Meta discussion of the best posts from r/legaladvice and related subs
LegalAdviceUK
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
A friend of mine dealt with one of these parking firms once. Pay and display with a sticker back ticket. She paid and displayed by sticking on the window.
Very hot day, glue on ticket melted, ticket fell to the footwell, she got issued a fine.
She contested it, as she had displayed the ticket as per their guidelines, she showed proof of the ticket, filmed the fact the glue had melted, gave a time and date she was there for the CCTV pointing directly at the car park. They refused to revoke it.
She was fuming. Opted to take it to court. She spent ages preparing her case, even got CCTV from a nearby resident showing her at the ticket machine at the right time.
A day before the court date the parking firm withdrew the case. It’s literally a game of brinkmanship and they wait to see if the stress will crack you.
And since they’re bigger and more flush with cash than you are, it’s a gamble they win most of the time.
They're often surprisingly small outfits, and not even the bigger ones are likely to recover the cost of sending a representative to a court for a hearing from a single parking ticket.
The parking companies' gamble only pays off if the rare attendances they do put in are enough of a deterrent to get people to pay up, or if they think that they can enforce a judgement against someone who doesn't turn up with a well-prepared case.
In other words, there's no benefit to them in turning up to court, other than in giving credibility to their other threats.
The company I work for would lose a ton of money if they had to go to court for every single case they threatened, but they've got a budget allocated so if their hand is forced they are willing to spend more money than they'll recover just to have that credibility.
This would be small claims though. They're not able to drown you in filings and hearings like they can in big boy court.
But you still have to take the time to go to court, which for many people means lost wages
I had something like that happen, the appeal organization upheld my appeal and then the CITY appealed the appeal multiple times (over a $50 ticket!) and finally the 3rd appeal attorney wrote the city a crabby letter and told them to cut it out.
I have the exact opposite story...
Paid for monthly parking, got a "mirror hanger" thingy, except it doesn't fit over the mirror we have, so I'd leave it in the center-console and place it on the dash when I parked.
Got a ticket for "failure to display permit"... took a photo of the ticket, tucked under the windshield wiper, with the permit visible on the dash a mere 6 inches away.
Walked over to the admin office and they voided the ticket right there (and promised to train their ticket writers better a "a lot of newer cars cannot hang the permit" - their words).
Substitute LocationNotBot
Title:
Body:
Cat fact: Cats, even the non-domesticated species, have an instinctive knowledge of when people are trying to catch a picture of them. They will then use this knowledge to look away the split-second that doing so would ruin the picture most.
So true! I take pictures of cats as part of my volunteer work at a cat shelter, and they always look away at the last second.
This is why the UK banned private towing companies. We get this type of shit from people who briefly let us park on their property for a fee. No way do we want to deal with it from people who are currently holding our car hostage, even if it means we occasionally have to put up with someone parking where they aren't supposed to.
That is fucking idiotic that you people allow it.
You should be able to have cars towed but then having people be able to do shit like this is stupid. Seems to me you have a different problem to fix rather then just making it so cars can't get towed.
Here's the thing: Ask a random person in the UK if they've had a problem with someone parking where they shouldn't, and how much of a hassle it was. Then ask a random person in the US if they've had a problem with a towing company and how much of a hassle it was. My anecdotal experience from seeing people complain online is that you're going to be hearing a lot more vitriol from Americans about towing companies than Brits about stray parking. There's even a song about it: Lincoln Park Pirates
I've seen multiple stories on Reddit where neighbours basically block people their house entrances and more with their car and there is absolutely 0 recourse.
Oh, well then
Not to mention the impact of someone parking where they shouldn't is typically just inconvenience. The impact of illegitimate towing is financially damaging in addition to the inconvenience. There's a reason the responses from Americans are more vitriolic.
Plus they're holding your means of transportation, possibly your only means in most of the country, hostage
And I assume Brits can still get a car towed if it's in front of their driveway or somewhere that it's actually in the way.
Your view from the internet is skewed. Nobody makes a big deal about, "I parked today and nothing happened!"
Predatory towing depends on your location, and how well your local government regulates it. Here in California, an illegal tow could result in quadruple damages. In my experience, towing companies are fastidious about following the letter of the law, and documenting that they did so.
I'm sure you could find a few here that don't follow the rules, but they're a small minority.
It's further skewed because the US has 5x the population of the UK. So even if the problems were equal, you'd expect to hear a lot more complaints from Americans.
And if you're just using Reddit as your source, I think that gives an even larger ratio.
If your car gets stolen and recovered, the police are contracted with a private towing service, send your car to the tow lot and then you have to pay the tow company to release it. Last time I did it was over ten years ago and it cost me $150. 👍
I hated that people are allowed to park on the footpath in the UK. It was such a pain in the ass.
The parking situation in my neighbourhood was also so bad that our MP was mass mailing us about it (we were close to a hospital with pay parking so it would be full of hospital employees parking all over the place).
🤦♂️
Or take a step forward like Australia (New South Wales, IIRC). Towing from private property is not allowed without the consent of the vehicle owner, even if the vehicle parked there without authorization.
Good to know that shady debt collection companies are the same everywhere
Right? In the US, you contest proof of a debt with a shady debt collector and they'll ghost you. Then 6 months later you get a new demand from Totally Not The Same Debt Collector, LLC for the same debt.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is (somehow) a good law for consumer protection but it needs two additions: a debt collector not responding to your dispute voids the debt, and a debt collector selling a debt they couldn't/wouldn't validate to a new debt collector and any action by the new collector are also statutory violations.
Exactly! Then again, even with the laws they ignore them all the time anyway. My mom had a some come after her when I was a kid and they were so aggressive and would call and ring the doorbell at all hours
I love what consumer protection did over here in Poland. They basically ruled that inflating debt collection costs is anti-consumer. As they can't do anything predatory, the whole thing got much more civilized.
I've had this one phone bill, something like 20 PLN, which I didn't pay. When transferring I lost access to the online portal before I could pay my invoice. Figured they'd get in touch if they cared. Had a debt collection agency contact me... Five? Eight? Years later. It now was 28 PLN? Maybe 30.
I think I'd be happy to see them take me to court. Sounds like it would be a fun day out.
In Canada, as far as I know, the credit bureaus won’t accept debt notices for tickets from private parking companies, because they’re notoriously predatory.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3851956
I have successfully ignored a ticket from Impark with no negative consequences.
They start out VERY aggressive but they know there’s very little they can do to recoup the money besides try to intimidate you.
One thing that was never mentioned having dealt with these wankers before is that “debt recovery plus” isn’t registered with the fca and can’t do anything other than send dumb letters
The advice to get them to take you to court is really, really bad.
They won't, this is what will happen:
The value of the fine will keep increasing.
The debt collection agency will hassle them more and more and with increasing aggression, with regular in person visits from large, intimidating men.
Their credit rating will get absolutely destroyed.
All of this entirely outside of the legal system.
The only way that this would result in large men visiting their house or their credit rating being destroyed would be if they are taken to court AND they lose AND they fail to pay. The amount due wouldn’t go up significantly either. It’s probably worth the risk - I doubt the company would sue, and I doubt a judge would find that there was any loss to the company.