"Norman Wells" wrote in message
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"tim....." wrote in message
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"Norman Wells" wrote in message
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"Harold Davis" wrote in
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Fredxxx wrote in :
On 18/10/2015 16:37, Harold Davis wrote:

Say a company charges £5 for an hour's parking and says there's a £75
fine for staying any longer. They can't issue enforceable fines or
any
other penalty, because they're not a public body, so they call it a
"contract charge", or some such bilge, and they put up signs saying
that when you park there you "agree" to it. That is typical of what's
happening all over the country.

If it's an amount for transgressing by staying longer than an hour,
that's a penalty clause and is unenforceable.

Their only claim could be for breach of contract or for trespass,
both
meaning you didn't leave before the hour was up, causing them a loss.

You're missing the point between a charge and a loss. If the charge
wasn't advertised, then I agree with you, the site-owner could only
obtain his loss. In this case the parking is a service at an
advertised
rate. By parking there you agree to that, it is a contract, not one
of
consequential loss from parking in that spot.

What consideration are they offering for £75?

The parking that you've had, and whatever aditional parking the owner of
the land is prepared to tolerate.

If your view is correct, then say you park there for a fortnight and
they
clamp you. What right do they have to do that? You haven't broken any
contract. You're just exercising your rights under the contract (by
staying longer than a hour) and waiting for information on how to pay
the
charge (£75).

You are trespassing. The owner of the land is entitled to relieve that
trespass by force if necessary. He can remove your vehicle.

Really?

the last time I was involved in trying to sold this problem we were told
that you can't "get it" removed unless you can show it has been dumped,
and part of that process involved writing to the registered keeper and
giving him a reasonable time (several weeks) to reply and claim his car
(or not).

Without a court order that is probably true, on private land at least.

During that time you could do SFA.

No. For all the time the vehicle is there over the time agreed in the
contract it represents a trespass for which accumulating damages can be
awarded

The occurrences I am referring to here are, ex-residents who leave their car
behind in the car park "promising" to come back for it later

there is no contract of charges that they have agreed to

tim