Bloody parking charge

[RoseWrites]

I went to a car park and my 4 year old went batshit on the way in. I quickly parked and got her out and calmed her down. I looked at the car, and one wheel was on the white line. Tbh I couldn't be bothered with putting DD back and reparking so I just dashed into the shop. Came out 5 minutes later and found a ticket on my car for £100.
I got home and appealed it but got a standard letter back saying appeal has been denied, but with no rationale. I assume they send the same wording to everyone. There's no way of contacting them.
My options are pay for the fine now or appeal to the ombudsman but run the risk of paying more if that's denied.
If it's any use, it's Excel parking. And the car park is in cramlington.
Would you appeal or just (begrudgingly) pay?

Loool sigh

Well I had zero clue you could get fined for that! Bloody hell. Before I got my blue badge if I couldn't get a space at the end of a row I had to park like that sometimes to ensure I could open my door fully. I'd have been so annoyed to get a ticket because of it. Car parks should have bigger spaces!

I’m an actual lawyer 😂All your shitty piece of paper says is that you didn’t have to pay, not that no one has to pay private parking fines.

Sounds cut and dry to me OP, sorry. You knew you'd parked incorrectly but took the risk of a fine and on this occasion, they caught you. Please be wary of anyone saying to ignore them because they won't go to court for £100 - the can, they have done and they may well do. The reason they're able to get so many people to pay up for fines is the very real threat of going to Court if you don't, and they follow through on this threat wherever possible.

I'm not saying I agree with the way private carparks operate, all I'm saying is that if you don't deal with this now, ignoring it won't make it go away and it's more than likely they will escalate the fine you owe or it would end up in Court. This happened to a friend of mine, who tried to fight it through the Courts tooth and nail but in the end owed (and had to pay) nearly 10x the original fine.

The website PePiPoo offers loads of advice on forums regarding these fines, on how to correspond with them if you did want to appeal or have any query, but it sounds as if you won't have much of a defense so might want to pay the fine on this occasion and then in future, make sure they can never fine you and get another penny of your money ever again

You do know this site is for adults don’t you?

😆

Who has “brains”? That doesn’t say what you think it says.

I work in private parking sector, not a car park operator but deal with payments and appeals.

POPLA look at facts not mitigating circumstances, they take into consideration what the signs say and if you've breached T&C's then they will uphold the ticket being issued correctly.

Please ignore advice to ignore it, I deal with people day in day out who don't realise they have a CCJ from one until they apply for a mortgage etc. it's really outdated advice and they do and will take it to court after it reaches debt recovery stage and non payment:

This is good advice.

KillingLoneliness you wouldn't see anyone get a ticket because they would get a parking charge notice in the post, just like OP.
OP if it's a shop car park you could talk to the manager of the shop and explain the situation

@BabyOnBoard90 I believed that you had a claim dismissed even before the photo share.

But it would help if you explained why it was dismissed - so OP knows it’s relevant to her situation.

I had one dismissed - on appeal, didn’t go to court - because I didn’t have a permit. Except I did, and it was even clearly visible in their “proof” photo, in which you could also see the colours and watermark. The best they came up with in the appeal was, “oh sorry they thought it was a fake.”

But if all I say to OP is “I won an appeal - go for it” that’s not helpful.

The general advice to ignore is now long out of date.

@BabyOnBoard90 having a claim dismissed in court is completely different to your advice to ignore it

Very silly advice.

Oooooo woowwww a lawyer. Clearly you're expertise doesn't lie in this area

Where did I say ignore it? I said it can be disputed.

This is such outdated advice.

The number one rule is to not admit to being the driver at the time of the offence

You can admit to being the owner, just not the driver

I got out of a £70 "invoice" for an eleven minute overstay in a retail park

"Private car park company? Oh you definitely don't have to pay and can tell them where to stick."

Telling OP they definitely don't have to pay, based on the circumstances of your own appeal where the fine was dismissed (for reasons you have not stated and are not included), if OP followed your advice would you be willing to sign an indemnity vouching for the fact that if she does get taken to Court, the fine increases, a CCJ is taken out etc, that you'd cover all resulting costs?

If your answer is anything other than "yes", you can't be 100% sure that OP doesn't have to pay.

I know a lot about this topic and know there are several ways you can get a parking fine thrown out of court, including procedural errors and appeal processes, but OP's posts have given no indication that any of these apply in her circumstances. While I have no doubt you did not have to pay your fine, what applied to you might not apply to the OP so saying she "definitely" don't have to pay is potentially dangerous advice.

Oh, what a good idea. I've never thought about it in those terms, but if I get a ticket and I'm bang to rights as you are, OP, I just tell myself it's my own stupid fault, pay it and forget about it.

That'll go well when they produce the CCTV.

On what grounds are you appealing?

I successfully appealed my parking ticket because I had plenty of photos that the bay I had parked in wasn't part of the bays temporarily 'booked'.
You need evidence that you didn't commit the parking offence such as photos or videos.

The person who gave you the fine will probably have taken their own photos so you need to make sure you take photos from every angle, near and far, to counter any cleverly positioned photos they take.

No, I work in international disputes for a global elite firm. My “expertise” isn’t in something that’s covered in first year contract law because it’s, frankly, not a situation you can be an expert in because it’s incredibly basic. OP is liable to pay this fine based upon everything she’s outlined, advising her not to pay it will simply result in her owing them even more. You have bad, incorrect, out of date advice. And, since then, you’ve come across very poorly too.

It doesn’t need to. It shows that refusing to pay can be successful.

Sorry @BabyOnBoard90 you're right you didn't say to ignore it, my apologies

You have to provide the name and serviceable address of the driver or the liability remains with you as the registered keeper.