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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I might not have to pay this parking fine?

41 replies

Trapordo · 14/04/2020 07:35

Obviously I'm going to get flamed.

Basically, a few weeks back I was driving to my appointment with DC in the back of the car. I heard him choking (didn't know what on) and sadly knew the familiar sound of a choking baby, I had dislodged a sweet from my niece when she was little Sad

I panicked and parked up, in the closest bay I could. Then I swung DC out of the seat and saw it was some sort of toy he'd had that had broken off and was down his throat. I panicked, tried to dislodge twice and ran, with him in my arms to the department ready to shout for help. Just as we got through the doors it went flying into the floor. DC was a bit shaken but fine after a minute, and to add to the drama id got the wrong bloody date and the appointment was for the following week.

Anyway, all this went by within the space of 5/10 minutes. The bay I parked in was a disabled one but I didn't get a ticket.

Low and behold, last week I receieved a letter in the post to say I hadn't paid the fine, and that have pictures of my car parked there in the picture.

Is there any way I can dispute this due to an emergency? Any way at all?

Thank you Flowers

OP posts:
Divebar · 14/04/2020 08:41

The story does sound far fetched but if they
didn’t issue the ticket properly then you weren’t in a position to either pay or appeal. What does the photo show? Does it show it in your windscreen?. I would focus on that aspect and check MSE for further advice.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/04/2020 08:42

Did you get help from 'the department' with your choking child? Would it have been recorded by them?

In my experience, not that I make a habit of parking illegally, the only way to get out of paying, other than going all the way through to a court, is for the landowner to cancel the ticket. You will almost certainly get nowhere by dealing with the parking company because all they will do will ignore everything you tell them and continue with their threatening letters.

Theduchessstill · 14/04/2020 08:44

Evidence may end up not relating to what happened to your child but instead be about the signs in the car park and the documents they send you.

There should/could be a grace period for leaving without paying - how long were you there for?

BarbaraofSeville · 14/04/2020 08:44

Dive

These companies often don't put something on your windscreen. They just get your details from DVLA and send the invoice (it's not a fine, only councils and the police have the powers to issue fines) in the post.

Ihatesocialmedia · 14/04/2020 08:45

Please look up the difference between a Parking charge notice (invoice) and a Penalty charge notice (fine). If it is a private company they cannot fine you for parking on their land all they can do is invoice you. If it is council land and it is an actual fine you need to pay but the rules are different for a private firm and they have to abide by certain rules in order to enforce the payment and to do that they would need to take you to court (unlikely). The advice is to not engage at all but if you are worried and feel you must then I would write to them asking for the photos of your car with their ticket on. Legally they have to leave a ticket and take a photo of your car with it on.
It seems like they are chancing their luck if you didnt get one and are trying to scare you into paying. To take you to court they must prove they left a ticket on your car and that you were given adequate time to pay. See this website www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/

Again if it is definitely private then I would ignore as the likelihood of them taking you to court is very slim. Do not ignore if it is an actual fine rather than an invoice though.

Aloe6 · 14/04/2020 08:52

It's terrible outdated advice to say ignore it but equally as bad, imo, to say just pay it. These companies are absolute piss-taking money-grabbers and rely on people just paying up to carry on making money for nothing.

However, you do have to be prepared to put some time into appealing properly - even with advice it can end up being quite time consuming depending on how far down the process you have to go.

Exactly why sometimes it’s better to just pay it than waste your life appealing it. The time to research how to appeal, gather evidence, put the appeal together. Potentially the stress. Of course it makes sense to sometimes just pay up and forget about it.

Theduchessstill · 14/04/2020 08:52

The advice is to not engage at all

This is completely wrong and dangerous advice. Private companies can and do take people to court and the days have gone when most will just give up and go away eventually. If you want to contest it you have to be prepared to engage and it could be that you still end up in court, but, with the correct advice and research, you could well win.
I can't urge you enough to go onto the MSE forum, but ffs don't just ignore it or you could well end up with a CCJ.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/04/2020 08:57

Legally they have to leave a ticket and take a photo of your car with it on

No they don't.

Hingeandbracket · 14/04/2020 08:59

@Ihatesocialmedia
Your advice is incorrect and out of date.
Since the 2015 Supreme Court case, private invoices are mostly enforceable, and companies do take many thousands to court to get their cash.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 14/04/2020 09:21

I would be in the party of, unless I had undeniable evidence, just pay the fine.

I’ve had two parking tickets in my time. One was completely my fault (I just forgot to buy the ticket) and I just paid. The other was because we went over the allowed free time limit. We went over because we’d gone to a restaurant with over 20 people so it took longer than the allowed 3 hours. To appeal that, I went to the restaurant and they cancelled it for us.

I used to work for an outdoor company with a private car park. We had a two hour limit of free parking but were right next to a supermarket so people would frequently use our car park. When people came into our shop, they could easily spend more than two hours if they were asking for advice about equipment, etc. If they called us and told us about the fine and had receipts to prove they’d been in store, we’d cancel the fine.

TheTrollFairy · 14/04/2020 09:29

Did they send pictures to you of your car parked there? If not, it’s worth asking for the photo to be provided to you.

Please don’t ignore the advise to not pay it as parking firms can’t enforce it, this is not always true and loads of people in my town have ended up in court because they took the advise to ignore it (we have a place which isn’t immediately obvious that you can’t park)

AvoidingRealHumans · 14/04/2020 10:03

Regardless of the situation you have still parked in a disabled bay without a valid disabled badge and therefore have breached the car parks rules so a fine/invoice has been rightly issued.

I would pay the fine and see it as the price I had to pay to make sure my child was ok. It is unlikely you will be able to get evidence from anyone as thankfully the toy dislodged as you entered the building so I'm assuming you didn't need help from anyone inside.

You could appeal on a whim, the worst they will say is no and as long as you are within the right time frame you should still be able to pay the discounted rate.

AdobeWanKenobi · 14/04/2020 10:12

Whenever something like this is posted here there is always the absolutely 100% correct advice. Unfortunately it’s buried amongst the advice to ignore it etc.
My advice as always on these threads is to head for a website called Pepipoo where they do this thing every day, accurately. The advice to use the MSE parking ticket section is also sound.

I can only reiterate. DO NOT ignore this and seek proper advice on the two sites given to you.

Good luck.

SoupDragon · 14/04/2020 10:19

There should/could be a grace period for leaving without paying

She has been fined for parking in a disabled space with no blue badge, not for leaving without paying.

Neveranynamesleft · 14/04/2020 10:36

These private parking companies make my blood boil. They are only interested in making money.
Please DO NOT ignore the letter, it will not just go away. Please do not pay the amount asked but go through the normal channels of appealing the invoice. ( It will be refused but they always are ) Scrutinise their letter and check they have sent you their photographic evidence of whatever it is they say you have done. Check everything. All this advise can be found on very helpful websites that previous posts have mentioned. Please read everything and use the help and advise.
They are chancers, you may get final demands and threats and court papers but please do not be intimidated. These companies need to be stopped just as the clampers were and if people dont stand up to them it makes it more difficult to do this. This has even been debated in parliament, it's a major issue.

Neveranynamesleft · 22/04/2020 20:24

Any update on this ???

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