Private parking companies: should I appeal my Parking Charge Notice through their appeals procedure?

I recently received two parking charge notices for parking over the two hours maximum limit in a shopping precinct controlled by a private company. The incidents were in October and November last year. No notice was left on the car at the time and no parking warden was in attendance. So the notices were the first I knew about the alleged offences. Can I appeal?

First of all you have committed no offence. You should bear in mind that such cases are usually brought under civil law. The parking company claims that by parking there the driver of the vehicle (my emphasis) has entered into a contractual arrangement by which you are permitted to park for two hours free. Should the driver overstay he/she agrees that a charge (which must be notified to you by adequate signage) will be incurred. If the signage is inadequate or the terms of the alleged contract sufficiently ambiguous you have a strong defence. Rather than appealing to the parking company you should demand that they bring their case forward to the small claims court where you will be able to get a fair hearing for a written defence which might rely on the inadequate warning signage of the ambiguity of the signs.

Whether or not a parking company would progress such a claim to the small claims court is questionable but in your case it is clear they have obtained your details as the registered keeper of the vehicle from the DVLA.

It must be emphasised that as the registered keeper of the vehicle you may not have entered into any contract with the parking company were you not the driver of the vehicle at the time. Neither (unlike as with dealings with the police) is there any requirement by you to disclose who was driving the vehicle to the private company. In what we call the "not me guv" defence the owner truthfully states that he was not the driver but refuses to pass on any further information.

Unlike for local government parking enforcement where appeals are usually a fair and necessary recourse, with private parking companies the "appeals procedure" is usually a sham in that they are wholly conducted by the company issuing the ticket.

Indeed the "appeal process" can be detrimental to your interest in that it can serve to generate evidence to support the parking company's claim against you: an incautiously phrased "appeal" can strengthen their case. We would advise in almost all cases that the internal "appeals procedure" of private parking companies should not be followed by motorists as you will certainly get a more independent hearing should the case proceed to the small claims court.

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