Getting caught off guard by parking is never fun, especially when the terms are unclear. People are increasingly ‘caught out’ with parking penalties due to no fault of their own. Private parking companies can use parking fee signs sneakily, often hiding them or making important information small and illegible. But, luckily for us, this is all about to change.
Official vs Private Tickets
Private parking tickets are called Parking Charge Notices. Unlike council-issued Penalty Charge Notices, these notices are not initially enforceable. However, they can look very similar to council tickets, so always pay attention to the ticket’s wording.
Private companies do not have the right to fine you. When you park on their property, you enter an unspoken agreement with them on their terms and conditions. The charge notice is an alert that they believe you breached the parking contract. However, if these terms and conditions are not clearly incorporated, they cannot be contractually enforced.
When You Will Get a Private Parking Ticket
Landowners do have a right to police the parking on their land. They may issue you with a ticket if you:
- Park without the permission of the landowner
- Breach of the landowner’s parking restrictions
However, they must make these requirements clear.
How to React to a Private Parking Ticket
When you receive a Parking Charge Notice, you have three options
- Pay the charge
- Appeal the charge
- Do nothing and risk legal action
Can I Ignore a Private Parking Ticket?
You can ignore a private parking charge notice as it is not an official fine. However, the landowner may pursue the charge through legal action, making it enforceable. Your best option is to appeal the ticket if you believe it is unfair. Retrieving paid charges is much harder than appealing notices, so you should contact the parking agency.
What Constitutes an Unfair Ticket?
Tickets can be unfair for many reasons. The parking attendant could make a genuine mistake, technology could fail, or the parking agency may break private parking regulations to deceive drivers.
They could:
- Write an unclear sign
- Hide the sign from the view
- Deliver parking charge notices overzealously
Appealing Your Ticket
Gather as much evidence as possible when you are at the scene or preparing to appeal your ticket. Take photographs of parking signs and notices, record every correspondence with the company, keep any proof of mitigating circumstances and if any witnesses are willing to provide a statement, record their details.
If you appeal the ticket, the parking company may cancel it, especially if the cost of court proceedings is far higher than the parking charge. However, if they progress to court, you may win by proving the charge is unfair.
In Excel Parking Services Limited v Cutts in Stockport County Court, the Judge agreed with the Defendant that the parking sign did not display its information clearly and correctly. The words ‘pay and display’ could not be seen from his car, and therefore, it was fair to assume the car park was free.
The Judge said:
“If I look at the signs, they tell me very little. It is by no means clear, whether from the coloured photographs of the signs nor, indeed, from the inspection of the signs that took place by me, that this is a pay and display car park”, suggesting that “perhaps the claimant’s real interest lies in a failure to comply, [rather] than actually seeking to bring to a driver’s attention the fact that they are about to enter a pay and display car park.”
Private Parking Laws are Changing
On March 15th, 2019, The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 received Royal Assent, approving a new ‘Parking Code’ that protects drivers from unfair fines and will bring the ‘Wild West’ parking industry into line.
The Code makes it more difficult for car parking companies to use less-than-informative signs in even less obvious places.
Tactics sometimes include:
- Hidden signs in spaces drivers cannot see, e.g. placing a sign on the left side of an entrance which a busy motorist is unlikely to see when turning in
- Making information regarding fees too small to read
- Not making clear outlines of where the parking rules are enforced
But, hopefully, not for much longer; the new code rules that parking companies who break it will be knocked off the Government’s ‘approved’ list, meaning they can no longer source driver details from the DVLA to serve charge notices.
Instruct our Solicitors
Almost all parking ticket disputes are likely to fall within the small claims court. What this means is that, whilst you can instruct solicitors, in almost all cases you will end up paying more for your legal fees than in avoiding the cost of the ticket itself.
If you want to dispute a parking ticket, you can contact our litigation solicitors for help with unfair private parking.
Please note, we cannot assist on a no-win no-fee basis for parking disputes.
Featured Image: Pexels Licence - Erik Mclean
