Private Parking fine for straddling white line in parking bay

[skliwharas]

Can someone please assist. I have today received a £100 fine for parking at a local retail park. I do admit to straddling the white line of the parking bay - at the time of parking there was another car parked to my left and I merely (perhaps stupidly) parked close to him - therefore myself straddling the next bay. They have pictures of my car by itself (the other car having left by this stage) and also a picture of a ticket on my car. I never received the ticket that was left on my car despite me only being in the shop for 30 minutes. There are signs on the way into the car park stating "4 hour parking restriction - see signs for details". As I am never there for longer than an hour I have never bothered to look at the signs which state, amongst other things, that cars must be parked in bays correctly. At the time of parking my car the car park was probably only about 1/3rd full. There is no charge for parking on this site. Is there any way I can appeal? Thank you.

[f16]

Hi skliwharas and welcome to CAG

What was the date of the "offence" and what date did you receive the letter in the post ?

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG

 

This 'missing' ticket thing has been seen before. A parking attendant photographs the car with a 'ticket' on it but soon after removes it. Whether they are told to do this is unknown.

 

My suspicion is that the parking companies are trying it on with the gullible who have no idea whether these tickets are legit.

 

Any white line in a car park is purely graffiti and have no legal standing.

 

Once you answer f16s question, we can advise further.

[skliwharas]

Hi, the charge date is the 27th April 2014 and we recvd the letter today.

[silverfox1961]

Thanks for that. You have received a Notice to Keeper and it is within the required timeframe so now is the time to do the first appeal to the parking company (who are they?)

 

You can give any reason you wish as what you want from them is an appeal code so that you can escalate this to POPLA. This costs the parking company money.

 

Once you state that the debt is not a Genuine Pre estimate of Loss (GPEOL) POPLA usually allow the appeal.

[f16]

They are in time on delivery of the notice to keeper.

Do not make any contact with them yet.

Can you get photos of the signs ?

[skliwharas]

I have a photograph of the sign in the car park but not one on the way into the car park - I can get one though.

The sign in the car park - on lamp posts is:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]51332[/ATTACH]

[skliwharas]

I drafted a reply for the on-line appeal. The company is UKPC.

 

I had a look on various sites for an answer and drafted the following:

"I am appealing this ticket. It is grossly unfair and I will not be paying it or other any sums you might choose to add to it. It is unfair for several reasons.

(1) At the time of parking there was another vehicle parked to my left and I appropriately parked close to that vehicle - that vehicle as obviously left the scene prior to the photographs being taken which then leaves me looking like I have just pulled in between two bays. I parked where I did as at the time I had a Police Dog Puppy in the car and wanted to be close to the store for that reason.

(2) Regardless of (1) above, the car park was not busy and there was a high volume of empty parking bays.

(3) The landowner does not charge for parking on this site and I therefore did not prevent anyone else from parking and did not prevent the landowner from earning money. Therefore no loss has been incurred by the landowner and any penalty to me is a wholly disproportionate penalty.

(4) The signage on the way into the car park only states there is a 4 hour parking limit. As I was only going to be at the site for 30 minutes I did not therefore consider it necessary to look for and read the signage regarding the 4 hour parking limit.

(5) The signage you do refer to cannot be read until I have already parked my car;

(6) You have not provided me with any contract between yourselves and the landowner that confirms you have permission from the landowner to enter into a contract with myself.

(7) Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 only gives you authority to obtain my details where parking fees have not been paid. There are no parking fees to be paid at this site and you are therefore in breach of this Act."

 

Too much??

 

Could you also explain "Once you state that the debt is not a Genuine Pre estimate of Loss" - is this to do with the actual loss to the landowner for parking in this way?

 

Sorry to be a pest.

[f16]

You need to appeal as the Keeper not the Driver.

 

Eg. You have said "I parked the car". You need to say "The driver of the car parked"

 

There is no rush to reply . Don't panic

 

You are correct in you thinking on GPEOL

[f16]

There is a very good "appeal" worded by "2doorsdie" 14 threads below yours.

 

You could "adapt" this to suit your "offence"

[skliwharas]

Many thanks for all your help. I'll let you know what happens.

[f16]

Add on to the end that if the appeal is not accepted that you require a POPLA code.

 

When you get a response come back for further advice.

Good Luck

[ericsbrother]

Is there a specific breach mentioned on the sign that defines what the parking spaces are? There is no legal definition for the size and markings of an off street parking bay so it would be difficult for them to say that you have parked outside them as the painted lines do not define where they are. It could be argued that parking where it says you shouldnt is outside the bay but even that has no legal definition.

When was the supposed event? The parking co have to send oout their paperwork to strict deadlines so a ticket on the windscreen has to have a NTK sent between 29 and 56 days after the event, not before or after that time otherwise it is not valid.

If yours was outside those times then just write back saying that the provisions of the PoFA have not been adhered to so no futher correspondence will be entered into, any further demands will be met by complaints of harassment and attempted fraud .

[Surfer01]

No need to explain why you parked on a white line as the white line has no meaning on private property. As mentioned it is pure graffiti and woudl be laughed out of court if it was pursued that far.