A legal expert has explained what motorists should do if they arrive at a private car park only to discover the payment machine is broken
There isn’t a simple yes-or-no answer to whether a parking charge can be enforced.(Image: Lancs Live/Jude Tolson)
Getting a parking charge notice after arriving at a car park can be frustrating enough, but the situation becomes even more complicated when you try to pay and discover the machine isn’t working.
One legal expert has explained what could happen if you decide to park anyway – and why the circumstances surrounding the broken machine could make all the difference.
Daniel ShenSmith, a seventh-degree Black Belt and barrister in England and Wales, regularly shares legal, business and financial guidance through his #BlackBeltBarrister channel. He explained that there isn’t a simple yes-or-no answer to whether a parking charge can be enforced.
He said: “So you turn up at a privately managed car park and the ticket machine is not working. You park there anyway and you get a parking charge notice. Is this parking charge notice valid and enforceable?
“Well, that depends. It depends on a number of things.”
If a privately operated car park has just one payment machine and it is broken, ShenSmith said an appeal could have a good chance of succeeding.
He said: “If you turn up and there’s just one machine and that machine is not working, then even if you get a parking charge notice, it’s likely that an appeal is going to be successful.”
However, he said that motorists should check the signs carefully before deciding to leave their car. If they specifically state that drivers must not park when the machine is out of order, the situation can be very different.
He said: “However, if there is a sign up saying if the machine is out of order, do not park and you park there anyway, then it’s quite likely that the parking charge notice is going to be enforceable.”
Drivers could also be expected to use another payment method if one is clearly available.
He said: “Likewise, if there is an alternative machine available or other signs giving you another way of paying, be that by telephone, by app or any other kind of means, then if you haven’t availed yourself of those opportunities to pay in some other kind of way, then again this parking charge notice is likely to be enforceable.”
ParkingWin advises motorists to gather as much evidence as possible if a machine has failed. Photographs of error messages, videos showing an unsuccessful attempt to pay and screenshots of failed app payments could all help support an appeal.
The same basic issue can arise in council-run car parks, although the process is different. A council Penalty Charge Notice can generally be challenged with the authority before potentially going to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal in England and Wales.
For private parking charges, motorists can first appeal to the operator and may then be able to use POPLA or the IAS, depending on which trade body the company belongs to.
ShenSmith’s advice is straightforward when there is no way to pay and no instruction not to park.
He said: “However, if all of those options have been exhausted, there’s no alternative to pay, there is no working machine, there’s no sign saying you can’t park there, then my suggestion to you would be to appeal this parking charge notice, which should really be successful.”
He added that taking the dispute to court is possible as a last resort, although the outcome depends on the individual circumstances.
He said: “Now, that’s not to say that every case is or has been decided in exactly the same way because they all turn on their own facts, but in short, that is the way I would view the situation.”
