Highland councillor says parking management companies like Britannia cannot issue ‘fines’ at Inverness’s Rose Street Retail Park car park so what should you do if you get a parking charge notice?
Inverness councillor Michael Cameron has questioned whether Britannia Parking and similar operators even have the legal power to issue “fines” in Scotland as he slams such companies for trying to “bandy legal threats about to deliberately intimidate their customers”.
Cllr Cameron, having also locked horns with parking companies in the past, believes that the legislation that Britannia Parking and others is operating under does not apply to Scotland and is not criminally enforceable under the law.
“First of all we need to stop the narrative that these are fines”, he said. “They are invoices issued under contract law and the firms have no statutory powers to issue fines.
“The fact that the documents are deliberately designed to appear like notifications of statutory fines is enough for me to say they are charlatans. They also bandy legal threats about to deliberately intimidate their customers.
“I was threatened on no less than eight occasions with dire consequences for refusing to provide information about the driver and instead asked what legislation backed up their demands.
“I was finally informed that it was the Protection of Freedoms Act. After several more letters we did finally agree that said Act applies only in England & Wales. I haven't heard from them since, not even to notify me of no further action which some might find worrying.
“The way these companies pursue people for the most trivial technical violations of conditions does make me suspect that their business model relies upon this income.
“The number of facilities is growing and the latest code of practice is simply insufficient – I believe legislation is required to ensure that private car parks can operate in a more acceptable manner.
“That should benefit both drivers and decent parking operators.”
So what should you do if you receive a fine?
The answer to that question is that it really depends on how much you are willing to put up when it comes to letters and phone calls and even financial and quasi-judicial threats.
The first thing to be clear about is who issued the fine - a private company like Britannia Parking or a statutory body like Highland Council or the police - because this is the first fork in the road.
The first type is a fine and non-payment has much more serious consequences - basically if you are responsible you have to pay up. But if it is a parking charge notice issued by Britannia Parking or the like then it is totally different.
Both the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and The Debt Advice Centre are clear that only statutory bodies – like the council – can force people to pay fines through criminal court.
But parking companies are not totally powerless. Their favoured tactic is the “threatening” letter warning that if you pay by a certain date you will get a “discount” – pay later and it will be more.
The majority of people either pay straight away, pay later or they appeal it and either get quashed or they tend to pay at that point, perhaps feeling they have exhausted their options.
If you don’t pay, then the company will start by sending more letters, often suggesting refusal to pay may harm your credit scores, you may also receive phone calls that some find worrying.
The Debt Advisory Service says threats about your credit scores do not amount to much: “Credit reference companies don’t store this type of information, so it’s very unlikely that it will affect your credit score.
“The only time it might, is if the local council takes you to court for not paying and you refuse to pay or miss payments. When this happens, it could be on your credit report for six years.”
If a person is still unwilling to pay at this stage then the company might engage a debt collection agency but here too the power of the debt collectors is limited, they are a business not a court ordered bailiff.
At this point it is likely that the debt collection agency will send their letter with a higher charge and threats that if you do not pay then court action could be started to recover the sum.
One recent letter to a Caithness man who was charged by Britannia got a debt collector’s letter which claimed it is “lawful” to “pursue payment of a correctly issued unpaid parking charge through the County Court”.
Except “County Court” is a term used in England and Wales not Scotland, this would seem to support Cllr Cameron’s point about the legislation not applying north of the border. While the ticket would also have to be issued “correctly” and if it did reach the Scottish small claims court then the fees are not recoverable so it might not be worth the company’s money.
According to the Debt Advisory Service, what a debt collector cannot do is take your possessions: “A debt collector does not have the power to take your car or any of your assets.
“These agencies are not bailiffs and lack any legal authority beyond what the car park company has. Essentially, they are just acting on behalf of the car park operator to try and recover the unpaid amount through persistent communication and requests for payment.”
But they can make life difficult for people by letters and phone calls, and court action does remain a possibility but it is important to be clear what it is and what it is not.
‘Parking tickets on private land aren't a criminal matter’
Citizen’s Advice states: “Parking tickets on private land aren't a criminal matter. The Parking Charge Notice might look like an official fixed penalty from the police but it isn't one.
“It's a notice that the owner of the land or the private parking operator intends to take you to a civil court, and will offer to let you pay the charge to settle the case out of court. This is a civil matter, not a criminal one.”
If someone decides to not pay, the Cab states: “If you get a ticket for parking on private land and you don’t think you should have to pay, you can decide not to pay and not to reply to the parking operator. The company may continue to send requests to pay and you could continue to ignore these.
“Private parking operators could take you to court, but they may choose not to do this, as the amount of money being demanded is usually quite small.
“A court may decide that you breached a contract with the parking operator and that you must pay the charges. You should remember that if it goes this far, you’ll probably face a higher charge than the one that was originally sent to you.”
