Additional costs for replacements?

neopuma

Hi All,
This hasn't happened to me personally, but I have been asked about it. We have a small retail park just outside our town centre which has recently had ANPR cameras installed and fines cars for non-payment of tickets, or overstaying. If it was the case that someone returns a faulty item to one of these shops and over stays their ticket (whether it be due to long queues, or problems with returning the item), and receives a fine, who's responsible - the driver/customer, or the shop? And either way, can you claim this money back?

vicmorrow

Ignore it. It's not a fine as such. See the multitude of threads on the motoring forum. Also have a look on the pepipoo website.

wealdroam

neopuma wrote: »

Hi All,
This hasn't happened to me personally, but I have been asked about it. We have a small retail park just outside our town centre which has recently had ANPR cameras installed and fines cars for non-payment of tickets, or overstaying. If it was the case that someone returns a faulty item to one of these shops and over stays their ticket (whether it be due to long queues, or problems with returning the item), and receives a fine, who's responsible - the driver/customer, or the shop? And either way, can you claim this money back?

The driver of the car is always responsible for where they park their car.

Now head over to the parking board for more detailed advice.

unholyangel

Firstly as noted, its not a "fine" unless issued by local government or police. It is an invoice for a breach of contract between the driver and the car park owner. The enforcement company will usuallly get the registered keepers details from DVLA (for a small fee of £2.50 I believe) and write to the RK saying they owe money. If the RK wasnt the driver, they had no contract with the car park owner. Nor are they required by law to tell them who was driving (I believe you only have to give this information to police - although the board the above post directs you to would be able to tell you for sure). The problem with penalty charges is that often they do not reflect a genuine pre-estimate of actual loss incurred and as such, may be governed by the Unfair Contract Terms Act. Specifically:

5.1 It is unfair to impose disproportionate sanctions for breach of contract. A
requirement to pay more in compensation for a breach than a reasonable
pre-estimate of the loss caused to the supplier is one kind of excessive
penalty. Such a requirement will, in any case, normally be void to the
extent that it amounts to a penalty under English common law.

5.4 Potentially excessive penalties. A penalty that states a fixed or minimum
sum, to be paid in all cases, will be open to challenge if the sum could be
too high in some cases

18.3.1 A contract cannot be considered fair and balanced if it gives one party the
power to impose disproportionately severe penalties on the other, or if it
misleadingly threatens sanctions over and above those that can really be
imposed

Second, while SoGA states that for faulty items the consumer should suffer no financial loss......the consumer also has a duty to mitigate their losses and if they haven't paid for a ticket, they have not mitigated their loss. If they have been in town on other business and have overstayed their time, they would have a hard job even claiming for the parking ticket (never mind the "fine") as they would have had to pay this expense to carry out their other business regardless if the item was faulty or not.

arcon5

vicmorrow wrote: »

Ignore it. It's not a fine as such. See the multitude of threads on the motoring forum. Also have a look on the pepipoo website.

There's also a thread on that forum with a scanned copy of a courts summons issued by one of these companies when they ignored the "fine".

I'll find the link. Could be interesting to see how it pans out.