If a ticket is fairly issued I would advise to pay it, but when tickets are issued that I feel they are just taking the P then I look to fight. The one thing I always find is that none of the companies abide by their own code of practice - they all stuff up somewhere - its finding the non compliance that's the challenge.
Most companies - not just parking companies have so many rules, codes of practice etc that no one in the company knows or understands them and using a companies own rules against them is most likely to produce a good result, they loose or back down.
Usually they fail at the first contact letter, they send a letter by standard mail - so they have no proof they have contacted you - their code of practice indicates they have to offer you a discount rate for early settlement, now if you don't reply to that first letter, and obviously don't settle or appeal then the next letter arrives indicating they want the full amount, with no proof they offered you the discount rate, they have now breached their code.
The code of practice is 48 pages and I always find non compliances, but i don't reveal specifically what they have failed to do - and most of the time i just ignore every letter from them - but i build a file in chronological order and document their code breaches - ready for a court hearing.
The penalty notices from private companies are simply an invoice for an alleged breach of contract, however, only a court can decide if a breach took place and then determine the penalty if they agree with the parking firm - and courts decide that value by "reasonable Losses" the company present to the court, however its usually much lower that the higher rate asked for by the parking company.
I know this all sounds like I'm constantly getting parking tickets - I'm not and indeed haven't ever had one, but Friends and the wife in particular do seem to like picking them up and for me its a challenge to find the loopholes and get them off.
Many of the parking firms trade under more than one name - which they use to "escalate" the case to intimidate and put fear into the alleged perpetrator. You will get multiple letters and each letter contains more red ink than the last one, they will tell you its been upheld in court and precedence set that the "fine" must be paid and a court will agree with them, plus you will receive a CCJ, your credit damaged, wont be able to get any credit nor a mortgage - so you should just pay them.
The truth of this is completely different, If they actually take you to court - which most of the time they wont as its time consuming and expensive and they cant claim any additional costs - plus majority of people just pay them so they settle for that as a law of averages.
If - and its a big IF, the court agrees a breach has taken place - and they make an award provided you settle that fine within 28 days their is no CCJ, no record, credit is unaffected - its all done and dusted - over with - and no further repercussions.
My wife was shopping in a national store, parked in their almost empty car park - with enough parking places to maybe hold 400 cars (this is also important) and exceeded the time allowance of 90 minutes - the whole time she was buying in their store - went nowhere else, arrived back at her car 10 minutes after the 90 minute limit - and they send a parking charge notice - ANPR. After the second letter - with the full fine now required she contacted the store, kept her details private but asked about exceeding the car park time but has a receipt to prove she was in their store all the time as the receipt was time stamped - They just washed their hands of it - said the car park is not their responsibility (a lie) They couldn't do anything about it (a lie) and she would need to appeal and see the result of that. It is their car park - they contract out the management of it but they retain the right to waive a parking charge - they can and do issue registration numbers of staff cars which are parked their all day - so they could have sorted that out but obviously didn't want to - Thanks Matalan - you lost a good customer.
Well they wrote so many letters - not one responded to, I await the official notice of intended action and will respond to that indicating "see you in court" - however it never came.
Their "escalation" after perhaps 10 letters was to pass the paperwork to a debt recovery company (Zenith) which just so happens to have the same postal address - so just another trading name of the same company - perhaps just another pleb on the next desk - wow scary.
Ignored all contact letters again, then they referred the case to solicitors (double scary) A different address but the letter confirmed all replies go to their business address, so i contacted the solicitors by phone, revealing no details but asked the question If they were aware a parking company were sending letters out for alleged parking breaches, indicating they had been engaged to resolve the case and that replies are asked to go to the parking company and not the solicitor - They refused to comment, all flustered. (This action would be another breach of the code of practice)
Just to go back to the car park with hundreds of places and only a handful of cars in it - It it went to court and the court agreed their was a breach of contract then losses suffered by the company are relevant to the fine value. The idea is that overstaying prevents other people from shopping in that store and therefore the business suffered losses - but if the car park is empty then no loss could be considered as reasonable, so it would simple be a token award for a technical breach.
It all eventually faded away - no more contact though they did try a few times at least a year after they had practically given up. Its now been so long they cant resurrect the case - its dead - but Matalan have never received another penny from my Wife - which I'm pleased about as they sell tat anyway.
She was going to pay the fine, but I said I will pay it if it ever goes to court and she looses - if you let me handle it all - don't ever do anything but pass me the letters - so she just forgot about it all and i bloody well enjoyed myself with it all, indeed i think I would have liked a day in court as my evidence would sink them without trace.
We all know what is fair and what is sharp practice, This fine wasn't fair at all, just some jobsworth and some *sugar* parking company, the result was they got nothing, incurred expenses and Matalan have lost a customer - great result.