Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: littlebee on May 30, 2026, 04:09:07 pm
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Hi all,
Looking for some advice regarding several PCNs recently received from UKPA / HOZAH.
There are around 5 tickets in question relating to 2 vehicles — one is a company vehicle and the other is the driver’s personal vehicle.
To be clear from the outset, this is not a case of somebody intentionally avoiding payment or committing fraud. The driver has used this location regularly for a long time for genuine business purposes, including deliveries, collections and dropping off goods to businesses within the shopping centre area. This is not simply a standard “customer car park” being abused for free parking.
The car park has historically allowed a free parking period (roughly up to an hour), and where stays exceeded that period, the driver has regularly paid at the exit terminal before leaving. There has never previously been an issue and payment has been made many times in the past.
However, more recently, since UKPA/HOZAH took over management of the site, the exit barrier system appears to have become unreliable. On numerous occasions the barriers have:
- already been open,
- lifted automatically without payment,
- or appeared faulty/broken.
This has happened repeatedly over a period of time and has become a noticeable issue at the site.
Because the barriers were regularly opening automatically, the genuine impression formed was that either:
- the barriers were malfunctioning,
- the system was not operating correctly,
- or no further payment action was required before exit.
On the occasions now resulting in the PCNs, the vehicles exited normally because the barriers opened automatically without any warning, refusal of exit, or indication that payment remained outstanding.
The driver appreciates that parking operators may still say payment should have been made, and the driver is willing to pay the legitimate parking tariff for the actual stay durations. However, demanding around £100 per ticket in these circumstances feels excessive and disproportionate, especially where:
- the barriers were allowing vehicles to exit freely,
- there was no attempt to evade payment,
- and the actual parking charges would have been significantly lower.
The driver has also attempted to resolve matters by accessing the online payment portal, but experienced issues with the website/payment process and redirects. During this time, the reduced amounts increased to the full PCN amounts.
The main questions are:
- Does the repeated barrier issue help the driver’s position at all?
- Would this be considered misleading or inadequate enforcement?
- Is there a reasonable argument to offer payment of the actual parking tariffs only?
- What is realistically the best route to resolve this without matters escalating unnecessarily?
Any advice would be appreciated.