Private Parking Tickets discussion

Tina_Tigress

Shopped in Tesco last Sunday, got a ticket for parking in a disabled bay. Do I have to pay?

peter_the_piper

Tina_Tigress wrote: »

Shopped in Tesco last Sunday, got a ticket for parking in a disabled bay. Do I have to pay?

No............Please read this thread for many other tales of tesco etc. Ignore all following invoices, begging letters, and various threats. Above only applies to private parking companies, if the council own the land come back.

peter_the_piper

crazy_chic wrote: »

I work in a Hospital i pay monthly to park my car on the hospital grounds (which by the way is a gravel pit where the staff park), if i am on a late shift there is no where on the staff parking to park i have to either park on the pay and display and pay AGAIN or park on the pay and display and not pay then i get a ticket, if i dont pay that ticket then the company are enpowered to take that fine out of my wages no questions asked i think this stinks members of the public can get away with it and good show to them too but staff cant

Does your contract of employment say this or is it the parking company? Involve your union and get them to help you fight this. Staff at a hospital should not have to pay to go to work, its just wrong.

Tina_Tigress

MIL says that if you park in a disabled bay and are able bodied can they still fine you. Is she right?

trisontana

Tina_Tigress wrote: »

MIL says that if you park in a disabled bay and are able bodied can they still fine you. Is she right?

Only if it's a council designated disabled bay. On private land these marking are meaningless, and private companies cannot "fine" you.

peter_the_piper

If its on a road or council car park then yes, if a private car park then no. The painted lines are just that--painted lines and they have no weight in law. You could just as easily paint lines and write "Aliens Only" on it it means as much. Just learn your lesson and don't park on the disabled bays again.
ps MIL's don't know everything, we just let them think they do.

jakhammer

Does anyone know if these guidlelines for not paying apply to NCP (National Car Parks)? They are after all a private company. I received an NCP ticket after parking in their pay and display car park in Glasgow (Ingram Street) several months ago and I am disputing the charge (for reasons I won't bore you with) and have received debt collection letters and now a solicitors letter/phone call. My intention is to fight it in court if needs be so any assistance would be greatly appreciated?

:mad:

abudream

We were three families visiting Manchester for a dinner and parked our 3 cars in a car park (used to be for kwiksave) near the restaurant. We have always parked there out of hours and never had any problems. We finished dinner and went back to find that 2 of the cars were clamped and the third one has already been towed away. The clamper refused to release the cars until we paid £400. We were forced to pay cash as we had 3 babies with us and it was freezing outside. They said that we can appeal which was as you would imagine was no accepted.

Now me and my friends decided to take them to court to test the legal system. We calculated it was going to cost each one of us less than £30 to do so. We submitted a claim to the small claims court. On the day of the hearing they did not show up. The judge still wanted to hear our claim, so we presented the case to him and we won the case (last week!!).

Our case was based on several facts: 1-the signs were not very clear. 2- they had a public car park sign at the entrance of the car park (which we argued mas misleading people). 3-there was no signature on the receipt (just the name of the clamper). 4-they towed the car within 3 hours of clamping it. 5- we had our babies waiting in the freezing cold for about 3 hours until the cars were released.

If they don't pay, we will enjoy sending the baillifs to collect our money.
I guess, if you feel that you were mistreated and were forced to pay and can afford to lose £85 or so, don't be afraid of going to court. We found the judge to be very undersatnding. Theses companies would rather not expose them selves to the courts (the judge asked them to bring copies of their contracts, licences ...).

Hope this helps some body

Tina_Tigress

Peter - lesson learnt. Just (anxious) wait for the letters to arrive. Thank you for your advice.

peter_the_piper

abudream wrote: »

We were three families visiting Manchester for a dinner and parked our 3 cars in a car park (used to be for kwiksave) near the restaurant. We have always parked there out of hours and never had any problems. We finished dinner and went back to find that 2 of the cars were clamped and the third one has already been towed away. The clamper refused to release the cars until we paid £400. We were forced to pay cash as we had 3 babies with us and it was freezing outside. They said that we can appeal which was as you would imagine was no accepted.

Now me and my friends decided to take them to court to test the legal system. We calculated it was going to cost each one of us less than £30 to do so. We submitted a claim to the small claims court. On the day of the hearing they did not show up. The judge still wanted to hear our claim, so we presented the case to him and we won the case (last week!!).

Our case was based on several facts: 1-the signs were not very clear. 2- they had a public car park sign at the entrance of the car park (which we argued mas misleading people). 3-there was no signature on the receipt (just the name of the clamper). 4-they towed the car within 3 hours of clamping it. 5- we had our babies waiting in the freezing cold for about 3 hours until the cars were released.

If they don't pay, we will enjoy sending the baillifs to collect our money.
I guess, if you feel that you were mistreated and were forced to pay and can afford to lose £85 or so, don't be afraid of going to court. We found the judge to be very undersatnding. Theses companies would rather not expose them selves to the courts (the judge asked them to bring copies of their contracts, licences ...).

Hope this helps some body

Glad to hear you won the case, now comes the hard bit, squeezing the money out of them. This is the reason why its better to sue both the landowner and the clamper, the clamper is less likely to pay up than the landowner. "E-pint" to you for standing up to the money grubbers.