euro car parks, parking charge notice...

[joko]

i received one of these today for staying in a Lidl car park about 8 minutes longer than allowed...
they want £70...but £50 if paid early.

I have heard a lot about these sorts of tickets not being enforceable, and that many people just bin them... so could i ignore it?

if i'd been there for hours i'd understand and pay it...but a few minutes! just winds me up.

it is not a pay an display, so you cannot choose to pay for however long you intend to shop for...

i went into the lidl to get a gazebo but ended up not buying anything, so dont have any proof i was in the store...i did go over the road to the argos and a wilko too though...

so can i safely ignore this?

thanks

[jno]

http://forums.moneysa...owthread.php?t=196087

[Buenchico]

As long as the signs were clearly displayed, you entered into a contract to observe the conditions on them when you parked your car. Contrary to what some websites will tell you, that contract is legally enforceable:
http://www.rochdaleon...alty-in-landmark-case

In Stowmarket, Lidl (or the car parking company acting as their agents) had people watching customers who left the store, to see whether they went straight back to their cars or whether they went to do some shopping elsewhere. Those who left the Lidl site received penalty notices (because it was a breach of the contract which they'd entered into), even if their car was only on the Lidl car park for less than the time which would have been allowed if they'd been shopping in the store.

Chris

[jno]

Oldham county court doesn't necessarily bind the rest of the nation. Your own local magistrates might think differently and so might the Supreme Court if you really wanted to pursue it. Much would depend on the terms and conditions posted... but overstaying would in theory be punishable whether you went to Argos or not.

[buildersmate]

Chris. You persist in trotting out this Oldham Court case and maintaining that every case will therefor be similar. More than once I have pointed out that the chap in Rochdale went onto online websites to ask for advice but made his identity very public in terms of admitting on line what he did and how best to get the terms of the parking contract off his back. It was that that principally did for him in court. Judges take all the evidence into account, and the majority of these cases so far that go to court are ajudged against the clamping companies.

[douglas9401]

As far as I'm aware, and I stand to be corrected, these car parking rules and regulations are governed by the laws of England even when the store involved is in another country. Now I don't know about Wales or Northern Ireland but I do know that Scotland has it's own separate and distinct legal system and laws made south of the border have no validity where a Scottish law already exists.
We've seen off those paragons of virtue, the clampers, and if memory serves other parking on off-street carparks not controlled by local councils were dealt with at the same time under the heading of demanding money with menaces.
As stated I stand to be corrected and in the meantime suggest you all shop up here in the rain.

[buildersmate]

The legal system in England & Wales is tied together - though the Welsh Assembly is nowadays making various Welsh-only laws. Scotland and NI are both different.
Demanding money with menaces is a criminal offence, whilst these parking requests for payment are civil cases and part of the laws governing contracts. So I don't think you will find the majority of these parking on private land cases are anything to do with demanding money with menaces.

[pink-kittens]

You should have moved your car before you went browsing around other stores

Look here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ Martin has a big section on these parking fines

[north star]

With buildersmate on this. If a contract was established then for breaking that contract the driver would be liable for the losses that the parking contractor sustained. Let me see, in a free car park, those 8 minutes would come to a loss of .....£0.00 exactly. This is clearly a penalty and hence unenforceable.. Ignore it.