Motorway service parking ticket

Kangchenjunga

I stopped at Southwaite services on my way up to Scotland for 3hrs and 17 minutes without buying a ticket. I have received a penalty notice demanding an £80 payment,reduced to £50 if paid quickly. As it was midnight when I stopped and as I did not want to pay for a 24 hour stay,I did not bother. Should I pay the fine or just ignore it???I don't know exactly how far CPplus will go to try and get the money for the penalty charge notice I received. I just don't see why at midnight I should need to pay a fee when the car park was nearly empty.As it was a motorway service station,does this mean that it is council run or privately owned?? Any advice would be very much appreciated.I have received another two more letters which are now demanding £120 or legal action is pending.Should I just keep on ignoring this or pay them and good riddance?? What do you think???

zorber

I would have thought you could ignore it.

Driver8

Kangchenjunga wrote: »

I stopped at Southwaite services on my way up to Scotland for 3hrs and 17 minutes without buying a ticket. I have received a penalty notice demanding an £80 payment,reduced to £50 if paid quickly. As it was midnight when I stopped and as I did not want to pay for a 24 hour stay,I did not bother. Should I pay the fine or just ignore it??? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

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.



Now print that off and stick on thousands of cars just to get the word out about the scammers.

Their day's are numbered.

taffy056

You ignore completely and certainly don't pay them a penny, these companies put money before safety, its a disgrace that they operate in motorway service stations to begin with, how the hell the government put a stop to it is beyond me, ultimately its their land leased out.

So keep your money in your wallet!

Kite2010

All the landowner can sue for it damages, which in this case it could be argued will be whatever they wanted to charge for 24hr parking (£7 or so) and not the varying amounts the PPC will come up with from the air.

Keep your money in your pocket and ignore the PPC vultures