In 2010, Hong Lim, a member of
Victoria’s state parliament representing
Melbourne’s Clayton District, called for
an investigation into the involvement of
law firms in the private car park collection
process, describing their tactics as part of
“an old-fashioned shakedown for those who are unaware of their rights”.
He
called on the state attorney-general to
investigate one firm, Parke Lawyers,
to prevent people becoming victims
of lawyers who prey on the “weak and
ignorant”. He said that the firm, acting on
behalf of Care Park, was threatening legal
action unless the original $88 plus a $77
legal fee were paid.
A spokesperson for
Lim’s office told us that legal action in
such cases is unlikely, although the office
continues to hear from concerned and
confused citizens. (Parke Lawyers
represented Care Park in their case
against the RTA.)
“One woman recently came in
with a fine notice from [the Melbourne
suburb of] Preston,” Hong Lim’s
spokesperson said.
“It turned out she’d
never been to Preston. We called the
car park operator and the fine was
dropped, but when we pressed for
more information they just hung up.
If you challenge these operators they
drop off straightaway. We generally
tell our constituents to ignore the
notices, but we still haven’t been able
to shut these businesses down.”
The process of shutting them
down, or at least reining them in,
may be underway. In April this
year, the Victorian Supreme Court
ordered Ace Parking and its officers,
Kevin John English and James John
English, to stop using misleading
tactics and fined the company
$14,500. The tactics, which were
found to violate the Fair Trading Act,
included issuing fines and threatening
legal action without legal authority,
mimicking the look and language of
legitimate council and government
notices, and harassing people to pay.
What can you do?
The best way to respond is open to
question at this point. Hardy believes
Victorian motorists should ignore
demands for payment.
“I’ve never seen them sue a Victorian
consumer. I have seen them sue
consumers in NSW, but the case usually
settles without a hearing because one or
both parties realise it is uneconomical
to maintain a court case over $88.”
In July this year, ANCP took three people to court in the Sydney suburb of
Bankstown. Fair Trading NSW, which
told us that 239 of the 265 private car park
complaints it received in 2011-12 related
to fines, says NSW consumers should
contact car park operators to dispute
fines and, if not satisfied, contact
Fair Trading on 13 32 20 or lodge a
complaint at fairtrading.nsw.gov.au.
A spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading
said consumer regulators are monitoring
a number of car park operators and that
Consumer Affairs Victoria “is leading work
on a national approach to this matter”.
ANCP will only accept payment
disputes in writing or by fax and asks
for any evidence you may be able to
provide relating to the fine.
One consumer who has pursued
a thorough investigation of his own says that because many
of these car parks are attached to
shops, consumers should contact the
businesses that the car park appears to
serve (if there is one), since the ticketing
system is ostensibly designed to prevent
motorists who aren’t patronising the
business from parking there.