Private parking enforcement is a subject about which many otherwise stable and placid people get hot under the collar.

The high and rising costs (in real as opposed to historic terms) of on-street parking has resulted in more and more motorists wanting to use the grounds of third parties to park on, particularly when the third party in question can do little or nothing about it.

The commercial car parking provision companies charge heavily for the use of their car parks and their directors and staff all live on the rich proceeds.

The private property owner seeking only to protect his driveway and other off-street parking spaces from being misused by unwelcome strangers is advised by us to seek the assistance of private parking enforcement specialists such as ourselves at Flashpark for his peace of mind.

There are some or many people who consult Internet forums about private parking enforcement charges and take seriously statements that they do not have to pay what is due.

The facts as stated in the law courts indicate that this is not the case.

In the seminal legal testing case of Arthur v. Anker [1996] 2 WLR 602 and Vine the court upheld the parking enforcement company. In the Court of Appeal Lord Justice Roche stated: ‘To show that the car owner consented or willingly assumed the risk of his car being clamped, it has to be established that the car owner was aware of the consequences of his parking his car so that it trespassed on the land of another. That will be done by establishing that the car owner saw and understood the significance of a warning notice or notices that cars in that place without permission were liable to be clamped. Normally the presence of notices which are posted where they are bound to be seen, for example at the entrance to a private car park, which are of a type which the car driver would be bound to have read, will lead to a finding that the car driver had knowledge of and appreciated the warning.’

We are advising anybody thinking of giving the raspberry to a parking charge to forswear the Internet forums telling him not to pay and to take private parking enforcement seriously.