Disabled bay illegal parking

modeller | 19:51 Tue 08th Jun 2010 | Civil

27 Answers

Can anyone tell me the legal position concerning blue badge ,disabled bay, off street parking on a free car park that belongs to several businesses like Mother Care and B& Q. My daughter who was carrying two babies in her arms wrongly parked in a disabled bay and received a ticket . Not from the a council warden but a private company . Who may or may not be genuine . Either way is it valid ? I have read regulations on the web and it is confusing . Can anyone help so I can advise her ? Thank you .

Executer's responsibility

the law on parking out side my house ?

Answers

1 to 20 of 27

1 2 Next Last

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by modeller. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.

Buenchico

Any private company (or their agent) is free to determine the conditions which apply to parking on their land. IF THEY DISPLAY CLEAR SIGNS stating the charges for parking on their car park (or on a particular part of the car park, such as in disabled bays) anyone who then parks on that car park automatically enters into a legally binding contract to pay the relevant charge.

So, IF THERE WERE CLEAR SIGNS, your daughter entered into a contract to pay the relevant charge for using a disabled bay without a blue badge.

There are plenty of people (posting here on AB and elsewhere) who will try to tell you that the parking charge is unenforceable. If you (and your daughter) listen to them, your daughter could find that she faces a much bigger bill:
http://www.rochdaleon...alty-in-landmark-case

Chris

johnny.5

shee should appeal to the stores and explain that the child spaces were taken up with blue badge holders

dothawkes31

It is valid, there will have been signs p all over the plave which she obviously did not read. At work I have a radio linked to the park security and part of the responsibility is to contact central ticketing to report people abusing the disabled bays outside the store, admitedly it is usally blokes on their own being gits who do it though.

cazzz1975

as she parked in the disabled bay, then she should just pay the fine.

sherrardk

Sorry - I agree with Cazzz

alavahalf

Parking without due care and attention...Guilty.!

joeluke

Illegally parked

Pay the fine

Park in correct parking space next time

It's not rocket science is it?

dothawkes31

Just to ad, the car park may be free t shoppers, but the security and maintenance is paid for by each business through thier rent and the security and car park team have a duty to comply with the regulations on parking .

modeller

Question Author

Buenchico I wonder if you could clarify one point . I know this car park and I know that there aren't any signs detailing any charges or penalties. There are signs saying Blue Badge parking but that is all . Does that make any difference ?

dothawkes31

there have to be signs, I would go and look again.

cazzz1975

blue badge parking means only parking for cars with a valid blue badge

modeller

Question Author

Yes cazz I'm aware of that as I am registered disabled myself and I appreciate your sentiment but that is not the point . If detailed charges are required in law before a ticket is issued then the ticket has no validity.

joeluke

Take daughter and kids in your car next time and you can park without fear of penalty (or just lend her your blue badge)

Buenchico

Hi Modeller:
Under some circumstances it can be possible for a contract to be valid even though no specific payment is mentioned. For example if you asked a plumber to fix a leak, without ever mentioning payment, you couldn't then refuse to pay him. He would be entitled to charge you a reasonable fee for his work, since it was obvious that your contract with him obliged you to pay him.

The car parking firm could try to argue a similar case with regard to people who park in unauthorised areas. However I think that it's extremely unlikely that any court would uphold such an argument. My opinion is that the absence of any clearly displayed signs invalidates the company's right to levy a fee for parking.

Chris

cazzz1975

so buenchico, if there is a blue badge sign and you dont have a blue badge, you can park there as long as there are no penalty fine warnings?

Buenchico

Cazz1975:
A great deal of British law is 'case law', rather than 'statute law'. That means that the finer points of detail don't become law until a court has to decide one way or the other as to exactly how the law should be interpreted. Once a judge has made a decision (as in my link above) a precedent is created and other courts are obliged to apply the law in the same way.

So a lot of "what if?" questions (such as yours) don't have a specific legal ruling applying to them because no similar case has yet been argued in court (in order to create a precedent). My opinion (and that's all it is) is that 'blue badge only' signs on private car parks are purely 'advisory' unless there are clearly displayed signs stating the fees for non-badge-holders to park there.

Chris

north star

The alternative view to which Chris alluded, can be found here.

http://forums.pepipoo...ndex.php?showforum=30

And no, I do not condone the use of disabled bays by non blue badge holders.