We've all been there - you duck into the grocery store for a few minutes, come back out, and bam! There's an obnoxious private parking ticket stuck under your wiper. Those things are the worst, with their vague "violation codes" and sky-high fines that seem totally unjustified.
Your first instinct is probably to just toss that sucker straight into the bin. But then the nagging doubt creeps in... "Wait, can these private parking companies actually take me to court over this?"
It's a scary thought having to go before a judge and defend yourself, all because you legitimately just grabbed a few items from the shop.
The short answer is yes, private parking firms can technically take you to court if you refuse to pay one of their charges. However, it's really not as simple as them just hauling you into criminal court over a £100 ticket.
For starters, private parking companies don't actually have any criminal law enforcement power. That ridiculous parking charge notice they issued is considered a civil matter relating to an alleged breach of contract, not a criminal violation.
So for them to try forcing you to pay the fine, they'd first have to take you to a low-level civil court, usually the small claims track. It's a much less intimidating process than you might envision, with a toned-down, informal setting.
More importantly though, the parking company has to jump through quite a few legal hoops to even get that far against you. They need hard evidence proving that you entered into a contractual agreement to pay for parking under their terms just by driving onto their property.
Were there clearly visible signs detailing the firm's name, parking rates, time limits, and other rules when you arrived? If not, or if the signage was ambiguous or obscured in any way, you've got a solid case that no binding contract existed. Problem solved!
Even if they can establish some form of contract, the company's next hurdle is justifying that the outrageous fine amount charged on the parking ticket was a reasonable, legally-allowed penalty for the alleged violation. Judges tend to cringe at excessive penalties designed just to extract money, rather than covering actual financial damages.
At the end of the day, private parking companies count on being able to bully most people into just paying their crazy-high fines through fear and intimidation tactics. Don't fall for it!
As long as you respond properly to any court notices and have a plausible defence prepared, you've got every right to contest those scammish private parking charges. Make them work for it by providing clear evidence to the court that their predatory tactics are unjustified.
The hassle is usually not even worth it for these parking companies to take delinquents all the way to a court judgement over a relatively small fine. So by firmly refusing to get pushed around, you can absolutely call their bluff and avoid paying those sketchy private tickets without ending up in legal trouble.
Just don't ignore official court communications if they do somehow try to take it that far. Deal with it head-on, state your case forcefully yet respectfully, and make them prove to a judge that their outrageous parking fine was 100% contractually justified. Chances are, it'll get tossed out long before you were ever in danger of seeing a courtroom anyway.