Parking lots. Do not leave your rights parked
There are times when it is difficult to park on public roads, which forces us to go frequently to parking spaces. But do we know the rights that assist us as consumers in this service? In the following report from the Consumer Portal we shed light on this topic.
Vehicle car parks work through companies that provide a space in a premises or enclosure for the parking of motor vehicles.
The companies assume a series of surveillance and custody duties during the time of occupation by the user, in exchange for a price determined by the actual time the service is provided.
The regulations on car parks are included in the Law 40/2002, of November 14.
Parking lots can be:
- With reservation of place. In these cases, the company keeps the parking space fully available to the user for as long as the user has contracted the service.
- rotary. They are the parking spaces that we occupy for a variable, non-predetermined time, and in which we end up paying based on the time occupied. In these cases, the price will be established by parking minutes, without the possibility of applying rounding to units of time that have not actually been consumed.
Information
The company must indicate before contracting, either online or on clear and visible signage, the identity of the employer, business name, trade name, full address, telephone number, as well as prices, hours and rules of use and operation of the car park, including whether it is normal car park practice to require the user to hand over the vehicle keys.
The rates must be displayed in a clear, visible and accessible way before contracting the parking service. In the event that it is mandatory to access the parking facilities to find out their rates and services, the consumer and their vehicle may leave them at no cost if they are not satisfied with them before hiring them.
Additionally, it is not allowed to apply a price higher than the strips of the first minutes of parking.
You must also inform, where appropriate, about the special additional services that are provided, their characteristics and their cost. Likewise, you must inform about the procedure to claim and if the company is adhered to the Consumer Arbitration System.
Remember that advertising is bindingTherefore, the company must comply with everything that it announces or it will incur in misleading advertising.
Guard
The company is obliged to provide the user with a receipt or parking receipt. This receipt may be provided in paper format or on any other durable support that allows its preservation, including supports that allow access to electronic or electronic records.
The supporting document must state the vehicle identification (through the license plate or any other identification marker) and if the user gives the vehicle keys to the person in charge of the car park.
In the case of rotating parking lots It will also be stated in the receipt, in addition, the day, hour and minute of entry.
Of this obligation of identification Car parks for the exclusive use of customers of commercial establishments will be exempt with access control systems and whose hours coincide with those of the establishment.
In the event of loss of the receipt, the practice consisting of applying the payment of one or several full days is not allowed.
Invoicing
The company has the obligation to deliver a simplified invoice. The document must bear the invoice number, NIF, name, surname or company name of the person providing the service. It must include the description of the service or goods provided and its price. Likewise, you have to specify the tax rate applied and, optionally, the expression “VAT included”, in addition to the total amount.
Responsibilities
The company will be responsible for returning to its owner, in the state in which it was delivered, the vehicle and the components and accessories that are of a fixed and inseparable nature.
Accessories that are not fixed and can be removablesuch as radios and mobile phones, must be removed by users, since the parking company will not be responsible for its loss or theft unless they have a special service for it.
The consumer will be responsible for any damages that may be caused to the company or other users due to breach of their duties or lack of skill in driving the vehicle within the premises.
Accessibility
Public administrations, in collaboration with the State Council for People with Disabilities, will promote the incorporation of approved warning mechanisms that emit optical and sound signals, perceptible from public roads, at the accesses to car parks and garages whose volume of road traffic or objective danger so advises, in attention to people with hearing and/or visual difficulties.
Claims
In the event that there is a breach of the agreed conditions in the hiring of a car park, you may file a claim by requesting a claim sheet and presenting it at the Municipal Consumer Information Office closest to your home, General Directorate of Commerce, Consumption and Services of the Community of Madrid, or through Internet.
Updated August 17, 2023.