Care Park lose in court again

Melbourne driver John Vico launched a legal callenge a private parking notice issued by Care Park. Most driver's either ignore the parking payment notices from private car parks, or they pay it. But John Vico, a Melbourne law student decided to take it to court and see what would happen. Mr Vico made an application to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT - formerly called the small claims tribunal). In VCAT small claims hearings, parties pay their own costs of attending and lawyers care not allowed to appear, except in special circumstances. In Mr Vico's VCAT application, he asked for an order the amount of $88 that Care Park was asking was an unenforceable penalty and hence void.

The hearing ran over two days, and on 2nd May 2014, VCAT made a ruling that the $88 was in fact a penalty, and that Mr Vico did not have to pay it. Under contract law (which governs private parking contracts) it is illegal for private companies to charge an amount that constitutes a penalty or fine. The companies can only charge the amount of money that they would have made had the parking contract been complied with. In Mr Vico's case, this was $15 for 2 hours of commercial parking.

In its written judgement, VCAT said "nowhere in the evidence was proof adduced of any financial basis for the sum of $88. That amount is not a multiple of $15 nor is it linked to $5 nor even is it connected to the amount of $10. Its genesis was wholly unexplained. It had no forensic veracity. As far as I can tell it was a sum Care Park fastened to the windscreen with no legal or factual providence." See the full written judgement here.