To not pay a civil parking charge order

[K8eee]

Basically I over stayed my welcome in a lidl car park, and received a letter with a fine from a company called Athena parking. Dh received one of these 2/3 years ago, googled it and by law he didn't have to pay it. Didn't do so, got a couple more letters threatening with bailiffs to come round to take away his car.

I'm just wondering whether anyone else has ignored these and been ok?

No you are confusing paying for losses which you have caused by your actions but which lossses are indeterminate. If I crash into your car you would have to quantify your loss.

If I agree to provide goods or services for £ x and you don't pay you are owe me £ x. Unfair contract terms might come into it but just being overpriced isn't necessarily unfair.

When you go to this shop it is a convenience to you to be able to park. You wouldn't be able to park if the car park was full all day with people leaving their cars there for hours. Therefore they incentivise people to move on by providing free parking with the threat of a fine if they overstay, and they have to pay people to supervise the car park, check who's overstaying etc. They also have to pay for the car park to be maintained, for security, etc.

When you go to their car park, just keep to their terms, fgs. And if you overstay, pay up.

OP That was steep. My husband once sued some one for £120 plus expenses. Sounds petty but the person was a truly horrible person who used a fake sob story to borrow money he had no intention of paying back. He probably assumed no one would bother for that amount. He did pay it back with the court expenses eventually, probably when the penny dropped that it does affect your credit rating.

The law has changed recently but these companies very, very rarely take any one to court to attempt to force payment. Anyone who receives one of the non council tickets needs to frustrate the process as much as possible - i.e make it cost them money to pursue you - you should respond. There's good advice on MSE.

I received one for parking in a road on an industrial estate on a bank holiday Monday for 20 minutes to take the children to MacDonalds. The signs were positioned at the entrance to a private car park, 7ft off the ground and with miniscule writing. There were none on the road. They tried to charge me £60 .

I responded saying that (1) signs weren't on the road (2) there were no markings on the road to indicate that I was in a car park and in any event (3) having been back to examine the signs, the writing was too small and they were two high off the ground to be read and (4) £60 was a complete over exaggeration of any "damage". I didn't bother with POPLA as I was disputing the basis of the ticket itself - I couldn't say I wasn't there.

I haven't heard anything for 6 months which is disappointing because I was really keen to get in front of the District Judge and argue those points

Go to the Pepipoo forums. They are experts on this. They advised us when we got a ticket from Eurocarparks. Don't pay it. But know the procedure for what happens when you get more threatening letters.

I wish there was a bit more regulation for parking providers, so that charges were proportionate, or people knew the appeals process.

My elderly father has cancer. Following chemo he was taken ill in the car (driven by someone else) and stopped at motorway services to try and recover before facing the journey home. He was so ill it took more than two hours and he got a ticket.

He appealed explaining the circumstances and the appeal was rejected. Heartless fuckers. I advised him to appeal further and offered to do it for him, but he couldn't face it and paid the £120. I am in tears of rage whenever I think about it.

It just all seems a bit Wild West with lots of conflicting advise on what the can actually do, or achieve in cour.

Law changed last year they do take people to court now. Best to look in pepiloo think it is or martin lewis, dont just ignore the letters.

Lamb thats so bad about your dad

Whatever you do, don't just ignore it! I'm a barrister and whilst I don't deal with these sorts of claims myself, I have come across loads in the county courts lately - it seems that there's been a big push to enforce them in the hope we'll all stop ignoring them! Also DJs seem to be pissed off with defendants (you lot challenging the fines) filing great long defences copied from MSE type websites but not understanding them properly and are finding in favour of the claimant's!

So beware, definitely don't ignore and make sure you do some proper research about challenging it. It's def proving to be an effective scam for them at the moment!

"If you get an unfair ticket in a private car park, don't automatically pay it. These supposed 'fines' are a Wild West measure. Whether the cowboys do it at supermarkets, retail parks, hospitals or housing estates, they're often unenforceable.

This step-by-step guide shows how to fight unfair private parking tickets, including using the private parking appeals system. Out of more than 14,700 people who've launched appeals via this system since Oct 2012, 45% have been successful. If your ticket isn't from a private firm, see the Council Parking Ticket Appeals guide."

from topaz' link above link again MSE

I got one of these this time last year after I had parked in a car park of a local retail park and overstayed by an hour and they wanted £75

I appealed on the grounds that yes, I had parked there and yes I had over stayed by that hour but what they were failing to take into account was that there had been a big accident on the road right outside the car park and the police had closed the road and car park exit so no one could actually leave

The company rejected my appeal so DH appealed again (through POPLA I guess) who threw the fine out.

The car park was rammed that day and the road was closed for a few hours so I dread to think how many fines were issued, and how many just paid up.

I had that with Aldi. Replied within 14 days with a letter and the receipt from that day proving I was in the shop at that time. They waived it.

Jeez. How long must one remain at Lidl in order to receive one of these?

You will find a lot of relevant and uptodate advice here from people that are dealing with exactly the same thing:-

www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?88-Private-Land-Parking-Enforcement

Aldi is an hour, Ldl 90 minutes around here.