Parking ticket in Asda car park - Is this legal, can they take me to court?

Pound

Harry_Flashman wrote: »

But there's no way they can get that information if the keeper chooses not to tell them?

Yeah, that was kind of the point I was making.

Kite2010 wrote: »

@ Pound, what if the sign detailing the "contract" was 8 feet up a post and you were parking when it was dark?

But that would be a technicality that could be used as a defence if it went to court. For the purposes of my argument the parking company has done everything correctly.

Driver8

PRIVATE PARKING TICKETS - DON'T PAY!
IT IS NOT A FINE! YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING ILLEGAL!

This is an information page for the thousands of people who receive "tickets" from private companies in the UK ever day at supermarkets, retail parks, and in any other privately-owned carpark.

We are NOT encouraging anybody to openly flout parking restrictions on private land, or to refuse to pay reasonable charges for parking. Landowners have a right to make reasonable charges for the use of their land.

For advice specific to your case, you should visit the forums at http://forums.pepipoo.com or http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences.

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

1. What you should know about these companies

It is important to remember that private parking companies (or PPCs as they are often called) have NO OFFICIAL POWERS - that's right, none at all! They give out their "tickets" on the basis that you have seen the signs in their car park and that you have therefore agreed to a contract obliging you to pay a certain sum of money.


2. What happens to people who don't pay?

In 99.9% of cases, absolutely NOTHING! The company pays the DVLA £2.50 to get your address, and then sends lots of threatening letters. In the main, these letters can be safely IGNORED. The only way the company can actually force you to pay is by taking you to the small claims court, which costs them even more money. And they are by no means guaranteed to win! And they practically never do.

The two main reasons for this (among others) are the following:

- Only the person DRIVING the car could ever have agreed to any such parking contract. The company can only get the Registered Keeper's address from the DVLA: you don't have to tell them who was driving.

-Many of these charges are so extortionately high that they constitute a penalty, which is unenforceable in a consumer contract.


3. Can they affect my credit rating?

NO! The only way your credit rating could be affected by ignoring private parking companies is if you were taken to court, lost, and then still refused to pay. But they will not take you to court.


IN SHORT

The vast majority of the time, you can safely IGNORE tickets from private parking companies, they are not official fines.

The vast majority of the time, you can safely IGNORE the threatening letters, including those from debt collection agencies.

You DO NOT have to pay a penny of your hard-earned money to these companies. Remember that the chances of being taken to court are very slim indeed.

DO NOT IGNORE COURT PAPERS!
If you receive real court papers from a private parking company (very rare) then you should go to http://forums.pepipoo.com or http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences for help defending the claim. Do not be afraid to sign up and ask questions regarding any paperwork you are not sure about.



Don’t believe the above? Watch a solicitor on Watchdog advising you what to do with the scam invoices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA

THEY ARE NOT FINES

Only the Police, Courts or Council’s can fine you. NOT a private company, please remember that.

Pound

Driver8 wrote: »

You DO NOT have to pay a penny of your hard-earned money to these companies. Remember that the chances of being taken to court are very slim indeed.

I think this sums up what I was saying, there's a slim chance that you will be taken to court. Whether you have a moral obligation to pay or whether you actually owe the money doesn't come into the minds of people at Pepipo, it's whether you can get away with it.

trisontana

Pound wrote: »

I think this sums up what I was saying, there's a slim chance that you will be taken to court. Whether you have a moral obligation to pay or whether you actually owe the money doesn't come into the minds of people at Pepipo, it's whether you can get away with it.

No, it's whether you owe any money in the first place. English law states that one private citizen cannot punish another citizen. What the PPCs are demanding is a penalty for breaking their silly rules. So there is no moral obligation to pay. Just tell me what material loss has been suffered by the land-owner? That's the only question that needs to be considered in the civil law of contract or trespass. I could just as well demand £100 from you just for reading this posting.

Bamber19

Pound wrote: »

Why does it? My phone company can charge me more than their losses when I make phone calls because that's the contract I have with them. Just like I enter into a contract when I park my car.I think parking companies would consider use of their car park a contract.Offer = sign
Acceptance = park my carThis is the point I was making earlier, the car parking company needs to find out for sure who the driver is

The argument is that you have accepted the contract of "it costs x to park here" and that by then not paying x you have breached that contract and the company are therefore entitled to their losses as a result of that breach. Their loss is what you should have paid. The other argument coupled with that is that the punitive charges of 50, 80, 100 pounds written into these contracts are unlawful and I don't believe on the occasions these companies have taken people to court that they have been able to argue these charges are fair and lawful. Sign location is important also, given you have to already park up or at least be on the car park land in order to read the terms of the contract which may make consensus ad idem a little difficult. What would almost definitely be questioned would be the reasonableness of such a term, if not the lawfullness, and I believe Denning's opinion still stands, that the more unreasonable a term is (experience tells me £150 charge for failing to pay £1 isn't going to be at the peak of what is deemed reasonable) the more attention must be drawn to it. At common law level a penalty clause is unlawful, that's where the proportionality to actual losses comes into it.

You're correct to say that these companies will be put off by the fact, or at least the question, of identifying the driver but that is certainly not the only thing, or main thing putting them off, it's the knowledge and belief that their charges are likely (and it's a whisker from definitely) unlawful but these companies were never set up with litigation in mind, the point has always been to tell people they owe money and hope a fair portion of them send a payment. Many of them also walk a tightrope in the appearance and wording of their penalty charges which are too often made to look like parking tickets for fines. The internet has simply reduced the number of people paying.

My rule is to not be a p!!!! If spaces are made for parent and child or disabled shoppers I'm not going to park in them, even knowing that if I do and a letter drops through the door I can safely ignore it because i'm not going to get taken to court and even if the incredibly unlikely happened and a company was daft enough to do so then the court is not going to take their side.

trisontana wrote: »

I could just as well demand £100 from you just for reading this posting.

Ha I used to always use that as an example back when I was first using this site and everyone was arguing about it (Isn't it funny the same few issues constantly come up, TV licensing was back on Vent earlier today)

yellowjo

Thank you, Drive8 for this very useful information!

I usually park in the underground car-park of my local Asda, as it's free if I spend £5 or over in their store. Today I parked in an ordinary space, paid £1 for my ticket, which I displayed on the windscreen, then went off to the bank, M&S, WH Smith, then for lunch with friends which took a little longer than anticipated. I went into the Asda store and spent £10.27 and got a £1 refund for my car park ticket. The cashier pointed out I was over my time on the car-park and to watch out as there was 'a man patrolling it'. I got back to my car to find a Parking Charge Notice from Town and City Parking Ltd (Perth). The time entered on the ticket was 15.00 and my ticket expired 14.42. My till receipt shows I was paying for my goods at 15.11. Chances are that if I'd returned to my car without shopping in Asda, I wouldn't have got a ticket, because I'd have been there before 15.00.

A Parking Charge of £60 is now due, but it points out that if I pay within 10 days, then I only have to pay £30. If the charge isn't paid within 28 days then a £10 administration charge will be levied. 'Failure to respond will result in civil legal action being taken to recover the parking charge (together with any judicial expenses that may be incurred).

I will not park in Asda's car park again. I will not shop in Asda again. They're hardly encouraging their customers to shop there, are they? I resent the amount of time I've had to trawl the Net to find out more information, but so glad I found this Forum! Thank you for the informative posts.

mummyoftwomonkeys

be a lesson to you not to park there again!, also please don't park in the spaces meant for people with children grrr that really annoys me too

sazzybum

Here we go..the 'parents and children should be treated as special' debate again;)

http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/

spots

It seems they they are up to the old car park charging tricks again. After shopping there for 20 years i have a ticket for being there longer than 3 hours.
I wondered what happened in your case. Did you pay?

peter_the_piper

Nobody should ever pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!