Parking Eye Letter Before Action

nigelbb

A forum supported appeal to POPLA for an all but guaranteed win is vastly preferable for most people to a protracted chain of threatening letters plus the possibility of being dragged into a court case some time in the next six years. Before POPLA existed the only option was ignoring or defending in court now there is a simpler less stressful third way so why not take advantage of it?

wallmap

Thanks so much everyone for your advice but I find myself in a complete quandary!

I have received PE charges in the past (on a different car park to this) and ignored and all so far is quiet on them.

In this instance as I said it is a different set of PE letters, and I really don't want to go to court, but if it did, I would prefer it to me as the registered keeper defending.

But as the registered keeper, I'm out of time to appeal but can name the driver, this is where my quandary is. Name the driver, reset the clock, appeal.....but if we lose appeal, I've but a family member having to face court....

There seems to be a fairly good chance of winning the popla appeal but by contacting PE will I also give them the opportunity to drag up old charges, I assume they have my name on central database with all charges??

Arghh what to do!! Stay quiet with everything crossed or name the driver....

Stroma

It won't go to court if you follow the advice given, you are not appealing you are telling them that you were not the driver. They must accept that as its in pofa 2012. If they continue to pursue you as in the RK they will have a torrid time before the judge.

You are resetting the clock and the driver can with our help go to popla and win, the guys here and on pepipoo.com are running at a 100% success rate at present. You or the driver will not be paying this invoice if you just send a few letters now.

Guys_Dad

wallmap wrote: »

Thanks so much everyone for your advice but I find myself in a complete quandary!

Arghh what to do!! Stay quiet with everything crossed or name the driver....

People here can only give you their opinions / advice.

Here's where you are.

You can pay and make it all go away.

You can ignore and take the chance that they will issue court papers - and that's getting more likely. At that point, you can then pay their even more inflated amount or go to court. If so, can you assemble a winning case there?

You can follow the recommendations on here to get your shot at POPLA - except spacey's - and use the arguments that have previously won appeals.

The only caution I would give is if the camera has recorded a male driver and you then claim it was a female driver you could be stuffed.

Coupon-mad

wallmap wrote: »

Thanks so much everyone for your advice but I find myself in a complete quandary!

I have received PE charges in the past (on a different car park to this) and ignored and all so far is quiet on them.

In this instance as I said it is a different set of PE letters, and I really don't want to go to court, but if it did, I would prefer it to me as the registered keeper defending.

But as the registered keeper, I'm out of time to appeal but can name the driver, this is where my quandary is. Name the driver, reset the clock, appeal.....but if we lose appeal, I've but a family member having to face court....

There seems to be a fairly good chance of winning the popla appeal but by contacting PE will I also give them the opportunity to drag up old charges, I assume they have my name on central database with all charges??

Arghh what to do!! Stay quiet with everything crossed or name the driver....

More opinions - on pepipoo this time - about replying to LBAs making it clear you are someone who is up for the fight:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=80930



HTH

wallmap

Update on how we've decided to progress....
I have used Stroma's suggested letter, thank you :-) kindly, to notify PE of the keeper of the vehicle on the day the charge was issued (have got proof of postage).
If they have other photos to go with the entry / exit ones they will see quite clearly that I as registered keeper was the passenger.

Also, I have contacted 2 of the 3 stores we made purchases from at the Retail park on the day in question. We are not local and so I had to phone.

Tesco was my first call. Got no joy from the store at all, couldn't even get to speak to the Store Manager. The land is not owned or managed by Tesco so they have nothing to do with it! So I contacted Tesco Head office. Again was struggling to get anywhere and had to ask to speak to someone who could help me! The Team Leader started off being helpful and said in some cases they can get the charge cancelled if I was a genuine customer. Great I thought......He went away to check my clubcard for purchases on that day, but when he called me back, he gave me the same story. Said they didn't own the land, couldn't help and that I had to take it up with PE or challenge it in court! I obviously said this was far from helpful to their customers and he said he would raise it with their parking dept but this was as far as my complaint and their assistance would go!
Apparently they haven't had many complaints on this so couldn't really act on my call only - I suggested that if more people knew they hadn't actually received a fine and didn't have to pay then perhaps more complaints would be received.

My 2nd call was to M&S, the store manager was happy to speak with me. Again said the parking was nothing to do with them but was happy to ring the landlord on my behalf to see what could be done. Took the reference number of the charge - I'll let you know if I hear back.

Also, I've read with interest the discussion around registered keeper and keeper of the vehicle. In our case I am the registered keeper but since being lucky enough to get a company car I am now rarely the user of the vehicle, and this is backed up by our insurance as again the policy is in my name but I am not identified/insured as the main user.......wonder if this info might help in some of your deliberations.......

I'll let you know how PE respond to the notification of keeper and will read more on going to popla...

Can't thank you all enough for your advice :-)

wallmap

Hi
Having notified PE of the keeper of the vehicle on the day, the keeper on the day has now received the Parking Charge Notice.

Usual standard letter - pay within 28 days of issue, or 14 days for a discount. Tell us who the driver was if not you.

I've had a read around to see what's happened while we've been waiting for the notice to arrive, if I've understood we can either:

- send a letter similar to the one Stroma posted 2/7/13 to say the notice to keeper is out of time? There are a number of weeks between the date of event and the date this latest PCN was issued.

- send a letter with copy receipts for items purchased on the day to try and get the charge cancelled.

- send an appeal to get a popla code. It seems the soft appeals should now be a little harder to get a code??

what would you advise for the best next step?

Thanks again in advance.

Coupon-mad

- send a letter with copy receipts for items purchased on the day to try and get the charge cancelled.

- send an appeal to get a popla code. It seems the soft appeals should now be a little harder to get a code??


Do a combination of strong appeal with receipts (without saying nor implying who was driving). Your own PCN was issued in time, under the circumstances.

wallmap

Hi everyone, based on the many I've read I've done a mix & match and drafted an appeal to PE. Please would you cast your eyes over it before I submit / post.
With Thanks

With reference to your parking chargenotice dated xx xx xxxx.

The keeper denies all liability toyour company’s speculative invoice as it is an unlawful punitive charge and assuch a penalty. The amount charged failsthe test of representing a 'genuine pre-estimate of loss'.

If Parking Eye does own the land orhas legal interest in the car park, and does have the authority of thelandowner to levy these charges, please provide to the keeper a copy of therelevant sections of the contract that you are working under so that the keepercan check

(a) the contract is actually with the landowner

(b) the limit of your authority to levy charges as somelandowner contracts do not grant that authority.

Alternatively, enclosed are copiesof receipts for genuine purchases made on the day and the keeper invites you tocancel this charge with immediate effect, otherwise complaints will be made tothe stores, your clients.

The keeper expects a reply within35 days of the date of issue of this letter confirming the cancellation of thischarge.

If you reject this cancellation request,and are also unwilling to provide the contract information requested, the keeper requireswithin 35 days a POPLA verification code to appeal independently, as perVersion 3 of the BPA Code of Practice, where this unenforceable charge will be stroglychallenged.

zzzLazyDaisy

Hi your letter is very similar to other letters floating around here (not surprisingly). PE has started rejecting what it calls 'generic appeals' and not giving the POPLA code. So I would re-arrange your letter to START with a paragraph about your particular situation... eg

'On the day in question the Driver had gone shopping for holiday clothes on [xxxx] retail park. The Driver visited [xxxx], [xxxx] and [xxxx] shops, spending a happy [xxxx] browsing and spending money in your clients' stores. The Driver then met with friends and spent yet more money in the [xxxx] coffee shop. As you can imagine the Driver is very upset to now be penalised for patronising your clients' stores and taking too much time to spend money there! I enclose copies of receipts for goods purchased on the day of the visit to the retail park.

(Obviously change the wording to fit your own facts, but you get the gist. NOTE do not send original receipts!).

Personally I would refer to 'the Driver' throughout, rather than 'the keeper' - only because I wouldn't want to give PE a chance to flip it back to the Registered Keeper for not identifying 'the Driver'.

Also make the changes to the last para suggested below (if it is an old PCN it will be an earlier version of the code that applies but they are all very similar).

Daisy

wallmap wrote: »

If you reject this cancellation request[STRIKE],and are also unwilling to provide the contract information requested, [/STRIKE]the keeper requires within 35 days a POPLA verification code to appeal independently, as per[STRIKE]Version 3 of[/STRIKE] the BPA Code of Practice, where this unenforceable charge will be strogly challenged.[/FONT][/COLOR]Should this be necessary the keeper reserves the right to raise any further areas of appeal that may come to the keeper's attention in the meantime.