Asda Car parking ticket

uktim29

Bamber19 wrote: »

That's kind of the question that hangs over bank charges. whether they are actually indicative of the cost to the bank or unfair penalty charges, the exact same question would hang over these charges, whether they represent the loss suffered by ASDA(and there is no possible way for this to be higher than the cost of parking) or if they are a penalty charge. They would be restricted to the actual cost. It's just as unlawful to have a penalty charge (which is what a deterrant is) in a contract between consumer and car park and a contract between consumer and bank.

My post though, was, if you read it in reference to what they would like if the law could be changed.

Bamber19

uktim29 wrote: »

My post though, was, if you read it in reference to what they would like if the law could be changed.

I could see what you were saying but i felt it was misleading when the two situations are completely analogous. Both are about unlawful, punitive charges for breach of contract, the only difference i see is that there is clearly less loss to the supermarket than to a bank which makes the charge even more unfair.

marleyboy

Bamber19 wrote: »

First off i think i've given enough knowledge of contract law so far for it to be seen that without a legislative contradiction to this, this is the law. As far as the ability to issue fines, this comes from the Road Traffic Act of 1991 (the Decriminalised Parking enforcement system to which the thing you meant to link to mentions) and allows local authorities to have their own parking system and fines...it does not however allow private companies to have their own parking system and fines. The very fact that they have used the terms of the act on that site actually 100% confirms that this Morrison's car park is run by the local authority and not a private parking company.

A good argument and fair enough, you know more about the law than I do on this matter.

But am I to assume that SOME supermarket car parks are council run and SOME are private, in that respect am I taking a 50-50 risk in wether or not I should pay a penalty. Should I just completely ignore a parking fee in a supermarket assuming it isnt legal anyway and risk it?

Maybe new signs should be introduced declaring wether it is Council or Private parking.

Fortunatley for me, at least for now, My local supermarkets dont have a parking fee, should the day fall when they do, I have a few options,

Pay the refundable fee, thus not have to worry wether it is private or council owned.

Ignore the signs completely, just park up, they arent worth reading as they are invalid and not relevant, thus take the risk that it is Privately owned.

Shop elsewhere, where they offer free parking, thus completely avoiding any risk of lawful or unlawful penalties.

Bamber19

Like all good citizens i'd pay the original refundable fee aswell, if, they're charging it and they have the right to then i'm not going to play a game of seeing if i get caught out, obviously i'd not pay their penalty charge if for some reaosn they were to issue one. Also like with you none of the local supermarkets to me charge to park anyway.

I'd say the instances of council owned supermarket car parks are quite low, at least in my experience and if a ticket is issued then you shoiuld know it has been issued by the council as it will state the legislation under which it is issued, for a private company to claim to be issuing it under the same legislation would be a criminal offence.

Just to add, not sure if you interpreted what i said how i think you might have but by my first sentence in that quote all i meant as that i'd already talked about it in an earlier post and didn't feel the need to, or want to repeat myself so I wasn't trying to be nasty. As I say i'm not sure how you interpreted it anyway.

taxiphil

marleyboy wrote: »

But am I to assume that SOME supermarket car parks are council run and SOME are private, in that respect am I taking a 50-50 risk in wether or not I should pay a penalty. Should I just completely ignore a parking fee in a supermarket assuming it isnt legal anyway and risk it?

There needn't be any element of risk; the ownership of the car park is usually clearly indicated on signs by the entrance or the ticket machine.

In the case of privately owned car parks:

The original fee itself is entirely legal (provided it's clearly indicated on signs), and technically they can still sue you for the fee if you don't pay it. I don't think anyone on this thread has advocated not paying the fee in the first place.

It's the penalty charge (which they incorrectly describe as a 'fine') for not paying the fee which is so spurious and almost certainly not enforceable.

sarahg1969

Altarf wrote: »

Not true if this report is correct, S&B Parking were successful against three people -
http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/display.var.1667594.0.bayliffs_called_in_after_car_park_court_victory.php

Actually, Altarf, they were not.

They issued county court proceedings against 3 people (who could be known to them of course). The claims were not defended and they were awarded judgment in default.

The paper has been reported to the PCC and the matter is being investigated. The paper has thus far refused to publish a retraction of their story, which is grossly inaccurate.

As I said previously, I have seen NO cases of any parking companies winning a defended claim for parking charges.

For your interest, Matthew Brough has parted company with S&B, and the company is no longer in favour with the landowners at Lomeshaye.

neil24103

Simiont wrote: »

My wife recently parked at asda with no change for a ticket and went and did her shopping (in Asda) when she came back the guy was putting a ticket on her window,she showed him the reciept but got no joy, she came home and told me so I looked on the internet about this and was more or less told it's illegal to make someone pay a fine without taking them to court first , since then I've had 2 letters from town and country parking which I ignored (following advice I read on the net) now I've had 2 letters from a debt company . can they make me pay the fine ?:p

this is a invioce NOT A FINE they can.t enforce it.they have to prove who was driving and that the driver entered inter a contract.they cant make you pay .ignore and get on with your life.if you must contact them just say this your invioce is for the driver so i assume you.ve sent this invioce in error and i suggest you contact the driver.then ignore all letters. if you get one from a debt recovery agency just write telling them it is in dispute they will have to send it back to them.check out pepipoo forum on private parking.THEY CANT MAKE YOU PAY NO MATTER WHAT:beer:

sarahg1969

Ms Hussain at the LT has issued a new story about this one. I suspect it's been done to satisfy the complaint to the PCC. In my opinion, it doesn't go nearly far enough, and she still talks about fines!!

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/search/display.var.1797330.0.controversial_parking_company_sacked.php

taxiphil

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Ms Hussain at the LT has issued a new story about this one. I suspect it's been done to satisfy the complaint to the PCC. In my opinion, it doesn't go nearly far enough, and she still talks about fines!!

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/search/display.var.1797330.0.controversial_parking_company_sacked.php

Interesting, thanks for that.

It's quite a pathetic and begrudging retraction which just isn't good enough. The editor should take control of the matter and publish an unreserved apology for that disgraceful earlier article which must have misled goodness knows how many thousands of readers.

Altarf

Altarf wrote:

Not true if this report is correct, S&B Parking were successful against three people -
http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/disp...rt_victory.php

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Actually, Altarf, they were not.

They issued county court proceedings against 3 people (who could be known to them of course). The claims were not defended and they were awarded judgement in default.

As I said previously, I have seen NO cases of any parking companies winning a defended claim for parking charges.

My statement is entirely correct. I said, they were successful in court. They sued, the court judgement was for them i.e. they won.

Anyway the post you have quoted was in response to this one -

_goshdarnit wrote:

The fact remains there is, as far as I am aware, not one case of someone being pursued for this in court successfully.

Your argument seems to be that since the case was not defended it is not a 'proper' win. The fact is that there are car park management companies are prepared to take people to court. Whether they win by default because people cannot be bothered submit a defence is irrelevant to them. A win (of whatever sort) = Money.