Parking.....beware enforcement by private parking company's

A little while ago He went shopping at B&Q and Halfords in Grimsby. He parked in their car park (which is vast and nearly empty at the time) made purchases in both stores and, being environmentally conscious and needing the exercise, he walked the short distance to a nearby shop. About a week later the registered keeper (RK) of the car (which may or may not have been Him – I’m not sure) got a so called Parking Charge Certificate/Civil Traffic Enforcement Notice which advised him that he had incurred a £90 Charge for leaving the site. It was red, had a picture of the car and looked a bit scary. He was pretty mad and did some research on the internet thingy.

It seems that these parking charges are becoming more and more common. Retail parks often give parking enforcement to private parking companies (PPC) who enforce rules which they have imposed. Typical infringements of the rules involve parking longer that a particular time, leaving the site to go to another shop, not parking properly in a marked bay (perhaps even just a wheel on a white line!) and so on.

There are a number of issues relating to these charges from a PPC. The main point is that, despite what they say, these are not “Fines” or “Penalties” since they can only be issued by the police or local authorities. They are a charge based on an alleged contract entered into by the Driver of the vehicle who may not be the registered keeper. The PPC gets the registered keeper’s details from the DVLA* and then sends what amounts to an invoice for the charge. It might look like a penalty notice but think of it as an invoice. There is much advice on the internet particularly from

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets
And
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

The long and the short of it is that these PPC charges are considered to be unenforceable. If you are ever in the situation he was in I suggest you read up on it before paying anything no matter what the threats. There several issues including

• If the driver is not the registered keeper (RK) then the RK cannot have entered into a contract when they where not present. The RK has no obligation to identify the driver to the PPC – they do not have the same powers as the police.
• Only a Driver can have entered into an alleged contract and only then if they had seen and understood any signs which advised them of charges. Were any signs visible from where the car was parked? Did the driver see them? Have the principals of a contract ( offer, acceptance and consideration) been met.
• Under contract law penalties cannot be imposed. Damages may be sought for a breach of contract and must be proportionate to the loss incurred and not a penalty. In the case of a free car park which has empty spaces what is the “loss”? Nothing?? In any event £90 is not proportionate to the loss and as such would be regarded as a penalty by the courts and therefore unenforceable.
• The Unfair Contract Terms Act also comes into play.

Anyway if you get one of these PPC charges please research it before paying. Please note that as I am only a Bear and not a legally qualified one at that, you must do your own research and make your own decisions.

So what was the outcome of all of this? Having read all the advice He was all set to ignore the letters, the threats of debt collectors and be prepared for them to go to court ( which PPC’s evidently hardly ever do) and defend the claim. Before digging in for the long fight the RK decided to do what he considered to be the right thing and wrote a “stiff letter” to the PPC stating that the driver had shopped in both the stores, sent copies of the receipts and suggested that they had made a mistake. Much to our amazement they replied and cancelled the charges. Result!

*The DVLA charge £2.5 0 a time for this information and receive over 30,000 requests a month…..nice earner eh?