Parking ticket whilst at pay and display machine.

Senium

Hey there,

okay, so a few weeks ago I was at a carpark and I found that my closest pay and display machine was occupied with a queue of 3 or so people. So I walked to the other pay and display machine at the other end of the carpark. Whilst I was at the machine, a parking officer gave me a parking ticket. I have my pay and display ticket that shows the time as 15:05 and the parking fine shows the time as 15:03, so there is obviously a cross over.

Now, I already complained to UKPC about it and haven't heard back yet. However, I received no letter in the post notifiying me or anything. Now, the car park was *FREE* to park in anyway, you just had to get a ticket to park there (stupid, right?). I assume I should have just ignored the ticket all together since they haven't notified me in writing and then just played dumb about it.

What should I do now? I haven't heard back from UKPC but I assume that they will refuse to turn the ticket over from what I've read in other threads.

What annoys me about it, is that I DROVE PAST THE PARKING OFFICER! So he would have seen me walk towards the machine. Oh, and that it was a *FREE* car park too...

Any advice?

thanks in advance.

AltheHibby

Ignore them. Let them waste money trying to persuade you that they have a claim against you that they can enforce. They can't enforce it so you can rest easily in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen.

ManxRed

UKPC?

And you drove PAST the parking officer, instead of OVER him? You should be ashamed of yourself passing up a golden opportunity like that!

My advice would be to ignore UKPC and cease contact with them.

Legally the LANDOWNER is entitled to the actual losses only.

1. That might not be UKPC, in which case they are entitled to nothing.
2. Even if it is UKPC, their losses are zero anyway.

They don't have a legal leg to stand on. Ignore all the scary letters, eventually they will go away.

Anna_Nonymouse

see? Told ya!!

Stephen_Leak

Senium wrote: »

<snip> PARKING OFFICER <snip>

Other descriptions are available.

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. Private companies or individuals can't. PPCs call their tickets “Parking Charge Notices”, not “Penalty Charge Notices”. In law, they’re called “speculative invoices”.

All the car park owner can claim from the driver in damages for a breach of contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If this is a free car park or they paid, this is £0.00. Asking for more has been judged to be unreasonable and therefore an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, which is not legally enforceable. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you do still owe the car park owner anything, then you should write to them, offering this in “full and final settlement”. This ought to be enough to make them call off the PPC.

Don’t appeal to the PPC. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off? Actually, there is something in it for them: information. They need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with chasing the registered keeper.

With windscreen notices, an appeal letter will tell them your name and address, and maybe who was driving at the time. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to buy the details of registered keeper from the DVLA. With postal notices, they’ve done this already. But they still need to know the identity of the driver.

They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve written and told them who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of harassing the registered keeper, they can now harass the driver.

What will they do to me?

The PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters,. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable, to intimidate you into paying.

But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that a blackmailer couldn't sue anyone who didn’t pay them.

What should I do then?

Continue to ignore everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. Yes, it does seem counter-intuitive to deal with something by ignoring it. Eventually, they will run out of empty threats, and stop throwing good money after bad.

give_them_FA

The fact that the "parking officer" saw you walking to the machine and nipped in to issue a ticket in a FREE car park ought to tell you what kind of operation this is- an out-and-out scam. Unfortunately, like so many honest and respectable folks, you have taken it at its face value because you think you are dealing with a reputable company and with honest people.

So did you not get the clue from the behaviour of the "PARKING OFFICER"? (we call them something else!)

Their whole purpose in being there is simply to swindle people out of money. End of story.

Don't waste your time with any further contact. It's a shame you did it since you have saved them the £2.50 they would normally have to pay DVLA for your details. However make up for it now by consigning everything they send to the bin. They won't do anything because they CAN'T do anything.

Why else would their attempts to make you pay consist simply of threatening you, if they had any legitimate means of enforcement?

ask yourself that one too, if and when they deign to acknowledge you.

Senium

Thanks for your help! I received an e-mail from Aldi this morning (as I also complained to them as I was using their carpark) and they arranged for the parking ticket to be cancelled for me.

Thanks for the advice for future reference though!

give_them_FA

Let's hope that actually happens. Many times we hear that the store tells them to cancel it but they carry on regardless. Hardly surprising as any money they extort goes in their pocket, not the car park owner's. Next time you're in Aldi tell them they nearly lost a customer and ask what use they think these parasites are. Eventually the penny may drop!