Rob182 Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Super people on VillaTalk! I need your help. Today, I got home to a parking fine of £100. I'm pissed off, to say the least. Apparently, you're not able to park at the Merry Hill Ultimate Outdoors car park for more than 2 hours. This is new to me, as I have been parking at Merry Hill, including the car park at the Ultimate Outdoors part for free for years. Can I appeal this, on some grounds? The letter is from Parking Eye Limited, who privately own the land. I stayed there for 2 hours 20 minutes. 20 minutes over the allowed time. The letter says that the signage is clearly displayed at the entrance and throughout the car park. I'm planning to go back tomorrow and see how clear the signage is. Personally, I hadn't noticed any signs, but maybe I just didn't look? The letter also has photos of my car entering and leaving the car park, as well as the usual stuff about the fine being reduced to £60 if I pay in 14 days of being issued, which is 19/08. Annoyingly, it says it was issued on 05/08, but it's only landed in my postbox today, 6 days later. Are there some sort of grounds I can base on, that these must be fairly new restrictions, and the signs should boldly inform you of 'new parking restrictions' ? Or am I reaching here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 (edited) AFAIK if its private land its a civil matter and they have no legal power to make you pay. They can take you to court (small claims perhaps) but would they do that for £100? Edited August 12, 2016 by Xela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Only the council and the police can issue a parking penalty with legal authority ... Presumably these are neither so I think it's safe to ignore * youll get load more letters intended to scare you into paying but you're not obliged to i got around 10 letters on one of mine some of which informed me bailiffs would be arriving ( illegal without a court case first )... The fine kept increasing then they even wrote to say they'd settle for £40 eventually they got bored and stopped writing to me * only potential thing to worry about is they did change the law a year or so back that may have given these cowboys a bit more of a chance of winning moneyexpert has a forum dedicated to this , within it you'll have a list of all the cowboy companies and even the chain of letters they will send you and their advice on if you should ignore or pay 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 if its a private carpark by entering the signed carpark do you not enter some sort of contract ....as in you park you pay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 3 minutes ago, Meath_Villan said: if its a private carpark by entering the signed carpark do you not enter some sort of contract ....as in you park you pay The legal argument has always been that they aren't allowed to enforce a "fine" on you and that £100 isn't a fair amount for parking charges .... One argument is you send them £3 or £4 to compensate them a reasonable amount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Just now, tonyh29 said: The legal argument has always been that they aren't allowed to enforce a "fine" on you and that £100 isn't a fair amount for parking charges .... One argument is you send them £3 or £4 to compensate them a reasonable amount unless the signage would state the specified fine if an unpaid ticket, it would be like the terms and conditions as in you agreed to the fine upon entering (contract)? your only way out would be to try and argue poor signage ..... to be honest I wouldn't know just late night overthinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 (edited) The thing is that they aren't allowed to issue any fine ...best they could go for is a civil action for trespassing and a claim for nuisance perhaps ? But that requires a court case not menacing letters threatening bailiffs etc Edited August 12, 2016 by tonyh29 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted August 12, 2016 Author Share Posted August 12, 2016 34 minutes ago, Meath_Villan said: if its a private carpark by entering the signed carpark do you not enter some sort of contract ....as in you park you pay It's not a pay to park car park. It's a free car park that seemingly allows you to stay for 2 hours maximum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted August 12, 2016 Author Share Posted August 12, 2016 Thanks for the info Tony. I'll have a look on moneyexpert and see if I'll be able to just ignore the buggers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 1 hour ago, tonyh29 said: The legal argument has always been that they aren't allowed to enforce a "fine" on you and that £100 isn't a fair amount for parking charges .... One argument is you send them £3 or £4 to compensate them a reasonable amount yep, if you do respond at all you can respond offering to pay for loss of earnings, which based on being 20 minutes over in a free to park car park is approximately £0...they cannot in any way shape or form justify the £100 cost to themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 12 hours ago, Rob182 said: Super people on VillaTalk! I need your help. Today, I got home to a parking fine of £100. I'm pissed off, to say the least. Apparently, you're not able to park at the Merry Hill Ultimate Outdoors car park for more than 2 hours. This is new to me, as I have been parking at Merry Hill, including the car park at the Ultimate Outdoors part for free for years. Can I appeal this, on some grounds? The letter is from Parking Eye Limited, who privately own the land. I stayed there for 2 hours 20 minutes. 20 minutes over the allowed time. The letter says that the signage is clearly displayed at the entrance and throughout the car park. I'm planning to go back tomorrow and see how clear the signage is. Personally, I hadn't noticed any signs, but maybe I just didn't look? The letter also has photos of my car entering and leaving the car park, as well as the usual stuff about the fine being reduced to £60 if I pay in 14 days of being issued, which is 19/08. Annoyingly, it says it was issued on 05/08, but it's only landed in my postbox today, 6 days later. Are there some sort of grounds I can base on, that these must be fairly new restrictions, and the signs should boldly inform you of 'new parking restrictions' ? Or am I reaching here? It's not a parking ticket it's a speculative invoice I doubt very much parking eye own the land but are merely acting as agents and might not even have the rights to issue charges or take open proceedings. however parking eye is the worst offender when it comes to using the small claims court to try to get people to pay up do not appeal, challenge the ticket. They claim you parked for X amount of time, I doubt very much they have any proof, just a anpr photo of your vehicle being driven into and exiting the car park. you will fail in your challenge, parking companies like parking eye only make money from people paying there. ANPR is unreliable especially if set up badly and can result in 2 short visits, maybe without even parking, just to drop off and later pick up passengers as one long visit. Any contractual charge is quite clearly a deterrent aims to discourage and as such is unenforceable, well until parking eye v beavis muddied the waters where parking eye lied to and mislead the supreme court to get a favourable judgement, however that judgement only applies to car parks were parking companies pay to farm them Don't take parking eyes work re signage, I know of parking eye managed car parks were entrance signs are not present, and when they are there are strict guidelines as to there placement and makeup, ie colours used fonts etc. I'm currently at work but check out the http://www.parking-prankster.com/ and http://forums.pepipoo.com/ for excellent advice and help learning how to deal with there parasites oh and don't admit to being the driver, decline their request, defending these as the keeper is a better strategy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 9 hours ago, villa4europe said: yep, if you do respond at all you can respond offering to pay for loss of earnings, which based on being 20 minutes over in a free to park car park is approximately £0...they cannot in any way shape or form justify the £100 cost to themselves legal argument has been muddied by by Parking eye V's beavis. but yes basically they can claim for breach of contract, or trespass, both of which are limited to actual loss suffered., any amount which is excessive is deemed an penalty and is unenforceable, fortunately most people running parking companies are buffoons with very poor grasp of the law and many evolved from the ransom industry that was clamping and havn't evolved much beyond expecting payment upon demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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