Parking Ticket

So, several weeks ago, I was happily eating my breakfast when this little gem dropped through the letterbox;

 01_ticket.gif ( 157.28K ) Number of downloads: 2


It was allegedly for an overstay of 11 minutes in a 2 hour free parking slot at the Co-op supermarket in my home town. Now, I know a little bit about the law and I was a little annoyed that these f*cktards thought I was just going to hand over £45-£90 (US$82-$165) of my money by trying to dress-up a demand for cash as a Road Traffic Act Penalty notice.

In these circumstances the law of contract applies, so I wrote back with the following:


The ticket clearly said they had photographic evidence, so my response was a very long winded way of saying "Prove it or shut up."

Clearly they didn't think that I'd made a good enough case for them slinging their hooks, because shortly afterwards, I got the following reply:

 02_2nd_demand.gif ( 230.26K ) Number of downloads: 2


As the registered keeper they still hold me liable for the actions of the driver (whoever that may have been) do they? Well, fortunately for me, what they do or do not do is of little relevance to me, and even less so to the law... I certainly wasn't going to cough-up £10 just to find out what evidence they did have.

I replied as follows:



Attached to this letter was my bill for £30... At this stage I was hedging for a counter claim. In simple terms, if these clowns actually took me to court, I would have a valid and existing counter claim to present.

A little of my reasoning here.... Under English contract law the claimant can ONLY sue an individual for losses incurred as a result of the breach of contract. He/she/they absolutely cannot apply for compensation if it is a penalty. Now, seeing as how this car park offers free parking, the Co-op would have to establish what losses they had actually suffered by my vehicle being parked their for an extra 11 minutes that amounted to £45-£90. They would also have to explain why those damages arbitraily double after 14 days.

Quite simply, they could do neither with any realistic chance of success... On the other hand, because I'd billed them for responding to this unenforceable claim, and they then chanced their arms in court, I had a prima facie counter claim that I could have then used to claim back any legal fees and out of pocket expenses.

As expected, though, they wrote back with another demand for the money:

 03_3rd_demand.gif ( 183.54K ) Number of downloads: 2


This was followed several days later with another threatening (full of wind and p*ss) demand for money:

 04_final_reminder.gif ( 178K ) Number of downloads: 1


By now I was getting a bit p*ssed-off with all this, so I wrote back and laid down the law to them:



Also under the Administration of Justice Act 1970, any person or organisation is jointly liable for the actions of their agents regardless of whether or not they take part in the illegal activity... All I needed to do, was make sure that the Co-op had no defence of "ignorance" of what Civil Enforcement Ltd were up to, I sent the following letter (recorded delivery) to the Co-op head office in Manchester:



Obviously, that was the right button to press, because this morning, the following arrived:

 05_cancelled.gif ( 115.46K ) Number of downloads: 2


Which was nice

This post has been edited by yourmercifulgod: Aug 28 2008, 02:07 PM

Am I going cross eyed or did they not send the same form letter each time in response?

Looks like they did not, in fact, read your letter at all.

I'll be watching for YMG Goes to Court on youtube.

Sorry to disappoint Coyote, but they chickened out... Sorry edited the last bit in while you were writing (pressed the post button instead of the preview one before I'd finished)

Clumsy bugger that I am

Very well done mate. I applaud you

No movie?

Well hell.

But I'm glad they cancelled it for you.

Good for you, I love a good victory for the normal man.

Sweet.. nice going YMG... and I notice it looks like Fidel has signed it too, so thats why no-one has seen him lately in Cuba....

Nice... I never even noticed that

Nice going, dude =]

now send them that invoice again!

they still owe you that £30 right?

I was considering it... but in the end, I think I just couldn't be arsed.

Any chance of representing me m8? I got my decree absolute 10 years ago then last weekend got papers from the PBFH's solicitors saying they wanted to go back to the courts as the financial side had never been resolved.
How the f*^k was I supposed to know this. As far as I was concerned it had all been sorted and I could get on with my life.
Spoke to a local firm who reckon it will cost £10-15K to take this to a conclusion! They can poke that I will represent myself if needs be.
Personally I think it's bloody mad that I have to put my life on hold again all because of the PSYCHO BITCH FROM HELL !!!!!

Ouch, that's not good is it mate

My only advice is to shop around for a good solicitor... get references from people who've used them for matrimonial disputes (everyone's been divorced these days, so it's not hard) and get a good one... don't just take-on the first brief whose office you wander into. Most will give you half an hour's free consultation, so use it to interview them like you would any prospective employee that you were considering hiring. If someone recommends a solicitor, don't just assume he/she still works in the firm... when you phone to make an appointment, check by asking for the person by name. ALWAYS ask for a cost estimate, and quiz them on what that cost entails and how it breaks down.

Clean break settlements are not usually costly, but they do require both parties consent to get it done cheaply and quickly. If one party starts getting shirty, it can get messy, but even so 15K sounds excessive, just for fees.

When you find a brief, ask them if there are any arbitration services in the area and get him/her to propose that to your ex... it may work out cheaper, and if she refuses, it doesn't look good in court.

Of course, failing that there's always faking your own death or hiring a hitman