Has any one else had a demand for payment or threat to sue from Australian National Car Parks?
They are the dudes behind places like Barkly Square car park, where you are expected to get a ticket even tho it's free, and they 'fine' you if you dont.
They've recently started sending letters to everyone demanding payment for 'fines' from two years ago. Follow up letters have a threat to sue.
I spoke to Legal Aid about this mob. They said it's completely illegal, they have no jurisdiction to fine, and they will have a very hard time arguing for a law suit under contract law, when they have suffered no losses (as parking is free).
SO
DONT PAY IF YOU GET ONE OF THESE.
Legal Aid have a standard fuck you letter they send through, and they want to track all the cases and possibly take them to court. so if you get one, go see legal aid.
the ACCC also recommed you dont pay these fines, and they also want to know about people who receive them.
I hate the whole getting a ticket thing. It is free for 3 hours anyway.
Waste of time, waste of energy to run the machines and waste of papers...etc.
Yep. It's retarded.
I think in barkly square they did it to try and make the staff not park in the close parks. they could have dealt with that separately.
bump
ah thanks
refer to this
Just google australian national car parks.
You'll a bunch of threads on legal forums and what not explaining what a scam it is.
Some kind soul even put up form letters to use telling them to fuck off.
It's a Rort and they can't make you pay, fine you or fuck with your credit rating.
ACA did a story on then a week or so ago
Oh and it appears for most of the 'fines' they have just randomly been taking down x amount of number plates and then sending mass 'fines' a year plus later in the hope people don't recall and just pay up.
There was a thread about this a while ago.
here it is.
There is a website on Australian National Car Parks and other private car park companies that fine you overstaying your free use period. The website explains your rights with regards to these so called fines. It also has links to dicussion sites and consumer information. See http://sites.google.com/site/unfairfines and http://sites.google.com/site/unfairfines/companies/australian-national-car-parks
This thread is the closest to being on topic without me starting a new one. And I don't wanna do that.
Can a shopping centre car park legally tow away cars without displaying any signs warning of that possibility? How is a driver meant to know that could happen if there are no signs?
I called my council about it, but they don't know. Told me to call Dispute Settlement Victoria, but they're not taking calls today.
Write a letter of demand seeking the info for the company directly Moo (give them a deadline for this) and if they don't supply any resonbale answer or they don't reply - take them straight to VCAT as a civil claim seeking comp for anything you've had to pay for the towing.
ps- you agree to park in the car park based on the terms and conditions they advise- if they never advised anywhere clearly that you could be towed then they have changed the terms of your agreement and breeched your contract.
Thanks heaps!
Thankfully, I haven't had a car towed (nor has anyone I know), but my mum just wants to know her rights on the issue.
That's sorta what I thought would be the case. There have been flyers left on cars informing people of impending towings, but there are no signs, apart from one small corner of the car park. With no signs anywhere else, how is anyone expected to know the terms and conditions?
Even that won't hold up in court, and is therefore a pointless thing to do - the Terms & Conditions must be made known to you before you park, they can't be applied/added to retrospectively.
I got a ticket at Barkly Square yesterday! I can never be fcked getting a ticket and I was there for less than an hour... Worst system ever.
So... should i pay it?
No
Done. Thanks pops. Just read all the threads on this. What a scam.
I can't believe people still pay these fines. Surely this is a company that should have lost all their revenue ages ago.
That's my thinking on the issue, too! But my bf reckons they can do pretty much whatever the fuck they want (except fine people) cuz it's private. I think I might call someone about it and find out what rights people have.
Fuck 'em.
You play by their rules or you get charged for compensation (it's technically not a fine) pretty straight forward. They have to make the rules clear to you beforehand is all.
see here
parking fines at Manly are $200-ish per.
I've got a few tickets from the barkly square car park as well as at the other safeway carpark in brunswick over the last 2.5 years and have never paid them and haven't got any letters or anything.
My GF got a fine and I refused to let her pay it. Turns out they did get her details off of Vic Roads after 6 months and have upped the 'fine' quite handsomely. Im still not letting her pay it.
*from sparkly bear.
I had multiple letters threatening me over a Barkly Square ticket. Never paid it. Never heard from them again.
Walking home with a bag of groceries the other night I vaguely commented on a big arse sign at the rhs of the entrance
I'll have to check now, but even having parked bikes there there is signage.
Hard to believe there's no signs...
... remember...
More info and changes to the FTA
Private car park 'fine' notices may be unlawful
Deborah Gough
March 6, 2011
TENS of thousands of motorists have been issued with potentially unlawful parking ''fines'' by private operators of car parks at shopping centres and other locations across Melbourne.
If the requests for penalty payments resemble official fines, then they contravene new Fair Trading Act legislation.
These demands for payment, usually issued when customers have overstayed their allotted time or have failed to display a valid parking ticket - even where parking is free - generally cost $88, but this rises to $300 if the bill is not paid within a certain time.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Consumer Action Law Centre are urging customers who have received such notices since the law came into effect on January 1 to challenge them if they look like official local government fines.
In the past financial year in Victoria alone, private parking operators paid VicRoads to provide the details of 70,640 motorists after being granted court orders through the Magistrates Court.
Private operators manage about 150 ''pay and display'' car parks nationally. In the past, they have been heavily criticised by consumer advocates for requiring motorists to display tickets at locations where parking is free for the first three hours, and where no boom gates are available on entry.
In the past financial year, Consumer Affairs Victoria received 1615 inquiries and 279 complaints concerning private car park companies.
The Consumer Action Law Centre's policy director Nicole Rich said operators based their business plan on the ''pay and display'' model in which they expected to make the greatest amount of their income from penalising motorists who failed to display tickets or overstayed their allotted periods.
''Consumers are still complaining to us about these demands for payment and they often look like council parking fines,'' Ms Rich said.
''Given the list of practices that are banned in the new law it certainly looks like the government had private car parks in mind.''
But Ms Rich said the law would need to be tested in court before motorists could simply refuse to pay the notices.
Two of the largest car park operators - Australian National Car Parks and Care Park - last week denied the notices could be contested in court or that they resembled parking fines.
A solicitor speaking on behalf of Australian National Car Parks, Steven Klinger, said the company had changed the wording and colour of its notices as a result of the new legislation.
Mr Klinger said the company did not issue ''fines'' and had no power to do so. He said some notices were waived in extenuating circumstances.
Yolanda Torrisi, a spokeswoman for Care Park, which operates 250 car parks, of which about a third are ''pay and display'', said less than 1 per cent of its customers were issued with payment notices.
Consumer Affairs last year launched Supreme Court action against ACE Parking, its officers and Parking Patrols (Vic) for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct after complaints that motorists were ''fined'' for failing to display valid tickets. The case is still before the courts.
Under the new laws, it is an offence to harass a person for a debt once that person has requested all further correspondence occur through a court or tribunal.
I just got a letter from a 'solicitor' about my parking fine.
I'd received a fine at Brunswick Market late last year. It was a dirt car park, and the only signage indicating a need for payment (which was 20c, mind you) was behind a delivery van.
I wrote a letter to them explaining this and they wrote back to me with photos of my car and a letter explaining what to do if i thought the car was not mine.
which didn't help.
I then left them 3 separate phone messages (could never get through), and now i get a solicitors letter demanding $173 payment.
I just left them a further message.
Ignore notice if they don't get back to me?
Ignore, do not phone them.
thanks popsy!
Checkout this website that explains your rights regarding fines from private parking companies ==> http://sites.google.com/site/unfairfines/
GRRRR!
now i've got a letter from a debt collector.
It's so hard to ignore these letters but i guess i just gotta.
I was worried about it appearing on my credit rating, as i'm about to apply for a loan, but according to the link posted above it cannot affect that.
Here is some more good info from Consumer Action Law Centre for those in the same boat...
See Australian National Car Parks
aint that old news?
I have started receiving letters from Solicitors and Collection Agencies in regards to one of these fines that I didn't pay last year (Barkley Square). The fine has increased substantially and now I am wondering if I might have to pay it. I don't want it to affect my credit rating.... Hmmm.
Ignore it.
Ignore it. Over 7 months later we havent heard back from these 'solicitors' who added quite a bit to the original 'fine'
What is the name of the solicitors? They might be even Bogus. LOL
#OccupyBarklySquareCarParks
Their solicitor is Michael G Roper. His letter heads only have a PO Box. He doesn't answer his mail, his email or his voicemail.
See my website at [http://sites.google.com/site/unfairfines/companies/australian-national-car-parks](Australian National Car Parks) for information about ANCP.
You confuse me. On the one hand you have started a website saying Australian National Car Parks are bad. And yet your username says unfair parking is fine.
Their solicitor is Michael G Roper. His letter heads only have a PO Box. He doesn't answer his mail, his email or his voicemail.
See my website at Australian National Car Parks for information about ANCP.
Yes, Michael G-roper was the name. It seemed like a bogus firm and easy to make letterhead. It did not look very official.
It's (even more) official.
HAHAHAHA!!!!
This in not about the fines, just a statement about ANCP in general - it fucking well pisses me off that they went to the effort of creating disabled parking spots in Barkly Square, but put them further away from the entrance than a lot of other parking spots. WTF?? Brainless, heartless fuckwits.
HAHAHAHA!!!!
Maybe a complaint can be made to the VEOHRC under the Equal Opportunity Act:
For example, it may be lawful for a supermarket not to change its freezer shelving to accommodate people of shorter height, or for a shop not to widen its doors to accommodate a person of large build.
Bah, stupid mark up. You get the gist (I hope).
You can read some of the letters that you can expect to receive from ANCP on this page:
ANCP Forewarned is forearmed!
why would anyone give a fuck? ignorance is bliss friends.