Private Parking Industry Hits back blog discussion

poppy10_2

Excellent reply Martin. The fact that they didn't challenge the central premise, that these tickets are legally unenforceable, has set my mind at ease with regards to your advice to not pay them

colin324

My daughter was clamped in a car park next to her flat, that had been used by the public for a long time, as it belonged to the social club. She was moving in at the time, so was constantly in and out with boxes, etc.

There were no signs visible at the time, and the clamper was waiting at her car and told her if she didn't pay the £100 fine immediately, her car would be towed and incur further fees. She paid up to get her car released and then sent a letter to the clamping company, with a SAE, appealing the fine.

The company kept her SAE and didn't bother to reply at all. The following day, there must have been at least 20 signs put up everywhere. In the last 6 months, the land owners have dug up the car park and blocked the entrance.

With hindsight, she should have called the police and refused to pay, as there were no notices in place. Unfortunately, as a lone 21 year old girl, she didn't know and had no other option.

On another note, there is clamping firm has its offices near where I work in Biggin Hill. Their vans are always obstructing our unit, maybe we should clamp them !

They don't care about other people, as long as their directors get to keep their top of the range range rovers with personlised plates.

It should be made illegal. Something does need to be done to protect private landowners from people obstructing or trespassing on their property. On the other hand, I have fences and gates to stop people wandering into my garden, maybe landowners with parking areas need to secure their land better.

Lynny227

I found this part of Kelvin's letter very strange :

'let’s not forget that landowners have a right to manage their land and motorists do not have the right to park where they like when they like and for free'

This seems very odd as most tickets appear to be issued when people are parked in the car parks of a business they are spending money at. Are people sneakily parking in store car parks when they are shopping and getting away with it? How dastardly!!

town_cryer

Martin
I am a registered disabled (blue badge) driver and frequently find that the allocated 'disabled' bays at supermarkets etc are taken by non-badge drivers. Although not your intention I think that many of those will now see your article as encouragement to continue to do so. Clearly you are saying that if a one of these selfish drivers is using someone elses car (or the the owner SAYS someone else was driving it) there is no need to pay the charge/fine.
When you say you are protecting the consumer please remember that people like me, who would like to use the bay provided for our benefit, are consumers too.

Paul_Herring

r01 wrote: »

When he arrived I gave him (as the representative of his company), a right b******ing and served him with an official letter stating his company had tresspassed on my private and reserved parking area and that unless the ticket was cancelled immediately, a formal apology provided in writing and his company's wardens instructed not to tresspass on my land again, I would take action. I would also consider any further tickets received a clear admission of further tresspass and take legal action accordingly.

So what happened then?

Eastangle

Well done Martin for your excellent response.
Something that they forget to mention is that the entire principle of one citizen punishing another citizen is totally against the concept of the law.
I have only once received a ticket from one of these comanies, and it was for forgetting to display a blue badge, despite the fact that I had a passenger who used a wheelchair and the park attendant must have seen me unload the wheelchair and help him into it. He also spent money on a new television in the shops.
The car park was half empty and there were plenty of other disabled spaces, this was nothing but a money making scam on behalf of the car park company.
The BPA is nothing but an attermpt for these rogue companies to try and make themselves seem respectable and it is failing miserably.

Eastangle

Well done Martin for your excellent response.
Something that they forget to mention is that the entire principle of one citizen punishing another citizen is totally against the concept of the law.
I have only once received a ticket from one of these comanies, and it was for forgetting to display a blue badge, despite the fact that I had a passenger who used a wheelchair and the park attendant must have seen me unload the wheelchair and help him into it. He also spent money on a new television in the shops.
The car park was half empty and there were plenty of other disabled spaces, this was nothing but a money making scam on behalf of the car park company.
The BPA is nothing but an attermpt for these rogue companies to try and make themselves seem respectable and it is failing miserably.

xuder

Anybody else notice the striking resemblance between MSE's parking fine guide, and the one published by Bitterwallet just three week beforehand?

Coupon-mad

Well done Martin for raising the profile of this issue. :T

As a regular MSEer I had already read on the forums, advice from posters to ignore any private car park ticket, but by including it in the weekly email you have ensured that the message has got out to a much wider audience.

You really got the scammers that purport to 'protect' Supermarket Car Parks with 'fines' (in fact, worthless invoices) to sit up and take notice!

I am really hoping that the whole issue gains much more ground now. Let's have it stated on national TV that private car parks cannot 'fine' you and that you don't have to pay an unfair ticket (i.e. any ticket 'charging' you more than their possible consequential loss of anything between zero in a free car park, to maybe a pound or so in a paying car park...).

And let's have the Government take notice and follow Scotland's lead in making clamping illegal. This practice is nothing short of carnapping/stealing - with threats, bully-boy tactics and lies added into the bargain.:mad:

aqib_2

Great reply to the slimeballs Martin!

I was robbed of £85 by clampers when I was a student and my brother who still is a student actually had his car towed and kept by another company (because it was uneconomical for us to have pay over £300 to get an old nissan sunny out of their lock up) and that was even after he had paid to park there but got back just two minutes late.

Yes as the slimeball said landowners have a right to protect their land but they don't have a right to highway robbery and bloodsucking.

These guys should be made illegal but better still they should be named and shamed on websites and everyone who knows them should ostracise them until they get a proper job.