Town and Country Parking Ltd.

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2004
Posts
6,360
Location
Harrow, UK
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this company before, with regards to supermarket parking?

My Mum went to the local Asda to pick up some milk, and the carpark was mostly empty, so she parked in one of the furthest disabled bays. Now before you guys say that she shouldn't have done this, there were plenty free spaces so it would not have caused a problem.

She was gone for 5 minutes, and when she came out she had a £30 parking ticket from Town and Country Parking Ltd. Now what we were wondering was how can this company enforce it? They cannot find out the address based on the number plate can they?
 
They can if they go through the DVLA.

Suck it up and pay it. Disabled parking isn't a timeshare.
 
check that they have signs up saying that they will fine people who shouldn't be parking in the disabled bays, if they don't then you're not legally obliged to pay
 
I have had a ticket from them before.

Simple answer is, don't pay. They will try and chase you for the money and start threatening debt collectors. They don't have a legal leg to stand on.
This is a civil matter and it will say on the ticket Civil Penalty notice.

Have a look here for more info
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

My ticket was about 6 month ago now, i got a few letters, a few threats but i havn't received anything for about 2-3 month.

Don't pay it. You don't have to.


edit, with regards to getting info from the DVLA, yes they can, it just costs them a couple of quid, but yes, they can.
 
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yea you're right on the civil matter, it's not actual a fine - it's a "civil debt". Town and Country parking have been hired by asda to patrol their car parks and issue tickets, and in these cases the DVLA will release the name and address of the registered keeper. It would be interesting to see what they said if they send you a warning letter and she replied with "it was my car but I wasn't driving", the law would mean the keeper wouldn't have to pay as they hadn't "entered the contract" by driving in to the space, and there is no law forcing the keeper to revel the drivers identity, whether it be true or not
 
As said above, unless its a council/officiallly run carpark then tell them to take a hike.

The GF got one of these tickets in an NCP carpark in leeds last year for "parking obstructively".. she was on the white line which was next to a pillar anyway. No car could park next to her in any case so they really were being anal.

We got a few letters with threats in and i wrote back saying "take us to court then... i think you will find that it will be a waste of your time and money". Never heard anything else, they will worry people into paying and sadly many do. Its a civil matter and as such its very very hard for them to win in court for slapping tickets on cars for so called "finable offense"s.
 
In short, they can't do a thing. Don't worry, they can huff and puff all they want but no legal grounding for any "Civil Penalty".

great explanation of how it all works.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.u.../65341-private-parking-companies-charges.html

In short, they can get the address of the vehicle owner from the DVLA, but the agrement on parking as per the notices was with the driver. There is no compulsion to identify the driver of the vehicle at the time, and nothing legally that they can do to make you.
 
I echo the "It's only a private invoice". Thing is, regardless of whether the car park was empty or not, the attendants will always jump at every opportunity to get some money. Strictly speaking, your mum was still morally wrong in parking in a disabled bay. Who knows, there might have been a crew of blue badge holders on their way there.

An interesting thing I read on other forums was that a lot of these supermarket car park signs say "Blue Badge holders only" and no mention of having to actually display it at all. And I am fairly sure a blue badge is not legally recognised on private land, only council ones. Someone correct me if I am wrong. Private parking companies rely a lot on people's ignorance and threats to get money out of them.
 
I can't stand it when people park in disabled bays when they're not disabled. Happens at work and the amount of times I ask people to move is ridiculous. The disabled bays are there for a reason. Nuff said tbh.
 
Visage said:
I suspect you wont be quite so blasé when you next apply for credit and find you've got a CCJ against your name.....
Click to expand...

You have to loose the case, and the county court will let you know, by post, when the hearing is so you can mount an arguement. You dont just magically find yourself ruled against unless you move address and are therefore uncontactable. You wont just wake one day to find a CCJ against you has magically appeared.
 
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Visage said:
I suspect you wont be quite so blasé when you next apply for credit and find you've got a CCJ against your name.....
Click to expand...

They would have to take you to court first, and then the standard argument, similar to the one in use for bank charges, is that a £50 fine is excessive and a penalty, when the actual damages that were incurred by the rule break was ??? Free car park? No loss of money for the Car park operator.

Anyway, unless they can identify the driver of the vehicle, not the owner, and they have no legal grounds to do that. Nothing to worry about.
 
I suppose you could possibly get nailed if they had cctv footage from the time showing you clearly buying a ticket AND driving the car and so on. That proves it was you and it could be argued that you accepted the contract by buying the ticket and all that.

a lot of the arguement, as i understand it, is that its the driver not the owner that action has to be taken against. And that in a court they would be very very hard pressed to prove who was the driver seeing as you are under no requirements to admit who it was.

So they almost never take it to court as they will almost certainly loose. They make money because if even only 20% of people just pay up thats a hell of a lot of fine money!
 
AtreuS said:
I suppose you could possibly get nailed if they had cctv footage from the time showing you clearly buying a ticket AND driving the car and so on. That proves it was you and it could be argued that you accepted the contract by buying the ticket and all that.
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It is actually a completely free car park, so no ticket was purchase. I think the only requirement is that you are an Asda customer, which my Mum obviously was.

From what you guys are saying, I don't think we will pay :)


I now know the reason why security clamps cars on Warwick Campus... parking tickets would mean nothing, lol!
 
Toker said:
It would be interesting to see what they said if they send you a warning letter and she replied with "it was my car but I wasn't driving", the law would mean the keeper wouldn't have to pay as they hadn't "entered the contract" by driving in to the space, and there is no law forcing the keeper to revel the drivers identity, whether it be true or not
Click to expand...

Can't they just use CCTV footage to prove my Mum was the driver at the time?
 
Visage said:
I suspect you wont be quite so blasé when you next apply for credit and find you've got a CCJ against your name.....
Click to expand...

Just to echo what others have said, they would need to take me to court. The reason they havn't?...they havn't got a leg to stand on.

They try their best with the threats, they try and encourage you to pay by offering you a reduced fee if you pay within so many day, however, when they reach the end of there letter sending and empty threats, they just leave you alone.

Some private parking companys do try and get debt collectors involved but a quick letter to the debt collectors informing them of a dispute and not to contact you again as it will be harrassment, they soon get off your back.
 
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