Today because I had my first haircut since last November and completed an on-line appeal which I expect to succeed against a wrongly imposed Parking Charge (not a fine, apparently) by ParkingEye.
If only there was a lawyer in the Gasroom with 10+ years' experience of fighting private parking charges, and with a success rate in court cases of over 80% ...
Friday afternoon’s have never been the same since all-day opening. Back in the day when where I lived it was market day and the pubs had extended opening until 4 pm. All the people from the surrounding villages would come in and you’d meet up and work out where the best parties over the weekend were going to be held.
Keep going until (lunchtime) closing time, an hour or so asleep on the park/rowing boat/pub seat and then back into it an hour or so later.
Happy days
(I do seem to remember I was supposed to be at work Friday afternoons but not sure I ever was)
Do people bring individual charges to you, or is it for people who rack up multiple charges? Or is it a single charge that they ignore and it increases in value rapidly?
As otherwise, if you got say a single £40 charge, it's annoying, but presumably bothering to get a lawyer involved, meet with them, pay them half the fee, seems a bit too much effort?
Unless you can reclaim your fee back from the intended prosecutor which seems unlikely?
Or you do it for free, which seems even more unlikely.
Most of the cases I take on are for people who have received multiple parking charges, often racking up to over £1,000. However, I have taken on some single-ticket cases for a nominal fee, or even pro-bono in some deserving cases.
The £40 figure is misleading; that's the discounted rate for paying within 14 days. Once it goes past that, it racks up to £100, and then they add on bogus 'debt collection' fees, even though the debt collector companies work on a no win no fee basis, and then if it goes to court, there are further solicitor fees and court fees, so a single ticket claim is typically for around £275.
There is no 'prosecution', that only applies to criminal cases in the Magistrates or Crown Court. These are civil cases in the County Court, where the parking company is the Claimant, and the motorist the Defendant. In most of the ones I have won, my clients get awarded their costs for attending court (£95 loss of earnings + travel costs), and in rare cases where the Judge rules that the parking company have behaved unreasonably, the Defendant gets awarded his full legal costs which include my fee.
In some cases, my clients have counterclaimed under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and been awarded damages against the parking company, the highest of which was £1,500 recently.
Genuine question. I appreciate you may not be able to answer and there are blurred lines here. Are most of the cases people who know they have parked where they shouldn’t trying to get off on a technicality, or are they mostly people with good intentions fined by parking companies trying it on?
Thanks for that answer, for some of the grief I've given you, that's a full and interesting answer and clears a few things up.
I've never actually managed to get a parking ticket. Just the 1 bus lane ticket in Oxford once. But i cautiously paid the half price £30 to end it cheap!
I saw someone on the HW FB group recently trying to get out of a ticket, having spent about 2hours shopping somewhere where the free parking rule was 90 mins.
Not sure what took her so long, but she was shopping there, not trying to scam free parking for doing stuff elsewhere.
Mostly, it's not people parking where they shouldn't. The vast majority are in places where motorists are invited to park, such as retail parks, supermarkets etc., or residential areas where their lease grants them a parking space.
The parking companies do try it on, by installing designed-to-fail payment systems, unrealistic free time limits, and trying to force people to display permits which are not specified in the lease terms.
Then there are hospital car parks, where in some instances you have to pay in advance, and guess how long your appointment will take.
The Government will shortly be issuing a statutory Code of Practice, which hopefully will curb some of the worst excesses of these parasitic companies. (And as all parties support this, it will still happen whoever is in no. 10 after the next election).
Out of interest, what is an example of a designed-to-fail payment system?
And in general is the business model of the parking companies more along the lines of making money from people paying to park, or making money by fining people who don’t pay, or by being paid by a landowner to provide a parking enforcement service?
They have payment terminals which aren't linked to the ANPR cameras, so it's possible to mis-type a registration number, with no check that it actually exists. Then there are instances where the motorist puts in their number correctly, but the ticket issued by the machine does not print the number in full. Or the machine won't accept payment, triggering a parking charge notice.
Mostly, it is the landowners who retain the money from people paying to park, and the parking companies rely on parking charges (not fines) at £100 a pop to people who fall foul of the rules.
At one location (a retail park in Chelmsford) , ParkingEye were paying the landowner £1,000 a week to operate there.
Comments
Last Tuesday
I wish you could show us your live rankings, @LX1 - I always thought your Friday from mid-2022 was going to stay on top of the leaderboard!
What happened in mid 22 Mr cia(Arizona branch)
Everyone wants to know what happened on Tuesday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRv3i8mIcFs
@LX1 It was so good, I can't remember the whole evening
The poll clearly denotes afternoon
And the correct answer is 'just had a better one' with a slight shrug. Obvs
Every Friday afternoon because it means that I have made it.
Today because I had my first haircut since last November and completed an on-line appeal which I expect to succeed against a wrongly imposed Parking Charge (not a fine, apparently) by ParkingEye.
If only there was a lawyer in the Gasroom with 10+ years' experience of fighting private parking charges, and with a success rate in court cases of over 80% ...
Now you tell me, @bargepole !
I’m fairly confident that my appeal will succeed. If not, what’s £40 to a billionaire like me.
Sorry, what football club are looking for a new owner?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4UqMyldS7Q
Friday afternoon’s have never been the same since all-day opening. Back in the day when where I lived it was market day and the pubs had extended opening until 4 pm. All the people from the surrounding villages would come in and you’d meet up and work out where the best parties over the weekend were going to be held.
Keep going until (lunchtime) closing time, an hour or so asleep on the park/rowing boat/pub seat and then back into it an hour or so later.
Happy days
(I do seem to remember I was supposed to be at work Friday afternoons but not sure I ever was)
Do people bring individual charges to you, or is it for people who rack up multiple charges? Or is it a single charge that they ignore and it increases in value rapidly?
As otherwise, if you got say a single £40 charge, it's annoying, but presumably bothering to get a lawyer involved, meet with them, pay them half the fee, seems a bit too much effort?
Unless you can reclaim your fee back from the intended prosecutor which seems unlikely?
Or you do it for free, which seems even more unlikely.
Don’t feed the troll.
Most of the cases I take on are for people who have received multiple parking charges, often racking up to over £1,000. However, I have taken on some single-ticket cases for a nominal fee, or even pro-bono in some deserving cases.
The £40 figure is misleading; that's the discounted rate for paying within 14 days. Once it goes past that, it racks up to £100, and then they add on bogus 'debt collection' fees, even though the debt collector companies work on a no win no fee basis, and then if it goes to court, there are further solicitor fees and court fees, so a single ticket claim is typically for around £275.
There is no 'prosecution', that only applies to criminal cases in the Magistrates or Crown Court. These are civil cases in the County Court, where the parking company is the Claimant, and the motorist the Defendant. In most of the ones I have won, my clients get awarded their costs for attending court (£95 loss of earnings + travel costs), and in rare cases where the Judge rules that the parking company have behaved unreasonably, the Defendant gets awarded his full legal costs which include my fee.
In some cases, my clients have counterclaimed under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and been awarded damages against the parking company, the highest of which was £1,500 recently.
Any more questions, just ask.
Genuine question. I appreciate you may not be able to answer and there are blurred lines here. Are most of the cases people who know they have parked where they shouldn’t trying to get off on a technicality, or are they mostly people with good intentions fined by parking companies trying it on?
Thanks for that answer, for some of the grief I've given you, that's a full and interesting answer and clears a few things up.
I've never actually managed to get a parking ticket. Just the 1 bus lane ticket in Oxford once. But i cautiously paid the half price £30 to end it cheap!
That's an interesting one to know.
I saw someone on the HW FB group recently trying to get out of a ticket, having spent about 2hours shopping somewhere where the free parking rule was 90 mins.
Not sure what took her so long, but she was shopping there, not trying to scam free parking for doing stuff elsewhere.
Mostly, it's not people parking where they shouldn't. The vast majority are in places where motorists are invited to park, such as retail parks, supermarkets etc., or residential areas where their lease grants them a parking space.
The parking companies do try it on, by installing designed-to-fail payment systems, unrealistic free time limits, and trying to force people to display permits which are not specified in the lease terms.
Then there are hospital car parks, where in some instances you have to pay in advance, and guess how long your appointment will take.
The Government will shortly be issuing a statutory Code of Practice, which hopefully will curb some of the worst excesses of these parasitic companies. (And as all parties support this, it will still happen whoever is in no. 10 after the next election).
That’s informative, thanks.
Out of interest, what is an example of a designed-to-fail payment system?
And in general is the business model of the parking companies more along the lines of making money from people paying to park, or making money by fining people who don’t pay, or by being paid by a landowner to provide a parking enforcement service?
They have payment terminals which aren't linked to the ANPR cameras, so it's possible to mis-type a registration number, with no check that it actually exists. Then there are instances where the motorist puts in their number correctly, but the ticket issued by the machine does not print the number in full. Or the machine won't accept payment, triggering a parking charge notice.
Mostly, it is the landowners who retain the money from people paying to park, and the parking companies rely on parking charges (not fines) at £100 a pop to people who fall foul of the rules.
At one location (a retail park in Chelmsford) , ParkingEye were paying the landowner £1,000 a week to operate there.
Thanks again. It does seem like a system in need of reform, with bad incentives that make parking companies want to increase noncompliance.