Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)
  • Anybody successfully evaded a private parking fine?
  • globalti
    Free Member

    This is one of those tickets you get when you park wrongly on private land (cinema) and they stick something on your windscreen that’s designed to look like an official parking fine to try to frighten you into paying.

    In this case the car belongs to my employer who is enough of a scaredy-cat that they are going to give the cinema my name. I have told them that they must NOT name me as the driver but that if they insist on giving my name they should merely say that I have the use of the car. The onus is then on the owner of the land to prove that I was driving.

    I have been reading up on this here: http://www.ticketfighter.co.uk/private.htm

    What next?

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    Yes.

    I’ve racked up about £18k in “fines” from a private parking company, that suddenly turned up one day and started putting tickets on my car, parked on my land.

    Ignored each and every ticket, and ignored every single thing they’ve ever sent me. I haven’t had a ticket in ages but at the peak, I was getting a ticket a day over many months and was averaging 3 letters a day from them. Bin bags full of letters from them in the loft.

    Empty threats for unenforceable invoices. Do not contact them under any circumstances.

    globalti
    Free Member

    My only fear is that they might try to carry the car away from my house – or can they only take property after a court judgement?

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    sharkbait
    Free Member

    As has been said before, the ‘ticket’ is an invoice and not a fine. And as BB said, it’s unenforcable. Wifey picked one up in July – we had a few letters which I ignored (having searched on the interweb) and have had nothing since the end of August.

    meehaja
    Free Member

    They can’t take anything, except the P**s. Ignore them.

    Mark
    Full Member

    Courts have to be involved before any property or such like is taken.

    It won’t get that far so long as you ignore them. They must prove you parked the car in order to correctly address the invoice. If they can’t prove they have invoiced you correctly then they have no case.

    marcus7
    Free Member

    If it states “parking charge” then you are “OK” and they certainly wont/ cant take your car. Its all bound in contract law and as has been said here before, they have to prove who was driving (which in your case could be anyone in the company) as you dont have to tell them, it is impossible to enforce. they wont go to court as it will cost them too much. By the way been in your position and ignored, job done. If you are really worried go onto BBC watchdog website and search about this, they say (in not so direct a way) that its unenforcable.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Not the people what park round here, cos the lorry comes and takes your car away and it’s a £250 fine to get yer car back and £20 per day storage fee. 😀

    It’s an extremely effective deterrent…

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    If it states “parking charge” then you are “OK”

    PPCs put all manner of crap on their tickets including words like “penalty” or “fine”. One of the main reasons they fail.

    IGNORE EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU. YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY A PENNY AND YOU WON’T BE TAKEN TO COURT

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    @eflin
    as is the fine for jumping red lights and not being able to outrun plod 😀

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    Not the people what park round here, cos the lorry comes and takes your car away and it’s a £250 fine to get yer car back and £20 per day storage fee.

    It’s an extremely effective deterrent…

    If they did that it would be theft as the parking incident has already taken place. They can’t come round and steal your car afterwards 🙄

    globalti
    Free Member

    Oops, just spotted another very similar thread above, no need for any more replies thanks!

    A friend of mine was a solicitor and he got clamped on private ground. To cut short a very long story he ended up getting the car craned away to a garage where he paid a mechanic £270 to dismantle the suspension and remove the clamp undamaged. When we took the piss he snarled “yes, but the difference was I enjoyed paying that money!”

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    as is the fine for jumping red lights and not being able to outrun plod

    That has actually proven to have exactly the opposite effect. I now jump every single red light I can. 😀

    If they did that it would be theft as the parking incident has already taken place. They can’t come round and steal your car afterwards

    Erm, well, they can, and they do. There are prominent signs up warning of this. If it weren’t legal, then I’m sure it woon’t happen.

    In fact there’s the little scout vayn now! 😀

    A friend of mine was a solicitor and he got clamped on private ground. To cut short a very long story he ended up getting the car craned away to a garage where he paid a mechanic £270 to dismantle the suspension and remove the clamp undamaged. When we took the piss he snarled “yes, but the difference was I enjoyed paying that money!”

    😆

    I would do exactly the same thing. Speshly if I was a solicitor.

    A mate of mine got clamped even though he had a valid permit for where he’d parked. Rang ’em up and told them to come and sort it, but they refused and sed he’d have to pay the fine then appeal it.

    So he got an angle grinder and removed the clamp. Apparently he was within his rights to do so, as he’d bin ‘illegally’ clamped in’t first place, but I don’t know the ins and outs of the law in this instance.

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    Erm, well, they can, and they do. There are prominent signs up warning of this. If it weren’t legal, then I’m sure it woon’t happen.

    In fact there’s the little scout vayn now

    They must be catching people in the act though, and lifting the cars there and then ( a scumbag practice )

    xcgb
    Free Member

    Yes done this for the wife
    Just Ignore

    If you reply it just drags it out

    NorthernStar
    Free Member

    I got my car clamped once in a private car park. Taxi down to B and Q to buy a cordless angle grinder. An hour in Starbucks drinking coffee whilst the angle grinder charged from the mains connection next to the seat. Then, fueled up on caffine, back down to the carpark to cut off the offending clamp. Ditched the clamp and padlock into the canal next to the car park.

    Didn’t hear a thing for 2 weeks until I had a letter from the clamping company’s solicitors threatening to take me to court for criminal damage unless I paid for the fine and the clamp. I wrote back asking what proof they had that it was me that cut off the clamp.

    That was the last I heard from them. It’s not worth their while trying to take someone to court for the destruction of a clamp – especially if they don’t have proof of who actually destroyed the clamp. Just because the clamp happened to be on my car – that’s not proof that it was me who cut it off and they knew it.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Ditched the clamp and padlock into the canal

    😯

    hugor
    Free Member

    I have had hundreds of letters from Vinci parking who manage things at my workplace which is a hospital. With each letter the cost of the ticket goes up and I probably owe them around 20 grand at this point.
    I’ve had lots of solicitors letters and occasionally get debt collectors ringing me as well.
    The biggest mistake I made was arguing the point and writing letters etc at the beginning as this provided them with my contact information.
    I have been going over 2 years with these idle threats and haven’t paid anything.
    I don’t believe they can touch you. Don’t pay up.

    alpin
    Free Member

    like a boss….

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD2DCTWtttE[/video]

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    I’m trying to evade one at the moment.

    The cost kept going up, but for the last couple of letters it’s gone down.

    Now, do I pay at this low rate (about the cost of the original ticket) or continue to ignore?

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Can’t you feel the hate in the room STWers?

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    Now, do I pay at this low rate (about the cost of the original ticket) or continue to ignore?

    The reduced cost seems to be a new desperate tactic. Noticed it on the last few letters.

    They prey on ignorance and the fact that most folk panic when they see their letters and cough up. They make enough off the suckers that they don’t need to pursue those that ignore them.

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    The reduced cost seems to be a new desperate tactic

    My thoughts exactly… it’s loaded with the ‘this is a one time only opportunity’… ‘pay or be struck down with the full vengeance of the lord’ etc.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    ‘pay or be struck down with the full vengeance of the lord’ etc.

    Yeah, but as we established a couple of days ago, “the lord” is the name of their cat.

    Spin
    Free Member

    As above. Just ignored them and they went away.

    NorthernStar
    Free Member

    If receiving scary letters from private parking companies is worrying you then why not start harasing them instead?

    That’s what I did for my last ticket. I phoned up the company multiple times and basically told them what a joke their reputation was on the internet. I said they they were welcome to keep wasting their time and money by calling me and writing letters but that I would not be paying a penny. I told them that each time they called then I would continue to take the p*ss out of them. I suggested that they cut the c*ap and instead just send me a letter ‘taking me to court’.

    Surprise, surprise they very quickly got the message and told me that they would not be taking me to court and I’ve never ever been bothered by them again.

    These companies prey on the weak, the vulnerable and the ill informed. As soon as they know that you know where the law stands on this and that you’re not going to bend over and ‘take one’ then they tend to get the message.

    Why not have some fun with these cowboys? Give them a taste of their own medicine – they really don’t like it!

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    The various lawyers and debt collectors they use are just different desks within whatever portakabin they work out of.

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    If receiving scary letters from private parking companies is worrying you then why not start harasing them instead?

    That’s what I did for my last ticket. I phoned up the company multiple times and basically told them what a joke their reputation was on the internet. I said they they were welcome to keep wasting their time and money by calling me and writing letters but that I would not be paying a penny. I told them that each time they called then I would continue to take the p*ss out of them. I suggested that they cut the c*ap and instead just send me a letter ‘taking me to court’.

    Surprise, surprise they very quickly got the message and told me that they would not be taking me to court and I’ve never ever been bothered by them again.

    These companies prey on the weak, the vulnerable and the ill informed. As soon as they know that you know where the law stands on this and that you’re not going to bend over and ‘take one’ then they tend to get the message.

    Why not have some fun with these cowboys? Give them a taste of their own medicine – they really don’t like it!

    Alternatively, ignore them and they give up after half a dozen letters

    NorthernStar
    Free Member

    Alternatively, ignore them and they give up after half a dozen letters

    Exactly right, but since they had found out my phone number (I don’t know how) then I didn’t appreciate the random calls asking for payment. So turned the tables on them and by the end of it, I think that they were the ones who were glad not to have to speak to me anymore.

    PS I’m normally a nice polite person, but I just can’t stand these leeches that operate on the fringes of the law and prey on those people too vulnerable or too scared not to pay up. Some of the scare tactics that these companies use are nothing short of harassment or bullying. Disgusting that they can get away with this sort of thing.

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)

The topic ‘Anybody successfully evaded a private parking fine?’ is closed to new replies.