To ask if a private parking company will really take me to court?

[InPeppaPigHell]

...for a fine of £170?
Has anyone here had any experience of this?

My husband got a ticket - it was a pay when you leave car park. But we had thenmoney going out of our account to the parking company the day after he parked and proof from the bank that the transaction went through on the parking day. They wouldn't accept it as proof - went to the next stage and the independent whatsit also wouldn't accept our proof. It was ridiculous. We started getting solicitor emails threading court action.

In the end I sent an email to the solicitor tell them to stop harassing us or I would be reporting them to thr Solicitor regulating authority - I attached proof again to the email and never heard from them again.

@InPeppaPigHell

I'm wondering...if I just ignore them until/if I get a court summons, and only then pay. Will that show up on my credit record?

Why bother if you're going to pay it anyway?

Join Fight your private parking fine on fb.
Can be won on points of contractual law if appealed correctly, they will show you how.

Yep, use to have them in my building at work. They took people to court all the time, and won about 95% of the time!

@HumourReplacementTherapy

Yes they can. The initial appeal is utter bollocks. Guess who owns "the independent car parking appeals service"? The very same company probably who gave you the fine in the first place. There are ways to argue but It is very complex and you'll find the full detail on MSE. I never park in a privately owned car park any more unless it's a multi storey. I always use council car parks wherever possible.

I used the appeals process on one I got recently, was very sceptical, but amazedingly it was successful and the company cancelled my ticket. It was valid too, I had over stayed by 15 minutes. Private car park of a shop, parking charges run by typical parking company. I explained how busy the shop was, difficulty getting served, hadn't abused the spirit of the facilities (sounded good to me), and they accepted it. Technically they were correct in the ticket though so I was pleasantly surprised.

@girlmom21 Because they might not take me to court. If they do and I get a summons then I guess I'll have to just pay. But I don't want to if I don't have to.

Oh I’m nervous about getting a ticket 😞

Yesterday I went to get my covid jab, council car park full so parked in the adjoining supermarket one. Went in and spent £23 in the supermarket, then went and got my jab and popped to another shop. Was 5 mins late back to the car…. But the car park was so busy it then took another 5 mins to get out. I’ve got that feeling of dread that I’m going to get fined.

Has anyone ever overstayed in a private car park like that and NOT got a ticket?

Oh we had the dont pay it, backroom lawyer brigade on the local FB page last year after several were fined on a local car park. A few voices of reason told them they should look into it further and were met with poor advice like @Arabelladrinkstea were offering.
Imagine their surprise when court summons started to fall on their doormats over the summer 😂

By the time there's a court summons it includes the issue fee etc, so it'll cost more to get rid of it.

Surely this comes down to whether you’re in the right or not. If you contravened the rules by not paying or staying longer than you’d paid for then it seems to me to be a fair cop and I’d just pay it.

@Bigoldmachine

Oh I’m nervous about getting a ticket 😞

Yesterday I went to get my covid jab, council car park full so parked in the adjoining supermarket one. Went in and spent £23 in the supermarket, then went and got my jab and popped to another shop. Was 5 mins late back to the car…. But the car park was so busy it then took another 5 mins to get out. I’ve got that feeling of dread that I’m going to get fined.

Has anyone ever overstayed in a private car park like that and NOT got a ticket?

I had a situation where my car wouldn’t start after I’d done my supermarket shop. I called AA but I was in the car park for longer than the allocated 2 hours. I went into the store to let them know my situation to try to avoid a ticket and customer services told me it was fine and it was monitored.

@Arabelladrinkstea

Look up common law. No you don’t have to pay.

If you believe that you'll believe anything.

Yes. You can get a CCJ

@Happychristmas2021 Can I ask how you knew the judge threw it out of court the day before? Did they phone or write to let you know?
The "debt recovery" company has been writing to my old address (we moved a few months after getting the fine, and despite details being updated with DVLA the company is writing to our old address). If they did go down the court route I'm worried I'd miss the correspondence as it wouldn't be sent to my current address...

InPeppaPigHell - I got a court date through the post, then a notification the judge had thrown it out through the post, but everything from the court was posted to me.
That was when judges could easily throw out ridiculous cases like this due to the company over charging for a much smaller amount that should have been paid.
But my step-mum had exactly the same fine, we were confident it would be thrown out or ruled in our favour, took it to court but that judge ruled in the parking companies favour. She ended up paying maybe double what she could have, and she didn’t do anything wrong.
I would now say to just pay it, you said already you didn’t get a ticket so are probably due the fine.

@Happychristmas2021 I see...yes I regret ignoring the fine now. I'd be happy to pay them the original amount (about £60) but £170 is so excessive...I'm wondering whether to call them and try to negotiate to pay them the original amount. But I'm not sure who to even call...the debt recovery people or the parking company?

I’m in Scotland too, have had them for Asda, Tesco and Aldi over the years. Always ignored amd they stopped eventually. Of all the people here I know who’ve gotten them and not paid no one has actually been taken to court.

Is the vehicle registered to you? If not, in Scotland you can get out of it that way.

This site might be useful if you want to challenge it. I wouldn’t ignore it completely if it was me but I know plenty of people who still do.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/law-and-courts/parking-tickets/appealing-parking-tickets/parking-tickets-on-private-land-s/

What about if they have tampered wiht the photo of your reg plate entering the car park but the reg plate of you leaving is correct? I'm not sure why they needed to do that, as I did come and go at those times, but they have clearly photoshopped the image somehow to turn a D into a B!

I got one when I was working in the community and carrying heavy lifting equipment to a patients house. I had a government 'essential covid pass 'and emailed to explain as soon as I realised it was a private car park. There were no signs until right inside the area. The patient was a resident. I'm a lone parent who worked all through covid and don't see why I should pay to do my job. I can't carry heavy equipment from another street.. we need access to our cars and PPE etc. I failed the appeal even with a lot of evidence and have ignored their letters. They're disgusting.

That really is disgusting. Im sorry to hear that

If you didn’t have to pay what is the blooming point of them!

Agree. Pay it and move on.

@InPeppaPigHell as you are in Scotland it's quite simple:
-They have an alleged civil contract breach with the driver of a vehicle
-They do not know who the driver is (You haven't let slip who they are have you in any correspondence to them? Don't)
-All the have is the name of the registered keeper (You) obtained from the DVLA. You are being written to as the Keeper as that is the only info they can obtain.
-Scotland has not yet enacted keeper liability unlike in England, and even if they had, despite it being these parking companied day job, many are incapable of providing legally compliant wording on their PCN's or following the required process to the letter giving an instant win.
-They can ask the keeper nicely (or with spurious legal threats to scare you) but they can only pursue the driver, who they do not know.
-Any that have been taken to court like the nurse? in dundee? i think have been because they were a habitual repeat offender and were traceable as it was their place of work etc. The cost to attempt to take someone to court of a one off mistake is prohibitive & they are certainly not guaranteed to awarded any of their costs even if they did win

The advice in scotland is to file and ignore but you can respond to them as the keeper thanking them for their enquiry but as you are the keeper you have no liability in this matter, as they are very well aware. And as you are not required to do so, you will decline to provide them with details of the driver should they so ask. You consider the matter closed and require them to cease processing your personal data other than to confirm cancellation of the PCN in your name.

If you want proper advice, other than file it and ignore, go ask the guys on PePiPoo

Surely if you were in the wrong you should just pay the fine.

They tried. I’d paid. I ended up on really chummy terms with a woman at their solicitors, she kept putting it at the bottom of the pile and I think she “lost” it in the end.