Luton airport parking enforcement notice

boboli

Hi - I got a parking enforcement notice from APCOA Parking Ltd "for the alleged contravention of 02-Dropping off/ Picking up outside of a designated parking area."

I had no idea this would incur a fine (they say there were notices clearly displayed). I was less than 1 minute whilst my cousin crossed the road and got in.

I know the advice is to ignore this but I've never done anything like this, my husband wants to just pay up - can you persuade me/ us we shouldn't?

The_Slithy_Tove

You haven't been fined. You have been sent a speculative invoice, which you are free to ignore.

If you want persuading this is the best approach, just do a search in this forum for APCOA and Luton airport, and you'll find loads of threads on this topic.

vax2002

what him above said !

notts_phil

It's not and never has bee. a fine

You can expect about 4 or 5 silly letters.

Ask you husband is he easily scammed and likes wasting his money....

If he is please give me his details and I will send him a few letters to see how much I can get out of him:)

Stephen_Leak

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private parking company (PPC) or an individual can't. Even PPCs call their tickets “Parking Charge Notices”, not “Penalty Charge Notices”. In law, they’re called “speculative invoices”.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011. This case actually involved The Peel Centre.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any breach of contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If this is a free car park or they paid, this is £0.00. Demanding more has been judged to be unreasonable and therefore an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, which is not legally enforceable. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

There are also now two recent court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs, Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In both cases, the judges found that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is a court of record, equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgement sets a legal precedent.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you do owe the CPO anything, then you ought to write to them, offering this in “full and final settlement”.

In any event, you ought to advise the CPO that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions by them would be regarded as harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. That ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with them.

Don’t appeal to the PPC. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off? Actually, there is something in it for them: information. They need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with chasing the registered keeper.

With windscreen notices, an appeal letter will tell them your name and address, and maybe who was driving at the time. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to buy the details of registered keeper from the DVLA. With postal notices, they’ve done this already. But they still need to know the identity of the driver.

They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve written and told them who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of harassing the registered keeper, they can now harass the driver.

What will they do to me?

The PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable, to intimidate you into paying.

But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that a Nigerian e-mail scammer couldn't sue anyone who didn’t pay them.

What should I do then?

Continue to ignore everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. It does seem counter-intuitive to deal with something by ignoring it. Eventually, they will run out of empty threats, and stop throwing good money after bad.

Coupon-mad

Yep, it's a scam. Ignore it.

The letters the registered keeper will now receive are no biggie, just file them. My husband was the same when I got a fake PCN and I came home grinning about it (as I knew it was a scam). He's pretty traditional - was brought up to be a bit too respectful of authority in my book, a bit too unquestioning! - and he honestly thought because they have signs up in the car park and the piece of paper looked like a parking ticket that it must be one. In the end I gave up trying to explain why you don't pay these except to just tell him it's a scam and that I would laugh at all the letters. Which I did, that was 4 years ago now.

It's not a real PCN. NOTHING HAPPENS. Anyone who pays one after coming here needs their head examining!

Oh and for goodness' sake show your husband the Watchdog clip linked on another top sticky thread 'PPC letters & threats' which is currently 3rd from the top of the forum list, only one click away - see my signature. The same thread also has preview pictures of each letter so you can just play snap with them rather than actually read their debt collector baloney.

HTH

kiss_me_now9

We also got one through today, told my Mum to ignore it and when my Dad gets home tomorrow I'll tell him the same and direct him here if needs be. Really grateful to this forum for the wealth of information that's available!

wallbash

I was less than 1 minute whilst my cousin crossed the road and got in.

Multiply that by everyone and you would have complete chaos.
I wont say . 'glad you got fined ( too many armchair lawyers here) but won't shed any tears over your problem. Use the free drop off down the hill and walk or pay the £1. Don't clog up the roundabout with your selfish action.

Coupon-mad

wallbash wrote: »

Multiply that by everyone and you would have complete chaos.
I wont say . 'glad you got fined ( too many armchair lawyers here) but won't shed any tears over your problem. Use the free drop off down the hill and walk or pay the £1. Don't clog up the roundabout with your selfish action.

No you wouldn't.

Stephen_Leak

wallbash wrote: »

Multiply that by everyone and you would have complete chaos.
I wont say . 'glad you got fined ( too many armchair lawyers here) but won't shed any tears over your problem. Use the free drop off down the hill and walk or pay the £1. Don't clog up the roundabout with your selfish action.

We don't condone inconsiderate parking. We also don't condone blackmail.

Now go back to Discussion Time and victimise someone who's on benefits and/or disabled. On this board, we only look down on someone as we help them up.

wallbash

Coupon-mad wrote: »

No you wouldn't.

How many times have you driven up Airport way ?? How can you say that people stopping on the roundabout would ( and do ) not cause chaos.