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

ucan109

We have vans and lorries going into London every day which means we get tickets all the time, the answer I have found is:- everyone is allowed 20 minutes to load/unload the wardens never stay around long enough to see if we take longer so the answer is to appeal to the Appeals Tribunal and state we were not given the 20 minutes the council can't prove otherwise, we get the tickets cancelled EVERY time, it can be a bit more involved sometimes if you want more info ask me...

Ploddy

What was the fine for?
Parking in a pay and display bay
What was the problem with it?
I had put the ticket in the front window on top of the dash, however before I had closed the door, the wind had blew my ticket across the dash, slightly obscuring it behind a window sticker.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis?
Yes I wrote one letter to the local council and told them I had the ticket, including a photocopy. Explaining what had happened to the ticket.
Did it work? Yep, no problems at all, resolved in about a week.
Other interesting stuff? They gave me a small, clear plastic, stick on wallet to go in my windscreen. This is to prevent future tickets being blown away by the wind.

Barre01

Hi

I am the chairman of a small charity that helps bereaved young people. we are all volunteers. A few weeks ago 2 of of our volunteers went to a conference in Birmiingham on the train. They met at Kidderminster station - which is always very difficult to park at, but could only find one space. As it was a large space they managed to squeeze both cars in, albeit overlapping the white lines. They put no one at any inconvenience. On their return they were shocked to find that both cars had been ticketed - a £35 charge.

Letters of appeal have gone in - but no response so far. I don't feel able to reimburse these volunteers out of the charity funds, but feel this is most unfair to punish folks in this way who were just acting sensibly.

tomstickland

If it's a private car park then they're invoices, not fines. Go to Pepipoo.com.

This is well worth a read: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~wjk/parking.html

scotchio

Living in London I am constantly blighted by traffic wardens read mobile money printing droids

I use Pepipoo and I reccommend it highly.

I have sucessfully challenged many tickets generally on signage and road markings not being up to scratch. If you quote test cases that prove your point they back down pretty quick, otherwise they try and bluff you on the first letter. Generally they will allow you to pay the reduced rate after the first letter, so ALWAYS contest the ticket no matter what. It throws the ball back in their court.

If you can write the letter in a legal style it generally gives the effect you know what you are talking about.

Poppyrog

What was the fine for? Not displaying a valid ticket on the window in a council run car park, I think it was a £30 fine.
What was the problem with it? The ticket had fallen off. The car park runs a scheme where you can buy season tickets or normal day tickets. I have a season ticket for that particular car park. What had happened was that the day before my car had to go in for repairs so I took my ticket off thinking that the next day I would borrow another car from a member of my family. You can then visit the ticket office and get a temporary change on the number plate on the season ticket. But luckily my car was ready for use. So I put my season ticket back on to the windscreen, parked my car, went to work and returned to find a penalty notice on my car. What had happened was the adhesive sticker had come off and caused the ticket to fall on the floor of the car.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? Yes! I applied via email to contest the fine. I stated that I had a season ticket, already paid for and supplied then with the ticket number and stated that I had in effect paid for the parking and explained what had happened. It was in fact the stupid piece of plastic that they issue and state on the ticket that you MUST use which caused the season ticket to fall off.
Did it work? Yes it did. Took a couple of months though due to their administration. Everyone I spoke to at the council offices were nice and I received a letter to state that the fine had been canceled.

liegerm

What was the fine for? Being in a pedestrian zone between certain times.
What was the problem with it? I was making a delivery to a customer and deliveries ARE allowed between these times -- but only if you are a lorry. I was using a from a small Peurgeot hatchback van.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? Yes. I appealed, enclosing a copy of my delivery note as proof that I was making a delivery.
Did it work? They let me off the penalty but said that only lorries were allowed to deliver implying that I wouldn't be so lucky in future.
Other interesting stuff? I wonder how legal this rule is? Are they seriously saying that they would rather have lorries driving up and down the pedestrian area rather than far smaller vehicles?!

liegerm

What was the fine for? Parking in Sainsburys.
What was the problem with it? I didn't spend enough (£5).
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? Yes. I talked to the ticket attendant because I didn't see any signs. He pointed out a sign that you can only see if you're superman or already knew it was there. If you are lucky enough to see it, you're already almost at the ticket barrier and have no chance of reversing back out!
Did it work? Yes. He saw the light eventually.
Other interesting stuff? The sign is small and you see it too late if at all. Is this legally enforceable?

PurplePow

sandraroffey wrote: »

also a good pointer - always, ALWAYS read the parking ticket carefully. IT MAY NOT EVEN BE FOR YOUR CAR!!!!! WE HAVE BEEN TOLD BY THE PARKING OFFICE THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO TAKE THE TICKET OFF THEIR CAR AND STICK IT ON ANOTHER. THE POOR UNSUSPECTING SECOND PERSON VERY RARELY CHECKS THAT IT HAS THEIR OWN REG NUMBER ON IT, AND JUST PAYS IT!!!!.

This happened to my boyfriend! He was parked legally, and he came back to his car and seen a parking ticket. A man parked next to him also came back to his car which 3 parking tickets were stuck on. My boyfriend opened the ticket to find it was for a totally different car on a totally different date, so someone was going round putting their parking tickets on other people's cars to see if someone would be silly enough to pay them!

Also we live in the North East of England. My Mother got a letter through the post some time ago saying she had a parking fine from parking in a street in London and she hadn't paid it yet so it was going further. We don't know how on earth this happened, but she rang saying there must be a mistake, she's never visited London before let alone park there! However they asked for evidence to prove she wasn't parked there?! Luckily she worked it out she was at work at the time and had to get her place of work to write a letter confirming this. If she hadn't been at work then I don't know what would have happened!

saintscouple

What was the fine for? Non-display of parking ticket in an Asda Car Park whilst on holiday.
What was the problem with it? No problem - just didn't see the sign.
Did you try and appeal and on what basis? Yes. The Asda store we have back home doesn't require a parking ticket. I sent an email with a scan of the ticket and reciept of purchase from Asda explaining this.
Did it work? Yes. A couple of days later they emailed back wavering the fee.
Other interesting stuff? Always worth sending an email, even if i like did admitting liability but explaining why it wasn't deliberate.