The Great British Parking scam.

Parking scams

We've all heard of the national scandal that is blighting our high streets -- the parking scam. As we speak (Oct 22) the government of the day are working on legislation to clip the wings of dubious parking operations. Unfortunately at the last count the progress of the bill has been halted due to the lack of parliamentry time. At the time of this update (August 2023) this matter has been put in a dusty old box and moved to the room marked "do not disturb". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice/private-parking-code-of-practice. https://www.gov.uk/government/

Meanwhile the business has become so profitable for many that it's unlikely the people running them are going to let go of it easily.

Private parking operators issue more than 20,000 parking tickets every day across the UK, with some accused of having confusing and misleading signage that makes drivers more susceptible to charges compared to parking in a council operated bay. 

If you're going to drive on Britain's modern roads you need to make yourself aware of what the dangers of inadvertently overstaying or parking on private land is and make decisions on how you want to deal with it.

So, you have a parking ticket / Invoice from a private parking company? 

Your first decision is how to approach the issue, know your options and also assess the efforts and risks involved in these options. 

First step is to establish if you have a Private Parking invoice or a local authorities fine. This article is about the former. (Private Parking ticket)

Do you

Pay it?

Ignore it?

Dispute it? 

Common tricks parking scams use 

It's been known for parking operations to change the time restrictions for little reason and little publicity on the basis that on a established car park most people won't bother to read the t&cs.

Notice I didn't list the option to appeal?

If you're going to dispute it it's likely to end up with a court case. You can appeal, to the court.

If you feel the the parking company have acted unfairly or illegaly against their own code of coduct and you are prepared to gather the evidence and present your case, a judge will make a binding decision. If you lose (assuming the company turns up), you will be able to pay the amount then due within 28 days thereby avoiding a CCJ. 

On the downside by this stage the "bill" will have grown to how much greater amount? Some £250 £350. On the upside there's every chance that the parking company will not bother turning up to court in which case you would have won by default.

Learn the system.

A parking violation on private land is a civil matter it deemed that you has have entered the contract by simply visiting private land and companies have various ways of contacting you you to send you their invoice. If you fail to pay the invoice the operators options include issuing a county court summons for the amount claimed plus additional court fees.

To do this they use the services of a legal company usually solicitors and this company has to be regulated by the SRA. 

Rule number one;

Parking companies and their cohorts the debt collecting companies are as slippery as eels.

(Don't ever ring them, If it's not in writing, it didn't happen).

Rule 2

The majority of appeals are rejected.

Rule 3

Private parking tickets differ to council parking tickets (penalty charge notice).

Most (not all) subscribe to one of two associations 

(BPA) British Parking Asaociaion 

(IPC) international parking community

The appeal process is overseen by POPLA  POPLA is funded by the BPA (draw you own conclusions).Who are POPLA

Most parking companies in the UK belong to one of these two bodies BPA and IPC

Indeed it's membership of these bodies  that enables them to to ask the DVLA for your details without membership of these bodies they will be very difficult to trace you. 

Car parks which are not run by members of these trade bodies usually put tickets on your car in the hope that you just pay it or at the very least right to appeal it in which case they then have your name and address without which they could take the case no further anyway so just be careful.

If your going to fight it then be prepared to dispute it, remember disputing a parking charge is different to appealing it .  and then  

So let's look at the process, 

Firstly there's the "penalty charge" or as it's correct name should be the "parking invoice" (I said they're as slippery as eels).

Then the notice to keeper. This aims to identify the driver at the time of the event, but why?

The Notice to Keeper is a letter sent by a private parking company to the keeper of a vehicle to inform them of an outstanding parking charge (parking ticket). A Notice to Keeper is sent in two circumstances:

• When a Notice to Driver (the parking ticket) has been attached to a car, but remains unpaid
• When a parking ticket is not physically attached to the car at the time of the incident, such as when ANPR cameras are used read more

you'll be sent several threatening letters from debt collection agencies which can realistically be ignored,  however the parking company will ask you you to name the driver at some stage

You will then  receive a Letter Before Claim, this would typically be because you have previously ignored requests for payment from the parking company. At this stage, the only way a parking company can recover the charge is to enforce it in the county court. The Letter Before Claim is issued as a pre-requisite of issuing a claim, as laid down in the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct. The aim of the of the Practice Direction is to attempt to get the parties to settle the issue out of court.

Since late 2012, parking companies have been much more active in issuing court claims. Before then, very few parking companies attempted to enforce tickets in the courts, due to it not being financially beneficial and the fact that there was only about a 50% win rate. At the time, the ‘ignore private parking tickets’ advice had become so widespread that it was seriously threatening their income. Since then certain parking companies, such as ParkingEye and Civil Enforcement Ltd, have attempted to change this perception by issuing many more court claims (see here on Parking Prankster’s blog), giving the impression that they are much more serious.

It It's up to a judge to decide, If you feel the the parking company have acted unfairly, illegally or against their own code of coduct and you are prepared to gather the evidence and present your case, a judge will make a binding decision. If you lose (assuming they turn up), you will be able to  the amount then due within 28 days thereby avoiding a CCJ. On the downside by this stage the "bill" will have grown to how much greater amount some £250 £350. On the upside there's every chance that the parking company will not bother turning up to court in which case you would have won by default. It should be made clear though that enforcement in court is still not financially viable; the parking company will most likely lose money by taking the claim to court. The parking companies are taking claims to court in order to change the perception (and as a result their overall conversion rate of tickets to payments), not to recover money from those specific cases.

The Letter Before Claim forms part of the image the parking companies are trying to project; they are trying to make you believe they seriously intend to take YOU to court and that they are serious about it. You should bear in mind that the Letter Before Claim will be a template letter that they send to hundreds of people in your position every day. It has not been written specifically for your case, and they aren’t expecting at this stage to take you to court. However, it shouldn’t be ignored; if you don’t act upon it, then you might just be the unfortunate person that does get taken  to court. But remember,  if it gets to court and the decision goes against you you're still able to pay it normally within 28 days and avoid a ccj.

Further reading

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-clamps-down-on-rogue-parking-firms-with-new-code-of-practice

Debt recovery can make threats but  can't do anything without a court ruling. You have the option of letting it go to court and present your case, you may win (or they can't bothered to attend and defend), or you could lose. If you lose you have the option to pay the case in full within 28 days in which case no CCJ would be registered. But the worse thing is ignore it at the court summons stage. They'll escalate it quickly and often without following correct procedures too a high court writ which will involve further costs and possibly bailiffs. That's the system. It's big business these days.

Learn the system.

Learn the structure of the system.

A parking infringment is a civil matter

Debt collection agencies cannot take you to court (debt collectors lie). 

The parking companies have to use legal firms to issue do a county court summons application. Also note they have up to six years from the date of the infingment to do this.

Updates 

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/motorist-driver-fines-illegal-tfl-cctv-appeal-parking-ticket/#:~:text=Fining%20motorists%20by%20post%20using,penalty%20charge%20notices%20(PCNs).