Aibu about parking fines

[Owesye]

Inspired by another thread.

Aibu not to know that if you ignored (or didn’t receive) a parking fine £25/ bus lane fine £30 from the council you can end up with bailiffs at your door demanding £423 just 3 or 4 months later, clamping your car, and that is perfectly legal and the correct judicial process.

If you fail to engage or pay up then they can seek a court order. It seems unlikely nothing arrived by post, unless the car registration documents were not updated.

Yabu.

Surely if you didn't recieve the first one, they would have sent subsequent letters before sending bailiffs round. So did you ignore all of those too?

YABU. Especially as I don’t think you would have included ‘didn’t know’ if what actually happened was ‘didn’t receive’.

All official fines have to be dealt with quickly. They also don’t only send out one document and then the next contact is bailiffs. How many were ignored?

Surely the main reason you wouldn't receive a fine is that your address linked to the car is wrong and it's your responsibility to ensure its up to date and correct. If you ignore it then it's entirely their fault, it's pretty obvious (and fairly certain it states on the letter) that you are offered the reduced rate for early payment and that there will be additional fees the longer the process takes.

I've recently learnt to drive and while this isn't covered in lessons I still feel it's pretty common knowledge that fines (by the council, not always private) can be enforced.

Well fines don't just go away if the recipient ignores them do they?

It's extremely unlikely that the minimum of three of the letters that will have been issued before the bailiffs were instructed all went astray, so the 'it must have got lost in the post' argument won't wash either.

Don't break parking rules and pay up straight away or appeal if a fine has been issued in error is the lesson here.

It happened to me. I was very unwell at the time, broke, and I knew I had to sort it. It was the speed that shocked me. I was able to get a friend to help me out.
When people ask about appealing parking tickets now I just say pay the bloody thing!