UKPC PARKING FINE,little wife in tears

poor wife just got in crying after been given a £100.00 fine for leaving a retail park car park,
car park location is bromsgrove.there used to be a furniture store and a large focus d.i.y store,both are now out of business and empty,as such toensfolk use this large carpark instead of the council run ones,there is only the co.op left at the top end of the carpark,and a ymca unit,approx 200yds away,

i’ve read that because the fine is on private land it is unenforceable,i also understand if i don’t pay there will be a tide of debt collection letters,
does anyone on here know the true legal posistion,shall i just ignore or pay the reduced rate of 60.00?,
any help/advise or experience in dealing with ukpc is greatly appreciated.

Its not a parking fine its an invoice, ignore and ignore all correspondence.

Do a search on the forum its been asked a few times.

Luckily no fine for posting in the wrong forum. 😀

oops,sorry 😳

Look here, might be a more reassuring view for you

Money Saving Expert Parking Guide

lots of advice on this on the pepipoo forum.

Basically just ignore any letters

Ignore
I only got 6 letters last time and 3 were reduced offers to get me to pay

Been there, done it and survived. Read the previous posts. Ignore all correspondence, and do not pay it.

The theory is that you have entered into a contract by parking there, in that there is a sign somewhere saying that you are agreeing to pay a fee of £xxx when you park there. Basically, they have to prove it was you/you Mrs who entered into the contract. If you don’t tell em then they can’t, especially if the car is insured for more than one driver.

Careful, the law changed recently and so the ignore advice may be a touch out of date.

Basically, they have to prove it was you/you Mrs who entered into the contract. If you don’t tell em then they can’t, especially if the car is insured for more than one driver.

The law has definitely changed on that. If you don’t tell them who the driver was, then the “contract” is automatically assigned to the registered keeper. Very dodgy law just waiting for somebody to appeal to the ECHR, but as of now it’s the law.

Doesn’t change the general advice to ignore, but don’t take my word or the word of anybody else on here. Get over to pepipoo – lots more keyboard warriors there, but also some who know what they’re talking about.

Why park there? Excuse my ignorance but the land you parked on belongs to someone, why should you be allowed to ignore the terms of parking? You’d get the hump if I parked my car on your drive.

Partyboy – that’s as maybe, but these firms can’t invent laws and apply them to the land (that they don’t own either, they’re just acting dubiously as some sort of agent)

Theres always one partypooper

Are there lots of signs telling you the terms and conditions?

partyb,we park there because it’s a 700 space carpark with a co-op convenience store and 2 empty wherehouses,and zero restrictions,the ukpc thing is very recent poss the last 7 days,as i parked thier myself last wednesday whilst popping to the bank,the d.i.y chain went bellyup about 2 years ago so everyone may as well still use the carpark,but i suppose i could pay 90p hour at the council c.p like you would p.b 😉

YAWN @ partyboy. Slow day in the parking lot office ?

Just ignore both the letters form Ukpc and partyboy

Don’t throw away any letters though. Ukpc don’t do courts, but just incase..
Have a look round pepipoo and MSE for more advice

Costello,

It must be new as i live about 500 yards away and i’ve never noticed any signs and never seen an attendant of any kind apart from on days when the football club opposite have a match on.

I’ve parked there loads of times to use other places nearby and never had anything (although as i’m so close i tend to walk or bike there if i’m not buying bulky stuff).

I’ll pop by later and have a look at the signs.

It’ll catch a lot of people out if it is new signage that’s being ignored.

Head back and check what the signs say if there are any, get pics as evidence in case there is any come back.

Might also be worth popping into the citizens advice if you want solid advice to work off?

Yes of course ignore me, I have a different view that you don’t like.

last year I had to go into town and parked in a car-park situated behind some empty offices. the car-park was empty which made me a little suspicious so upon leaving my car i looked all around for any notices of private car-park to find nothing. Upon walking away I looked back at the way I’d driven in and there was no sign. I went about my business and 30 mins later and came back to a clamped car. I phoned the number stuck to my windscreen and a bloke drove up 10 mins later and said he’d release my car for £135..what the….? I thought he was having a laugh and told him so, told him I had no money with me so he got in his van drove off with the message to call him when I had the money…

The Car-parks other entrance is right next door to a police-station so, absolutely livid I went in and explained what had happened. They said there was nothing they could do about it as no crime has been committed..I said there must be something Fraud, embezzlement or even trespass of property!! I basically got laughed at with a sorry we can’t help you, please shut the door on the way out.

Upon walking back to my car through the second entrance there was a sign 3 meters off the floor, approx 300mm High by 900mm long …small writing…Private car-park. couldnt believe it. Made my Wife cry that also as I had to pay so as to collect kids from school. Wish the police had advised me proper…

The first thing that I’d do is contact the site/carpark owners and ask if ‘x’ company is representing them or being simple toe-rag’s.

I had one from UKPC a few monts back. I have ignored all letters and received 3 in total but nothing more.

In my case I’d have happily gone to court and paid them a reasonable loss of fee.
Baring in mind it was a free car park and overan the allotted time by ten mins as the car broke down and shop was informed.

If it’s the place I’m thinking then it’s no way a 700 space car park! More like 50 max!!

Still wouldn’t pay up though!

I don’t for one moment condone cowboy clamping but legitimately signed car parks are a different matter. If you parked on the street and your ticket ran out (or you didn’t put one on) would you moan if you got a parking fine?

I don’t for one moment condone cowboy clamping but legitimately signed car parks are a different matter. If you parked on the street and your ticket ran out (or you didn’t put one on) would you moan if you got a parking fine?

Agree 1,000 percent. However a reasonable ‘fine’ would be £20-30.

I was fined £70 for an illegal Uturn in London by a council. Why does it need to be soo high?

Basically just ignore any letters

This + 1000

DO NOT be tempted to call or write to them, DO NOT engage ANY sort of dialogue. Simply IGNORE them and they WILL go away.

i have no prob paying when it’s proper to do so,i’ve paid a council fine twice,once for overstaying and once for not being exactly in the box, that one got to me because all timings etc were fine ,but being an estate her back end can stick out a bit,but it was o.k with me and proportionate at a reduced rate of £25.00 payable to the council,£100.00 /£60.00 paid to faceless oiks on a free carpark is robbery.

renton,it probably is the carpark your thinking of,but i work at stadiums on occasion as part of some volunteer work we do,helping out on carparks believe it or not,i pack em in like sardines i do!!,getting 2 cars in a space meant for 1 is a dying art…. 😀

I had one recently, about 3 weeks ago I think… nothing has even come through the post! and I found out that where I was parked, the finers just put signs up and have no actual authority to do anything. I have since pulled the signs down and destroyed them.

I was in the same situation almost 5 years ago. Turns out that there was a major local consumer campaign against the fines involving the local press etc and the shops and estate manager’s got sick of the negative PR and hassle dealing with complaints. All tickets were cancelled.

Google “Solartron Retail Park UKPC” to see some of the comments etc.

Keep all letters, check money saving expert etc to see if you should respond and how, but back then their business was based on scaring money out of people. Get angry 🙂

I don’t for one moment condone cowboy clamping but legitimately signed car parks are a different matter. If you parked on the street and your ticket ran out (or you didn’t put one on) would you moan if you got a parking fine?

If you put your supermarket trolley back in the wrong place in a car park and they tried to fine you £100, what would you say to them?

The law has changed regarding you having to identify the driver.

However, they’re still not allowed to enforce unfair ‘contracts.’ In the highly unlikely event that they actually pursued you beyond “please send us some money, or we’ll send you letters in brighter ink,” it’d be for their consequential loss, which will be about a fiver. In short, whilst they could technically take you to court, it’s not worth their while and they know it. They rely on people being frightened by threatening letters and enough pay to make it worthwhile. It’s legalised extortion, ostensibly.

(I am not a lawyer, etc)

a reasonable ‘fine’ would be £20-30.

Private companies aren’t allowed to issue “fines”, end of. They can only send you invoices for use of their services.

Council fines (and people empowered by the council to issue them on their behalf) are a different matter.

I don’t for one moment condone cowboy clamping but legitimately signed car parks are a different matter. If you parked on the street and your ticket ran out (or you didn’t put one on) would you moan if you got a parking fine?

Interestingly this is “kind of” the whole debate – parking on a street isn’t private land – its public and council owned. As such fines issued in such a case are issued by the Council and are legally enforceable. (All AFAIK, correct me if wrong please.)

However when you park on private land, the fine is just an invoice, and a massive legal grey area.

I’d hazard a guess that partyboy1101 is just playing Devil’s Advocate. Either that, or it is one stupendously ill-suited moniker.

hmm tbh partyboy makes one suspicious that he is an astroturfer..

More to the point, how tall is your wife?

Read this http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ukpc-parking-ticket-issue

And then read the link I posted within it

Ignore it all, don’t make contact with them and it will all be ok!

What the chuff is an astroturfer? I stick by my comments but do agree with Hora, a more suitable cost is probably more appropriate. As it happens I have a client who has a number of car parks and they are plagued by people parking and not paying, why should you get to park for free on someone’s land? If it was not maintained there’d be plenty looking to claim if they tripped up and maintenance costs money.