Parking Fines, ASDA

Ellisdee_2

Ok, I seem to have caused myself a bit of a problem here. I was made redundant, and took a while to get myself a job. By the time I finally managed to, I was literally broke and all my debts have been mounted up.

I have so little money until I get paid, I am struggling to even buy myself food. I have to commute quite far, so most my money goes onto fuel. There's a car park nearby, but it charged £4 a day. I really cannot afford this at the moment.

I decided to trial some parking at ASDA for work hours, it says 3 hours free parking, but thought I'd do it and see if I get a ticket. Because I was under the impression all parking fines would be ticketed on your car. I didn't, and thought this was mainly because it's a huge car-park and never even half-full. I have parked there for about 10 days. I am in a hire car, because some woman crashed into my car about 2 months ago and it has taken a while to get sorted.

Problem is, this morning I got a voicemail from my hire company. They said they have received a £40 parking fine for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of April. Problem is I also parked there on the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th! So I'm sure they'll get these tickets through, but haven't arrived yet. I know this is incredibly stupid but I have never received a parking ticket where it isn't issued on your car. These are all £40 fines, and the hire company have sent me a letter that they charge £50 for each parking fine, as an admin fee!!!

Is there anything I can do? Can someone please recommend me some options here or am I completely screwed?

wealdroam

Your best bet is to post on:

The Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking Board

marywooyeah

^^^ there's some great advice on that board so definitely head over there.

You definitely got your wish though seeing if you'd get a ticket by parking there!

tgon

Follow the link. Ignore the tickets.

regprentice

Take a note of the name of the company issuing the fine (ie parking eye) and then find more info about them on the board listed above.

Old advice was the fines not issued by a local authority were unenforceable and to ignore the letters however there have been changes to case law recently which means you should be more cautious.

Broadly speaking the 'fine' that has been sent to you is simply an invoice.

Check the treads but make sure you only look at recent (2014) comments and advice.

You do not have to pay the fines so dont panic

bluenoseam

The problem is it's not the OP dealing with the "fines" it's the hire company, who will most likely pay the fine & reclaim the money - which is where you run into problems. The whole "can't issue fines" argument is a secondary issue here which is reliant on the hire company sides with you & is willing to run the risk of losing any such challenge. There in lies your difficulty, that one little bit at the end "risk of losing" no matter how minute that risk is will be enough to put off any legitimate business as it goes against the key principle of business. (To make money)

The £50 admin fee would probably have been in the T&C's so it could be argued that you knew about it or at the very least had been reasonably informed of it's potential.

You really need to get to some form of proper legal advice on this one, the involvement of the hire company in all of this is the massive sticking point here. That's where regular layman advice becomes somewhat questionable, you need proper advice as to the route to take - but I'd steele myself for losing a ton of money.

nicechap

tgon wrote: »

Follow the link. Ignore the tickets.

Do follow the link but DO NOT IGNORE the tickets - each needs to be appealed.

Buzby

Appeal? To whom? The hire company?

They'll pay without question and collect from you or your payment method. As you knew what the terns were, you took a chance and lost. It may well have been ANPR that caught you, so the hire firm will have the paperwork.

You might argue a one-off transgression, but on 9 occasions? The good news is they will have paid the initial amount to keep your exposure low, the bad news they will have a charge for each ticket processed - read your hire document for how they handle them.

Your ability to challenge are less than nil I'm afraid.

nicechap

If you care to visit the forum linked above all your questions will be answered.

These are unenforecable invoices quite easily defended, the fourm wins all appeals to POPLA. Here's a running list of wins.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4488337

The forum also has success getting money back from Hire/ lease Companies as well.

The number of incidents doesn't matter.

However, I would advise the OP should now cease abusing someone else's property.

System

presumably the hire company have a card on file when you hired the vehicle , i would have a read of your agreement as they may just pay the fines using your card details.

Valli

CHRISSYG wrote: »

presumably the hire company have a card on file when you hired the vehicle , i would have a read of your agreement as they may just pay the fines using your card details.

I would have though that, were they to use the card details collected from the OP in respect of the hire of the vehicle to pay a third party debt they would be in breach of any contract with the OP and in breach of the Data Protection Act.

This is my opinion though...would like to hear what others have to say.