Am I liable to pay a fine

BadMojo said:
Doesn't the 'fine' have to be commensurate with the 'losses' - how can they justify £90 for 10 minutes? Take it to http://www.pepipoo.com/
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Reminded me, I heard a supermarket manager talking about how their parking spots are worth 1k a day.

So when you demand a shop justifies a charge with their losses, actually they could give you a base number and explain the costs of the parking company on top.
 
BadMojo said:
Doesn't the 'fine' have to be commensurate with the 'losses' - how can they justify £90 for 10 minutes? Take it to http://www.pepipoo.com/
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Would it go to court it’s decided on the facts, but it’s not quite as straightforward as ‘what are the losses’ as (and I’m conscious I may not be using the absolutely correct phrasing here) it’s relevant whether the charge is proportionate in making it an effective disincentive - quite recently the Supreme Court upheld a car parking fine of £85 for an overstay of just under an hour (2 hour max stay). The judgement contained an absolute mega analysis of how penalities operate - longer than 100 pages IIRC!
 
Nitefly said:
Would it go to court it’s decided on the facts, but it’s not quite as straightforward as ‘what are the losses’ as (and I’m conscious I may not be using the absolutely correct phrasing here) it’s relevant whether the charge is proportionate in making it an effective disincentive - quite recently the Supreme Court upheld a car parking fine of £85 for an overstay of just under an hour (2 hour max stay). The judgement contained an absolute mega analysis of how penalities operate - longer than 100 pages IIRC!
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This bloke
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/supreme-court-dismisses-85-parking-ticket-challenge/5051987.article

I think he got off pretty lightly. His lawyer was pro bono and Parkingeye had previously agreed not to pursue for costs If he lost. Obviously it was in their interest to have THAT ruling and the rules clarified But that fine could have cost him everything.
 
I saw this on dealing with bailiffs forums a while ago and advised a friend to ignore. 3years on. Nowt.

They can take you to court after a court ruling set a precedent however you can only be found liable for the charge (their legal fees usually a few hundred pounds if not more are not recoverable).

Its like if you receive a council tax debt. If they use bailiffs but you wire the transfer they cannot enforce the costs without going to court. In effect the debt is dead.

I'd just ignore
 
RaohNS said:
I saw this on dealing with bailiffs forums a while ago and advised a friend to ignore. 3years on. Nowt.

They can take you to court after a court ruling set a precedent however you can only be found liable for the charge (their legal fees usually a few hundred pounds if not more are not recoverable).

Its like if you receive a council tax debt. If they use bailiffs but you wire the transfer they cannot enforce the costs without going to court. In effect the debt is dead.

I'd just ignore
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With council tax, Hasn't it already been to court for them to order court appointed bailiffs.
 
OP, your best bet is to send yourself a cheque for the $90 they're claiming and then pay them $90. That way you're still up from the first payment you sent yourself.
 
Hotwired said:
You're not talking about this gigantic monkey who defied regular tickets until the company said **** it, let's go to court?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ng-fine-motorist-told-must-pay-24500-ignored/

Just because it's private does not mean they cannot drag you to a court. They absolutely can as long as they do it properly.
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There's also the recent case of the 3 Staff at Cardiff Hospital who have been given fines over £100,000 each.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...iff-indigo-park-services-150000-a7845126.html
 
Jokester said:
She ended up having to declare bankruptcy because of it :o
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In which case they probably still got nothing in the end :P

Though I think it's getting the point where you might as well take your number plates off when driving on to a private carpark. Just in case theres some dodgy company running it.
 
Hotwired said:
Go to the store.

Show receipt and notice to a suitable customer service person, ask to speak to a manager if they do not escalate it themselves.

Explain that the parking company is wrongfully chasing you for misuse of the parking area. Proof being your receipt and the date/time on the letter.
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Then look confused as the Lidl store manager informs you that you are in Lidl, not the parking company's premises. There is next to nothing he can do other than refer you to the parking company or maybe back your story up.

The parking notice sounds like it is at pre-enforcement stage, which is an attempt at collecting the fine before they refer it to a debt recovery company. If the debt recovery fails, then they will return it to the client who may then have the option of taking to court to make the debt enforceable. Which is when things get nasty and potentially involve bailiffs clamping your car in order to pressurise you into paying the fine, the debt recovery fees and the bailiff's fees.

Tread carefully.
 
The parking management companies are not always scumbags mind.

A friend of mine shopped at Lidl last year or so and though she validated her receipt she transposed two of the letters in her reg no.

In due course the "Parking Charge" letter arrived.

She went back and checked the T&C's and concluded that she was in fact, responsible for providing correct information so she sent off her cheque with a covering letter explaining what had happened.

She did not make any form of appeal. (Military family, "Honor code" mentality :p)

A couple of days later she got a letter back returning her cheque and waiving the charge. IE She won her appeal without even making one :)

I do not know if they will be quite so generous if no attempt to validate the recipient was made however...
 
lunar said:
I was at a well known food store last week. I parked at the store car park and walked to the store with my young children. It takes a few minutes to reach the store. I returned to the car after 22 minutes.
Today I received a fine of £90 from a parking company stating that I overstayed the parking time allowed, which is 10 minutes.
I have appealed.
Should I have just paid up?
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Go here.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

Someone will respond there. Remember to read the FAQ first and look for similar cases to you, as you can see a lot of threads get created and someome doing a bit of reading first is appreciated.
 
darael said:
Then look confused as the Lidl store manager informs you that you are in Lidl, not the parking company's premises. There is next to nothing he can do other than refer you to the parking company or maybe back your story up.

The parking notice sounds like it is at pre-enforcement stage, which is an attempt at collecting the fine before they refer it to a debt recovery company. If the debt recovery fails, then they will return it to the client who may then have the option of taking to court to make the debt enforceable. Which is when things get nasty and potentially involve bailiffs clamping your car in order to pressurise you into paying the fine, the debt recovery fees and the bailiff's fees.

Tread carefully.
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It should be noted that for anything like this to happen they must beat you in court. If you follow the correct advice this is very unlikely to happen. You always have the option of paying then as well and no CCJ will be recorded.

See link above.

Most don't do anything other than send threatening letters as taking someome to court is expensive and they usually end up losing money even if they do win as a judge normally awards original fine plus very limited costs.
 
This doesn't make sense. If you have 10 minutes grace for parking, that is waived if you shop in the store, how do they know? Do you have to give your numberplate to the checkout operator when you shop or something?
Have they just issued a fine to everyone in the carpark? :confused:
Must be more to this.
 
Uther said:
This doesn't make sense. If you have 10 minutes grace for parking, that is waived if you shop in the store, how do they know? Do you have to give your numberplate to the checkout operator when you shop or something?
Have they just issued a fine to everyone in the carpark? :confused:
Must be more to this.
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They have ANPR cameras in the car parks. There is a machine in store where you enter your reg no and a number from your receipt.

The 10 minute rule is so that drivers can drop people off/collect them but you cant stay more than 10 minutes without charge unless you actually buy something and go through this procedure.
 
AFAIK the 10 minutes period is also a grace period to allow people to read the signs/conditions of parking and the opt out/decide not to park.

The OP has got himself thoroughly confused by this grace period assuming it applies to him as a paying customer and then proceeded to make a hash of this whole thing.

The concept of validating parking isn't new, in places where a barrier is in place you either need to pay at a machine or get your parking validated by the relevant retail premises - the new thing for some people here is the lack of a barrier and the introduction of an ANPR system


anyway this is simple to resolve - the OP just needs to ignore the posters telling him to ignore the letter and simply send them a copy of his receipt - he should find the charge will go away and he can get on with his life
 
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