Civil Parking Notice ::) Anybody got one of this?

Hello All,

I have received a Civil Parking Notice (Tesco car park) in the post and i'm not sure whether i should let it bug me.

First of all i dont know how this happened! Tescos seems to have decided to charge customers for shopping!!! I am super confused, if there is anything like that in the first place, haha.

I did a quick research and it seems most people take the view that its not worth paying. (I'm not sure how i got this ticket in Febuary, but just received a letter today with title: "Notice to Owner" wtf.     .....from VINCI park services (aka bigots i guess, lol).

Ok questions:

1) Is this a legal matter? (I'm quite happy to go to court if need be. But haven't a clue about courts as i have never been to one.)

They even know my name and that i am the owner of the car...wtf. I can understand if a Police officer knows, cause they are allowed to know whose car it is for law enforcement.

2)I'm not going to let it bug me, but how do i do it the right way. I mean shall i write to this spooky company, or shall i write to Tescos or do neithet or.....I'd like to do it courteously, but if it means a court battle is necessary...i can start learning a few things abot the court process..... ..what do you say?

Anybody got one of these? What did you do? is that the end of the matter? or are they like....suckers?

Never heard of them but it seems from googling it that most people don't bother with them as they're not actually a fine. 

Never heard of them but it seems from googling it that most people don't bother with them as they're not actually a fine. 

Yay......on the right track.

But how do i stop them talking to me (sending anything in my name through the post). I mean soon i will be moving away from where i live(rented) and i dont want some other people to receive mine and my car's details in the post.....

I'm tempted to write to them to ask them to shut their gob up ( ) and stop sending crap to me. (My main reason is i dont want someone else inadvertently using my identity or future tenants receiving letters at the address on my name - you certainly cant be sure what sort of person might move into the future...)

Ok if i write to them- then i'm actively engaging them (the parking company) perhaps needlessly. If i ignore them they would keep posting crap.........grrr. The problem is if i pay them, they will want to do it again at any other Tesco car park (say if i parked for 2 hours and 1 min instead of allowed 2 hours, they could send me another ticket because they expect me to pay!!!)

So do they have any legal basis? or are they just suckers!!! 

Taking the simple question first of how they got your name & address, the answer is because DVLA will sell them to anyone who cares to pay £2.50 a pop!   

As for the legal status of the ticket, only the police and local authorities can issue fines as such.  If it relates to parking on private land, then it's a civil matter whatever the wording on the ticket might try to imply.  The private "parking enforcement" companies will just try to make it sound very official in an attempt to intimidate you into paying up. 

If you were parked in Tesco's lot quite legitimately you might want to consider writing to a manager to complain, but as far as the private "fine" is concerned the general advice is to ignore all the threatening letters until eventually they give up on you.   Theoretically they could try to take you to court in a civil action to demand damages, but from what I read it's almost never likely to happen, for a variety of reasons, not least that the amount awarded would be nowhere near the "fine" amount and the company would have spent as much or more money chasing you and getting you into court in the first place.     

There's also the issue that their civil claim would be against the driver who parked the car there, which they can have no way of knowing.  DVLA supplies only the registered keeper of the vehicle, and unlike speeding offenses and such like which involve the police, the keeper is under no legal obligation to tell a private company who was driving the car at the time. 

You'll find a lot of information and debate on this here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/

Also, there's a good article on MoneySavingExpert(.com) explaining civil parking fines and what to do (or not do!) with them.

-Thanks for your replies. Yes, i will stick to just that. (Wont pay and will certainly stop them sending me garbage.....

-Damn this issue has taken a few hours of my time...but ok.

Paul_1966- I read through that site and yes its just needless intimidation. I will stop them writing to me nevertheless.

I wonder how this is ok. Just yesterday i parked my car but the parking meter needed more coins than COINS i had carried in my pocket. So i had to run around looking for a cash point in a relatively remote place with no cash point in sight.....anyway, after about 25 mins looking for one i got to a cash point that read: " sorry, this point is out of order" or something like that....eventually found one got cash but still needed to get coins......yeah got that...and back to the car park.

Thankfully no ticket issued or any problems but still this little niggles does really bug you unnecessarily.

Aless-thanks yes was typing/posting this post after reading that on the moneysavingexpert. 

Just updating on this.

I asked them to provide proof for how long i was parked there, they did. But unfortunately for me i had parked there and so i decided to pay for the error.....I could have ignored like many do, but i dint want eldless hassle so i paid and settled it. So yeah dont park in Tesco car park for long.....They reduced the fine for being understanding i suppose. May be the Tesco manageress i spoke to on the phone, may have told the parking company to reduce the charge, whatever matter closed.