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

meester

michaels wrote: »

I was in a hire car (free Renault for the weekend, see motoring board) and stopped on a yellow line to allow my family to disembark - as you are allowed to do under the regulations. The enforcement camera obviously filmed the vehicle stationary and a ticket was sent to the hire company. The hire company policy is to pay the tickets plus charge an admin fee (first I knew of it was a #90 charge to my credit card) even though there is the option for them to return the ticket to the council with the name and address of the hirer.

The good bit is that the parking regulations say that once a fine has been paid it can not be appealed so even though I committed no offence I can not recover the fine or the fee. You have been warned :mad:

Dispute the charge with the credit card company.

scottysnetmail

This is a bit of a strange one…

I received a fixed penalty fine for parking without displaying a valid ticket while parked in Glasgow recently.

The road in question had no markings on the carriageway or pavement with only a sign stating that it was a restricted parking zone on a pole on the opposite side of the road.

Does the ticket still stand if there were no road markings is the sign (if a little small) sufficient for the council to issue ticket?

Belnahua

What was the fine for? Overstaying 30 mins free parking; whilst working on an urgent callout (as a field engineer)

What was the problem with it? The signs were ankle height facing away from the road, and no markings in the bays. In fact the road signs on entering the town invited you to park free in the bays, again with no 30 minute warning on them. (Although I understand that has been changed now).

Did you try and appeal and on what basis? Yes, I claimed the signs were virtually invisible - a local shop keeper showed me them, and said they (the police) get 100's of fines like this.

Did it work? No, taken straight to court and threatened with arrest if I didn't show.

Other interesting stuff? I had to take a day off work, drive 60 miles to the court. I was made to sit with druggies, prostitutes, people up for knife offences and even one up for rape. All for a £30 fine. I plead guilty as I was so petrified (first time ever in a court) and just wanted to get out of there asap. The council didn't even look at my photos, they just took me straight to court, when I queried the fine and with no appeal. I am livid to this day that I was bullied and blackmailed.

nicoleanne77

Parked in Hythe Kent, bought ticket and displayed in windscreen. Got a ticket for failing to display. Luckily had independant witness - driver of car in next bay and a friend, who was ex mayor of local town, to vouch for us. We were let off fine but the letter said 'on this occasion'..... We wrote back asking on what occasion as we had not committed an offence at all; that it was the traffic warden at fault but we did not receive a reply to that!

Welsh_Adey

Hi All,

I had some good fun with my parking ticket. I had a company car, and I packed it, went to put some cash into the meter and never had any change, so poped into a shop to get some change, 2 minutes later someone came in and said a ticket warden is out side. I ran out side, said to here i was getting change, she was a little rude, so jumped in my car and drove off, and the ticket was never put on my screen.

About 3 months later i had a letter from my company, saying that i had never paid a ticket, and that it will take the fine out of my wage packed (was £100) and a £25 administration fee! Could not believe it! talk about cheek!

I found a guide on line, which cost about £4, and it told me all about the rules of parking, issueing parking tickets, size of parking bays etc. There was lots of information. I think it was called "No More Parcking Tickets" or NMPT. It said that if a ticket is not issued in a particular way, then the ticket is invalid. I.e. the traffic wadern has to fill it in correctly, while wearing full uniform (inc hat etc) and it must either be placed under your windscreen wiper or given to you. Also this document had template letters, and had exmaples if cases that had been taken to court and won by the car owner. So a letter was sent, using the templates, with reference to a court case etc.

The council sent back photos of my car (taken from a digital camera, which I am sure in court would not be able to use due to the nature digital images easily being modified) of a parking ticket. It was in fact my parking permit to park on the road i lived on. The council initially said that the owner of the car could only complain, after explain that it was a company car, and that i was driving but not the owner, they eventually looked at my case. It took the best part of a year from the parking ticket being issued for me to getting a refund in full of the ticket and the silly administration fee that my company placed, £4 spent, got £125 back.

If you want more information, please ask, as i think i got all the documents, i still got the PDF file that I bought, so i could probably point you in the right way to obtain a copy.

badgerspants

What was the fine for? Overstaying the 1.5 hour 'free' parking at my local Budgens store... by 16 minutes (oops!).

What was the problem with it? In theory, they caught me fair and square! I overstayed my welcome, and received a 'Parking Charge Notice' in the post, to the tune of £70 (reduced to £50 if payed within 14days)...

Did you try and appeal and on what basis? After trawling forums for a good few hours, I came to the conclusion that it may be worth appealing on the following grounds;
1. No sign was displayed on entry to the car park telling me I was under contract just by driving in- this breaks private car park regulations.
2. No ticket was placed on my vehicle at the time of the offence. Another rule-break on their part.
3. A private company CANNOT demand money from you outside of court- this is a breach of the Bill of Rights 1689, and actually meant THEY had broken the law while I had only breached a private contract that I don't recall entering! It's also worth noting, that you can't enter into a contract passively (i.e. without signing anything)- so it's very unlikely to hold up in court.
4. Going along the bank charges route, I stated that the OFT would be likely to consider the charge unfair, as I doubt very much that their company incurred costs of £70 in the 16 minutes I overstayed.

I then asked for a full breakdown of how they came to the figure of £70 if they wished to persue the matter, highlighting that I planned to take legal action against them as THEY had broken the law by demanding money from me... :mad:

Also, made sure they letter was sent recorded delivery.

Did it work? It did indeed!! I received a reply less than a week later, simply stating that 'in view of the representations made in connection with the issue of the charge, we inform you that we have decided to cancel this notice and no further action is to be taken. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.'
:beer:
Other interesting stuff? I gave copies of the letter I sent to two work colleagues who were in the same position a few months ago... they haven't heard back from the company since.

Chad_C_Mulligan_2

What for: Returning to a Sheffield suburban shopping centre car park within 5 hours of previous visit

Problem: I had parked the car there at 8am for 10 mins, the second visit was by my girlfriend at 12.30.

Appealed on the basis that there was no reason for me to have mentioned my visit to the car park to her so, although the car had returned within the 5 hours, the driver hadn't. (In any case, neither of us was aware that there was no return within the somewhat extraordinary 5 hrs. As the main shop there is Tesco I can't see how this helps build repeat visits.)

Appeal rejected because the evidence they go by is photos of cars, not drivers.

Solicitor friend advised that it wasn't worth the hassle of taking it to court as I would have lost at least a day's work traveling to the court, negating any "win" on the parking charge.

Tigsteroonie

Chad_C_Mulligan wrote: »

What for: Returning to a Sheffield suburban shopping centre car park within 5 hours of previous visit

I have often wondered about this. I drop into Mr T's on my way into work for my own shopping. I may then get sent back to the same shop to buy coffee, tea etc for the office. My car can be there twice, sometimes even three times, in the same work-day. I don't think there are rules about not returning (I must check!), but there is a time-limit of 3 hours per stay. Should I prepare for potential photos by ensuring that my car is parked in a distinctly different space each time?

Dezza666

Hi,

What was the fine for?
Parked in a Visitors Car Parking Space on a Crest Nicholson site in Aylesbury whilst visiting my Sister who was renting a flat in the finished block at the front of the site until her flat had been completed.

What was the problem with it? I came out at 23.00 hours to find that my car had been removed. :eek: I was fined £418.00 by HFH Management Parking Ltd to get my car back and had to travel 15 miles to meet the pick up truck half way to do so. (£370.00 fine plus £45.00 storage plus £3.00 charge to pay by card because it was the only way they could accept payment on a Sunday night. I had no choice but to pay because I needed the car to drive the 40 mile journey home or else I had to wait until the next day and somehow travel 30 miles to their storage facility. :mad:
The site was inadequately lit and so were the signs that had been put up advising that cars that were illegally parked in reserved spaces would be clamped and then eventually removed. NO ATTEMPT HAD BEEN MADE TO CLAMP MY VEHICLE. As far as I was concerned I was not illegally parked. When we went to pick up my car at the rendezvous point the driver explained to my sister and me that they do not bother clamping vehicles because it was a waste of their time having to keep going back to check whether the owner had turned up or not.

Did you try and appeal and on what basis?
I tried to appeal for a full refund to Crest Nicholson who had hired HFH Parking Management Ltd as their agents, sending them photos of the site showing the signs that night and then again the next morning. So that they could see my argument.

Did it work?
No they refused to give me a refund saying that the Visitors Car Parking spaces were for visitors to the Marketing Suite and not for general visitors. Nowhere did it say this as my pictures clearly show.

Other interesting stuff?
When I got my car back at the rendezvous point I was given a leaflet which said that my car had been clamped as well as the removal notice. Both were timed for 21.40 which proves that they did not carry out their procedures correctly. If they had I would only have been fined £145 which would have been bad enough. It's obvious why they instantly remove the vehicle , so that they can make more money out of innocent victims. I have since found out from one of the Crest Nicholson staff on site that HFH Management Parking Ltd had one of their staff living in the same block of flats as my sister at the time of my Vehicle Removal who was obviously advising his company of any cars which he considered to be illegally parked. Since he left the flat no cars have been clamped or removed.

What should I do next? Should I take Crest Nicholson OR HFH Management Parking Ltd to the Small Claims Court?

disney2007_2

:mad: I have challenged two parking tickets and won on both occasions.

First was I was 1 minute over the time limit, This is because I was in a wheelchair at the time and everything is on go slow when your in a wheelchair. The parking attendant only waited 1 minute, it even stated it on the ticket how fast he presented me with the parking ticket.:mad:

Second instence was in windermere last year when my disabled badge fell off the dash board on to its side. You could still see the badge but I got the ticket because it was on its side and not displayed properly. Again I paid the ticket and then they refunded it within the 2 weeks. :mad:
Are these people on comission with tickets or am I really unlikey to get tickets for really silly thing?