Sharing a car parking ticket

[Whoever]

What is the legal position if you pay for two hours in a car park, leave after one hour and then hand your car parking receipt to an arriving motorist so that they can take advantage of the remaining hour which has already been paid for?

Is either party doing anything illegal? Nobody is stealing "Parking time or space" as it has already been paid for.

Has any motorist been prosecuted for this, and if so, who was prosecuted - the departing motorist or the one taking advantage of the used parking receipt?

[tubeway]

Surely the first person to park would have parked legally. It is not illegal to give a ticket to someone else. If it is used by the second person to park then they are parking with an invalid ticket (depending on the parking company rules), so it is the second person who would be fined and not the first. If Pickles assumption were true then you could be fined for putting the ticket in a bin and therefore passing the ticket on to the rubbish collection people.

[Kathyan]

Some car parking machines ask for your reg number now, I suppose this is to stop people from doing what you describe.

[tubeway]

Also the amount of people fined or clamped can not be subjective. It may be negligable but is certainly not subjective


PS to In a pickle - I am not picking on you - I just think you are wrong.

[karmabum]

Well I don't know what the real legal position is, but surely from a moral point of view it can't be illegal? I mean the carparks where I live charge a minimum of 90p per hour (a pretty blatant way of making a lot of extra 10p's as most people won't be able to make up the right amount of change) and it became quite common practice for people to 'donate' their unused tickets to whoever they could see driving in - a very honourable show of generous spirit in my opinion. I can't imagine a ticket inspector having the nerve to challenge someone for doing this - they would be running a huge risk of personal injury, surely?

[bimbo123456]

Tubeway I think you will find the word is negligible. If you are going to correct other people get your spelling right!

[Boasting Bob]

I had to attend hospital for a treatment that could have lasted all day. On arriving at 9a.m., I had no choice but o buy parking space till 7p.m. As it happened, I was finished before 12noon and passed the ticket on - pointing out that it covered till 7p.m.. In the circumstances I felt fully justified in letting someone else use it and would have argued this no matter what the authorities would have claimed.

[perigra]

i always pass my ticket on if there's time left on it.
i have heard of someone recently who was caught for doing this but can't remeber any details.

at some parking ticket machines you are require to punch in some details from your number plate to prevent you passing it on!

[ermintrude35]

...I always hand over my tickets as I usually only nip to the bank for 10 mins. and have to pay for an hour of parking ... however I did notice on the ticket dispenser the other day "tickets non - transferable"....

our hospital has a good system at the moment.... you get a ticket on the way into the carpark at the batrrier, and you pay when you leave by scanning the ticket at the pay machine, you then have 10 mins to exit the carpark.....

[Annlinda]

When I had to put my car no in machine I put in
P1550FF. I agree with other postings that once a parking space has been paid for for a certain length of time what the hell does it matter whether its the first car parked there or ticket passed on.

[Oneeyedvic]

To take your example to the extreme - how about I have a gym membership and when I come out of the gym, I give my membership to someone else to use the facility? Obviously, it would be stupid.

When you park in a car park and pay for it, you are entering a contract and agree to abide by their conditions.

As another extreme, some car parks will not allow you to sell vehicles from it (this was to stop motor traders trading from the council car park). A lady got a ticket a few weeks ago (covered in BBC Look East) as she had a home made 'for sale' sign in her car.

I believe that it is currently in appeal.

(and as an aside, I always give my ticket to someone if I have time left over)

[philiphales]

If I pay for 3 hours use of an allotted space, what difference does it matter to the owner who uses the space?

The space is rented for �1 for 3 hours..

Assume therefore that I leave after 20mins and someone else takes the already paid for space ditto 20mins.

This happens each 20 mins at an initial �1 for each to park.

This space therefore would make �9 for the landowner who was initially happy just to take my �1.

This is totally inequitable and profiteering! ESPECIALLY, when A) the machines do not give change and B) if they cannot give change, then surely they should give pro-rata time. So if at �0.75 for 1 hour and I put in �1 I should get 1 hour and 20mins.

If I bought an item in Tesco for �0.75 and went to the till to be told that they do not give change there would be an uproar, so why is it OK for the owners of parking ticket machines NOT to play fair?