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Mrs Noise got an invoice from NCP today. Parked in an NCP car park Easter Monday. Misread/misunderstood the T&C and didn't pay. This will have been a genuine mistake (she's mortified).
'Fine' is £60 or £100 if not paid within 14 days.
My understanding is (a) outside London they should be 'fining' no more than £50 anyway? And (b) they can only legally claim for lost revenue which is about a fiver in this case.
Advice online seems to be a consensus of 'ignore it' and ' eventually they'll go away and they never take it to court anyway'.
The letter is (surprise!) ambiguously worded, but the first option they give is 'pay the parking charge' without mentioning whether this is the original lost fee, or the trumped up £100 one.
WWSTD?
My understanding is (a) outside London they should be ‘fining’ no more than £50 anyway? And (b) they can only legally claim for lost revenue which is about a fiver in this case.
It's not a fine, it's a penalty charge notice and I've not heard of this max £50 outside London before, where (link?) does that idea come from.
Second part used to be the case but then a belligerent motorist pushed it too far, took it to court and lost (Beavis vs Parking Eye) - at which the judge ruled that the charge wasn't unfair, and as well as being reflective of losses incurred it was also allowed to be high enough to act as a deterrent.
You can choose to ignore it but these parking firms employ legal depts to chase this up, so while there used to be a chance of it disappearing that isn't as usual nowadays. Suspect the online advice is quite old now.
Pay it and move on.
Life is to short.
The £50 thing is part of the government proposal that got knocked back by judicial review because surprise surprise the government didnt follow its own rules on consultation etc.
It's a parking charge notice, it's contract law, your wife entered a contract when she parked, that contract says she agrees to obey the rules of the car park or pay £60 instead. If she didn't read the contract properly (signage) it's on her, if the signage is missing or it's ambiguous it's on them. The latter is unlikely with NCP as they are a big operator and know the rules.
It is enforceable under civil law and the ultimate sanction is a CCJ.
She could appeal but I didn't read the signs properly and im very sorry isn't going to cut it with the internal appeals process, POPLA or a court.
The unfortunate thing is the really persistent abusers of private parking usually get away with, but then they usually don't care if they get a CCJ.
TL:DR she's bang to rights, pay it quickly before it goes up.
She took matters into her own hands and paid up. Thanks all.