Outrageous parking fine

[Rockingit]

I've just gone through the slightly-on-the-point-of tipping-over pile this morning and found something in last weeks post that somehow didn't get opened - a parking charge notice. So, I looks at it, and the steam starts to come out of the ears almost instantly.... Fleet Services on the M3, 03:41 in the morning (yes, as in before sparrows) until 06:56 - so in other words me pulling over for a kip on one of my late night drives back to Somerset after a show somewhere. Maximum free parking 2hrs. You can even see me asleep in the cab on the picture they've got!!!!

If they don't agree with my appeal on it then this'll be going to straight to Anne Robinson!! How on earth can you encourage drivers to 'not drive tired' and to use the services as they are meant to be, but then penalise them for doing so?!! If the public thought that a safety kip could cost them £60 then you'd better off the roads as there'll far more accidents.

:66:

 

[telectrix]

scrutinise the ticket minutely. we had one where the hitler had written 1 letter of the reg. wrong. he'd put a W instead of a M. the ticket was thus invalid.

 

[trev]

I agree with your outrage mate, it boils me up when you see a notice telling you if you stay longer than a certain time youare agreeing by implication to an extortionate fee dreamt up by an idiot then doubled by his equally idiotic colleague.

 

[kathwilcox]

My other have got a parking ticket in a morrisons car park for parking somewhere he shouldn't have because all of the other spaces were full, he was gone for 4 minutes, it stated this on the ticket, he screwed it up and gave it back to the guy who wrote it, nothing has ever come of it, this was about a year ago!

 

[Bobster]

I know a lad who also got a parking ticket in morrisons. He had gone over the 2hour time limit.

Funny thing is he was working there!

 

[kathwilcox]

supermarkets are a joke!

They have parent and child spaces fair enough!

then they have the disabled spaces right outside the door! fair enough!

But the above two probably have all day to do there shopping/socialising or whatever it is they do in a supermarket!

So i think that they should also have working persons spaces for the working person who is in a rush, just needs a pee, paper or packet of smokes and is only going to be a matter of minutes!

 

[telectrix]

and why is it that it's only the disabled and parent & child spaces that are wide enough to open your doors?

 

[SparkyJoe]

Right, first stop. Unless the parking ticket is issued from a council (Ie your on double yellow lines, or a council owned car park) its not worth the bit of paper its written on. your best bet (i find) is to stick it in a draw and forget about it. don't bother appealing, its seen as an admission of guilt and you wont win, its a private company who govern there own rules.

It generally boils down to the fact it costs them more to take you to court then its worth, you might get some bull**** letters about debt collectors, but you have to go to court to have debt collectors after you, & see point 1.

more info: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

Theres other awsome websites on the subject, but the top and bottom is the same.

 

[Geordie Spark]

I've just gone through the slightly-on-the-point-of tipping-over pile this morning and found something in last weeks post that somehow didn't get opened - a parking charge notice. So, I looks at it, and the steam starts to come out of the ears almost instantly.... Fleet Services on the M3, 03:41 in the morning (yes, as in before sparrows) until 06:56 - so in other words me pulling over for a kip on one of my late night drives back to Somerset after a show somewhere. Maximum free parking 2hrs. You can even see me asleep in the cab on the picture they've got!!!!

If they don't agree with my appeal on it then this'll be going to straight to Anne Robinson!! How on earth can you encourage drivers to 'not drive tired' and to use the services as they are meant to be, but then penalise them for doing so?!! If the public thought that a safety kip could cost them £60 then you'd better off the roads as there'll far more accidents.

:66:

Don't bother appealing - in fact don't bother making contact of any kind. That ticket is not worth the paper it's written on.

 

[D Skelton]

For god sake Rockingit don't make any form of contact with them!

Fold the letter up and keep it somewhere safe and just sit on it. You'll receive a few final warning notices and maybe a few debt collector letters, these are purely just to frighten you into paying but after that, they'll leave you alone.

In this country, under civil contract law, you cannot fine or impose a financial penalty on someone for breach of contract (see stated case: Harrison v Michelin Tyre Co Ltd [1985] 1 All ER 918), that's all you have done by overstaying your welcome. Private companies never have and never will be able to issue fines.

Ignore, ignore, ignore some more, ignore again, then move on with your life

If you need further information, feel free to PM me or alternatively head over to PePiPoo, I used to be a mod on there years ago. This thread alone should be more than enough to persuade you how best to approch the situation: Dealing with "tickets" from Private Parking Companies (PPCs) - FightBack Forums

 

[Rockingit]

Don't worry - I've certainly no intention of either paying them money or getting embroiled in some big dispute. For now, I'm quite happy to waste their time responding to a few emails though. My other half is a little jumpy about threatening letters due to the behaviour of an ex years ago so if I want a nag free life then she wants to see things responded to. I have wondered though if Watchdog might like the story because of the safety aspect.

It did have an upside though - at least I know that DVLA have finally sorted out the V5 after I bought the van, even if the postman did lose it originally!

 

[alarm man]

i find if its a council/police parking ticket pay it as they will pursue it,if its one of these private companies,bin it most dont follow it up even if they do just keep teling them to do one..bassers every single one of them normaly some meat head who thinks he's tough when theres 2 of them,not so tough when by themselves,allegedly,cough..:angel_smile:

 

[D Skelton]

Trust me, if you reply they will have hooked you. All they will do then is reel you in and believe me, you will end up in a dispute with them. If you ignore them, they'll eventually give up but if you even so much as acknowledge their existence, they will persue you for much much longer!

It's up to you but my strong and well informed advice would be to never reply to any of their letters.

Best of luck

 

[alarm man]

the good news is clamping on private land becomes illegal on 1st october,but the bassers have ramped their extortion fines to get as much in before the gravy train ends,know 2 of our lads had to pay £150 which rose to £600 if not paid within 2 hours..id rather do time:6:

 

[HandySparks]

the good news is clamping on private land becomes illegal on 1st october,but the bassers have ramped their extortion fines to get as much in before the gravy train ends,know 2 of our lads had to pay £150 which rose to £600 if not paid within 2 hours..id rather do time:6:

I'm normally very careful where I park but, in a slightly perverse way, I'd quite like to find out how quickly the cordless angle grinder in the van will cut the lock off a wheel clamp.

 

[alarm man]

I'm normally very careful where I park but, in a slightly perverse way, I'd quite like to find out how quickly the cordless angle grinder in the van will cut the lock off a wheel clamp.

not as quick as being threatened by a cosh sized bit of 25mm galv,allegedly this does happen in other parts of the country

 

[Guest111]

I'm normally very careful where I park but, in a slightly perverse way, I'd quite like to find out how quickly the cordless angle grinder in the van will cut the lock off a wheel clamp.

If you really want to wind them up then glue a wine glass to the centre of each wheel trim,then park it where it,ll get clamped.the law states that a vehicle can,t be clamped if the clamp will damage any part of the vehicle,incidentally a clamp won,t fit over the wine glass lol.

 

[Knobhead]

I owned a city centre carparking space, made a few bob out of clamping folks that thought they'd found a cheep, safe parking place.
One tried the angle grinder, I called the police, he got done.

 

[Rockingit]

I owned a city centre carparking space, made a few bob out of clamping folks that thought they'd found a cheep, safe parking place.
One tried the angle grinder, I called the police, he got done.

Just purely out of interest, on what grounds did you have to clamp?

 

[alarm man]

Just purely out of interest, on what grounds did you have to clamp?

to make money maybe

 

[baldelectrician]

the good news is clamping on private land becomes illegal on 1st october,but the bassers have ramped their extortion fines to get as much in before the gravy train ends,know 2 of our lads had to pay £150 which rose to £600 if not paid within 2 hours..id rather do time:6:

It's never been legal in Scotland.

 

[Knobhead]

Just purely out of interest, on what grounds did you have to clamp?

I paid good money for the parking place and got p****d off with not being able to park when I got home from work. The police will attend if someone gets stroppy.
Plus it saved them looking for the nicked cars that got left there. I got screwed out of 50 quid every time I reported one!
I did get a reward for helping them nab a couple of drive by bag snatches. They used the car on several occasions unfortunatly for them I'd clamped it when they returned to go on another spree.

 

[UNG]

I know of someone who was clamped his mate was a locksmith who removed the clamp in no time with no damage having tried to return the clamp to it's owner he took it home looking to return it the following day the following morning he had the police on his doorstep at 7am trying to arrest him for theft and damage to the clamp. Can't remember what the final outcome was but the police took the clamp back to it's owner and questioned him about a counter-claim of harassment

 

[Paul.M]

I got one of these private parking tickets in the city center whilst going to a job last year. At the time that he wrote the ticket out I was still in the van having a cig and waiting for the customer to turn up. Sound advice from others, dont reply to them. have a look at some of the parking ticket forums, no one goes to court over these things. So far I,ve had 3 letters demanding payment and two really cr4p solicitors letters that looked like a 6 year old typed up, all ignored and nothing more has come of it.