Woman faces £1,906 bill over five-minute payment rule

A woman is being taken to court for £1,906 after she took longer than five minutes to pay for parking.

Rosey Hudson said she was unable to pay while standing in the car park in Derby due to poor signal on her phone.

She walked to where she could get connected and paid the full tariff every time she parked there – but despite this, Excel Parking Ltd sent her 10 Parking Charge Notices (PCNs).

The BBC contacted the car park operator, which said Miss Hudson had breached its terms and conditions and was “the author of her own misfortune”.

Two MPs – Lola McEvoy and Abtisam Mohamed – have previously written to Excel Parking with concerns about people being unfairly fined at other car parks it operates.

Miss Hudson believes the five-minute payment rule is “totally unreasonable”.

“I haven’t got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there’s no signal here, and the machine being out of order,” she said.

“This has been going on for over a year now, and I’m just really hoping it can be resolved.

“I desperately don’t want this to happen to anybody else, more than anything, because it gives you a lot of stress.”

Miss Hudson started using the Copeland Street car park in February 2023, when she was working in the Derbion centre nearby.

She said the parking machine was “completely out of order”, so she tried to pay using a phone app.

“I was trying to get reception and wasn’t able to, so I got my wi-fi within the store, and paid online through their app,” she said.

Miss Hudson did the same thing each day, paying the full £3.30 daily rate each time, until she received a PCN letter.

It asked her to pay £100 within 28 days, reduced to £60 if she paid within 14 days.

“I rang the company and explained the situation, and they basically said ‘you have to pay it’,” said Miss Hudson.

“So to keep them off my back I did pay the initial parking fine.”

Miss Hudson then received a further nine PCNs.

Although each of the nine outstanding PCNs was for £100, the amount has increased to £1,905.76 because Excel Parking has since added an extra £70 “debt recovery” charge to each one, interest of 8% per annum, a £115 court fee, and £80 costs for a legal representative.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The signage at the car park made it clear that it was ‘Pay on Entry’ and that there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff.

“This is one of the specific terms and conditions for use of the car park. It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms.

“It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune.”

The BBC asked Excel Parking why it asks drivers to pay within five minutes, and the company said this was “to mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers”.

However, Miss Hudson believes the company cannot justify penalising drivers like herself who pay for a full day’s parking, because they are not using the car park as a drop-off point.

Excel Parking also claimed Miss Hudson took “between 14 and 190 minutes to purchase each parking tariff by phone, an average of almost one hour”.

Miss Hudson said this claim was “absolutely ludicrous”, and if the payments took so long to go through, it was because the app did not process them straight away.

Excel also claims Miss Hudson could have paid using cash at the machine, and said “there was at least one working pay machine on site”.

However, Miss Hudson insists the only machine she saw was out of order, and said it had since been replaced.

Excel said Miss Hudson was given the option to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS) but chose not to do so.

Miss Hudson said she instead contacted Excel directly, and also a debt recovery service in an attempt to appeal, but was not successful.

Jumpin Fun, a business next to the car park, told the BBC hundreds of its customers had received PCN letters from Excel Parking.

Manager Nikola Slovakova has a folder on her computer which stores emails she has received from customers complaining.

In response to her concerns, Excel Parking said: “Some of the initial problems at Jumpin Fun related to customers who did not purchase the parking tariff until after they dropped off their children.

“Appropriate adjustments for customers were agreed with Jumpin Fun and implemented earlier this year through the introduction of touchscreens at the Jumpin Fun reception which provided them with a period of free parking, funded by Jumpin Fun.”

In relation to the touchscreens, Ms Slovakova said one parking tablet was installed in an attempt to stop customers getting PCNs.

However, she said this “caused more harm than it did good”, because some people still received PCNs after entering their details.

“Now they thought we were cooperating with Excel and we didn’t want to help them so it reflected even worse on us,” she said.

She said the tablet had since been removed, and Jumpin Fun instead warns customers about the car park with signs in reception, as well as on its website and in booking confirmation emails.

Derek Millard-Smith, a specialist lawyer in the UK parking sector, says parking on private land is generally governed by contract law.

“By entering that land and seeing the signage and parking there, you are deemed to have agreed to those terms, and if you then fail to adhere to those terms you can be issued with a Parking Charge Notice,” he said.

Mr Millard-Smith said PCNs were “a contractual debt”, which could ultimately be pursed through the civil courts and result in a County Court Judgement, which can affect your credit rating.

He urged anyone who believes they have wrongly received a PCN to appeal against it, either through POPLA or the Independent Appeals Service (IAS).

POPLA is the appeals service for PCNs which have been issued by car park operators, which are members of the British Parking Association (BPA).

The IAS is for PCNs issued by members of the International Parking Community (IPC), which includes Excel Parking.

Car park operators need to be members of either the BPA or IPC in order to obtain drivers’ details from the DVLA, and therefore issue PCNs by post.

Excel Parking has made a claim through the Civil National Business Centre asking Miss Hudson to pay £1,905.76.

The two parties had telephone mediation on 11 November but a settlement was not reached.

Miss Hudson has now been told there will be a court hearing within six months.

She said she was “very worried” but wanted to stand up for herself.

“I believe I have got a good case and I believe that it will help not just me, but potentially other people that have been in this situation,” she said.

“Hopefully the judge will understand my case and see my point of view.”