Eoro Car Park Fine!!!!

themagicman

Hi All,

I received a fine from Euro Car Parks back in November in Birmingham because I parked my van in one of their car parks and paid for 4 hours which is what I thought was correct! When I returned after 3 hours I had received a fine and when I questioned the attendant he said that I not paid the seperate fee for vans which was a flat rate of £10!!

Now I honestly had no idea this was the case and have never come accross vans having to pay a seperate flat fee. The sign did state this was the case which was below the hourly rate and even though I had paid £5.50 for the 4 hours and have appealed they are saying tuff, the sign clearly states the fee for a van and I must pay the £70.00!!

Can anyone tell me if I am legally obliged to pay this and if I didn't and they pursued me, raising the amount and sending it to debt collectors what would eventually happen?

I am so angry as they are trying to rob me for a ridiculous amount!! I explained to them that if I had known that vans had a different fee then I would have paid that fee and certainly not taken a chance by paying the incorrect fee. I offered to pay the difference and asked them to see that this was a genuine mistake but they are having none of it!

Any advice would be much appreciated.


Many thanks:mad: :mad:

Bob63

Read this, it should give you lots of help on dealing with the private car parking company - http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?autocom=ibwiki&cmd=article&id=56

I would be really interested to see what their definition of a van is. My understanding is that vans are subject to a lower speed limit on our roads so technically a Transit driver, for example, can be fined for doing 60mph in a national limit single carriageway. However, if the van is derived from a car e.g. Citroen Berlingo, Peugot Partner, Vauxhall Combo etc. then it is subject to the same speed limits as a car. It could be argued therefore to the parking company that a car derived van is in fact a car and therefore doesn't need to pay the higher charge. Of course, that may be academic if you were in a Transit anyway

themagicman

Hi Cheesy.mike,

I'm afraid the van is a transit size!

What are your thoughts?

Regards

maninthestreet

It's not a fine, it's a penalty charge for breaching the terms and conditions of using their car park. They can take you to court for breach of contact if you refuse to pay. Whether they would win the court case is a different matter.

Skippy2roo

Hy
Please read this it will help

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/savingideas/article.html?in_article_id=425551&in_page_id=512

emilyt

I hate Euro car parks. We got a fine when we parked in one of their carparks in Crewe. The reason being that the exhaust was hanging about an inch out of the parking bay. We couldn't have parked it any further in as the car in front was partly in our space. We just paid the fine on line and now i refuse to park in any of their carparks.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Emily

peter_the_piper

emilyt wrote: »

I hate Euro car parks. We got a fine when we parked in one of their carparks in Crewe. The reason being that the exhaust was hanging about an inch out of the parking bay. We couldn't have parked it any further in as the car in front was partly in our space. We just paid the fine on line and now i refuse to park in any of their carparks.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Emily

Just goes to show what shysters they are, they make up the rules as they go just to screw you out of money. A pity you did not know about Pepipoo then, they would have told you the correct way to tell them to "get S*****D

taxiphil

They are scumbags who are hoping that most people don't know their legal rights.

The demand for £70 is codswallop, because it's a penalty, and penalty clauses in contracts are unenforceable.

You only have to pay their actual loss. From what I can gather from your post, this is £4.50 (£10 minus the £5.50 you did pay on the day).

Personally I would send them a cheque for £4.50 with a letter making it clear this amount is a full and final settlement offer, should they choose to bank the cheque.

Don't worry about debt collectors - they might send you stupid letters but there's nothing they can do unless they win against you in court, which they won't, because there's a 99% chance they won't sue you, and even if they do, they'll lose provided that you make the point in your defence that penalty charges are unenforceable.

themagicman

Hi all,

Many thanks for all the replies you have given it is much appreciated!

I was speaking with someone who said similar things to you guys especially regarding the amount of loss that Euro Car Parks have had - which is £4.50!

So it seems at the moment that £70 is unjustified! I didn't take up any more space than one bay, I paid what I thought was correct!

So I am going to write to them and say that I will pay them for their loss (£4.50) and that this is my final settlement offer and tell them that they must not pass this on to a debt collector as the debt is in dispute! If they think that they can justify the excessive amount that they are claiming they have lost then they can explain that in a small claims court!!

I will see what happens and keep you all posted!

If anyone else has any advice or experience with this then please do post.


Many thanks;)

helcat_2

Hi folks

I've also had a £70 fine from Europarks for overstaying about 40 minutes at the Lidl store in Bangor, North Wales. The carpark serves the one store and is free for 1.5 or 2 hours (- I can't remember exactly). I appealed on the grounds that it was a one-off overstay and I actually sent them a copy of my bank statement showing I'd spent £92 in Lidl on that occasion and £70 the previous time I shopped there so I'm not using the carpark totally as a freebie to go elsewhere. I also pointed out that the carpark was less than a third full when I arrived there and there were only about 6 cars in it when I left, so I hadn't deprived anyone of a parking space.
I had actually asked the parking attendent who was in the store if he was checking the cars and said I had probably overstayed my time (holding a massive trolley of shopping at the checkout at the time!). He replied 'no'.

Needless to say they refused my appeal. I'll follow the above advice which is very useful, and let you know how I get on.