The nice Britannia Parking attendant of the car park outside Decathlon/Ikea in Southampton gave me a PCN for £40 yesterday for overstaying in the car park by 27 mins. I did have a ticket and was a bit confused by the signage which says 1/2 hour free, pay thereafter – so I bought an hours ticket which I thought gave me 1 1/2 hours. Obviously not. I should have looked at the expiry time on the ticket, which I didn’t, just stuck in my window so they got me. I did take longer than I thought due to long delays queueing in bloody Ikea – certainly now put me off going to Soton again. So much for the powers that be in Soton trying to encourage folks to use the shops.
Worth an appeal? Just feels they are a load of robbing b*******s and I shouldn’t just roll over.

LOL no, you were being a bit dense…. sorry, but you have no legs to stand on.

IMO the sooner people have to pay for car parking everywhere the better. Not that this helps you.

aP – Member
IMO the sooner people have to pay for car parking everywhere the better. Not that this helps you.

Why ?

If it’s a council parking ticket, pay it
If it’s a private company, ignore it

aP – Member
IMO the sooner people have to pay for car parking everywhere the better. Not that this helps you.

Must be an institutionalised council worker! They would ban cars outright and totally destroy the fragile economy if they could. They are just jealous of anyone trying to better themselves or the community as a whole – period!

Meanwhile, back in the real world….

I am sure I read somewhere (probably here) that Penalty Charge Notices have no legal basis, and are really just an invoice. They are asking you nicely to pay them £40, as far as you are concerned you followed the instructions given, and politely decline. Just don’t call them and give them your address.

They *can* chase you or the registered keeper for the money, but the amount they can chase you for is something I don’t think they’d like you to be aware of. You are liable for the exact amount of money it would cost to park for the period in which you were infringing. Nothing more, nothing less, and these “fines” are nothing more than an invitation to pay them some money which you have no legal obligation to do. Obviously it’s a lot more fun to let them get the “solicitor” and “debt collection agency” letters out, and that’s what I’d do. Then pay up the £1.20 or whatever when you get bored.

If it’s not a council penalty notice, ignore it. Look it up on moneysavingexperts if you’re worried.

Must be an institutionalised council worker! They would ban cars outright and totally destroy the fragile economy if they could. They are just jealous of anyone trying to better themselves or the community as a whole – period!

Meanwhile, back in the real world…. mass generalisation alert!
care to back it up with “real world” examples/experience?

look on moneysavingexpert for advice on parking tickets.

yours was private not council, so you are in a much better position to fight it.

The nice Britannia Parking attendant of the car park outside Decathlon/Ikea in Southampton gave me a PCN for £40

They didn’t give you a PCN. They gave you an Invoice.

Only Local Councils or The Police can give PCN’s.

Ignore it. They will go away.

sorry, but you have no legs to stand on.

More research needed.

Must be an institutionalised council worker! They would ban cars outright and totally destroy the fragile economy if they could. They are just jealous of anyone trying to better themselves or the community as a whole – period!

ooooooh get her!

Ignore it. Don’t call them, e-mail them or write to them. Do nothing.

What will happen next is you will get 3 or 4 letters of increasing severity (3&4 usually from their solicitors) threatening you with higher fines and court summons’ etc. Hold your nerve and they will go away after 6 months.

From the details you’ve supplied, I’d side with nealglover.
Have a look at yesterday’s similar thread & perhaps repost your situation on PePiPoo if you’re still unsure.
Now returning to your usual comedy posts in 3…2…

My wife had one of these from Aldi in October. We’ve read the letters and binned them. They seem to have given up now after 3 increasingly priced versions.

Everyone everywhere on the web says the same thing. Ignore them completely unless you get an actual court summons, which you won’t as going to court isn’t in the businss model.

Just whatever you do, DO NOT ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION WITH THEM!

This means you accept the invoice

Take it to your local CAB. I know of plenty of stories of the charges escalating and people wishing they had paid at the outset.

The CAB will give free and impartial advice.

Don’t Pay
Don’t go to C.A.B they aren’t good with this sort of thing

Ignore all the letters. They will become increasingly more threatening don’t worry.

Go to Pepipoo, as has been suggested and have a look for the letter chain britannia parking send out.

Don’t pay

Weeksy he has 2 legs to stand on..

oh don’t pay…..

Thanks for all the advice, just seen the other thread too. Was going to send them £1.20 for alleged breach of contract (anothers hour parking) and point out (despite me being dense), the signage is mis-leading by saying 1/2 hour free then list of charges beyond that etc but will just ignore and not enter into any correspondence. Britannia are a private company but are saying Parking Charge Notice (PCN) on their ticket which seems iffy.

If it definatly says PARKING charge notice let the chaps on pepipoo have a look.. if you wanted you could have some fun with this.. its misrepresentation of authority

I think you are confusing Penalty Charge Notice (council) with Parking Charge Notice (private) ^^^

It says ‘Parking Charge Notice (PCN)’, I get what they are up to trying to sound like a police/council penalty fine. Money saving expert threads about this practice also just says ignore

To plays devils advocate…

When you bought the ticket you had the chance to read the notice about fines for overstaying and by parking there and buying a ticket you kind of agreed to those terms. You then failed to read the time on your ticket.

Also is it worth the stress of getting the letters and worrying about them?

But then to counter my own argument:

These fines are unreasonable. They should charge you the money you should have paid + maybe a reasonable admin fee and I don’t see £40 being reasonable. They will probably claim it’s to pay for the attendant but they should be charging enough to pay the attendant even if everyone parks correctly and doesn’t go over. What is more likely is the management pay themselves too much and the parking attendant not enough and they think they can scare more money out of people using bullying tactics. So with that opinion screw ’em.

But then in response to that…maybe their costs do add up. In which case they should switch to a more efficient system such as you pay at the end of your stay for the time you have used. Much fairer IMO and avoids all this rubbish.

I guess at the end of the day neither is approach is really correct but that’s the world we live in 🙁

Wow, second thread on the topic in two days and mostly repeating information which may not be up-to-date. Treat all advice on the internet with caution.

The defences against these charges if they ever came to court seem to be:

– prove it was me who was driving, it could have been anyone therefore I have no contract with you. This is no longer the case, change in legislation in October means the registered keeper is liable if the driver doesn’t pay.

– claim you didn’t accept the contract terms as they weren’t clearly displayed, and you couldn’t reasonably have interpreted them. A bit tricky to argue if you have bought a ticket and therefore clearly entered into a transaction, been aware of the signs etc.

– claim that the charges are illegal as they create an unfair contract term.

– claim that the “loss” incurred is only that of 30 minutes parking time and offer them £1.50 or whatever the fee is. However I think a smart parking organisation would argue that their loss is not just the cost of the space for 30 mins, but the need for staff to “police” the misuse of the car park, the systems that go with it, the costs of extracting your info from DVLA, the costs of writing to you etc.

Now it may be that they get enough people just paying that they ignore those who wont as it is too difficult; but I would be surprised if we don’t see some test cases disprove the arguments now that the driver is no longer the only person identifiable. Whilst judges have so far been robust in the interpretation of the law, each failed case has helped the companies refine their approach – we can’t be far off a smart parking company having enforceable wording and systems? Since they usually have a close tie up with a debt collection firm we can’t be far off them running around making loads of money out of people who followed internet advice to ignore it.

Not saying you shouldn’t ignore it, but make sure you are acting on good, up to date advice, and know the limitations of that.

Don’t EVER contact them. If you do, you’ll have given them the evidence they need to persue their claim.

I thought that the West Quay Retail car park was concil owned but run by some one else. For what its worth if shopping in Ikea you are better off parking in their car park as you can get the ticket validated and park for free.

I’d still say it’s worth going to court over so I’m happy to ignore any of these until I get a proper summons.
It’s one thing to park like a **** and pay a fine it’s another to overstay a few minutes at the supermarket and get stiffed for 40 quid by some shysters.

Then pay up the £1.20 or whatever when you get bored.

you seem to be misunderstanding what a penalty/fine is. It’s supposed to be enough to dissuade you from doing it, if you use a service and forget to pay then subsequently get caught, saying “OK I’ll pay the original amount” and getting away with it will result in a lot more people trying it on. On the train you get charged £20 or double the fair you dodged (whichever is higher), arguable whether that’s reasonable, the train would have travelled anyway your impact was negligible. Forget your VED and it’s a grand or ten times the duty, ouch. And don’t get me started on excess baggage at the airport.

You are (mis)using their service, it seems bizarre to me that at the moment you can just getaway with it, reckon poly is right won’t continue like this for too much longer.

That said £40 does seem a little high and there are probably worse unscrupulous firms around, but there also seem to be a lot of internet warriors about who park where the **** they like and don’t worry about paying for it. if everyone thought the same way the car parks would be in a right state.

it’s another to overstay a few minutes at the supermarket and get stiffed for 40 quid by some shysters.

dunno, how long grace should they give you? I guess most car park “wardens” check a few places, they don’t stand over your car until your 15mins grace have expired, might not be back there for another hour or more so they don’t know how long you left it. They do the rounds if your car is out of time it gets a ticket, move onto next car park. My mrs got done with less 5mins over her time, shit happens.

you seem to be misunderstanding what a penalty/fine is

And you seem to misunderstand who can legally request a penalty/fine is paid, and under what conditions.

OK , try this – Wife parked our car at Aldi in the free car park with an hours limit which wasn’t clear as it said patrons only, shopped for a good 40 mins spent close to 200 notes with them. Went over the road to get some lunch with our youngest and overstayed by 10 mins or so. The shysters want 40 quid.

You can imagine where they can stick their invoice, I’m sure.

claim that the “loss” incurred is only that of 30 minutes parking time and offer them £1.50 or whatever the fee is. However I think a smart parking organisation would argue that their loss is not just the cost of the space for 30 mins, but the need for staff to “police” the misuse of the car park, the systems that go with it, the costs of extracting your info from DVLA, the costs of writing to you etc.

None of the latter costs is anything to do with the loss they’ve incurred from somebody overstaying though. Next you’ll be suggesting that they should also charge more because the chief exec wants a bigger bonus – that’s equally possible to justify.

you seem to be misunderstanding what a penalty/fine is.

So do you. I hereby fine you £100.

Let me put it another way; If you put something back on the wrong shelf in the supermarket and they demanded £40, would you pay them? If you signed in the wrong box when a parcel gets delivered, and they demanded £40, would you pay them? If you stayed in a pub a minute after drinking up time and they took objection and demanded £40, would you pay them?

Private companies can’t just decide to “fine” you.

If you are pissed of at getting fined by shysters, write to the retailer.

It might not get you out of the fine receiving more letters but they have the power to get rid of car park operators who act like a police state, and often do.

Do not contact the car park operators, the fines invoices are a revenue stream to them rather than a customer service issue.

If you are pissed of at getting fined by shysters, write to the retailer.

Yep, this. Tell them you won’t be shopping with them again unless you can confidently park there without people trying to rip you off.

To be fair they would probably say the the Carpark isn’t so you can leave your car there while you also shop elsewhere.

but they will pay increased rent for the use of the Carpark, which the other shops that arent on the same site don’t.

Still shouldn’t pay the “invoice” but the shops concerned may be less receptive than you might imagine.

I’m paying nothing as should everyone who gets one of these “fines”.

If it had been a few quid I might have said fair enough but 40 quid!! Yeah good one.

A colleague got a demand for (and paid… doh) £60 after going to a restaurant. They parked in the car park, went into the restaurant, but her husband went into the post office next door briefly. “One of you left the site, £60 please”.

(with a bit of encouragement from me) they took it up with the restaurant, and the conversation went something like:

“We obviously won’t eat with you again”
“Sorry, it’s nothing to do with us, they work for our landlord”
“Well, we’re still not going to eat with you again. Sorry, landlord or not, the risk isn’t acceptable”
“Oh. How about a free meal, and we’ll take this up with the landlord?”

Result: Free meal. Oh, and the parking company was changed later.

I hope they made damned sure that “free” meal totalled more than £60.