days of severely overcrowded roads.

As for the lady, I'm surprised she kept using a car park where it was tough to pay. Or unclear how to.

We had a local council car park allow you 15 minutes to drop shoppers off, it then got taken over by Euro Car Parks. I emailed to check if they were still allowing 15 minutes and the reply was ' we normally do'. So no clear answer.

Never been there again.

MBBlat

1,848 posts

157 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
CLK-GTR said:
It's almost as if they want to force the government into legislating them out of existence like they did the clamping firms. Who in that company thinks this is a good one to pursue?
The guy at the top who wants to rake in as much cash in as short a time as possible. Thus the business model is to issue as many fines as possible rather than relying on the slow but steady income from the parking charge.

snuffy

10,527 posts

292 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
Seeing as she always paid for a full day, it hardly matters how long it took her pay either.

Starfighter

5,085 posts

186 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
How long would it take to drive into the car park, stop, read and understand the T&Cs, restart the car and exit?
If that could be over 5 minutes then surely it is not possible to enforce the non-payment in 5 minutes rule.

Dingu

4,398 posts

38 months

Saturday 30th November
quotequote all
soxboy said:
But I do wonder if the court may take a dim view of the fact that she’s refused to use the Independent Appeal Service and had got nowhere with mediation.
Hopefully not, those services are an utter waste of time.