What should I do about this £70 parking fine?

[mamhaf]

A few weeks ago I went for an eyesight test, taking the car DH had rented because his was in for repairs.

Dh warned me that the landowner outside the optician's is notorious for slapping fines on cars who stay more than 30 mins.

So I phoned the opticians first and asked them about it, knowing I'd be more than 30 mins.

They assured me it would be ok as long as I gave them the registration number at reception.

So I did that when I arrived, checking with them again at reception that a longer than 30 minute stay would be fine as they had the registration number.

Lo and behold a £70 parking fine arrived today - too late to phone the opticians as they were shut.

And Dh reckons the car hire company might have paid up because he had to give his credit card details when he hired the car.

I'll obviously phone the opticians on Monday and see what they say.

But I'm concerned that I only had verbal assurances about overstaying the 30 minutes, which now seem to be not worth the paper they weren't written on.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to handle this if the opticians can't put it right?

tia - both dh and I are - I would have parked further up the road and walked if I'd thought I would've been in danger of a fine.

[FABIsInTraining]

Why did the opticians want your reg, was it to prove you were parking there for the traffic warden? You might have to accept you will have to pay it.

[Tortington]

di you come away from said parking spot unaware that you had been fined?

2 points
1)surely anyone could post a fine to you saying you were at 'x' street at 'x' time...so pay up.

2)are there clear notices to not park there or you will get fined?

i am not in the legal profession, however i work for a housing association and we do clamp vehicles who do not have permits.

afaik, the legalities of whether a fine can stick usually rests upon the carity of the signage

hth

[Tortington]

clarity

[mamhaf]

Yes, I came away unaware I had been fined. They took a picture of the car driving away.

And yes, there are signs saying you can't park for more than 30 mins - but I (stupidly) believed the opticians that it would in fact be ok to outstay the 30 minute limit as long as I gave my registration number to them on the reception desk. They told me this was the case twice - when I phoned to make the appointment and when I arrived and gave them my reg number - I said something like "are you sure it'll be ok for me to park there (pointing to car) for more than 30 minutes" and the receptionist said "yes".

I'm hoping that they will now tell the parking company that I was a bona fide customer and therefore exempt from a fine - the businesses in the area apparently kicked up a fuss because of course people weren't going to their businesses because of the fines.

[Tortington]

did they take a picture of the car arriving?

how do they know you were there for more than 30 mins?

[mamhaf]

Thanks - I had a look at money saving expert.

Our concern is that the hire car company will pay up (the fine info came from them) because they have dh's credit card details.

I'll update you all after we speak to the opticians and hire company tomorrow.

It'll be the last time I use that optician's if we can't resolve it!

[StealthPolarBear]

This happened to us when we stayed at a hotel - we pulled up outside and they parked the car for us - when we left 2 days later we had a fine!
Called the hotel and they said it happened all the time and to ignore - we did and so far it has been fine;.

[mamhaf]

Just talked to dh and realised it's not just the fine - the car hire company has also slapped on a £35 admin fee.

So evening if the opticians say to ignore the fine, we're still going to be £35 down.

Dh will phone the car hire company tomorrow and I'll ask the opticians what they plan to do about the admin fee (once I''ve got them to admit they tell customers to ignore the 30 min rule). Think I'll record the conversation.

[FABIsInTraining]

You can't record the conversation without telling the opticians you are going to.

[Saltire]

We to have a similar situation with Portsmouth city council. They issued DH a fixed penalty notice, which came through the post, for £50, but the signs a tthe place where the offence happened clearly say "fixed penalty of £25, and £1000 if we pursue through the courts"

[mamhaf]

An update - I phoned them this morning, and recorded the conversation.

It's legal to record a conversation as long as at least one party (i.e. me in this case) knows it's being recorded. one link here about that

The manager said they usually faxed the reg. numbers to the parking company, but he knew there'd been a fax machine problem around that time and we should bring in the paperwork and they'd sort it out.

I explained we'd also incurred a £35 admin fee from the car hire company so he said to bring that in and they'd "see what they can do."

Dh is going to do that today, so we'll see what happens.

[StealthPolarBear]

how did it go?

[mamhaf]

Seems to be ok, thanks - although not settled yet.

Dh spoke to the car hire company who said if they had a letter from the parking fine company to say it was issued in error, they would drop the £35 admin charge.

He went to the opticians who took photocopies of the documents and said they would sort it out.

Dh said he didn't care who sorted it out, as long as it wasn't us.

What a load of hassle though! And two companies - car hire and parking company - trying to make money off other people's backs. I won't be going back to that opticians again.