Should my parents pay this supermarket car park fine?

[Afternooninthepark]

My parents always shop in our local Lidl supermarket.
My dad has just received a car park fine stating they were 15 minutes over the allotted 90 minutes. TBH, they were totally unaware it was 90 minutes and assumed it was 3 hours like many of our local supermarkets.
My dad says he will pay the fine as he doesn’t want any hassle but I don’t think he should because of several things :-
A) They spend over £80 in that supermarket (and have the receipt) and regularly shop in that store.
B) They are both in their late 70’s and quite slow (mainly because of mum, see below)
C) Mum has Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and a disability parking permit

Dad is panicking and says he wants to pay it but I think that would be wrong as they spent money in the store and didn’t wander off and leave their car in the car park to do other things, why should they have to pay a fine after genuinely spending money in the store?
AIBU thinking they should challenge this?

I was let off once when I lost my car keys (left them in the loos) and had very small children.

Another vote for just asking Lidl. I've had a lot of success with a polite request for mercy and an apology, from various stores.

If you take the reciept into store to show they did shop there they do waiver it.. I've had it done before so has my mother in law x

Thanks again for your advice and experiences. I’m going to start by popping in to speak with the manager, if no luck then I’ll contact head office and Athena parking.

@Gatehouse77

You're wrong. My mum is disabled and has had parking fines over turned. A blue badge gives you three hours free parking. It's worth a try.

And yes, some elderly, frail or disabled people can take more then 90 minutes to shop. It leaves my mum exhausted! (I've tried online shopping with her but she hates it 🤷🏻‍♀️)

The store manager will not have any sway with the private parking operator, in my experience. Your parents to not have grounds to appeal this and if they don't pay the parking company will sue - this is now the norm. I deal with private parking charges all the time in the course of my work. They need to pay this otherwise it will escalate. Sorry.

do not have grounds to appeal, sorry.

@everythingisginandroses I'm sorry but you are wrong.

Some of the advice on here is downright dangerous.

They have multiple grounds to appeal.

These companies do not have a leg to stand on!!!

I’ve had a few of these and spent ages researching. The organisation contracting in the parking enforcer (Lidl etc) can get the parking invoice) redacted - only the council and police can issue a fine that must be paid. I’ve had 3: 2 i got redacted as could show I was bona fide customer and 1 I didn’t pay as it was in Scotland and not enforceable. I got threatening letters about being taken to court etc but just completely ignored and they stopped after about a year. Funny thing is, the letters have scary sounding job titles like “pre court compliance team” and “solicitor at law” but the same squiggly signature even though meant to be different people!!

Been through it with Parking Eye,
The 'fine' is an invoice and not a 'notice' that you would get from the police or local authority etc.
They do not have the power to enforce it - and will bombard your parents with threatening letters - then pass on to a debt collection agency in the hope that will scare them into paying.
Keep hold of all their evidence etc. - but don't feel pressured by their demands. Another poster mentioned Martin Lewis' page - it's sound advice!

Hope that helps
:)
Feel free to message me - if you need further info on how I dealt with it.

Lidl will always help genuine customers, so the store manager should be able to cancel this parking charge notice (not a fine!) easily.

If you want further advice join the facebook group "Fight your private parking invoice", upload paperwork covering personal details - and do not name the driver!

I hope the store can sort this easily for your dad

OK, cricketmum84, they can appeal within 28 days to the parking company. If that appeal is turned down they will have another 28 days to appeal to the trade body (POPLA or the Independent Appeals Service, depending on which one the parking operator belongs to). If they are unsuccessful at that stage, in my view they should pay. If they really don't want to pay on principle that's fine, but the likelihood of court action is high, off the back of the Beavis vs Parking Eye decision in the Supreme Court in 2016. If sued for the money, they would need to decide whether to defend any court claim, which runs the risk of escalating costs.

That's the fuller and fairer version.

It's worth appealing. I've had money refunded for lesser reasons

@everythingisginandroses

You’re talking utter rubbish. OP - please ignore this advice. There’s plenty you and your parents can do to get this grossly unfair charge cancelled.

The parking companies can and do enforce these charges. They're a bill - the car park operators claim that parking is free for X minutes, or £££s for longer. Like any bill they have various ways to chase payment, and also like any bill just because it was sent to you doesn't make it correct, you have various ways to dispute it and possible grounds for such a dispute.

Ignoring it, though, is foolish.

Happened to my DM at morrisons. She takes her elderly neighbour to do her shopping and they have a cup of tea and a tea cake at the morrisons cafe. She spoke to the manager produced her receipt and all sorted. She hasnt had anymore hassle either.

@Crawley65
They've done the same round here, all our supermarkets are 3 hours now. Most have number plate checkers.

They are a bunch of cowboys- speak to Lidl first, if you don’t get anywhere take further. There is a helpful group on Facebook called fight your private parking notice or similar. They have a lot of knowledge. And read

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/parking-firm-picked-wrong-driver-13073960.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Haven’t rtft.
My parents appealed a couple of years ago in similar circumstances and were successful. They heard within 36 hours, and this was over the Christmas period.

It’s always worth appealing.

Yes I would challenge OP, could you do it for your parents? I know the elderly get frightened by this sort of thing and just pay, but if your mum and dad have their receipt, it will show what time they left the store etc. I would take the receipt, your mums letter of dx, as of course her disability would make a shopping trip take a longer period of time. Hopefully the fine will be waived, but if they stick to it, vote with their feet and shop elsewhere in future.

I’m going to contact Lidl today and appeal, regardless what some people are saying as we haven’t got anything to lose by doing so.

Good, let us know how it goes

Have a look at that Facebook group; if you appeal and fail they cannot help- so you need to get in and talk to them before that. Agree re writing to Head office and also out on Twitter / Facebook. These parking firms are parasites who do not follow the common rules of decency, you need to follow the letter of the law to get them.

I get these fines quite often. It’s often for going into town and I might or might not do shopping there. I ALWAYS ignore the fine (except the first one I got in which I paid)

I haven’t been taken to court but the companies are starting to get more serious with offenders like myself.

Personally I would ignore the letters and reminders, but the hassle and fear they bring - might be worth just paying the fine (usually less if paid within a given period of time)

See what the shop can do but in my experience they just say it’s not up to them.

Of course A & C are grounds to appeal it. And Lidl should tell their car parking company to back off. I would absolutely write to them, appeal the ticket as well and tell them to shop elsewhere in future.

There was an article in the Times recently about people who are getting fined for staying at a petrol station for more than 30 minutes (because eg they are using the wash). Do those of you who think shopping in a store is no grounds for appeal think that those people should receive tickets too?

OP there is lots of help for this on the Martin Lewis website with template letters.