service station car park ticket -contract law?

david9999_2

This may be a simple question for someone to answer out there but hopefully someone will be able to help.

I've just received a parking ticket for overstaying the 2 hours i was 'entitled' to at a Service Station.

I parked there because I was joining another car to save on petrol costs and I had parked there several times months before and received no tickets. I noticed that the signs seemed different to what had been there previosuly but foolishly assumed i would be ok

I received the letter saying i had parked there for over 5 hours and had to pay an £80 fine (£50 if paid within 10 days). The letter stated that there was photo evidence which i logged on to check.

As this is private land does this fall under the contract law umbrella and i am able to appeal and expect the company to waive the fee. I have caused no loss to the service station as the car park was fairly empty at the time as it was a week day evening. Also I have logged onto the website regarding the photo evidence does this mean that I am unable to claim that I have never received the letter.

Although I am 'guilty' of parking for over the 2 hours and signs were clearly stated am likely to get the company to waive the fee if appeal on the grounds of contract law and unfair costs, or can i simply just ignore the letters if they are unlikely to chase me up.

Many thanks

Orford

You are taking this far too seriously. Their appeal process is a sham and will be denied whatever grounds you appeal on.

Ignore anything they send you, bar an actual court claim (which won't happen).
Don't pay.
Don't communicate with them in any way whatsoever.
Eventually they will give up and go away.

Coupon-mad

As Orford rightly says, it's completely safe to ignore their mickey-mouse 'fake PCN'. It's not a real fine and no contract with the registered keeper has been established, regardless of any 'photo evidence'! Stop worrying about it.

Who do these companies think they are - the Police? Well they are not, they are a private company who have no more power to fine anyone than I do. In fact I would park there again if I were you and collect some more of their trash.

Don't appeal! Guess what the answer might be - I'll give you one guess and you'll be right!

Don't ever think yourself 'foolish' for believing that services are actually supposed to provide a service in allowing drivers to rest. Of course they are - what's in it for them is the passing trade they also get when some visitors purchase something as well, that's how it's always been, that's how retailers with car parks get much of their business.

The problem is that this country is currently overriden with parasites known as private parking companies who leech off the back of any other successful businesses by ripping off the 'proper' company's customers. And at last the British public is starting to cotton on to the fact that these tickets are unenforceable and just a con.

It's such a common scam that almost everyone on this board has had at least one private parking ticket and ignored it (mine was over a year ago). There is no risk in ignoring everything in the absence of sealed, genuine Court papers (which won't come).

Just ignore them and the debt collector letters. You can see a preview of the letters to ignore, in the first post of the first thread on this board:

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

Plus you'll see by the number of current threads (of which there are pages and pages!) on that link, just how common this scam is. Your question has been asked before lots of times, this thread is one of hundreds! Read some threads on the link above, then look back pages and pages and pages - except for the odd Police or Council ticket and clamping case - all of those threads are from people like you.

All the same, all ignored, doesn't matter who the PPC is. Nothing will happen.

You will just get some free paper aeroplanes (see this Watchdog link to see why that's funny!):

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

NEVER pay a private parking ticket. Think no more of it apart from to spread the word that only proper parking tickets from the Council or the Police are ever to be taken seriously.

HTH

AlexisV

CP Plus I bet?

ignore, ignore, ignore

david9999_2

correct it is cp plus

thanks for the posts - i'll simply ignore all the letters