THE LAW RELATING TO PRIVATE PARKING: A UNIVERSITY OF

BRIGHTON CASE STUDY

Alison BoneBrighton Business School

14 October 2015

Law relating to private parking

This seminar ONLY refers to parking fees incurred while parking on private land. Infringements of criminal law enforced formerly by traffic wardens (now police volunteers) are not covered

DISCLAIMEREverything in this presentation has been checked for accuracy but please don’t treat this as formal legal advice – I’m not licensed to practise and cant be held responsible

The contract

Every time you park your car on private land you need permission or you could be committing trespass. This is sometimes freely given (e.g. local authority beauty spots) with minor limitations “Do not park overnight” “No camper vans or caravans”

Frequently where parking is limited the land owner may impose rules by means of contract often by using a parking management company (e.g. Ethical Parking at UoB)

How is the contract formed?

Usually merely entering the land will be deemed to be an acceptance of the offer to provide parking and associated terms

Who is the contract with?

Many people use the University of Brighton car parks: students, employees, workers, visitors and (if not stopped) unauthorised people.

The University of Brighton decided to outsource the enforcement of breaches of parking rules so there is no contract for the purposes of enforcement between car park users and the University

Why regulate?

When parking regulations were introduced there were several instances where health and safety was compromised (not so much here at Moulsecoomb but particularly at Falmer)

It is easier to enforce such rules by bringing in an outside agency – here “Ethical Parking” (sic) as referred to in the notices prominently displayed

Breach of contract

In classic contract law if the defendant breaks a term of the contract then the claimant can recover their loss by suing for damages.

Different ways of breaking such a parking contract:

* overstaying time limit (e.g. visitor parking)

* not having a permit* parking in an area not designated

for general parking

Ethical Parking (EP)

EP have been contracted to handle parking enforcement at University of Brighton (UoB)

UoB do pay EP to supply people who are reliable and know the rules to work a 40 hour week enforcing the parking rules

Any extra income therefore (for EP) must come from enforcing the ‘Contractual Breach Notice’ (CBN) i.e. collecting fees

Help! I’ve got a CBN!

Two possible situations – same rules for both:

1) Fair cop – I never got a permit after weeks of being told I needed one/I parked where I should not have done/I parked badly way outside the bays

2) This is outrageous! – I have the appropriate permit/I was parking in the right place/I did not park badly

Help! I’ve got a CBN!

What to do? Same applies to both situations on previous slide:

1) Ignore it. In order to enforce the CBN EP must sue you. Sometimes they won’t bother

2) Challenge it with UoB. This will depend on the situation. If e.g. a UoB employee told you to park somewhere (unlikely but it could happen) it may be possible for the UoB to intervene and cancel a resulting CBN3) Appeal the CBN with EP

The appeal process

Write to EP explaining why you feel you should not be charged (details are on CBN).

BEWARE! Merely by challenging your CBN you are confirming your name, address and the fact that it was your car in the car park – info that otherwise EP would have to find out for themselves by contacting DLVA

What then?

Rumour has it that occasionally people do succeed in their appeal to EP. I’ve just never heard of any personally….

If EP turn down your appeal then you can appeal further to POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeal) operated since 21/8/15 by the Ombudsman Service Ltd. This has around 50% success rate

Damages for breach

Damages in contract aim to put the party enforcing the contract into the position they would have been in had the contract been performed correctly.

This concept is difficult to apply when a parking company is acting on behalf of some landowners (e.g. a University as opposed to a supermarket)

Liquidated damages and penalties

EP has stated that if you pay your CBN charge quickly it is limited to £30, otherwise it doubles

Is £30 what EP have ‘lost’ by your breach of contract? Can it be regarded as a genuine pre-estimate? If so it is enforceable as ‘liquidated damages’

If not it could be regarded as a ‘penalty’ i.e a threat to ensure you do not break the parking contract (this is of course a nonsense as if nobody broke the rules EP would lose money!)

Case law on parking charges

Barry Beavis v Parking EyeYou can read about this on theParking

Cowboys siteOr from Barry Beavis himself

Other sites worth checking out:Parking Prankster blogspotA rant from one of our ownAnd expert advice: Money saving expert

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Any questions?