tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

My youngest took his mum to East Mids Airport, dropped her there, went to a local motorway services for his tea, then picked up his brother from the same airport.

Today he has received a "Parking Charge Notice" from a bunch of solicitors purporting to be acting on behalf of the services, demanding £80 for staying longer than the permitted two hours, which will be reduced to £45 if he pays it within fourteen days. They say they have photographic evidence.

I have a couple of questions:

Is this legal, when all he did was have a meal and wait for his bro?
What will happen if we just ignore it?

Thanks for any advice, including the obligatory s/n posts about not doing the crime, etc.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Sounds a bit ... er .. scammy .. I didnt know you have to leave after 2 hours in a service station ?

mrtheedge2u2

tell them to shove it up their ****'s

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Usual advice is to say and do nothing. Private land so unenforcable. They'll write about 6 or seven times but ignore them all and they will eventuaslly go away. If you reply then they know they have a live one and will give you grief!

5t.

room 512

Most services have a tenner charge now if you want to stay more than 2 hours. Usually signposted around the parking area. Think its to stop people parking all day and getting a lift from someone else to avoid parking charges in city centres etc.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Agreed, ignore them. If they do take you to court they have to prove that YOU did it (not the car) and they have to prove a loss of revenue that you are compensating them for.

It is unlikely that they have sufficient photographic evidence.....

cossie-nutter

iTrader: (45)

It's a scam I done a similar thing at Stansted Airport a few months ago and I got the same! Tell them to bring it on...

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

As above ignore it completely.

EddScott

Are these the same as this

National Parking Control

We considered this after our clamper stopped clamping. We decided against it because we bought parking security poles and because it wasn't as entertaining as watching someone argue with the clamper.

room 512

Not saying that ignoring it is the right or wrong thing to do but would you do the same if for instance you parked in a council car park, didn't pay and display and then drove off after a couple of hours? Would you pay the fine when a ticket arrived through the post?

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

Of course I would, but council carparks are FULL of paystations, and "Have you paid and displayed" signs etc, whereas my experience of motorway services is that the signs are obscure and the paystations hidden, to catch people just like this one allegedly has.

TBH, I think it stinks: motorways are FULL of signs saying, "Tiredness can kill, take a break". Then when you do, you can be fined for taking longer than THEIR idea of what constitutes a break.

room 512

Totally agree, it does stink, they make more than enough money off us as it is with their monopoly on prices when you stop there. tbh my comment was more towards the people saying ignore the charge, not sure you can always get away with that these days. They've probably got a pretty good cctv/anpr shot of him entering and leaving the car park and the said times. Personally think that if you can prove that you've spent money inside their premises then you should be able to park as long as you want.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

As a very slight aside how can a private firm get access to the DVLA database to get your address detials from your registratiion? Surely that is open to abuse.

MJW

You'd be surprised how easy it is to get info from the DVLA, check out this article

GC8

The parking contract is with the vehicles driver, not the registered keeper. They are pursuing the keeper: can they prove who was driving? They cant of course, making any threat of legal action a bluff. Bin the letter and forget about it.

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

Mt thoughts exactly.

fatherpierre

They're trying their luck and playing a numbers game. There are always those that pay up without questioning these things, and that's what they rely on.

Bin it.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Someone asked above if the same advice applies to council parking tickets....NO!!!

On private land they have to pursue the driver of the vehicle, but normally can only get details of the registered keeper.

For council and police parking tickets they pursue the keeper of the car, it does not matter who was driving at the time afaik. Or, it is up to the driver to prove it was not them driving. Its a different rule anyway. Check out Pepipoo if you want to try and appeal...but for this case just ignore it imo.

boomer

See PePiPoo and the associated forum and website.

The Police, councils, train station car parks etc. have the full force of the law - but PPCs rely on a "contract" that you have to accept!!

mb

CooperS

As everyone else says, ignore it.

They can't enforce it as it's not subject the the road traffic act, it's merely an invoice which is supposedly for you flouting the rules and regs in their "contract" which is on the signposts. **** them.

Ltd parking companies are a joke.