Fucking Parking fine

[Ikeasucks]

Have to pay by tonight to get the “discounted” rate at £60 instead of £100. I only pulled in to a nearby closed hotel car park to take a call for 15mins.

Has anyone just ignored a fine or successfully appealed

Yes - have appealed 3 times and won.

Yes I appealed - private parking company. It was utterly ridiculous. I was blue lighted to hospital. Their CCTV picked up on my little car pulling into their carpark but apparently was unable to detect the ruddy great ambulance speeding in 10 minutes later.

It's not a fine

I've appealed and been let off in various situations. Is there a photo and does it show you in the car?

I guess it hinges on the definition of parking, and I think that it is still regarded as parking if you remain in the car. You could try an appeal, and they might be generous, but if not you've got the larger charge. It might be seen as unfair to charge someone who turned in, but then realised that they'd got the wrong place and moved off as soon as they'd rung someone for directions...

Edina's case is a little different - clearly she did leave her car parked there, but the appeal would be on compassionate grounds, that nobody in their right mind would refuse free parking to someone in that sort of emergency.

There's some good advice on MSE.

If you pulled into a hotel car park, then it's not a fine, it's a parking charge. Private companies can't issue fines.

Have a look at the Martin Lewis MSE website, they have a lot of useful info about dealing with these.

How is it worded? It's basically an invoice 'inviting' you to pay. I would ignore it

Google current thinking on private parking charges. There needed to have been clear warning of restricted parking, so you were aware. It used to be that any 'charge' should be proportionate to the 'offence' of you parking there.
This is a private company, yes?
I had one of these some time ago, read round, and ignored it completely. Never heard anything more.
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@OldEvilOwl

I suggest you look at the Supreme Court ruling in Beavis v ParkingEye.

Never ignore a fine, but you probably have nothing to lose by writing to them to see if they might withdraw it. I've challenged fines successfully even when I knew I was on dodgy ground.

For instance, once I paid for an hour's street parking which issued receipts/tickets you had to leave in front of the car, got back to the car unexpectedly early, then had to drive somewhere else which also used street parking on the same system. As I only had to spend a short time there I thought I could use the original receipt ticket, did so, came back to find a parking ticket. When I looked at the small print I discovered that you can't transfer tickets to different spaces, but just for the hell of it I sent off a letter challenging the fine with a copy of the ticket. And they cancelled it, rather to my surprise.

Why? Its not me that has the fine

I went to visit someone in hospital, twice in one day. Bought an all day ticket which I displayed in my windscreen both times. But because there was no record of mw buying one on the second visit I got fined. I was absolutely livid. Annoyingly I'd chucked the ticket away having assumed its job was done being shown in y window both times.

Sorry just to be clear it's a private car park near the hospital. Not run by the hospital.

Whatever you do get proper advice, I know enough to know that's it's not straightforward and ignoring it isn't likely to be the best advice.

The advice now is not to ignore.
Look at MSE as advised but also check out Pepipoo: strange name, great forum with good advice. Really recommend it- the guys on there know their stuff!!
These are speculative invoices not fines but the paperwork is designed to make you think that.
Good luck

Most of those private parking company fines are successfully challenged - if it was a council one I'd say you had a lot less chance (although we did challenge one where the area where we parked was absolutely covered in leaves, no street lighting and it was impossible to see the (very faded) parking restrictions painted on the road.

There are a few companies who will fight these fines for you for about £20 - I know a few people who have used them successfully, you could do it yourself but I'd rather pay the £20 than have to acquaint myself with the intricacies of parking law!

Good luck in disputing it though. These charges get on my nerves (a local supermarket has one limited your stay to 90 mins. At the height of lockdown last year we spent 10 mins waiting for a parking space, then queuing for over 30 mins to get in, and another 20-30 mins at the tills...a couple of times I went over the 90 unavoidably, I was half hoping for a ticket so I could tell said supermarket exactly what I thought of their stupid restrictions!)

I wouldn’t ignore it, personally. If it’s a company that feels like escalating it, it can become stressful very quickly.

Don’t park in private car parks that charge outsiders to use, and take the lesson.

I’ve ignored many and other than them sending me letter after letter, nothing has ever happened, as it’s been years now I’ve presumed they have given up. The only one I didn’t ignore was a parking eye one as they have taken people to court and won, I challenged that and won because I could prove I was a customer. Just google the company and see if they ever take people to court, if they haven’t then I would personally just ignore.

@OldEvilOwl

Because then you would understand why you shouldn't ignore it.

I have ignored them, nothing happened. That was a good few years ago though so Im assuming things have changed since then

Just ignore it. They're not enforceable.

For those saying ignore, the law is that the charges are enforceable and if you are taken to court you will almost certainly lose.

@Aqua55

Yes they are. See my posts above.

Well it's too late now, but I would have done this-
Email the hotel management immediately (doesn't matter they're not open, they could still get it) and tell them you'd pulled up to check out the outside of their hotel as you had considered booking there when Covid is over. Loads of you, for a long time, in their most expensive rooms.

Imagine your horror when you received this parking fine. Are they aware this could be losing them customers? You really thought they ought to know.

See what happens...