Unfair or excessive private parking charge in Scotland

If you received a private parking charge in Scotland, the charge must be fair and not wildly out of proportion to any real loss the landowner or parking company actually suffered. Scottish courts can strike out contract terms that are one-sided or unreasonable, and Scottish sheriffs have been willing to scrutinise parking charges that look more like a punishment than a genuine reflection of loss. If the charge bears no relation to the harm caused, it may be unenforceable.

Legal basis

Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss.62-64; Scots common law on penalty clauses (Gordon v Indiegogo / Cavendish Square principles applied in Scotland)

How to identify this in your case

This may apply to you if: your charge was issued by a private parking company (not a council) in Scotland, and the amount demanded — for example £100 for parking in an empty car park — seems wildly out of proportion to any real loss the company could have suffered. The key question is whether the charge is a genuine attempt to recover actual loss, or simply a deterrent penalty designed to punish you.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62, a term in a consumer contract is unfair if it creates a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer. A parking charge of £[amount] bears no relationship to any genuine loss suffered and is an unenforceable penalty under both CRA 2015 and Scots common law.

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Sources

Consumer Rights Act 2015
Cavendish Square Holding BV v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67

Related appeal grounds

Added 'Debt Recovery' Fee Over £70 — Or Added Before the Charge Was Even Overdue