Fined £75 for visiting homebase

lookitsjonno

lookitsjonno

lookitsjonno

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My father in law has received a £75 fine by post for parking in a Homebase car park for 15 minutes over the 2 hours free parking, dispite being in there choosing a new kitchen:p

I've told him it is a private company so he can just ignore it and all of the upcoming debt collection threats. Am I right? The letter even had an image of him entering and leaving the car park with a timestamp to the second.

How do these private companies get address details?
 
Why doesn't he contact the manager of the store and tell him he will be cancelling his kitchen. Unless people complain we will never get rid of these leeches.

And yes, if it's a private company he can just ignore it as they can only invoice you for losses, not fine you.
 
They obtain the address details of the registered keeper from the DVLA.

The beleive they have a contract with the driver of the vehicle, and are now invoicing the driver for services they claim he/she has agreed to. Whether this is the case or not is a matter for a court. HOWEVER...

the implied contract is betewen the driver and the parking firm. They have the details of your father as the registered keeper. They do not know who the driver was and under Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act your father is only obligated to divulge the details of who was driving the car to a police officer or a council appointed official.

There is no legal requirement to inform a private company who was driving a car that is registered to you.

I am, obviously, not a lawyer and any advice given is given in good faith without any warranty implied.
 
What fox has said. I got one from parking in Paul Simon in Farnborough, think i got 4 letters from the parking company and then 2 debt letters, last one was received over 2 months ago.
 
Get your father-in-law to send an invoice to Homebase claiming £75 plus administration charges for the tardiness of the sales assistant which resulted in him exceeding the 2 hour time limit for parking. :p
 
Tomsk said:
Get your father-in-law to send an invoice to Homebase claiming £75 plus administration charges for the tardiness of the sales assistant which resulted in him exceeding the 2 hour time limit for parking. :p
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Do not do this as it could come back to bite you in court.

The best course of action is, I believe, to do nothing. That is what I am currently doing with the letters I get from time to time.

I'm not a lawyer, your mileage may vary, usual caveats etc.
 
I have had this before at a Tesco due to being in a meeting and forgetting to put my car reg into the anpr. I have always just spoken to the store who have passed on the info to the enforcement company.

You are indeed correct that ignoring it is a simple but viable solution
 
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Homebase stores have the authority to cancel said "fine" out, tell him to go & speak to the store manager.

I frequently park overnight on HB carparks (even if I am not delivering to the store) whilst I do tend to ask prior to parking, I have had such a "fine" cancelled after recieving the notice.

I do believe a bill is currently going through parliament that changes the "contract" from the driver to the registered keeper, which needs to be stopped!

There is an e-petition with regard to this but I can't find it atm......
 
Is there any truth to the matter that private land fines can only be enforced by clamping? In such that if youre not clamped and receive notice, rip it up and throw it away cause theyll have no case to pursue you with? Thought naturally worth a try for the folk who would straight up pay it.. ?
 
Ignore it.

Don't waste your time speaking with the Homebase manager. The private company has no grounds to be fining you £75.

I looked this up when I received a fine for parking in a privately rented plate, in the allocated parking space for my girlfriends flat. Because she had only just moved in I wasn't aware of the permit policy they had.

Never the less I received a fine of £60. I simply ignored this after looking up on what the law has to say in regards to privately issued fines.

"A company cannot impose a fine greater than the amount in which they have lost due to you occupying the parking space for longer than agreed in the contract"

This normally applies to shopping centres which you have to pay using a meter, tends to be ones in city centres. Basically they can't issue you a £75 fine because you were 15 mins longer than the allocated time allowed (contract).

You will only ever have to pay what the company LOST by you being there for 15 minutes extra, so if it was £1 per hour = 25p that you need to pay.

In my case there was clearly no loss of income by me parking in my girlfriends allotted parking space, therefore I simply ignored the fine. I received no letters, and this was 7 months ago now.
 
rossk26 said:
Ignore it.

Don't waste your time speaking with the Homebase manager. The private company has no grounds to be fining you £75.

I looked this up when I received a fine for parking in a privately rented plate, in the allocated parking space for my girlfriends flat. Because she had only just moved in I wasn't aware of the permit policy they had.

Never the less I received a fine of £60. I simply ignored this after looking up on what the law has to say in regards to privately issued fines.
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Its not a fine, its an invoice for services provided.
 
There are signs at my wifes college that state that if you park you agree to pay £60 if you fail to park according to their instructions, ie you need a permit, have to park in a marked bay etc.
Surely that gives them some sort of leagal right to charge you?
 
Uther said:
There are signs at my wifes college that state that if you park you agree to pay £60 if you fail to park according to their instructions, ie you need a permit, have to park in a marked bay etc.
Surely that gives them some sort of leagal right to charge you?
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Unless it's council or police you will just receive an invoice "fine" for £60. It is not a legally binding contract.

No diffrent to me sending out £60 "fines" for people walking across my front garden.
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Homebase stores have the authority to cancel said "fine" out, tell him to go & speak to the store manager.
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MeEsH BaKkA said:
Unless it's council or police you will just receive an invoice "fine" for £60. It is not a legally binding contract.

No diffrent to me sending out £60 "fines" for people walking across my front garden.
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lookitsjonno said:
My father in law has received a £75 fine by post for parking in a Homebase car park for 15 minutes over the 2 hours free parking, dispite being in there choosing a new kitchen
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[TW]Fox;20861505 said:
Its not a fine, its an invoice for services provided.
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Sorry I was simply following the flow of the thread, I'm ever so sorry I am incorrect with my choice of words in your eyes. I shall go crawl back under the stone from where I came....
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I do believe a bill is currently going through parliament that changes the "contract" from the driver to the registered keeper, which needs to be stopped!
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I wasn't aware of this! Do you have any details?

Also, someone mentioned that they can't charge you more than the cost of the space, as it were. If thats true, will that be carried over to this law? If so, this could actually work in our favour.
 
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