Legal

Victory test case for the parking sector!

Court of Appeal just handed down a landmark ruling in favour of car park control companies.  Up until now there’s been a lot of confusion about the legality of private parking companies and their ability to enforce parking charges.  This confusion meant thousands of parking charge notices went unpaid by motorists.
Parking on private land is available to motorists as long as they abide by the rules the landowner puts in place.  The signage on such land is there to remind motorists of the regulations and consequences of ignoring those regulations.  Motorists have two options – to obey the instructions or find another site to park their vehicle.  Car park control companies are there to assist landowners.

The Independent Parking Committee and British Parking Association are accredited trade associations which exist to regulate the car park control industry.  Flashpark belongs to the BPA.  This means motorists who park on land monitored by Flashpark have to right to appeal and Flashpark have the right to chase the charge.  
This new decision gives us the legal backing we need to chase parking charges and take them further to an independent appeals service if need be.  Motorists are still protected by the DVLA and if car park control companies do not belong to an Accredited Trade Association then they are probably unable to chase parking charges.