Mike Kelly: NZ Parking Association Chairman discusses concern around predatory parking companies

Concern over predatory parking companies after a man got a ticket for being in a park for eight seconds.

Christchurch man Bailey Smith won his case in the Disputes Tribunal, for the 95 dollar parking ticket.

Smith says he pulled into the Kauri Street car park and then reversed out again within eight seconds, when he realised it was private.

NZ Parking Association Chairman Mike Kelly told Heather du Plessis-Allan operators should be transparent with their rules.

He says as soon as you enter a private car park you enter a contract, but it has to be fair and reasonable.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you remember the story that we told you last
week about the woman who was fined for being in
a private car park for just twenty seven seconds. Well,
now a christ Church man has revealed he was payed
by the same company in exactly the same car park
for parking for only eight seconds. Mike Kelly is the
chair of the New Zealand Parking Association and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello Mike good here, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well? Thank you. That's pretty outrageous though, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, certainly not what we would consider to be a
fair and reasonable practice.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
So what do we do about it?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, what the Parking Association is doing? Just yesterday actually
we formerly released our updated Code of Practice, which is
as a set of guidelines that we give out to
the industry. Members can subscribe to that they can use
that as a way of showing the public that they
are actually operating an a fair and transparent and a

(00:54):
reasonable manner. The thing with private parking is that every
time you enter that site, you in effect enter into
a contract with that operator and so that that's private.
You know that that's a person to a company that
have entered into that but that contract has to be
fair and reasonable and that's what that's what our code
sets out to lay out for people, things things like

(01:15):
clear signing.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Okay, I'm hang on a SI mike before we go
down this path. Is Parking Services Limited the company that
we're talking about one of your members?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
No they are not, Okay, So what good.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Is your code of conduct to anyone who's been pained
by them if that, if this lot is not one
of your members.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
So the code of Practice is really there to assure
the public that when they are when they're entering a
car park, or they're going to use the services of
a vendor that or that are an operator, that that
operator is put some effort into making sure that this.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Operator, this operator is not abiding by the code of practice,
is it?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
No, they're not. No, do so.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
So then basically you're on your own as a punter,
right if you go in this park car park and
these cowboys come at you, you're on your own. So
should you just look at look at a ticket that
they issue you and go that's ridiculous and not pay it.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I think you know, you have to engage. You can't
just ignore it and take it away. But you know,
because at the end of the day, you know that
they will they will just keep taking taking it further
and further and further.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So what happens at the end then.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, in this case, what the Dispatch tribunal appears to
have found and I can't speak specifically about the case,
but the appears to have found that they did not
operate an affair and reason more manner.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
What happens if they keep taking it? Like, keep coming
at you, keep coming at you, keep coming at you.
What's the worse that can happen?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
That I couldn't answer. That's a legal question. I'm afraid
another lawyer, so potentially, but it could also you know,
could also have consequences that you know, I couldn't describe.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
So why can't you describe them?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I'm not a lawyer. You know. The difficulty is that
this is a contract between that organization and this person,
and you know it is feared to that an now
view that is far from fear and reasonable.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's how outrageous, isn't it? Okay, Mike, thank you very much,
Mike Kelly, Chair of the New Zealand Parking Association. Heather.
I dropped some washing off one day and I did
some more the next day, which I think is at
the same car park, because the car parks the laundromat
car park. I got a ticket for parking overnight, huge invoice,
and then I didn't pay it. I think, I think

(03:24):
we might have discovered the way that you deal with
parking services Limited, which is possibly that you ignore them
and then you see what happens. I don't know, be
as vexatious as they are. For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.