Unfair Parking Tickets: Have you appealed or spotted a loophole?

kittykitten

tmn1966 wrote: »

My sister did similar to you gb.dad; parked up then an hour later moved up the road a bit. She got a ticket too. I always assumed you could do that as the sign says "no return within two hours" etc, meaning no return to that spot!

Her penalty notice was £25 if paid within two weeks or it doubled after. The only reason she parked on the road was because someone who worked up the road from her had cheekily parked on her work's forecourt as there was no room on theirs which made no room for her on her forecourt! She works on a very busy road where the local council have an unwritten agreement with the businesses in the road that employees can park their cars on the forecourts as to go about their business. She uses her car for going about her job and it seemed very unfair that she should receive a ticket for it, considering she moved it before the hour was up.

Do you think she has a good case if she appeals?

I'm by no means an expert, never having had a parking ticket, but I'd say it's worth a try, if nothing else on the grounds that the sign doesn't specify that the 'no return' means no return to that street, not that spot! This may work if the parking spaces are individually marked, but I don't know if it'll work if the markikngs simply mark out a line of parking spaces, and she's returned to the same line of spaces. I'd appeal anyway though, worst they can do is say no!

pixwix

I've had a few parking tickets, like anyone else. But my worst experience was in Edinburgh about 6 or 7 years ago - a city I'll lose no sleep over if I never see again.

I lived to the south of that city at the time, and in a medical emergency was driven by a kind neighbour to hospital there. The neighbour parked in a perfectly legal parking space on the street (parking in on hospital premises being - of course - quite out of the question), but didn't pay as we displayed my Disabled Parking Badge. When we left the hospital some hours later, we were horrified to find a parking ticket on the windscreen. Hospital staff told us that was par for the course - the private-firm wardens were on a quota system, and they'd ticket anyone they thought they could get away with.

I felt a moral duty to pay the £40 charge, of course, but not without a fight. On querying the ticket, I found it claimed that we'd been causing a major obstruction a street away(!), and that no Disabled Badge had been on display. Parking tickets are one thing, but plain unvarnished lies are quite another. I challenged the ticket, pointing out I had several hospital staff as witnesses (they'd had to help me from the car) both as to where the car had been parked and to the fact a Disabled Badge had been clearly on display. I also made it clear I was so upset by all this I'd take the matter to court and spend whatever was necessary rather than give in to this kind of bureaucratic BS (and I meant it).

A week later I got a brief letter telling me the ticket had been withdrawn - but no explanation or apology.

A month later I got a surcharge bill because the fine hadn't been paid...

You can guess the rest...

I later talked to another neighbour who parked in Edinburgh, and got a ticket (which they simply paid) because their Disabled Badge had slipped to an angle of 90%, rendering it (according to the warden) 'unreadable'.

Where do they get such people - clone them in factories, somewhere?

skipsmum

What was the fine for?
Parking in a loading bay

What was the problem with it?
Parked in a bay outside Macdonalds in Gillingham. There were a mix of disabled and loading bays. Got 3 disabled children and a toddler from the van into mcdonalds, also unloaded two wheelchairs and a buggy. Displayed all 3 blue badges in the window. When we came back 1/2 hour later we had a parking ticket.

Did you try and appeal and on what basis?
Tried to appeal on the grounds that we displayed blue badges, but the council said we were in a loading bay so they weren't valid. Surely 4 children, 2 wheelchairs, and a buggy need unloading!
Did it work?
No, still had to pay. However local newspaper took up the case and finally got it refunded.

Other interesting stuff?
I was most upset that the traffic warden had actually been standing by the bays, had watched me struggle to get all the kids out, hadn't even bothered to hold the door open to Mcdonalds, didn't say a word about not being able to park there, and then slapped a ticket on the van.

paulaaliwell

I got a fine in a Pay & Display car park, after my ticket had fallen off the windscreen onto the floor. I wrote to the Borough, enclosing the ticket, but they refused to waive the fine.

I took the case to the adjudicator, on the grounds that I had met the legal requirement as I had both paid and displayed my ticket. I argued that the fact that the ticket fell off after I'd displayed it was irrelevant. The adjudicator found in my favour!:j

Incientally, this was due to a loophole in the wording of the Terms & Conditions - some car parks do specify that the ticket must be displayed at all times.

lynneinjapan

What was the fine for? Parking on a single yellow line at the wrong time.
What was the problem with it? The bay was almost full and I couldn't see a sign stating the restrictions (I did get out of the car and walk a few yards in both directions to check - I found a post the looked as if it had once held such a sign but the sign itself was missing) so I assumed it was OK to park there at that time. I was gone for about an hour, I think, and came back to find all the other cars gone and a ticket on my windscreen. Apparently you weren't allowed to park there after 4pm or something like that.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? I immediately wrote to the Council appealing on the basis that I had looked for a sign but there hadn't been one visible, and mentioning the signless post.
Did it work? The Council replied to my letter FIVE MONTHS later saying that there was a sign "outside Bright House" and the penalty still stood (though they did extend the deadline for payment at the reduced rate). I had no idea where Bright House was so I went back to the location - not a part of the city that I visit regularly - and found that the missing sign had been replaced at some point during the intervening 5 months. (There was actually another sign too, but it was about 100m away, past two shopping centre entrances and a double-length bus stop.) So I took a photo, labelled it up with "I parked here" and "This sign was MISSING when the ticket was issued on ...th July" and wrote back to them again, enclosing the photo and saying that I would take the case to NPAS if they continued to demand payment. That was in late 2004 and I haven't heard anything since, so I can only assume that the penalty was waived.

lulu650

What was the fine for?
Two different carparks while on jury service

What was the problem with it?
1. All available spaces in immediate vicinity were full due to BBC coverage on the case in different court. I had to park in a shop's carpark which was free for the first 2 hours. Stupidly, didn't realise that as this was the summing up day that we would actually be locked in a room for the deliberation. Therefore couldn't get out to move the car to a feepaying carpark.
2. Paid for my parking but couldn't find designated space so parked near a mini and didn't block any other users. Fined me because it wasn't a designated bay

Did you try and appeal and on what basis?
Yes. Cited doing my duty for queen and country!

Did it work?
Yes. Slapped wrist, don't you dare do it again. One was County Council and the other was a private carparking firm.

Other interesting stuff?
Ex copper and many others on the jury all said that I'd never get off the fines.
But never had the chance to tell them that I did as I never saw them again after the trial

Hymie

The whole parking ticket appeals system is just a scam, run by the same people issuing the tickets.

A couple a years ago my mother received a parking ticket, which was obviously due to the parking attendant miss-reading the car registration plate.
Parking attendants take details from the vehicle tax disc (tax disc no. etc), thereby providing additional proof that they ticketed the correct vehicle.

In contesting the ticket, the relevant authority requested a copy of my mother tax disc in order to compare details. I pointed out that once the authority had details of her tax disc, they could just claim that they were correct, and demand payment of the fine. The alternative was to go through the appeals process, which could be done through a paper submission of supporting documents, rather than each party having to attend.

The process involves each party independently submitting their case (in documents), which are then presented to the appeals authority. Much was made of the fact that the appeals authority was independent and that no documents submitted would be seen be the parking authority before the deadline for submitting documents. Dates were set by which documents had to be received – which would then be sent to each party.
My mother duly sent her documents, which included a copy of her cars tax disc. Soon after (before the appeal date - and before the deadline for document submssion), she received notification that her tax disc did not match the details held by the parking authority, and that the fine was void.

Clearly the parking appeals authority had colluded with the ticket issuing authority to check the details of documents submitted by my mother (before the appeal hearing date).

The information originally submitted by the appeals authority claimed that they acted in the same manner in terms of impartiality, as a court of law – clearly from my mothers experience, this is complete nonsense.

ecki_thump

Our local swimming pool offers free parking for 2 hours when using the pool. The idea is you get a ticket, tear off the refund and hand it in to receive your £1.50 fee back.

We took the family swimming one Sunday, as normal we purchased a ticked for what we thought was 2 hours parking. When we came out of the swimming pool we could see a ticket had been slapped on our windscreen. We looked at the ticket and realised we had only been given 1 hour when we put in the money for 2 hours.

I thought it would be no problem to get our fine stopped as we could prove we had used the swimming pool and had nothing to gain from only putting an hour into the meter.

We appealed the ticket but was told we still had to pay the fine as we should have checked it. I agree we should have checked it but it was a genuine mistake, and anyway what the hell are traffic wardens doing working in a small town on a Sunday, they must have better things to spend our Council Tax on!

Moke

Well I'm so glad that you are investigating this as I have had a recent issue with a ticket and haven't been sure what to really do.

I parked outside a friends house in Islington recently. This is a resident's only area between the hours of 8.30am to 1.30pm on a Saturday. I parked after 1.30. The sign additionally said that on a match day (at-home footie matches I presume) the restriction was from 8.30am until 4.30pm.

On returing to my car later that evening I'd received a ticket, and on contacting Islington was told that there had been a match underway.

I disputed this twice on the basis that they hadn't made clear that a match was underway that day. My friend hadn't been aware of any match, and there were no obvious signs in and around Islington that one was underway (e.g. fans or blocked roads).

This really infuriates me as I don't think it was made clear enough that a match was in progress that afternoon - I actually think a timetable for matches should accompany the signs, or a number or other method given to ascertain the dates that these run.

On both cases that I have disputed they have said that they were unwilling to reserve the penalty, and then asked me to wait until a notice to the owner was sent to me by the DVLA if I wanted to take this any further.

I opted to pay the ticket as they wouldn't guarantee that whilst the case was underdispute the ticket cost wouldn't rise.

If there is any advice on what to do, that would be appreciated.

db21111

What was the fine for? Allegedly parking in a none parking are
What was the problem with it? I was in a clearly marked box outside a shop.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? According to the code I was written up on, the box had to be marked differently to make it illegal for me to park there. Also the ticket didn't state the exact location of the offence. It just said Dudley Road.
Did it work? Yes
Other interesting stuff? No, I still have the original ticket though.