Has anyone ever just ignored a parking ticket?

[BalloonsAndWhistles]

Private car park I should add.

Cut a long story short, we went into a car park and were unable to pay. Machine not accepting contactless and RinGo just cutting out when we called them. We were in there for 20 mins.

About 2 weeks later, we got the invoice for £100, reduced to £60 for quick payment. We appealed. They said no, ignoring the fact we couldn’t pay. We appealed again and they declined it and reduced it to £20. We appealed it again and stated that we were unable to pay and have had another demand for £100.

What would happen if we just ignored it? Would we get in a lot of trouble? It’s not the money per se, I just feel absolutely outraged that due to them not maintaining their machines they are now harassing us for money and not listening to us.

I’m not sure you have a valid reason not to have paid to be honest. Their machine wasn’t broken, you just didn’t have the right form of money. Why did you park there when you knew you couldn’t pay?

You'll just keep getting chased and the amounts will go up. Ring Go has an app and you could have downloaded that and paid using your bank details. I just did that in the car park and that would have got around the contactless problem for you.

If you still have the letter offering you the £20 reduced amount, I would send payment back with that and see if they accept and leave it be.

I think in that case, I would have paid the £20 to see the end of it without further hassle.

It's incredibly annoying that two payment methods didn't work, and that they didn't accept your appeal. After all, they probably had several non payers that day so the problem would have been known to them.

But they could now cause you quite a bit of hassle and maybe even go as far as court. I don't think they'd win because you tried to pay and couldn't, but if you keep hearing from them, it will be an annoyance and possibly expense in writing to them, legal advice, court attendance etc.

Yes. I have but I have had no engagement with them at all which is the recommended route if you can't or won't pay. Not Europark by any chance, is it?
As you have engaged with them you might find they hassle more. The worst that can happen is small claims I think but they will threaten all sorts. Money Saving expert has good advice on this.

You didnt pay and the machine wasnt broken so the fine seems justified unfortunately
They will probably keep chasing you and it will just get more expensive

I ignored one. I had a look to see how many times they'd taken people to court and they hadn't. There's lots of information on the internet about private parking fine issues. By law, they have no right to fine you.

If it went as far as small claims I'm pretty sure they can only claim for the original amount of the fine anyway. Not any of their so-called admin costs or anything like that.

That’s the thing. We did have the right form of payment. DH drove in with contactless payment and a telephone, these were both valid methods of payments. Unfortunately neither of us are psychic and didn’t know the machine and phone lines weren’t working so once we were in there and the car was caught by ANPR, we were effectively trapped. We wouldn’t buy a ticket so we had to leave and wait for the invoice.

*couldn’t buy a ticket.
Bad autocorrect!

In a similar situation DH went and got change to pay with. If they were accepting money in any form there is no excuse really. Obviously I apologise if that wasnt a possibility for you

Unless you are very confident someone is legally qualified dont take legal advice from them

I did about 6 years ago, have changed car and address more than once since then so no idea if they have tried to contact me since then. The fine was for parking outside of a designated parking bay, which I only did because both cars either side were parked like that and it was the only space I could find and was running late for work. Unfortunately, when I got back to my car, all the other cars were gone so it probably did look like I'd just parked like a dick. I didn't respond or try to appeal it, just simply ignored it.

A while back, the standard advice was to just ignore, nothing would come of it etc etc but I have heard of more private companies taking things further these days, once one company gets some sort of success and the courts ruling in their favour, it paves the way for all the others. I do think that now you've started the appeals process, you should continue to argue it.

Parking tickets rules are so complicated that it doesn't matter what anyone else has done in a different car park with a different operator in different circumstances under different legislation.

Bottom line - you need to get advice specific to your situation

Thanks for the responses but all I really want to know is what people’s experiences are with ignoring it. The fact is, DH took in two forms of payment and that should have been fine. He missed his blood donor appointment over this. No good deed goes unpunished.

@Hoppinggreen True indeed 😆

I had two unpaid private parking fines, both from the same car park.

It was from 2017, similar thing, I hadn't paid the correct ticket, they asked for £100, I ignored it. The first case went to small claims court in 2021 (basically because parking firms lost so much income during covid they started taking cases to small claims court). In total, the first case was asking for over £300 in court fees etc. The judge agreed £100. So basically the exact same as I would have had to pay all the way back in 2017, so I paid it.

The second claim meant to be heard a few months later, so I emailed them offering £80 to settle before court, using the logic they then don't have to incur all the lawyer fees/paperwork time that they had to put into my first case, when the max they would probably win again was £100. They agreed, I paid £80.

I have but it was a different scenario. I parked in a supermarket carpark where it's free for customers. I went into the supermarket to look for a specific item but they didn't have it. Left and thought nothing of it...until I got the parking fine.
Turned out they took number plates when you paid which clocked you as a 'customer' therefore valid for parking. Since I didn't buy anything, I didn't count as a customer so got fined. We ignored it, nothing came of it. That was around 10 years ago now!

I ignored one about 10 years ago. I think it was Europarks.

The machine was out of order so I paid the attendant in the booth and displayed the handwritten note he gave me. I also photographed the machine.

I sent copies of the note and photo in response to the first letter, but kept getting standard threats of higher fines and taking me to court. I decided I was bloody minded enough to let it go to court so waited to be summoned.

After about 18 months - 2 years they stopped writing and I never heard from them again.

TLDR: I think it’s a completely automated process of letters with escalating threats and unless they have a case they are pretty much guaranteed to win, there seems to be a very low likelihood of them taking you to court.

Yep and ended up paying £340 rather than £45 because they raised a legal claim against me. Not worth ignoring it!

I think I’m one of the few people to admit that I deserved a parking fine because I stayed over the limit 😂I took a risk and it didn’t pay off

Yep we got one in a private car park, we put the last 3 letters of our registration in & it was meant to be the whole registration so we had actually paid but they still sent the fine.
We ignored it, kept getting letters & eventually a court date. A week before the court date we got a letter to say the case had been dropped!

I have ignored one before. They kept sending reminders which all went in the bin. However, I never acknowledged any of them so I don’t know if that makes a difference. once you e made contact and accepted the fault it may be somehow legally binding.

We got had in Cornwall in March twice by Initial Parking. 2 x £100 fines for the privilege. We took legal advice but were told to pay it (we run a business and didn't want our credit ratings damaged).

DH now refuses to use any form of car park at all and insists on parking miles away

If you just ignore it then they are likely to issue a claim in the small claims court and if you ignore that, they will get default judgment against you, which means a CCJ on your credit record.

I am a lawyer and recently helped a client get a CCJ obtained against him by a private parking company set aside and expunged from his credit record. I gave him discounted rates and it still cost over £1000 in legal costs. So don't ignore it. Private parking companies are very litigious as this is their revenue stream and small claims are very easy to bring.

Don't ignore it. Lots of people are giving examples from a decade ago. Things change.

You've accepted you parked there. Offer to pay the original fee for the parking.