If a car is blocked into a parking space by another parked vehicle, what should the driver do?

I was at a train station yesterday evening to collect a relative and buy tickets. At the ticket booth, a lady was in some distress. Her parked car was blocked in and on return from London she could not move her car. The ticket seller - the only staff person at the station - suggested she ring the car park administrators. It was 5.45pm, so no chance of success there. Her mobile had gone flat. I'm reluctant to get involved with other peoples arguments, but offered her my mobile to make a call to her family advising of her unknown delay. She'd taken details of the car blocking her way. It seems she was unwilling to call the police because it was private land. What should she have done?

Asked on 14 December 2017 by John Finch

Answered by Honest John

If you get blocked in at a privately operated car park then you can sue the operator for all reasonable costs you incur as a result. They are only too happy to penalise drivers for any transgression inside their car park, however minor. That needs to work both ways. If you have no success, take the matter to Small Claims, which is what they do if you refuse to pay a penalty for something as minor as parking over the lines. In more sensible countries such as Thailand, where parking across parking spaces is common, everyone leaves their parking brakes off and their auto transmissions in neutral, so cars parked across bays can be pushed out of the way.

Tags: parking small claims court parking spaces consumer advice

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