£63 cup of tea at BP service station.

[CatOnAMushroom]

Just returned from (what was suppposed to be a cheap camping) holiday to a £60 fine for parking at a BP petrol station for 49 minutes for a break on a long journey in torrential rain.

I always check when parking in car parks, on roads etc but I never thought to check for parking rules at a petrol station ☹️

If anyone is going on holiday this week don't overstay your welcome at a BP service station

You can end up with a CCJ for not paying a parking charge and ignoring letters.
DD found out she’d had one for almost 2 years, just before applying for a remortgage, she had no idea due to moving house, never got any letters.
It only happened because her partner had used her car for the gym so it wasn’t registered 🙄
She did get it overturned after paying the fine and pleading ignorance.

I would try calling the petrol station. I recently got a fine from a hotel car park via Euro Car Parks and the hotel was able to contact them directly to get it cancelled. Same happens regularly at our nearby Aldi.

Just ignore it. Its private so they have no legal contract or whatever to force you to pay. They will threaten court but won't do anything.

Thank you for appreciating the purpose of my post! (And not just using is as an opportunity to be rude to strangers on the internet)

Loads of petrol stations have parking spaces. Especially BP as they are generally an M&S as well so people stop without buying fuel

Read my above post Cats 😉
They can and DO take action if you ignore.
Don’t want anyone getting a CCJ after taking your stupid advice now, do you?

Ignore this. Yes they do take you to court. Even worse they add on court and solicitor costs so you end up paying hundreds of pounds.

No idea what rights you think people have in these scenarios? As long as the signage was clear and not obstructed any appeal will fail, and the defence will fail in court too. Back in 2015 and prior you could effectively ignore parking fines on private land and there wasn't a lot they could do, things have tightened up so much that they can and do go to court regularly to enforce these.

I wouldn't have thought to check op, thanks for the warning

Wrong advice.

Ignore this OP. A fine from a private company is still enforceable.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/parking-tickets/appealing-parking-tickets/when-to-appeal-a-parking-ticket/

It’s crap isn’t it, Europarks are taking over the BP parking. I had took a call last month whilst driving and turned out to be an urgent situation so I pulled into a BP garage to find the number of the person I needed to speak to, to assist, had to make several calls to sort it out and then noted the same signs, waited the 14 statutory time but luckily didn’t get one but noted for future. It looked like a new sign so possibly waiting for cameras to be installed.

And ignore this too OP.

Wrong again.

Yes they will, private parking companies issue thousands of County Court Claims every day.

You said don’t pay under any circumstances. Please explain how that’s correct information when these companies can and do take you to court?

But your advice was "appeal and appeal until they let it go." That's not how it works and what posters are saying is that the chances are they won't let it go. You can appeal once, and if that fails you can't normally appeal again. The company at that point can take you to court as you've exhausted their appeal process.

She didn’t know there were rules to apply, snarky.

Thanks for the warning OP, this wouldn’t have occurred to me at all.

Have you got receipts from your visit there?

I'd appeal and argue that:
a) you were a paying customer (with appended receipts)
b) you have health issues which required a break/use of the facilities twice during your time there.
c) the weather was particularly poor on that day and you didn't feel able to drive off and waited for rain to cease. (Maybe quote something from Highway Code about this if there is anything).

People always say they do take you to court but I have never ever known that to happen. Friends, family and myself have had loads of these 'fines' and not once has anyone gone to court.
If you google it loads say the same.
Has anyone ever bern taken to coyrt who you actually know???

Yes, a few people! Most recently a friend who's gone for a mortgage to find he's got a CCJ on his credit file that he had no idea about.

Grateful for your post! Tbh it's going to put me off stopping at BP service stations. I always plan to be quicker than 30 minutes but with kids you never know, plus they usually only have one or two loos so you can be queueing a bit and also queueing for coffee.

They are intended to be used like service stations, I thought. There are plenty of A roads that function as major routes.