Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

Last year, eight and a half million people received parking charges from unregulated private parking companies, many of which were issued unfairly. UK MPs across all parties have called these unregulated companies scammers, rogues, and bloodsuckers in open parliament.

A new draft code of practice is available for public consultation in the hope that when it is implemented it will curb the excesses of these currently unregulated private companies.

If you or family or friends have received an unfair charge from one of these companies, you have one week left to have your say. Consultation closes on the twelfth of this month.

You will need to register with an email address and enter an occupation even if you are retired or a homemaker, then tick the bottom box to agree to terms and conditions.

You don't need to comment on every section, but if you to wish to comment on a particular part, you just click on the red "Add/View comments". You can see what others have submitted, then underneath that are two dialogue boxes, one for comments and one for proposed changes.
Care is needed when scrolling because there are two parts; the whole page with an outer slider bar to scroll down to previous comments and dialogue boxes, and within the page, the document you are viewing which has its own red slider bar.

Once you have written in the dialogue boxes you can save them and edit later and then submit them, or submit them straight away if you are happy with your comments.

There is a lot of information that you may or may not wish to look at, but to comment on the draft proposal you need to click on the box in the bottom left corner of this part of the British Standards Institute website.

https://standardsdevelopment.bsigrou...00193#/section

If you don't feel comfortable clicking on a link then you can find the consultation by doing an internet search for PAS 232 British Standards Institute.

This is the one and only chance the public will have to be able to do something about the parking *scam industry.

*MP's words.

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

I hope this isn't diverting your thread fruitcake but I will mention what happened to my friend Jean.

Jean lived in a high rise block of flats . She was moving out so parked her car nearer the front doors in a disabled bay to enable her to go up and down in the lift and pack her car rather than walk across 500yds to her car parking area . Jean is 72

She managed to empty her flat on 11th floor using the lift and packed her bits in her car going up and down about 6 times in lift . This took about an hour . A couple of weeks after moving Jean got a fine of £60 in post . She contacted company and admitted parking in disabled bay and explained about living on 11th floor and clearing out her flat using the lift . Explained that her carpark space was 500yds in other car park . Her son told her not to pay . For 2 years letters back and forth came and went and it did go to court and Jean was fined £250 by the adjudicator and had to pay . There was no bending of the rules whatsoever even though the adjudicator accepted she would have had to walk the 500 yds to her car parking space alone and aged 72 numerous times .

Jean totally admits she did park in disabled space but had hoped it would be understood she was alone and up and down in a lift with boxes would have enabled understanding from parking company but it didnt .

A lesson learned and never to be done again . We all make mistakes and hers was an expensive one

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

First a point of order, this was not a fine, it was an invoice from an unregulated parking scammer.

I suspect Jean didn't get proper advice or help.

Judge Harris said in the persuasive Appeal Court case that loading and unloading is not parking.
The Blue Badge scheme does not apply on private land.
A resident's lease or assured short term tenancy agreement trumps anything an unregulated third part scammer might say.
Maximum allowable court costs against a defendant if they lose (if defended properly) are the original charge plus court fees which should not exceed £200 in total. Normally the court appearance fee is not approved so normally a court claim would result in a judgement of no more than £175.

Amongst other things, private parking companies have been known to lie in court and during the appeals stage, doctor time stamps on their 'photo evidence, make wording on signage so small it is unreadable, Carry a portable sign to put next to a car then take a photo then take the sign away, remove signs during the appeal stage, and much, much more.

This is why Jean and her son, and anyone else who has been caught by these scammers should comment on the draft code of practice.

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

That's interesting fruitcake . I will tell Jean what you've said .

It was a terribly upsetting 2 years as Jean felt she should hold out for what she felt was right. It went against her as shown in my thread .

I also have heard of private car parks with cameras that click on your number plate . Some folk have driven in and out within minutes because no spaces left only to find they are fined for entering and leaving and have awful fights on their hands

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) for car park monitoring is not fit for purpose because it doesn't measure parking time, only time on site, and is set to deliberately record two visits as one long one.

The UK Government doesn't allow ANPR to be used in council or local authority car parks, but parking scammers use it and use the systems flaws to generate millions of pounds a year in revenue.

Neither of the two current appeals systems are independent, being funded by parking companies themselves. One of them, the IAS, is owned and run by the same people who own and run one of the two parking trade associations, and a solicitors company that takes motorists to court for breaches of parking terms.
Not too incestuous then.
The other appeals service has notably had trouble counting to fourteen, but that's another matter.

The government is finally trying to do something about it having made such a huge c0ck-up when they allowed vehicle keepers to be liable for parking charges in 2012, even though they may not have been in the car at the time.
This is why a parking charge should never be ignored, especially as the scammers have six years to start a court claim, and are currently doing because revenue has fallen due to covid.
Often people move in that time but there is no requirement for scammers to check the address of a motorist again once they get keeper details from the DVLA, sometimes yeas prior to the court claim. The first time someone finds out about this is when they find a has been obtained against them when they try to obtain credit.

Anyway, rant over.

Everyone, please have your say before it is too late.

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

I parked in Matalan car park I was parked for 40 minutes, the notice says £1 up to 2 hours, when I put my car reg in ...instead of 40 minutes , it read an hour and a half..and wanted me to pay£2 .I cancelled and tried again...same thing.....asked for £2....no way would I pay that, so I put £1 in......and left. the thing is...the machine used to give a receipt, but it doesn't now..so you have no proof that you've paid....I have a friend who is a lawyer, and he told me that if you leave the private car park without paying and they send you a fine....ignore it , don't answer, don't correspond with them,,,,it's a receipt ...not a fine.

Re: Unfair private parking tickets, have your say.

It is not a fine and your friend the lawyer should know this. It's an invoice and if issued unfairly it should be appealed not paid or ignored.

The advice to ignore is very bad advice since parking companies have up to six years to start a court claim, and many do. Tens of thousands of court claims were issued by parking companies last year.
Again, your friend the lawyer should know this, and should not being giving advice that could result in someone getting a court claim, and worst case getting a CCJ against them, which they may not even know about until they apply for credit. In England and Wales, the vehicle keeper can be liable, and in Scotland that will soon apply as well.

Many parking scammers are currently going back over old cases to issue court claims because their revenue has dropped 80% due to Covid.

Watch out if you are within six years in England or Wales, or five years in Scotland.

The only place it is currently safe to ignore a private parking charge in the UK is Northern Ireland where there is no keeper liability.

I've just read about the disgusting company called VCS, owned by a millionaire, that issued a parking charge to a war veteran who had had his legs blown off by a bomb. He was having a nap in his mobility car, with his wheelchair and false legs in plain site, and got a ticket for parking in a disabled bay without displaying a blue badge.
The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land so did not breach any laws or rules, and was obviously entitled to park in a disabled bay, but the the greedy scammers didn't care.
The parking scammers took him to court and won despite the fact that he had the protection of the Equality Act and Consumer Rights Act.