Parking firms requested an eye-watering 2.7 million vehicle keeper records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in order to issue fines between April and June 2022.
Here, we investigate why fines are hitting record levels and explain your chances of winning an appeal.
For an at-a-glance guide to appealing a parking fine, check out our video at the top of the page.
Private car parks (and fines) on the rise
Look around the car park at your local supermarket, retail park or hospital, and you’re likely to find surveillance cameras, pay-and-display machines and signs warning of PCNs.
An ever-growing number of car parks are now being operated by private parking companies.
Overall, 176 private parking companies purchased records from the DVLA between April and June 2022. Two firms dominated – ParkingEye made more than 500,000 requests (up 34% year on year), while Euro Car Parks made 300,000 (up 93%)
ParkingEye told us it now manages 25% more sites than before the pandemic, which it says explains its increase in fines.
Car park confusion
The problem for drivers is that rules often vary from car park to car park. Depending on which trade body the car park operator belongs to - either the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC) - rules around grace periods, keying errors and the appeals process will be different.
Payment methods are also inconsistent. Some operators now prefer you to download one of many car park payment apps on your phone, which relies on you having a smartphone with good signal.
These different rules can at best cause confusion and at worst result in an unexpected fine.
Making sure you’ve properly understood the car park’s T&Cs and have paid correctly can be a minefield – but with the number of fines rising, the onus is well and truly on drivers to ensure they adhere to the rules.
Find out more:Unfair fines go unchallenged
There are lots of reasons why you might end up with a parking fine, but the vast majority of people stung with parking tickets think they’ve been unfairly charged.
Some 78% of Which? members who’d received a fine from a private parking firm in the past two years felt the charge was unfair, with 28% telling us they didn’t realise they had to pay for parking due to unclear signs.
Despite feeling a sense of injustice, 40% of those who thought a fine was unfair didn’t contest it.
Some told us they didn't have confidence they'd win the appeal, while others opted to pay the discounted fee (usually 40% of the total fine) that's offered if you pay within a certain timeframe of receiving the PCN.
Ultimately, this means some drivers may choose to pay the discounted rate rather than contest the charge, even if they think it’s unfair.
'An honest mistake cost us an extra £60'
Which? has spoken to drivers, such as Andrew, who have been hit with fines when paying via a mobile phone app.
‘We realised my wife had chosen the wrong registration plate, which was the default one at the top of the app,’ explained Andrew. ‘We appealed the fine and explained we’d made an honest mistake – but they were having none of it.'
The car park operator, GXS, rejected their appeal and, not wanting the hassle of contesting the fine to the Independent Appeals Service, they reluctantly paid up instead.
‘In the end, my wife just paid the £60 on top of what we’d actually paid to park there,’ he said.
GXS told us that all the car parks it manages have clear signage, which is independently audited by the Independent Parking Committee and compliant with its code of practice. It says it has no way of knowing that a vehicle owner has paid for parking if an incorrect registration number is entered on its app.
Encouraging appeals success rates
But if you do proceed with an appeal, there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll be successful.
In our survey, 38% of respondents had their charge overturned on appeal.
37% of appeals made to the Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA), a car parking appeals body, in 2020 -21 were successful. Half of these weren’t contested by the parking operator.
Meanwhile, 24% of appeals made to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS), the other car parking appeals body, went in the motorist's favour.
The IPC says it believes the current appeals process works well, allowing drivers to provide context and mitigation that a parking attendant may not have been aware of. It claims that repeat offenders are contributing to rising parking fines.
It says that a third of fines are issued to drivers with at least three previous offences, and that since the abolition of clamping in 2012, there had been a huge increase in drivers deliberately flouting parking rules.
Find out more:'A bank statement saved me £100'
Mike Gore, from York, received a PCN after using a Park Maven car park at a shopping centre in Hull.
‘It was a car park where you type your number into the machine, then pay on your way out,’ explained Mike. ‘I paid when I left the car park, but a couple of weeks later I still got a parking fine.’
Mike appealed to the car park operator but his initial appeal was unsuccessful.
‘They came back and said that I hadn’t paid and that the fine would now be £100,’ he told us. ‘They said if I wanted to appeal again I’d have to go through the ombudsman. I was about to pay the fine, but thought I’d quickly double-check my bank account, where I could in fact see that £3 had come out for the parking.’
Mike took a picture of the transaction and sent it to Park Maven, as well as logging an appeal with POPLA. ‘About a week later, I got a letter saying my parking ticket had been cancelled. Thankfully, by checking my bank account I saved myself £100.’
Park Maven told us that, where possible, it cancels PCNs at the first stage of appeal, as long as legitimate circumstances or evidence of payment are provided.
Will parking be made fairer?
The government announced in February 2022 that it would introduce a Private Parking Code of Practice to make the system fairer.
It proposed:
Parking companies that failed to follow the code would be unable to access data from the DVLA, making it harder to enforce parking fines.
But the code was temporarily withdrawn in June 2022 after some private parking companies issued legal proceedings against the proposals to change maximum fines and ban additional fees.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was unable to confirm when the code would be reintroduced. It told us it recognises there have been unacceptable practices by a smaller number of companies and said it’s determined to create a more level playing field for consumers.
The BPA and IPC both said they are working with the government to create consistent standards across the industry.
Find out more:How to appeal a private parking fine
If you feel you've been fined unfairly, follow these steps to appeal.
1. Appeal to the car park operator
Your first step is to appeal to the operator which issued your PCN, explaining why the charge shouldn’t stand and providing as much evidence to explain why.
But note that you may lose the opportunity to pay a discounted rate (which is normally a 40% discount if paid within two weeks) if your appeal is unsuccessful depending on which trade body the car park is a member of.
Private car parks will belong to one of two trade associations – either the IPC or the BPA.
If the car park is a member of the IPC, you’ll be afforded an additional two weeks at the reduced rate, as long as you submit your appeal within 14 days of receiving the fine.
But if it's part of the BPA, the operator isn’t required to extend the window for a reduced fine if your appeal is unsuccessful. The BPA told us, though, that in most cases the parking operator will honour the reduced rate.
2. Appeal again to a trade association
If your appeal to the car park operator is unsuccessful, you can contest this decision via whichever trade association the car park is a member of.
Check whether the car park is a member of the IPC or the BPA.
If it's a member of the BPA, you'll need to appeal to POPLA, and if it's a member of the IPC, your appeal will be with the IAS.
Again, you’ll want to include as much evidence as possible to show you weren’t in breach of the rules, or that you did pay, or that the parking operator acted in breach of its trade body’s code of practice.
If your appeal is still unsuccessful, the operator can continue to seek payment from you and has the option of taking you to court.
Be warned that if you are taken to court, you’ll have to pay the other side’s costs if you lose, although the fine cannot be increased.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/car-sharks-the-rise-of-private-parking-fines-and-how-to-appeal-them-aPYed9L3iwSS