Bank holiday parking charges

[squirrelpie]

Hi, first post here. On Monday I used a local council car park and paid the normal £1 charge. Afterwards, I realized that it was a bank holiday and that there's no charge on bank holidays. So I wrote to the council and they have said that since there's a notice displayed to that effect, they won't refund me the charge.

On one hand, I can see that I might be expected to read and fully understand all the notices every time I park. On the other, I can see an argument that the machine should not accept payment when it's not required, and I can conceive that it may not be legal to take payment for a service that is free.

I know this is about a trivial amount of money, but I'm curious what the law says, if anything?

[charitynjw]

Hi, first post here. On Monday I used a local council car park and paid the normal £1 charge. Afterwards, I realized that it was a bank holiday and that there's no charge on bank holidays. So I wrote to the council and they have said that since there's a notice displayed to that effect, they won't refund me the charge.

On one hand, I can see that I might be expected to read and fully understand all the notices every time I park. On the other, I can see an argument that the machine should not accept payment when it's not required, and I can conceive that it may not be legal to take payment for a service that is free.

I know this is about a trivial amount of money, but I'm curious what the law says, if anything?

Hi Squirrelpie

Imho it may well be unjust enrichment, but I'm not sure what you could do about it.
A bit like why you can't go to court over problems with jelly/custard/fruit/cream confections.
De minimis non curat lex.