Woman Fined ₹2 Lakh for Exceeding 5-Minute Parking Fee Payment Limit

Woman Fined ₹2 Lakh for Exceeding 5-Minute Parking Fee Payment Limit: For being more than five minutes late for parking payments, a British woman was charged £1,906 (or nearly Rs 2 lakh). According to Hudson, she could not pay through her phone due to the bad signal while she was at the car park in Derby.

Speaking of reasons, Hudson said once she walked into an area where she could get connected and paid the full tariff every time she was parked there, after which Excel Parking Ltd sent about ten Parking Charge Notices (PCN) and racked up that heavy fine amount that she called "totally unreasonable".

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However, Excel Parking Ltd defended its act saying the sign in that car park was clear and said 'Pay on Entry' and that there was a maximum time of five minutes within which the parking tariff had to be purchased, BBC reported. “It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms. It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune," it said.

Hudson has been using the Copeland Street car park since February 2023 while parking adjoining it, She said the machine she usually used was "out of action totally", forcing her to pay through an app on her phone daily, thus repeating the process every day at the end of every parking. "Total paid £3.30 per day".

Yet Excel, writing to Hudson, sent the first PCN letter promptly asking her to pay £100 within 28 days, reduced to £60 if she paid within 14 days. To "keep them off my back", she said she paid the initial parking fine but then received nine additional PCNs, which amounted to £1,905.76, plus an extra charge of £70 "debt recovery", 8% interest per annum, £115 in court fees, and £80 for legal fees.

Excel Parking claimed that Hudson took "between 14 and 190 minutes buying each parking tariff by phone, an average of just under one hour". Hudson found the claim "ludicrous" since the app did not process the payments instantaneously. The company further claimed that she might have paid cash, but it was out of order, said Hudson.

Hudson stated that instead she contacted Excel directly, as well as a debt recovery service to appeal the matter, but was met with no success. Now, she is scheduled for a court hearing within six months, following a failed attempt at mediation. “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.

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Thus, as a result of its much-contested five-minute payment period for parking, the company has witnessed public outcry over the unfair nature of its fines. Hudson called the rule unreasonable, saying, “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. This has been going on for over a year now, and I’m just really hoping it can be resolved."

However, Excel Parking told the BBC that "motorists verbally abusing" the parking area could use it merely to drop and pick up passengers off at neighbouring retailers, and so the five minutes is meant to curb that. Hudson, however, replied that that cannot justify punishing those drivers who pay for the whole day.

Two British MPs have written to Excel Parking's top brass before about other locations where people receive illegal fines within their other car parks. Jumpin Fun, a business adjoining the car park, said that hundreds of customers got PCN letters from Excel Parking. The company has started warning customers about the car park in its reception and on its website after a failed attempt with a parking tablet solution.

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