Fined for taking 7 minutes to buy a ticket!!

mickleovermaternity

Hi all, this is my first post on here, I am after some advice regarding a parking ticket issued to me at a RCP car park last week.


After parking my car I took out my wallet and realised I needed some change to buy a ticket so I decided to go to the nearby newsagents. On my way out of the car park I saw a man on his way in with a fluorescent RCP jacket on and I said to him (wallet still in hand) "just getting some change". I waited in the newsagents for change and then went back to the car park. When I could no longer see the man in the RCP jacket I got this 'gut' feeling and went to check on my car - there was a fine on the windscreen. It was issued 2 minutes after I left the car park and 5 minutes before I returned. Out of protest I left the car park and went somewhere else. I feel sick about it - his behaviour was borderline predatory. I am on maternity leave and the fine is for £100 (£50 if I pay up early).


What do I do? Do I pay, appeal or ignore? I don't want to become embroiled in some massive dispute but it just seems SO UNFAIR.... I mean, £100 for 7 minutes??!! (Or really, 2 minutes... be basically fined me the second I was out of sight)


What to do??

enfield_freddy

well you will get a few replies in a minute or two ,


before the "experts" appear , just a bit of info that might help them


"RCP is owned by Shapoor and Ardeshir (their surname escapes me)

They also own Targetfollow and a number of subsidiaries.

Targetfollow own the land that 90% of RCP car parks are on. The older brother had it set up so RCP were paying targetfollow peanuts maybe for tax or other reasons. However targetfollow got put into administration a while back and RCP's rent got bumped up on all the sites. So with that in mind i believe the RCP are the leaseholders and there have a genuine ability to charge for damages/contractual sum."


comment dated late 2013, early 2014


edit , got him

Ardeshir Naghshineh , founder of targetfellow , that almost went bust in 2010 ,(£700 million wanted back by banks) and have sold a lot of there property off and are leasing back

sinizterguy

You might be able to fight and get away with not paying it ...

But, 7 minutes is an inordinately long time to faff around and not pay for a ticket - whatever the reason.

5 minutes would be reasonable ... at most.

Herzlos

The ticket was issued in 2 minutes, after the agent was told the driver was going for change. 2 minutes is not reasonable. 7 is also understandable if there was a queue in the newsagents. The usual stuff applies; Not a genuine loss, failure to mitigate, poor signage, lack of authority and whatever point 4 usually is.

RCP parking have a BPA approved operator logo on their site, so you should be able to comfortably get rid of it at POPLA.

Wait for the Notice To Keeper (they'll write to you in a couple of weeks), put in a stock appeal which they'll reject and give you a POPLA code, then appeal to POPLA as the registered keeper using the information on here as well as adding a section about failing to mitigate loss - you believe the RCP agent watched the driver leave the car park to get change before issuing the ticket.

Quentin

mickleovermaternity wrote: »

What do I do? Do I pay, appeal or ignore? I don't want to become embroiled in some massive dispute but it just seems SO UNFAIR.... I mean, £100 for 7 minutes??!! (Or really, 2 minutes... be basically fined me the second I was out of sight)


What to do??

Forget about the 7 minutes argument and go and read the newbies sticky at the top of the forum to see how to go about not paying.

neil.net

sinizterguy wrote: »

You might be able to fight and get away with not paying it ...

But, 7 minutes is an inordinately long time to faff around and not pay for a ticket - whatever the reason.

5 minutes would be reasonable ... at most.

Or rather you could point to the fact the council parking regimes allow 10 minutes grace - an appropriate comparison is better when deciding what is "reasonable" and the BPA do specify operators should allow a period of grace to familiarise with terms etc.

enfield_freddy

neil.net wrote: »

Or rather you could point to the fact the council parking regimes allow 10 minutes grace - an appropriate comparison is better when deciding what is "reasonable" and the BPA do specify operators should allow a period of grace to familiarise with terms etc.

and the ticket was placed on the car 2 mins after you parked? or as you stated 2 mins after you left the car park


was the ticket placed on the car BECAUSE you left the site?

Quentin

neil.net wrote: »

Or rather you could point to the fact the council parking regimes allow 10 minutes grace - an appropriate comparison is better when deciding what is "reasonable" and the BPA do specify operators should allow a period of grace to familiarise with terms etc.

No.


This is incorrect advice.


The 10 minutes grace does not apply to unticketed vehicles (ie you don't get any grace unless you have paid for parking, when you get 10 minutes grace after the expiry time)


No-one can rely on not getting a council ticket after leaving the car to go and get change.

neil.net

Quentin wrote: »

No.


This is incorrect advice.


The 10 minutes grace does not apply to unticketed vehicles (ie you don't get any grace unless you have paid for parking, when you get 10 minutes grace after the expiry time)


No-one can rely on not getting a council ticket after leaving the car to go and get change.

Ahhh, I see...

Guys_Dad

Is the ticket for not paying or is it for leaving site? Totally different appeal strategies apply.

mickleovermaternity

The ticket for breaching a contract I had apparently entered into by parking there. So I guess it was for not paying. It was always my intention to pay... I park there a lot and pay each time. They have a facility to pay on card but it doesn't work properly, you end up being over-charged as it can only issue tickets based on payments in increments of £1. So that's why I opted to get change, maybe a bit tight, but why pay £2 when it's £1.50?

If I appeal and ultimately end up losing will I have to pay the £100 or the £50?

7 minutes may be how long it took me to get back (I had to pick something to buy in the end, as they couldn't open the till without a sale) but the ticket was issued after 2 minutes, that's what really angers me :-(