Parking fine

Cavallino

Cavallino

Cavallino

Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2004
Posts
15,071
Location
Hampshire
Hello folks, so took my wife, daughter and mother in law the other day for a mothers day meal and parked in a private car park in Frimley.

Unfortunately, we forgot to pay the car parking charge (the car park was nearly empty by the way) and as such we received a letter from Civili Enforcement Limited (who don't look like to be acting on behalf of a council) asking us to pay up.

The notice looks a bit, amateurish in my opinion so I thought Id do a bit of google detective work and sure enough there are some people who have not paid these.

They are asking for a ton, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

We were gone for the best part of an hour. They do have a picture of us entering the car par park but not actually of the car being parked in the car park if that makes sense?

This is my first parking fine ever and would like to hear your opinions/advice over this. Should I pay this? Or are there legal loopholes which can work to my advantage?

Much appreciated OCUK.
 
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Cavallino said:
Hello folks, so took my wife, daughter and mother in law the other day for a mothers day meal and parked in a private car park in Frimley.

Unfortunately, we forgot to pay the car parking charge (the car park was nearly empty by the way) and as such we received a letter from Civili Enforcement Limited (who don't look like to be acting on behalf of a council) asking us to pay up.

The notice looks a bit, amateurish in my opinion so I thought Id do a bit of google detective work and sure enough there are some people who have not paid these.

They are asking for a ton, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

We were gone for the best part of an hour. They do have a picture of us entering the car par park but not actually of the car being parked in the car park if that makes sense?

This is my first parking fine ever and would like to hear your opinions/advice over this. Should I pay this? Or are there legal loopholes which can work to my advantage?

Much appreciated OCUK.
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http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60 Have a gander over here. I think they can only charge you for what they missed out on in small claims court so hopefully you will just be able to send them what you owe them. But as I said go to that forum make a post and the nice people over there will walk you through it.
 
I file any non council related fines in the bin, but you have to be prepared to also file the accompanying threat letters too. Some companies are crazily persistent
 
Ignore it.

People will say "Shocking advice the rules have changed blah blah blah" but the chances of you getting taken to court are so remote it's barely worth your time.

Even if it does get to that point, the court would still have to rule in the parking company's favour before you'd have to pay out. Don't pay it, ignore it.

I do seem to recall getting one of these, and sending a joke of a letter back to them with pictures of Ric Flair, I never heard from them again.
 
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I ignore the first letter, most of them that's it. The second threatening letter send them the cut and paste jobber from MSE and adjust the rate to my Chartered Surveyor day rate. I've had one email confirming it's been cancelled the rest I never get a reply.

It's that easy it's easier just to park in one of these areas and risk the invoice than find, queue and pay for a proper car park.

If you're lucky the issuer will have an email appeal rather than letter.
 
Hmmm this seems a bit different to the usual of getting a ticket for over staying a free car park by 5 minutes or parking 1cm over a line.

You used a pay and display car park but never bothered to pay. Dont you think in this case the parking firm has a point?
 
Thanks to all for your advice I appreciate it. Now to the non-advisers.


[TW]Fox;27804936 said:
Hmmm this seems a bit different to the usual of getting a ticket for over staying a free car park by 5 minutes or parking 1cm over a line.

You used a pay and display car park but never bothered to pay. Dont you think in this case the parking firm has a point?
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Im not disputing that. This is my first ticket and Ive heard a plethora of stories about people getting parking tickets and contesting them etc. Hence the reason why I was asking here to see if there is a leg to stand/or some legal technicality/loop hole or should I just simply shut up and pay up.

chanjy said:
Bit poor form really you admit you parked for an hour and didn't pay so why are you trying to get out of it?
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Absolutely poor form. You have now idea how peeved I was with myself. As I said, its my first parking ticket since I started driving 18 years ago.

And as to why Im trying to get out of it? Please see my above explanation to Fox.
 
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I am in a similar case to you. Back in 2012 we had a visit to the the coast. The queue for the one machine was very long. I went and paid at the adjacent car parks card machine. Unfortunately a different operator. The signs were less than informative. Nearly 3 years later CEL (who are threatening 1000's of people with court because they lost the Co-op contract) want £545 for a 2 hour stay.

My case is about to be struck out because CEL having been assigning the original debt of £90 to a company they own DEAL. Bumping up fees. CEL are also at the high court in Scotland where they are facing a charge of operating a fraudulent scheme. So lets not feel too sorry for these guys.
 
Looks like you parked in the Cedar Lane car park as it's the only one in Frimley controlled by an ANPR system. I'm afraid you will have to pay this fine as they are operating on behalf of Surrey County Council. If you park there you are meant to pay for parking via a automated phone system with in 10 mins of arriving or you will be issued a fine.

You could have parked in the council run car park on Burrell Rd as that one is free all day on Sundays, or the one at the back of Waitrose
 
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ad- said:
I am in a similar case to you. Back in 2012 we had a visit to the the coast. The queue for the one machine was very long. I went and paid at the adjacent car parks card machine. Unfortunately a different operator.
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I had that problem once, the queue in Tesco was huge so I just popped next door to Subway and paid there. Tesco seemed annoyed :(
 
Can't you ask them for proof of loss of earnings? they have surveillance since they have proof you entered so they have proof of other cars entering too. If there was 100 spaces, 99 after you parked and 7 cars entered by the time you got back that's 92 empty spaces.

Offer to pay the standard parking fee.

When I do over time instead of going home I go straight to the gym and depending on traffic I arrive 10 to 15 before 6 when parking becomes free, so I stand over my car and take a photo of the car park just in case a warden decides to ticket me for those few minutes.
 
[TW]Fox;27805125 said:
I had that problem once, the queue in Tesco was huge so I just popped next door to Subway and paid there. Tesco seemed annoyed :(
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I took it to mean that because of how busy the first macine was he crossed an imaginary boundary, moving from one operator to another without realising he had done so having not parked in that area before. If that's the case he didn't realise that the parking he paid for wasn't the parking he was using.

That's slightly different to your comparison
 
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