Parking ticket in our own parking space!

[hungryhippo90]

We have been given a parking ticket in our own space,
We do have permits, but the permit must have blown out of the dashboard, I still have it but the particular day I got the ticket the permit was on the floor when I got in.

I still have the permit,

I’ve appealed, apparently POPLA have reviewed this, and the ticket still stands, despite us parking in the parking space that we are permitted to use, solely.

Yesterday we got a letter saying that payment was required immediately or the debt company that’s been handed the PCN will recommend the client refers the matter to court.

AIBU to have replied saying that I’d happily have the matter taken to court, as we can prove that we rightfully parked in our own bay, the address they sent our parking permit to, is the same they’ve sent the PCN etc to, so it’s not like we parked somewhere they shouldnt have, and the parking permit was in the car. I have documents relating to the parking space being ours.

DH is concerned it will just become a bigger debt.

Whilst I’m at it, am I being U to ask that we have the information POPLA have sent in relation to the appeal as I never received any sort of reply after sending off my letter of appeal to them.

I think it’s all a bit of a shit show, they won’t have that we don’t owe money for parking in our own space, they keep reiterating that the parking ticket is due for not showing the permit.

My DH was fined for not making payment to park at the station one morning. It was one of those pay by phone things where you text the car park reference and your reg.no. to pay.

DH did this, received a text back confirming this, money taken from account, all sorted. Except a few weeks later he got a fine for non-payment.

Apparently it was because he had used punctuation in his text and added a space in the reg number so the system didn't register the payment to his vehicle properly (so he sent 10185, AB12 CDE instead of 10185 AB12CDE). We had take it to the ombudsmen as the parking co. refused to budge

My view is they refuse appeals, etc. in the hope most people will just pay up

Pay it and don't make the same mistake. Annoying as it is its not worth it escalating to a bigger debt.

You have been ticketed for not displaying your permit which is wholly your responsibility. It is wholly your responsibility to ensure it is correctly displayed each time you leave your car parked there. The warden will be checking 100's of spaces every day and cannot be expected to remember your car.

It has not been established that contractually the OP has to display a ticket.

Everything else is irrelevant and it is entirely fair you were ticketed due to you not fulfilling your responsibility to display your permit correctly. Ticketing you will have incurred a cost which you should be responsible for, I would hope if you took it to court they would drop at least some of the ticket costs. Personally, I couldn't be bothered with compiling a defence and would take responsibility for my own actions, pay the ticket and be more careful displaying my permit in the future.

You have a funny concept of "fair" if you think that you should get fined when parked in a space that you pay for, and you have given evidence of that. How about parking companies take some responsibility and don't pursue people with their dubious threats and speculative invoices?

"common sense and decency should have prevailed once you were able to prove your right to park there."

You would have thought so wouldn't you?

If the numberplate on the ticket matched the numberplate for the permit?

And a "rule" of parking in the bay isn't that the permit must be displayed(although that seems odd to me).

Have they provided a photograph of the car to show it wasnt on display. If not its their word against yours.
What is the name of the private company? Some only take a small minority to court as its not financially worth it for them to do so, some do however

Can they prove your permit wasn't on display?

I'd fight it all the way.

I would take this to court. As the legal tenant of the landlord parked in your own space I would think that you have a good chance of winning.

It does seem really unfair and stupid. However, it might drag on and end up in court where court fees would be added. Parking firms now have more powers to take people to court and even get CCJs out if people don't pay. They are notoriously litigious. I had something similar recently and ended up stumping up a £60 parking fine to avoid further costs. Galling and annoying though it is, I share your DHs concerns about it just racking up more debt. Parking firms are nasty bastards.

It must be a PITA but my gut reaction would be to sigh, tut, swear and then pay just to get it over with (and then Gorilla-glue my permit to the dashboard).

Perhaps by way of consolation, think how delighted you'd be if some CF parked in your space and got a hefty fine!

There was a brilliant scene in an old episode of the Simpsons. Homer had received a parking ticket and called the number on the back to try and get it cancelled. An automated system answered and offered menu options, one of which was “Press 3 to appeal your parking ticket”. Homer presses 3 and the automated voice promptly says “Your appeal has been rejected” !

I think these private parking companies’ processes are very similar.

Sod paying it, I would absolutely fight it. I've fought every unjust parking ticket I've had (paid the fair ones!) and won each time. Go all Joe Lycett on them!

We got a parking ticket on holiday in Belgium a couple of years ago. Pay & Display car park with a trilingual ticket machine (Flemish, French and English) - DH bought our ticket and plonked it on the dashboard and off we went - we returned several hours later to find that we and numerous Belgian cars had all been ticketed. It turned out that in teenytiny writing on the machine, in Flemish only, that it said cars weren't allowed to park in the blue bays on Tuesdays, only the yellow bays.

DH went to the local council or whatever it was to pay the fine and the bloke very cheerily told him that he'd never expect foreign tourists to be able to read Flemish or see the teeny writing but the fine still stood! So that was 30 euros of our holiday money gone....at least it wasn't more....

Yeah sorry OP, if you didn't have the permit in the window, then you need to pay up!

As someone said, do it before it escalates!

@hungryhippo90

I know people who have a blue badge who have been ticketed for not displaying the badge. The fact they were disabled - and the blue badge was in the glove box - meant NOTHING, and they still had to pay the fine.

Your permit was not in the window. It supposedly 'blew out' but it wasn't there!

Pay up, and suck it up. It will escalate, you will end up owing multiple 100's, and you probably will not win an appeal!

This happened to someone I know. They contacted the landlord and complained and the landlord cancelled the action from the parking company. Might be worth trying.

The Supreme Court has ruled on this. They are not speculative invoices and are enforceable, (in England).

So much incorrect advice on this thread. Please read up on it from places where they know what they're talking about.

They are speculative invoices. They may be able to justify the invoice in court, but it is still contract law that it is under. They have to prove that an effective contact was in place (alongside a bunch of other stuff). Given that the OP has a contract to use the space which makes no mention of displaying a permit I think there is a good chance that if it did go to court that she would win.

Council spaces are totally different in law to private land. There is no ombudsman for private spaces, instead they have their own appeals body, which is funded by the parking companies.

WHATSTHE

Please read the SC judgment.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/index.php

Go to this forum. Best advice.
Residential tickets are the scourge of the private parking industry. I am very active on the forum and post as Loadsofchildren123.
The point is that the parking rights pre-exist the requirement for a permit. Also there may be a clause in the contract between the management co and the parking co which says that tickets to genuine residents must be cancelled.
Which parking co is it?
Please go onto the forum and start a thread. You will get lots of advice and handholding.

Veni, I have. They are enforceable if a whole bunch of criteria is met. The judgement did not say that any private parking ticket slapped on your car was correctly applied.

This thread on MSE seems relevant.

Nope, it doesn’t say I need to display a ticket at all

What doesn't say it? If it's your lease, obviously it won't say that. What will govern this is the rules set up when the permit system was put in place. At that point there was a new contract under which residents got the benefit of having parking properly policed in return for having to display permits. So what will govern this is any information issued with the permit, and/or any notices in the area.

I strongly suspect that, when the system started, you and your neighbours were told you that you needed to display your permit if you were parked in that area, otherwise you would get a ticket. It would be utterly pointless issuing permits otherwise. So I suggest you check all the paperwork and notices very carefully.