Private Parking Companies/Charges - Advice Paper (everything you need to know)

[MikeBigg]

jp44 - take care with "interesting"'s posts and advice - he is associated with private parking companies.

There are many here who can and will offer proper advice.

Regards,

Mike

[jp44]

Thanks Mike for the advice, appreciate it.
I have received good advice from other sources which I am acting on.
Apparently Town & City are getting quite a reputation for this scam and they also use a debt collector with their threats, both from Scotland. JP44

[FightOPC]

Hi Guys,

I woke up today and found an OPC "Private Parking Ticket" on my car. The facts:

- Parked in my own space that I rent as part of my tenants agreement.
- Parking permit displayed on the dash board, face up and visible from outside the car (although I suppose this would depend on angle, presumably the guy didn't look that hard.)
- Clear OPC signage around the car park.
- Car park is private and has electronic gates. Was informed that OPC do not yet have a key FOB for these gates, but entered anyway, presumably tailgating. (Don’t know if this makes a difference.)

Have read lots of posts and am suffering info overload, plus not too keen on all the legal jargon. I was wondering if someone could either give some brief clear advice or point me in the right direction. I honestly think they are in the wrong.

Many thanks.

[furiousmotorist]

Hi Peter,

Good work, looks like you've helped a lot of people save a lot of money!

I too have recently been a victim of UKPC, i received a £90 parking fine for parking in a visitors space in my block of flats at 6pm and another at 5am!!

I undertook a lot of research in this area before finding your website, fortunately I have a law degree so found this a lot easier than most members of the public might. Your work is invaluable - keep it up!

I thought I might also mention that the British Parking Association (BPA) have a code of practice which these registered private parking firms have to adhere to. Their website has a copy of this which is only about 30 pages long. On reading through the code of practice I found 6 areas where they were breaching the code and have successfully used this to have UKPC drop the charges. I'm sure that many of the cowboy firms fall short of this guidance so it might be useful for some of your readers.

Much of the code is straight forward and says that the parking companies must do such things as
* state the property is private land
* take photos which relate to the parking offense (not just the number plate!)
* ensure that the address provided on the signs and any written correspondence is a full postal address not just a P O Box address

Sound familiar? Take a look, I'm sure you can find several areas where they have breached this code. BEING A MEMBER OF THE BPA MEANS THEY CAN ACCESS YOUR INFORMATION FROM THE DVLA, COMPANIES WHO FAIL TO ADHERE TO THIS CODE CAN HAVE THEIR MEMBERSHIP REVOKED!

If anyone reading this is in a similar situation, I am happy to share the letter I have written (I've also posted it in every letter box in my block of flats and put it under every window screen of all the cars in the gated carpark!) so if your interested, please send me an email at emmavsutton@hotmail.com

[ncf355]

Excellent stuff Peter

I tried to give you Kudos but for some reason the scales wont let me!

Many thanks for your hard work

[Wop/ag]

This is my first post. I have received a PCN from UKPC in regard to parking my car At McDonalds, Livingston for 1h57m when according to them there is a notice stating that after 1hr. a fine of £75 rising to £95 if not paid within 14 Days. I did not see the notice so don't see how I could have agreed to the contract. I am loath to pay any PCN but would appreciatesome advice as how to proceed.

[patrick187_]

Hiya guys and girls,

First post - go easy

Got a demand in Jan 08 for £50 for parking out of bay on private land (piece of tarmac off road and off pavement adjacent to gym). Wrote letter to company based on the templates provided on this site stating that the company had not incurred any loss and therefore I was not going to pay anything. Since I was also not obstructed the private highway or pavement I did not really think I had done anything wrong. I heard nothing until today when I got a letter from my employer showing that they had paid a bill for £130 to the lease company who in turn had paid £130 to the parking company.

Any suggestions on where to go from here? I am a bit bemused as to why 1) the lease company simply paid the bill without contacting me and 2) why my employer paid the invoice without contacting me (assuming they have paid it - will find out tomorrow) . Anyway I am expecting a very lengthy telcon with payroll tomorrow (*sigh*). Interestingly payroll have not said they will take out of my wages they have just sent me an invoice - I undestand that may have been illegal if they had.

Any suggestions?

Cheers, Patrick

[scaniaman]

The other item under FAQ's may be some advice on how to deal with debt collectors if they come to your house. The debt? may be sold on.

[scaniaman]

Razor 1965, on the ticket inside the "Official Looking" sticky windscreen packet, there are a number of boxes describing various misdeemenors? Your MAJOR CRIME should be ticked. Mine was for parking without a permit.

[scaniaman]

Fellow posters, can I ask a big favour from you all? There are heeps of excellent advice on these sites relating to parking on private land. Help is being sought from all over the UK. Would it be at all possible, when replying with Legal Advice, to perhaps end reply with a capital E or S or I.
I ask this to save time browsing through page after page of stuff that is irrelevant, depending in which part of UK you live in and therefore which laws apply to your circumstances. E=england & wales. S=scotland & I= ireland. As an example,AJA1970(s40) is ok for E&W, but not S. Whereas Protection from Harassment act 1997(c40) + AJA1972 is ok for S. Which country/s is Fraud Act 1966 relevant to ?? Make sense???
Another question has been asked of me which has never been addressed, and would likely require someone with planning experience to answer. Quote:- If someone opens a large retail outlet or retail complex of smaller outlets, are they legally obliged to provide customer parking?(free or otherwise). If answer is yes, then what %age of spaces are to be given over to Blue Badge Holders? S

[scaniaman]

Originally Posted by turkey

I know its old but what happend. i had a Notice come thru last night for £80 as i stayed over 2hrs. i didnt see any signs.they say they have video evidence? can i ask for a copy of this? are they breaching my human rights? any suggestions?

Video Evidence eh. It seems that some of these PPC guys may be doing somethings illegally. I know a guy who was getting himself into all sorts of vehicular trouble, most of which was not his own fault. Eventually, he got fed up with it and adopted the attitude "If these guys (mainly police) think im'e a CRIM, then I will become one. He managed somehow to do something very naughty we can't allow on cag

[scaniaman]

Thats not very naughty, do you want me to tell you some real corkers??? or will you blank them too. Considering all the stories of unfairness on this site and others, I consider the end justifies the means.

[El Mariachi]

Hi All

This is a query that comes from the other side of the fence. I completely agree that these extorsionist practices are deplorable, but spare a thought please for those of us who have private land that is not easily secured, and who suffer persistent illegal parking to the extent that we can't use it for our own vehicles.

If it comes to it we're just going to have to bite the bullet and put up gates but thats going to cost us hundreds if not thousands of pounds, and means a load of hassle with shared keys which you then have to replace when tennants move in and out etc.

I shouldn't have to tell someone that its illegal to trespass on my land, it just is. Whatever happened to ignorance being no defence?

I want to put up some sort of signage that will be an effective and more importantly inforceable deterrent, and that wont allow people to tie me up in endless legal knots over whether or not it creates a contract, or what a reasonable level of damages might be for trespass given that its not a public car park so theres no existing fees structure.

As it is I spend half my time remonstrating with people who basically just tell me to £$% off when I confront them, or worse still the "ive only been/I'll just be here 5 minutes" brigade - its private you cant come here at all!
Why cant people just undertstand this?

[wowiezowie]

This clears a lot of things up for me, thanks for the hard work

[scaniaman]

Parkingforall.Hope you paid by credit card or certain versions of Visa debit card. If so, contact cc company immediately by phone and explain story and ask them to do Clawback for you. Then follow this up by writing the cc company to confirm phone call. Send this by rec del.Best of luck, and keep us informed of results.

[_AllyB_]

Hi everyone.


I received a parking ticket for parking in a Private Car Park that had been free to park until recently. I was not aware of the parking had since become privately owned and parked there as normal only to come back and find a Parking Charge of £60. I have twice written to them to dispute the charge and the charge has since risen by £3 a day to £189.


On the Parking Charge itself there is no reason for the charge given. They have since sent me their copy of the charge where a line has been put through the box stating "without a valid pay and display ticket" however this is not on the original parking charge I received and looks like it may have been written on afterwards.


Does this make them in breach of the law of contract regulations and at £189 is this charge still justifiable and enforceable and therefore is it now deemed extravagant and unconscionable?


Would anybody be able to advise me on this?

Many Thanks

[lamma]

Ignore them.
Job done.

[stu22uk]

Hello everyone, Here goes with my first post -

I received one of these parking tickets from a private company called Town and Ciy Parking for parking in a disabled parking space (without authorisation) in a private car park in Glasgow. I felt when I received it that something wasn't quite right about it realising