Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 Not sure where to put this so please admin move to the correct place if necessary. Had a letter from the above saying that I was illegally parked in one of the carparks blah blah and have fined me with all sorts of threats if I do not pay. The only time we can think of ever using this car park was a few weeks ago where we pulled onto it to pick up a takeaway curry. We did not even park and were gone inside two minutes. Do they have any legal powers to take things further. My mate reckons just ignore it and they can do nothing and it’s all hot air but. just wondered if anyone had any dealings with these people before. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 What curry did you get ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted December 21, 2021 Moderator Share Posted December 21, 2021 49 minutes ago, Follyfoot said: Not sure where to put this so please admin move to the correct place if necessary. Had a letter from the above saying that I was illegally parked in one of the carparks blah blah and have fined me with all sorts of threats if I do not pay. The only time we can think of ever using this car park was a few weeks ago where we pulled onto it to pick up a takeaway curry. We did not even park and were gone inside two minutes. Do they have any legal powers to take things further. My mate reckons just ignore it and they can do nothing and it’s all hot air but. just wondered if anyone had any dealings with these people before. Thanks in advance I guess they have a number plate photo and date. Maybe contact them by e mither and ask them to confirm, while telling them the circs of your momentary stop, emphasising that you moved on instead of parking there and that you haven’t otherwise parked there. They should cancel it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister_a Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 I'd start with somewhere reliable(?) like moneysavingexpert or similar, they normally have some good people there who know all the in's and out's. If i recall correctly (probably unlikely), It used to be that only councils could demand payment legally and private companies were basically sending you an invoice that you didn't have to pay, as long as you jumped through the correct hoops, i.e. asking for an account of how the loss was calculated and when they didn't respond, you didn't have to either. However a lot of forums were suddenly mixed with a load of freeman on the land type loonspud cretins who talked about contracts and names and silly shite, so water was muddied somewhat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 31 minutes ago, Mister_a said: If i recall correctly (probably unlikely), It used to be that only councils could demand payment legally and private companies were basically sending you an invoice that you didn't have to pay, as long as you jumped through the correct hoops, i.e. asking for an account of how the loss was calculated and when they didn't respond, you didn't have to either. Essentially it used to be the case that the costs they tried to recover had to reflect actual provable losses, penalty charges were not enforcable. If you overstayed for an hour, and they tried to bill you £100 you could tell them to do one or ignore it entirely, knowing that even if they tried to take you to court you'd be liable for a few quid based on the chargable tariff and reasonable admin fees. The Supreme Court, in all their wisdom, changed this in Parkingeye vs Beavis, and established that the car park management companies had a legitimate interest is preventing overstaying to control the flow of customers in their car parks, and that £85 was not an unreasonable fee as a deterrent against overstaying, which has set the precedent that these fees are enforceable. Anyone advising to just ignore the letters is relying on outdated information, as of 2015 if you just ignore the letters, you're being sued, and you'll lose. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 46 minutes ago, mottaloo said: What curry did you get ? A bloody expensive one by the looks 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Follyfoot said: The only time we can think of ever using this car park was a few weeks ago where we pulled onto it to pick up a takeaway curry. We did not even park and were gone inside two minutes. They should have given you details of when the offence was, with times they allege you breached the contract, if they haven't, contest it and ask for these details. Which company is it? Are they a BPA member? If they are, the BPA Code of Practice specifies a minimum grace period of 10 minutes before drivers are bound by the parking contract and before enforcement action is taken Edit: The title is the company name They are a BPA member, if they're trying to enforce you being there for 2-3 minutes, I would contest it reminding them of the BPA code of practice, specifically Appendix A section 13 https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/BPA_AOS_code_of_practice_version_7_January_2018.pdf Quote 13.1 If a driver is parking without your permission, or at locations where parking is not normally permitted they must have the chance to read the terms and conditions before they enter into the ‘parking contract’ with you. If, having had that opportunity, they decide not to park but choose to leave the car park, you must provide them with a reasonable grace period to leave, as they will not be bound by your parking contract. 13.2 If the parking location is one where parking is normally permitted, you must allow the driver a reasonable grace period in addition to the parking event before enforcement action is taken. In such instances the grace period must be a minimum of 10 minutes. Seems pretty cut and dry to me Edited December 21, 2021 by Davkaus 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 21, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Follyfoot said: Not sure where to put this so please admin move to the correct place if necessary. Had a letter from the above saying that I was illegally parked in one of the carparks blah blah and have fined me with all sorts of threats if I do not pay. The only time we can think of ever using this car park was a few weeks ago where we pulled onto it to pick up a takeaway curry. We did not even park and were gone inside two minutes. Do they have any legal powers to take things further. My mate reckons just ignore it and they can do nothing and it’s all hot air but. just wondered if anyone had any dealings with these people before. Thanks in advance I would write a letter of complaint to Barry Took. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) 9 minutes ago, sidcow said: I would write a letter of complaint to Barry Took. I did but the letter I got back stated that whilst Mr Took empathized with my predicament he is unable to comment further as he is still suffering from a nasty case of death in 2002 Edited December 21, 2021 by Follyfoot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 21, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Follyfoot said: I did but the letter I got back stating that whilst Mr Took empathized with my predicament he is unable to comment further as he is still suffering from a nasty case of death in 2002 Nooooooooooo!..... Why?............... Why oh why oh why? I think I may actually have done this joke on here before. Edited December 21, 2021 by sidcow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted December 21, 2021 Moderator Share Posted December 21, 2021 27 minutes ago, Davkaus said: If they are, the BPA Code of Practice specifies a minimum grace period of 10 minutes before drivers are bound by the parking contract and before enforcement action is taken This was recently reduced to 5 minutes, happened at sometime during the pandemic, I forget exactly when. Which is why I now have a ludicrous amount of parking tickets sent to me by taxi drivers who were only picking up customers booked at that location. The difference the 5 minutes less makes is staggering tbh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) Sadly you are probably screwed Few years back you could just ignore the letter and enjoy the ride as they sent you another 8 letters increase the fine , telling you they were sending bailiffs around , then reducing the fine , then giving you one last chance to pay £50 or they would take you to court .. the loophole was around it being as some kind of fixed penalty which they aren't authorised to issue and thus charging £80 to park was excessive and unlawful but some spineless judge , who was probably on the take , ruled in favour of a company similar to Euro Car parks , so i believe its now nearly impossible to get off these ... you can write a mitigating letter and they can't increase the payment ( if its pay a reduced amount now or it goes up) whilst your appeal is going through the process .. but just about every loophole on these tickets has now been closed ... Edit - should have read the rest of the thread before posting , looks like @Davkaus covered my post Edited December 21, 2021 by tonyh29 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) repost Edited December 21, 2021 by Follyfoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 4 minutes ago, bickster said: This was recently reduced to 5 minutes, happened at sometime during the pandemic, I forget exactly when. Which is why I now have a ludicrous amount of parking tickets sent to me by taxi drivers who were only picking up customers booked at that location. The difference the 5 minutes less makes is staggering tbh whoops, you're right, I linked to an old version, sorry about that @Follyfoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 5 minutes ago, bickster said: This was recently reduced to 5 minutes, happened at sometime during the pandemic, I forget exactly when. Which is why I now have a ludicrous amount of parking tickets sent to me by taxi drivers who were only picking up customers booked at that location. The difference the 5 minutes less makes is staggering tbh that is bloody daft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 1 minute ago, Davkaus said: whoops, you're right, I linked to an old version, sorry about that @Follyfoot no problems, absolute liberty though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) You know who runs the BPA? Parking companies. Isn't self-regulation great. Their remit, like all self-regulating industries, is to ensure long-term profit of their members by taking the piss with the rules as much as they can without it getting overturned in court. Edited December 21, 2021 by Davkaus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phily85 Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Didn't Brexit get rid of these Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 1 hour ago, mottaloo said: What curry did you get ? Cash and Curry 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 21, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said: Cash and Curry In a hurry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts