Parking fine at Mcdonalds

olbas

Hi
I have recieved a parking fine by MET parking whilst at Trafalgar Way Mcdonalds. They say i was there for 30 minutes over the time limit.
To be honest i would never think about a parking time limit at any Mcdonalds and i was more interested in finding the disabled bay to park in as i had my mother with me.
I have called customer services at Mcdonalds and they just said that yes there are signs up and they are in force. They also adviced me to send a copy of my mothers disabled badge to the MET Parking Services that might help my case.
Should i pay or even send a copy of the disabled badge to them.

Stephen_Leak

The Blue Badge scheme doesn’t apply to private car parks. Anyone, who’s disabled under the terms of The Equality Act 2010 can use a disabled parking bay. If they’re also Blue Badge holders, they don't need to display it. The terms & conditions for the car park usually state that you shouldn't park in a disabled bay without displaying a badge. This, in itself, contravenes The Equality Act.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private parking company (PPC) or an individual can't. Even PPCs call their tickets “Parking Charge Notices”, not “Penalty Charge Notices”. In law, they’re called “speculative invoices”.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011, 1SE02759, the Peel Centre case.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any 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. Demanding 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 have to be very careful not to be seen to condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you do owe the CPO anything, then you should write to them, offering this in “full and final settlement”.

In any event, advise the CPO of the terms of The Equality Act 2010, that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions have been judged to constitute harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. That ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with them.

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 Nigerian e-mail scammer 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. 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.

ManxRed

No, don't do anything.

1. Its not a 'fine' - its technically a speculative invoice inviting you to pay a charge which MET alleges you owe them for breaching a contract. However under English Contract Law, the redress for breaching a contract is their actual losses incurred, which in this case is zero. Legally, you owe them £0.00
2. There is no appeals process. This is a private profit making company, not a local council. They want your money. They are not going to allow an 'appeal' if it means hurting their profits.
3. Writing to them in any way, gives them a signal that you are taking them seriously and will mark you out for special attention. It also might provide them with evidence that they will try and use against you. Do not contact them in any way. You could be a high court judge, a copper, a chief inspector, they have no idea - leave it that way.
4. MET have never ever ever done court. They aren't likely to start now.

You will receive a series of threatening letters from them and their debt collector/pretend solicitor, all threatening stuff which legally they cannot enforce, in an attempt to scare you into paying up. Don't fall for it.

Do a search on YouTube for the Watchdog clip featuring a lawyer and a MET ticket just like yours.

HappyMJ

Yes you should pay a fine.....A fine is issued by a court and if you don't pay a fine you could go to prison for non payment.

However, I don't think you have a fine. What you have is probably a parking charge notice. A parking charge notice can be put straight in the bin and ignored along with the several letters you will get over the next few months.

give_them_FA

What they said.

Plus, don't forget to put the letters from MET to good use:

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

After you are bored with playing with it, you can shred it to make bedding for a hamster or gerbil.

Parking companies are so kind to us!

bondy_lad

what you have recieved is toilet paper use it then press flush, simple as that.worry not, its a scam.

Coupon-mad

give_them_FA wrote: »

What they said.

Plus, don't forget to put the letters from MET to good use:

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

After you are bored with playing with it, you can shred it to make bedding for a hamster or gerbil.

Parking companies are so kind to us!

#olbas, when you've watched the link above, read this article (ignore the fact it talks about Supermarkets because it relates to ANY private car park):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8488737.stm

MET and McDonalds are in breach of the Equality Act 2010 (formerly the DDA which is mentioned in the BBC article, but it's now the Equality Act that protects your mother). You could sue them both for a nice large payment of compensation if you fancy filing a claim in Small Claims Court.

If not then just ignore the letters relating to it, as it's not a real fine/ticket. The letter-chain MET use is shown in pictures in the sticky thread near the top called 'PPC letters & threats'. Please see my signature to see which words above to click on to go back one click to see the whole parking forum thread list, and find the sticky (third from top at present) so you are ready for each letter.

Just play a nice game of snap with each letter if you don't fancy claiming compensation.

molerat

Local / national paper, they love "Disabled Mum Given Parking Ticket Whilst Visiting McDonalds" stories. Ignore everything else.