Can you settle a discussion?

SusieWinwood

Where I work, we have a car park that come September, will be payable either by £16 per month, or on a meter at £1 per day. We do have a man that comes round already to check passes etc and issues tickets if no pass is visible. Quite a few people have been ticketed and have had to pay £45.

I was having a discussion with a colleague a few weeks back and said that I 'think' that any ticket issued is unenforceable and therefore don't pay it. We do own the land the par park is on.

There are signs clearly stating that a pass has to be obtained but I still say that no ticket needs paying.

Am I on the right track or off the mark?

TIA

Susie

ETA - the company that 'oversees' the parking is the wheelclampingcompany.co.uk

Orford

We do have a man that comes round already to check passes etc and issues tickets if no pass is visible.

Is he employed by a PPC or by your employer?

What does your contract of employment say about permits, charges etc?

Trebor16

The tickets issued "fining" people for not displaying their permit are not legally enforceable and all they can actually go for is any losses incurred. So with parking being £1 a day their loss for that day is £1, not the £45 that people are being invoiced for.

BASFORDLAD

You don't need to pay these invoices.

SusieWinwood

Orford - He is employed by a PPC, wears their uniform, but I assume is sub - contracted to my workplace and goes round all the sites checking tickets.

I've just checked and a permit isn't mandatory (I park on the road as I refuse to pay to park at work). It just says among the blurb that a valid ticket is needed, either the daily £1 one from the machine or the £16 monthly payable one.

So in theory, I 'could' park on here with no valid pass, get a 'ticket/invoice' for £45, not pay and no further action could be taken?

TIA

Susie

bondy_lad

we always recommend on this forum to pay your car park fee,,however we DO NOT recommend you to pay there FAKE tickets.

ManxRed

SusieWinwood wrote: »

Orford - He is employed by a PPC, wears their uniform, but I assume is sub - contracted to my workplace and goes round all the sites checking tickets.

I've just checked and a permit isn't mandatory (I park on the road as I refuse to pay to park at work). It just says among the blurb that a valid ticket is needed, either the daily £1 one from the machine or the £16 monthly payable one.

So in theory, I 'could' park on here with no valid pass, get a 'ticket/invoice' for £45, not pay and no further action could be taken?

TIA

Susie

The only action open to these people is civil action - that is, a private claim brought by one party against another. There is no legislation governing private parking, so there is no 'illegality' or 'unlawfulness' involved here.

Tragically, anyone can bring a claim against anyone else, so I cannot guarantee 100% that no action will be taken.

HOWEVER... the likelihood is very very very very small indeed. Legally, as has been pointed out, they have little to no case whatsoever against you. The redress for not complying with terms and conditions in a contract (which is what this falls under) is to claim for actual losses incurred only. No more, no less (OK, a few quid for sundry expenses maybe).

In this case, you have paid for the parking, so the landowner has suffered no financial loss whatsoever, certainly not £45.

In addition, in cases such as this, the company bringing the action has to be the landowner (or equivalent, such as a leaseholder), NOT a private parking company.

In addition to that, they can only pursue the driver, not necessarily the registered keeper, and unless you tell them, they won't know.

In addition to that, the contract must convey the terms and conditions clearly. If they don't mention 'not displaying a permit', then not displaying a permit is not a breach.

Most private companies haven't got a leg to stand on, legally speaking, and what's more, they know it. This is why so few of them ever try court, and those that do, nearly always lose if a proper defence is constructed.

The odds of being taken to court by a PPC are something like 1 in 200,000 or something, and going down all the time as new precedents (official or otherwise) are set in recent cases.

Seriously, you'll win the lottery first.

Do ignore it, do not contact or correspond with the parking company, no matter how tempting, and eventually they will give up and go away.

Plushchris

The name of the company would set alarm bells ringing with me though, invoices are ignorable, clamps arent so easy to ignore...

trisontana

Except clamping will come to an end in two month's time.

Plushchris

Meaning a months frenzy in the OPs work car park?

ManxRed

OK, good point.

@ SusieWinwood: Are there any signs in the car park that mention clamping, and if so, exactly what do they say?