h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My assistant parked her car in a shoppers car park across the road from the office about a month ago. She overstayed the 2 hours allowed but as there was no ticket on her car she thought she was lucky and thought nothing more of it.

Then... Today she got a letter through the post saying that she had overstayed and now owed them £170.00 but could get off with £85.00 if she paid within two weeks.

The letter from the private parking management company said that they operate within the voluntary code of practice given by the DVLA (A government department concerning driving and vehicle licensing).

We looked at the DVLA website and in para 3.2 it said that issuers of private parking fines should put a written notice on the car showing their intent to take further action. My assistant had no such notice on her car.

You may say, "She parked, she must take the consequences." The worrying thing for her is that she thinks she did the same thing several days between then and now. If they had issued her with a ticket on the first instance she would never have parked there again. If they send her 3 or more tickets this could be very expensive.

Should she pay the first one and hope she doesn't get any more?
Should she refuse to pay the first one reasoning that they say that they operate to the voluntary code and yet didn't leave a written note on the car, in line with the code.

Should she pay the first one and point out that they didn't issue a ticket and so refuse to pay subsequent ones should they arrive or should she just pay everything?

She might want to talk to a lawyer if the notice wasn't there...

I think she should probably pay this one, but make a point of telling them that no notice was left on her car. The absence of a notice is generally not accepted as a valid reason not to pay the fine, I think.

David

The whole thing is that this is _not_ a council fine. It is a private company saying that you owe them money for parking there. The guidance, which they say they operate to says:

"Notices giving full details of the parking contravention and the proposed course of action to be taken by the enforcer should be placed in a prominent position on the 'offending' vehicle without causing it damage. Vehicle keepers should be made aware that their names and addresses will be requested from DVLA."

Their parking notice - which looks very like a council one - says that they operate to these guidelines.

It's all very dodgy.

In Edinburgh the parking attendants work for a private company

Councils often employ private companies to manage their car parks and their yellow lines but this is different to the situation that's now developing.

The Parking Company approaches firms that have car parks or land and says "For no charge we will manage that space for you. Let us put up our signs and we'll get on with it." If agreed they then put up signs and clamp, or apply charges to, people who use the space. The company that owns the space receives no income from this - which makes the charging thing very strange.

It's not too far from legalising mugging really.

I agree. I thought clamping was illegal in Scotland but I met a woman the other week who was clamped. she didn't have enough money to pay the fine because they only took cash so her car was towed. And they charged her for that too

UPDATE:
She had been parking in the same spot for a few days and sure enough 5 separate fine notices have arrived totalling £850.00 (That's about $1400 if you don't think in sterling).

She phoned the legal advice again and got another lawyer who gave totally different advice to the first one and who said she shouldn't pay it and should let them take her to court (County courts in the UK do not allow people to claim legal costs and the most that can be added to your bill is the £30 court fee).

She has written to the company saying that they are not abiding by the voluntary code they subscribe to but they have just sent another letter say ing that they have cameras and they don't have to.

The lawyer said for her to contact the DVLA (who hold all the driver info that this company has been accessing) and tell them what the company is doing and asking them for their opinion on the case. She will then be able to use this as evidence in court if it should come to it.

Totally aside she parked somewhere else when a friend said it was his own allocated parking space (which it was - but it was monitored by a clamping company) near his house and her car got towed and she had to pay £350 ($500) to get the car back!

Oh, goodness. That's an awful lot of money. I hope the DVLA can help.

David