Aldi parking ticket, wtf??!

[ParCarking101]

So I'd been out in town and asked OH to pick me up; asked him to meet me in Aldi car park thinking I'd grab some bits for dinner but when I got there realised the car park was empty - apart from OH - and remembered it was Sunday. We left, laughing at my daftness, and thought nothing more about it - till I got a ticket through the post a couple weeks later, saying the car had been in the car park 10 minutes, permitted time in car park is zero (!!) minutes, and we owed £40! 😦

I obviously replied straight away explaining what had happened but my appeal has been rejected ☹️ can they really do this?? Given I hadnt even the opportunity to register my car as the store wasnt open?!

Basically, It's one of those store car parks where you can have 70 minutes and you register your car as you leave the store. Don't know whether to go further with it - OH is fuming (partly with himself for not even noticing the empty carpark I think 😂) as he says they can't enforce a fine based on a system where you can't register even if you wanted to? Also, zero minutes allowed??! Not even time to turn around!

Is he right? AWNBU?! If so, what should we do?!

I have contested several spurious parking invoices in my time so I can offer some advice on this subject. Basically do the following.

1 Do not pay the parking charge. You made a small mistake and nobody suffered any financial loss due to your parking.

2 Always reply to any correspondence by email and keep these saved

3 Now that the parking company have declined your appeal (they always do) email them to inform them saying that you will next appeal to Popla and require a ten digit code to do this.

When emailing the parking company who issued you with the ticket make it very clear that you will not pay even if you lose the Popla appeal and that the only way you will be giving them money is if they take you to court and win. They might cancel your ticket at this point rather than paying the Popla fee as the parking company has to pay for every appeal to Popla and it's free for the motorist.

Parking companies are generally chancers and make their money from low hanging fruit ie people who blindly pay up out of fear. Basically you have to make it clear that you will not pay up unless they get a court judgement in their favour which is time consuming and costly.

Where you have overstayed by ten minutes they are unlikely to try their luck in front of a judge. You stayed in an empty car park for ten minutes. Neither the parking company nor supermarket have suffered any financial loss as a result of your actions.

If they provide you a code for Popla then come back and we will help you with your appeal statement.

I am stunned that a supermarket would be closed on a Sunday?!?!

I've just had a look. The consideration period is only 5 minutes, so your fine would still stand.

If I could stand up and clap you, I would.

My local town FB group had a post about Lidl issuing these for people overstaying when they hadn’t (cameras sometimes don’t catch reg on the way out if there is a queue).
Somebody replied that they’ve had over 10 of these type of fines from various places, never paid any of them and have never been taken to court. Their point was, how do they prove it was you driving the vehicle? Plus, it costs them to go to court, and most people just pay up out of fear so they don’t bother chasing those who don’t.
I had one from a pub car park recently! It was dark, I didn’t see the sign, it was a PUB FFS! Since when do they charge/require rego for customers to park? I wasn’t told about it when I got inside either🤷‍♀️.
It’s really shit that this happens everywhere now and people are getting fleeced for genuine mistakes, or even worse, the car park’s own cameras failing.

I would keep appealing and let them take you to court. I bet they won’t for £40. Surely the judge will have discretion to dismiss the case if they did?

@PlaceIntheClouds thank you for this great info

The reasons it will almost certainly not go to court is because the infringement is so minor and also due to several unreasonable technicalities with the terms of use [based on what OP has said].

Parking companies only take slam dunk wins and repeat offenders to court. It's not something that they do lightly, contrary to what their aggressive letters say.

Try Martin Lewis's website forum for advice. They helped me last year.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking

I just would not pay.

I once parked in a 30 min car park for longer - not intentionally. Was waiting on a prescription and it ran over the time. But I didn't pay. Eventually they got sick of chasing me.

A political party that enacted regulation of private car parks such as at supermarkets would get a lot of support.

Generally motorists are allowed to do things that in no other part of life would be acceptable. There is no 'war on the motorist' apart from on parking charges and payment though.

I took the Parking Invoice Company full force by imposing unilateral terms on them.

By the time they their letters petered out - they owed me £500.00 and I allegedly owed them £170.00, which I denied. I only admitted to being the legal owner not the driver.

I so looked forwarded to their letters.

An excerpt from my 2 page response :

”….Unilateral Contractual Terms – Accepted by Conduct

You claim a unilateral contract exists with me based on alleged parking terms I have never seen. I
now impose reciprocal terms, effective immediately:
• A contractual administrative fee of £100 per letter I issue to your office is now due and
payable.
• This covers time, postage, legal research, stationery, and emotional distress caused by your
actions.
• Your continued communication or processing constitutes acceptance of these terms.
• You have 14 calendar days to raise a written objection. Silence will be deemed full
acceptance.
• This letter constitutes Invoice #1 – Amount Due: £100.
Non-payment will result in legal action via Money Claim Online without further notice….”.

”…Challenge to Evidential Validity and Legal Standing
I hereby request the following under the principles of evidential transparency and data protection
compliance:
a) A full description of any ANPR, photographic or video equipment used to record the alleged
contravention, including make, model, and software.
b) The maintenance, testing and calibration records for that equipment, covering at least 30 days
before and after 14/xx/xxxx.
c) An explanation of how this evidence is verified for accuracy and compliance with BPA Code of
Practice Sections 21.3–21.4 and UK GDPR Article 5(1)(d).
d) Furthermore, I request you disclose:
i. A copy of the contract or other legal instrument between XXX Parking Services Ltd and the
landowner or freeholder of the site at S Park, S***
ii. Proof that your client has the legal standing to pursue charges and issue recovery under
their own name, in accordance with Vehicle Control Services v HMRC [2013] EWCA Civ 186….”.

It became a sport, they tired of me, and go after people that get stressed easy.

They are bullies, punch them back where it hurts most!

Thank you.
Sprinkles

Our Aldi is on a little car park with other shops. They can’t cancel tickets (or so they say). The signage does state no parking when the stores are closed and gives the times. on a Sunday I think it’s no parking after 6pm - I see people parking in there all time, they must not realise. Companies must make a fortune out of this.

Well thats illegal, you DO get a mandatory 10 minute grace period which all legal accredited firm must allow for.

Obviously the company themselves will reject you though, you need to appeal to the independent adjudicator who will uphold the law.

I know PP have already mentioned this @ParCarking101 , but definitely go check out all of the info on the Moneysavingexpert parking fines forum. I have used this info to contest a handful of charges successfully. In your circumstances the first thing, as PP have also said, that I'd do is contact Aldi and explain the situation, and ask if they would kindly (!) consider cancelling the charge. I'm assuming that it's a private operator that Aldi have contracted to oversee the running of the car parking facilities, so although they will be the ones issuing the parking charge, it's very likely that Aldi has the power to have the charge cancelled. All being well that will be the end of things.

The 10 minutes grace is if you go over your paid parking time, it isn't the same as the consideration period for driving in, not wanting to park, and driving out again.

That old advice to ignore is woefully outdated, it takes months or even years for it to hit you but it does.

Except its now gone through court and the precedent has been set that legally they can charge and you will get CCJs by ignoring the major firms like ParkingEye etc...

During Covid ParkingEye popped up all around the school and some parents ignored it, told everyone else to, bragged that they had 'gotten away' with it and how 'nothing happened' and they continued doing it then got hit with HUNDREDS of court enforced fine. Its not instantaneous but they didn't 'forget', the legal system takes time.

Its best to just appeal it properly to the independent appeals, its easy and completely free and if you are within the law it will be cancelled.

Yes it is mandatory even if you don't park, its too allow people to drive around and find a spot or leave. Nothing to do with paid parking, most these companies don't even charge parking.

if the time allowed is 0 how does that allow for someone parking, getting out the car to read the legally required sign to understand the conditions and then leave again. Appeal to popla

And I think if you do a popla appeal they have to freeze the price of the charge but check that.

This fb group is good. I got taken to court and won but did employ a barrister. They also rocked up with a barrister. But my circumstances were rather niche and not applicable here.

No, they're two separate things. The 10 minutes grace is for going over your allotted paid (or allocated free) parking time. What you're talking about is called a period of consideration, and this can be as little as 5 minutes (I'm unsure if 5 mins is guidelines or statute), but that's the time given as either guideline or law for deciding not to park.

Edited to add- Grace period is 10 minutes. The consideration period is 5.

I’ve had a few of these from private companies and the advice I’ve had from various people is ignore, they are aggressive initially and then give up.
none of them will bother taking you to court

Don't pay it. The popla grace period is 10 minutes. Also there must be some guidance about what you do if the car park is open but no option to pay. Aldi should definitely be able to cancel off the ticket here.

You need to follow template advice really. They are definitely in the wrong here.

Try free traffic legal advice, the successor to pepipoo which helped me in similar circumstances

https://www.ftla.uk//

Which is bad advice.

You need to respond to the ticket and go through the various appeals process.

You are correct that they rarely take drivers to court. However if you are one of the very few that are taken to court a judge will take a very dim view on a driver that has completely ignored all communications.