faq05
Disclaimer: the author of this website is not a lawyer and this site does not constitute legal advice.
5. What should I do if I receive a letter from a Private Car Parking Company?
Note: FAQ05 applies only if you have received a letter to your home address. If you have only received a fine on your car windscreen and haven't yet received a letter to your home address, then see FAQ03 instead.
Have you received one of the following letters?
i) A courtesy reminder from the parking company to pay $88.00 (or sometimes more depending on the company). Sometimes a couple of these reminders come.
ii) A letter from the parking company threatening to sue, if you do not pay the $88.00. A couple of these threats can come.
iii) A letter from the parking company's debt collection agency, asking for $173.00 (or more). Three or four of these can come.
iv) A letter from the parking company's solicitor saying you will be taken to court if you don't pay now. You will get tup to two of these.
If you have received any one of the above letters in the mail (normally to the home of the registered owner of the vehicle), you have four options that are explained below: write the company a letter denying liability, ignore all correspondence from them, use a mediation company, or pay the fine.
Option 1 - write them a letter denying liability
You can write the parking company a letter denying liability for the fine using the proforma on this page.
In the past, after you sent this letter you generally did not hear from the parking company again. However, I am advised by some car owners that ANCP, Care Park and Parking Patrols are these days continuing to send demands even after liability has been denied. It is against state and national laws for the company to send you further payment notices after you have denied liability. What has worked for some people, is when they have denied liability, and then received further notices, they have phoned the company that sent the last letter and asked them if they received your denial of liability. If they say they didn't, then you can email or fax them a copy of it now, call them back and see if they agree to now stop. Some-times they have just lost your letter in all their paperwork, and merely reminding them you have denied liability stops the letters.
Even if they continue to write to you, then this option still has advantages, as it means any fine increases they add to future letters are dodgy, as they shouldn't still be writing to you. If they ever took you to court, it would have to be for the amount the fine was before you sent the denial of liability.
Sending the letter is a little bit of insurance. It (hopefully) reduces your chance of receiving further letters and (hopefully) reduces your chances of getting taken to court (because the company knows you know what are doing and that you will defend your position in court). The companies only take a few people to court, and hopefully denying liability means they will pick on some else who doesn't know their rights.
It is important to understand though, that the company may keep writing to you, even though they are not permitted to do so. If that is going to freak you out when you start receiving lawyer letters, you may be better off taking options 3 or 4 now, before the going gets tough.
Option 2 - ignore all correspondence.
With this option, you simply ignore all their correspondence and do not write to them at all. You should be aware that with this option, the payment requests and letters from the companies may continue for several years and that the amounts will increase. If this is going to worry you, then you might consider option 1 above and send a letter denying liability. Also be aware that people often initially start off quite happily ignoring letters but when they start getting threats and phone calls from debt collection companies and the like, they start to freak out and wish they'd take out that insurance. Debt collection companies are legally permitted to make three phone calls a week to people who they allege owe them money if they have not denied liability for the debt.
Option 3 - use a mediation or dispute resolution company
There are many mediation companies that will act on your behalf to negotiate your debts (or alleged debts in this case) with your creditors. But these are mainly setup for large amounts such as $1,000 or more. If the thought of trying to hold out against the parking company's debt collectors and lawyers worries you so much that you are tempted to pay the fine, or if you are worried the parking company will take you to court, then these companies are with a look at, since it saves you money compared with paying the fine.
The "Parking Fine Fighter" will act for you on small parking fine debts from private parking companies, See Parking Fine Fighter. The idea is only if they are successful in having your fine withdrawn for you, do you pay a small fee. Two other services also worth trying for larger debts (over $1,000) are Debt Mediators and Handle My Complaint. Handle My Complaint charge 20% of the amount of the accumulated fines, and have a minimum $110 charge. Again, you don't pay anything if the fines are not withdrawn. Handle My Complaint is owned and managed by Jo Ucukalo and you have probably seen her on TV. Finally, for Care Park only, you can take a look at http://fightpaymentnotices.com.au/ who, for $17 give you access to their website that contains information of how to avoid Care Park fines. Parking Fine Appeals does not endorse any of these services and you should do your own research before trying them.
Option 4 - pay the fine
A lot of people get very stressed by the letters of demand. If the letters of demand are keeping you awake at night and affecting you health, then it is sometimes better to just pay the fine and be done with it. If you decide to pay it, only do so after reading FAQ02 on this page first, which will help you decide whether you are liable and what defenses you may have. If, after reading FAQ02, you don't believe you are liable for the fine, then that will often give you the strength to refuse to pay it.
What if they phone me?
If they phone you, ask them to put their request in writing and hang up. Then when they write to you, follow option 1 or 2 above,.
Warning
You will sometimes see on various on-line discussion forums a person saying "I just wrote to them explaining why I didn't get a ticket, and they let me off". The majority of such entries in discussion forums are from "plants" who work for private car park companies who write these forum entries to try to encourage others to write to them explaining why they didn't get a ticket. But you can be sure that if you do write a letter yourself, they won't let you off, and they will keep sending you reminders, and use your letters as evidence against you. You need to understand, this is how these companies earn their income (by fining you), so why would they let you off?
Here is a letter received from Australian National Car Parks customer services manager Paul Jensen. The person had written a letter to ANCP explaining that the photo they had sent him supposedly of his car was not his car, as he had parked his car in the basement. In reply, Paul Jensen wrote the person this letter which I find quite rude and insulting. I have included this letter here to show people what you are dealing with and why you shouldn't write to them to discuss the parking situation. You should only write to deny liability using this proforma.
Note finally that we do not condone, nor encourage, people who are aware of the parking rules in a private car park to deliberately breach the terms and conditions. The terms and conditions are put there for a purpose, and that purpose is to ensure there is a regular turnover of vehicles. The car parks are on private land and you should use that land with respect. This website will not assist anyone who willfully disobeys the parking rules.