Express your view about Parking Eye and whether their fines are unlawful

[BankFodder]

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/community/opinion/letters/letters-friday-11-2013-1-5307722

 

Best to keep it moderate!!!

[johnjordan]

They are not FINES. A private company cannot FINE you.

They are nothing more than invitations to pay, or as some people call them, speculative invoices.

There is no legal obligation to pay them.

[BankFodder]

No one said that there is a legal obligation to pay them - but they are fines. If they were charges they might be legitimate and enforceable. Clearly they are fines and it is an attempt by a private organisation to exercise some kind of quasi-judicial function by levying fines against ordinary citizens.

[johnjordan]

fine:

A sum of money exacted as a penalty by a court of law or other authority.

 

A private parking company is not an "authority", it is a company.

 

A company cannot impose a fine, it can impose a charge but not a fine.

[DBC]

And the BPA guidelines specifically ban the word .

[johnjordan]

And even if the private company took you to court for the charge they have to prove they have made a loss. As they normally don't own the land you have parked on they cannot make a loss.

I hope that visitors to this site do not go away with incorrect information. The MSE web pages are full of useful information.

[BankFodder]

But the intention has always been to pass themselves as an authority and to pass their charges off as fines.

 

Look at the dishonest and deceitful get-up used by Parking Eye not so long ago which clearly gave the impression by its yellow colour and chequered margins that they had some official status and that they were backed by law.

 

Much of the industry presented themselves in the same way - and maybe some of them still do.

 

It is correct that the BPA and others are trying to distance themselves from the notion of "fines" and they are trying to market themselves as simply imposing charges - but in effect what they are doing is imposing fines. That is the public perception - and the fact that they are not negotiated, that they are imposed for some perceived infraction or contravention or breach - and also that even the Court of Appeal has referred to them as "penalties" means that they are fines - by any other name.