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By Emily Mee, Money team

It can feel like less of a hassle to simply pay up when you get a parking ticket – but in many cases, drivers are handing over money unnecessarily. 

We spoke to Scott Dixon, known as The Complaints Resolver, for his advice on how to fight pesky parking tickets… 

Know the difference

There are two types of parking ticket: penalty charge notices issued by local authorities, and parking charge notices issued by private parking operators. 

Penalty charge notices are legally enforceable and will be classed as a civil offence, Mr Dixon says. 

If these remain unpaid, the debt can go through court without a hearing and the council can hire their officers and bailiffs.

Parking charge notices from private operators “look very similar” to an official fine and are “deliberately confusing” – but they are not actually fines, rather invoices for a breach of contract. 

While you’re not legally bound to pay these at the point of issuing, Mr Dixon says you still shouldn’t ignore them as they can be pursued through the courts and affect your credit record for years to come. 

However, he says to always check whether the issuer is a member of a trade association, as they need to be a member to access the DVLA database. 

Think before you pay up 

Mr Dixon says an estimated 80% of all private parking tickets are paid without question. 

But you may have grounds to appeal, and this can also be the case for tickets issued by local authorities. 

If you’ve been issued with a ticket from a supermarket car park, Mr Dixon recommends speaking to customer services in the first instance as they can sometimes be cancelled this way.

“Cite customer loyalty, receipts and be nice about it – you get what you give,” he says. 

What are the legitimate excuses you can give? 

• Signage – were the signs on the road clear and visible? If not, Mr Dixon says it can be argued you weren’t given sufficient guidance to make an informed decision
• Is the street name spelled correctly? For example, does the ticket say Park Avenue Street instead of Park Street Avenue? If the street doesn’t exist, it “cannot be said that you committed any offence” 
• Vehicle registration details – are they correct? Again, if this is incorrect Mr Dixon says it can’t be said that you committed an offence
• Exceptional circumstances – your car broke down, or you have a valid medical reason. These can be used as mitigating circumstances in an appeal
• You’re only slightly late. Mr Dixon says you’re allowed a five-minute consideration period to read the signage, so if you’re hit with a parking ticket within five minutes of the allocated time on the signage then you can lodge an appeal under the consideration period 
• Key-in errors. If you’ve typed your registration details slightly wrong, you may be able to appeal on these grounds 
• The meter was broken. Mr Dixon says this is worth a try if you had no other way to pay, but he warns the ticket issuer could “turn around and say you chose to park there knowing the meter was broken”. 

Making your appeal 

Mr Dixon says evidence is key and you may struggle without it – so gather as much as you can.

When writing your appeal, he says it “always pays to be nice” but you should also be “assertive” and stick to the facts, clearly stating the reasons why you consider the ticket to be invalid. 

If your first appeal doesn’t work, it’s worth taking it to the second stage. 

Virtually all private parking charge notices will be rejected at the first stage, Mr Dixon says, but four out of 10 are cancelled on the second stage of appeal. 

“Don’t be disheartened and don’t be intimidated into paying up if you genuinely feel you’ve been hit by an unfair parking ticket,” he says. 

Another tip for tickets from private operators: never say “I” or “we” in your appeal because you’re inadvertently identifying the driver. Instead, you should refer to yourself as the keeper of the vehicle. 

What if you can’t afford to pay?

When it comes to councils, Mr Dixon says they are usually “empathetic” towards people facing genuine hardship.

If this is the case for you, he suggests putting it to them as they may be able to set up a payment plan or even cancel the fine.

However, he says this doesn’t always work with private parking operators as they are unregulated.