Blinking Flip - Parking Ticket Problem!!

[Preston1990]

Unbeknown to me, my good lady (God bless her cotton socks)picks up a parking ticket on my works car the very Monday morning (21 Oct) we are going on holiday to Scotland for 5 days.

Fearing a severe tongue lashing from me she neglects to tell me about it. Instead she decides that she'll sneak to the payment office (without me finding out) the next Monday (28 Oct)and still be in time to pay the discounted fine of £20 rather than £40 (£20 fine applicable apparently if payment made within 7 days of the offence).

As it happened she had to come clean and let me know about it as I was around the next monday, and when she said she was "going out" I said I would go with her.

To cut a long story short, we went and paid the £20 fine (which was accepted without comment), obtained a receipt, and then got on with our lives.....

.....Except that today (almost 3 months later) I got a letter adressed to me at work which said that:

"Payment of £20.00 was paid after the discounted 7 day period. We require payment of (an additional)£20.00 to be forwarded to this office..."

If not, court proceedings will apparently be started to obtain outstanding debt.

Unfortunately, whilst I hung onto the parking ticket and fine receipt for a while, at Christmas it was one of the things I threw away in a Festive clear out.

My question is this - does anyone know if "day one" of the discounted period of seven days starts on the day the ticket was issued, or would it start from the day after?

What i mean is - was payment of the fine on 28th Oct classed as Ok (ie within 7 days) if offence was committed on 21 Oct?

Does anyone have a parking ticket to hand from which they could copy and post the exact wording of the payment clause? Are parking tickets all the same, or do they differ from Council to Council?

[poidal]

I'd write back to them explaining that you paid the £20 in time, and said sum was accepted in full and final settlement. Keep a copy of the letter, and use recorded delivery.

[bobthebench]

To cut a long story short, we went and paid the £20 fine (which was accepted without comment), obtained a receipt, and then got on with our lives.....

.....Except that today (almost 3 months later) I got a letter adressed to me at work which said that:

"Payment of £20.00 was paid after the discounted 7 day period. We require payment of (an additional)£20.00 to be forwarded to this office..."

If not, court proceedings will apparently be started to obtain outstanding debt.

Not an area I usually deal with, but here goes;
1. They refer to a debt, not a fine. This means we're dealing with decriminalised parking offences. If the council, I presume, want the money they must raise a civil court action.
2. Civil actions are expensive and generally ill advised for small amounts e.g. under £100 unless a stone wall case, as they take an hour to prepare & serve etc.
3. In Scotland, provided a legitimate, if ultimately unsuccesful defence is forwarded, expenses are not recoverable. E&W will have similar provisions, I just can't put my finger on them now

Conclusion, court is unlikely.

Suggest just to be sure you write to the council advising that payment was made in full and final settlement and accepted on that basis. e.g. You DID tell them I'm here to pay off this parking fine, rather than can I pay something towards this parking fine, DIDN'T YOU ? If they insist on going to court, you will defend the action raising as you defence the doctrine of personal bar, i.e. they accepted payment, they are now barred from seeking an additional sum as this was not made clear at the time of payment. You maintain payment was made within 7 days since if something happens on a Monday, Tuesday is within one day, etc, so Monday is within 7. Any other interpretation will be challenged in court under the Unfair Contract Terms Act of 1977, which places the onus upon them to prove it is fair.

Don't try to rub their noses in it. Councils have very deep pockets where their principles are challenged. Just point out that you are willing to drop the matter if they are. If they are not, you will pursue it via the Local Government Ombudsman as you feel any other interpretation is maladministration.

This should persuade them to drop it, though perhaps not admit their error. It is the Council after all.

[Preston1990]

Many thanks for those extremely helpful replies Rick and Bob!

I'm going to do as you've both suggested and write the Council a letter first thing tomorrow.

I'll be sure to post details of how I get on, back here, once the matter is resolved.

Cheers,



Preston1990

[Mad Dave]

Good luck.

As an amusing (if worrying!) aside, my parents recently received a parking ticket (from Hackney! - we live in Wiltshire) for a car that was written off, and subsequently towed away, over a year ago! My mother rang them and explained this and was met with disrespect, and told that she would need various receipts etc as proof that the now belonged to the insurance company.


How the thing came to be back on the road i dont know - the whole boot floor was crushed in!

[poidal]

Mad Dave said: My parents recently received a parking ticket (from Hackney! - we live in Wiltshire) for a car that was written off.

So now it's a Hackney Carriage

[Mad Dave]

LOL quite possibly - it was a K plate Ford Escort Diesel - utter rubbish, and got rear ended by a fast moving (but not so fast stopping!) White Van Man