Private parking charge- mitigating circumstances

[SachaStark]

Hello, wondering if anybody can give me some advice regarding private parking tickets.

I arrived for a meeting this morning held at an office I’d never been to before. The office was on private land in an industrial estate. Permit parking with reserved spaces in every single car park, and all the roads were painted with double yellow lines.

After driving round several times, I decided to park in the overspill car park (marked as such), because that one didn’t have reserved parking, I.e. a post labelled with a company name at every space, as all the other car parks did.

When I returned from the meeting, I had a parking charge notice (annoyingly issued four minutes before I arrived back to the space, shouldn’t have said yes to the cup of tea!) due to not having a permit.

I want to dispute this based on mitigating circumstances, due to the fact that I was at the site under official circumstances and the company I was meeting were aware that I was there, and had parked there. I also have copies of the confirmation documents noting that I was there visiting that company at that time.

Do I have a chance at disputing this?

Was there any signage in the overspill car park?

Shouldn't the company have issued you with a temporary permit, it sounds impossible to park there.

You are liable for the charge. Can you imagine if everyone decided to do that.
It's annoying to pay for a permit, ours cost well over £100 per year.
to find some wanker who shouldn't be there preventing you from parking.
What mitigating circumstances allows you to take someone else's place.
Entitled or what.

There's no harm in challenging it - they might let it go or reduce it. You don't really have anything to lose.

You can try, but they're likely to reject it. You could have asked for a temporary permit when you knew you were visiting or when you arrived and saw the parking situation.

I would contact the company you were meeting with and ask them if they can speak to the parking company. If they can’t get it waived they might offer to pay it for you.

The only signage to the overspill car park was the sign which named it as such, “Overspill”. It didn’t look like official signage or anything though, just a laminated print out tacked to a wooden post.

The company did not give me a temporary permit, but my car registration was logged in their signing-in book, along with the time at which I was at the premises.

@Drabarni, I wasn’t taking anybody else’s space. I actively avoided all of the “Reserved for such and such company” spaces. I don’t see why anybody would have to pay £100 per year for an overspill car park. Are you maybe confused with residents’ parking? This was on an industrial estate.

Unlikely if it's permit parking .
I work got a large company and we get a lot of pcns , some are disputed. Some of these are successful some are not but it's worth a appeal . You do it online and takes a minute. If you are unsuccessful you will just have to suck it up and pay .

It did seem quite impossible, @user1493494961! On the drive back, I looked for the nearest non-permit, non-yellow lined parking, and it was over three miles away in the next village!

I was a bit annoyed that the company didn’t mention the parking to me in advance, to be honest. I could have walked that far easily if I’d known and could have built the time in.

You need to ask the company you were visiting to get the charge cancelled.

Way more chance of success and way less hassle than trying to deal with private parking companies.

Sounds like a much better idea, @barbara and other previous posters. Thank you for suggesting that. I’m actually going back to the company for a second meeting some time next week, so I think I’ll just ask them directly then.

Plus I’ll ask them for a bloody temporary permit this time!

I would have mentioned to it when I arrived as there was signage everywhere about needing a permit

If there was no proper signage that complies with POFA then You have a good chance. You have to be able to read the signage and make a decision whether to park or not. Signage in a different area where you haven’t parked is not relevant.

@SachaStark are you in Scotland?

I’m in England.

Yeah, the only signage at the overspill car park was just that one laminated “Overspill” sign. It’s why I chose to park there as I thought, “Oh well, that must be where visitors and customers park then.” It didn’t even occur to me once I got inside, as I was straight in to a conference room. Nobody at the company mentioned the parking either.

See the ticket is it a parking charge notice or a penalty charge notice ?

There are some template letters on the moneysavingexpert parking forums.

I’m actually going back to the company for a second meeting some time next week, so I think I’ll just ask them directly then.
I would ask them before the meeting as if you have to park again, you could get another charge.

I'd email your contact to ask about parking permits as the last time you got a fine and you don't want it to happen again. Then also mention if they know how to get it reversed.

Also take some photos of the signage (lack of)

It's not a charge, or a fine, it's just an invoice, it carries the same legal weight as a bill from your plumber.

If you refuse to pay the parking company may take you to court and argue their case, just like your plumber might do if you didn't pay them for installing your new sink.

You're not appealing anything, legally that could be viewed as an acceptance of a contract. Never ever ever use the phrase "appeal" when talking about a PCN.

Ask the company you were visiting to cancel the ticket. Failing that, ask the PCC for a POPLA code and go from there.

Appeal, I have twice on similar estates and won. Most likely with proof of the meeting and a photo of the sign with a well written letter it will be dropped on ‘goodwill’. If it isn’t go to the next stage of appeal. It’s a myth that you must pay, but do communicate.

The first time I went somewhere they’d changed it so it was still free for centre users, but you had to enter your reg. the door I used have no machine to do so. Having used it many times I missed the change in small print on the signs.

The second was like you, a lack of signage in the area and I had proof of being invited to the estate on work grounds

I’m actually going back to the company for a second meeting some time next week, so I think I’ll just ask them directly then.

Don’t wait till the same situation can occur again! What if there is no temp permit etc?

Call or email whoever your contact is, explain you’ve got a ticket - what can they do to get it waived and how can you avoid this happening again?

If this is private land then it is a civil matter and not a criminal one; ie it is not legally enforceable. If you leave it it is very unlikely that they will go down the legal route as it will cost them too much. You could offer them a goodwill payment for the four minutes of overstay and keep the proof of the offer.

Something similar happened to me, I wrote and gave circumstances (my ds had been sick in the back of the car, the car park had a camera which showed I overstayed by 3 minutes) and offered a few pounds goodwill. They refused, I then ignored the two or three letters that arrived saying that they were going to arrange debt collection if I did not pay up. Nothing ever came of it.