Parking Eye - Still Best Practice to Ignore?

jeanraffio

We have an update on this one!

After sending the letters off as noted above, it only took 24 hours for ParkingEye to see that they were in fact in the wrong and they had misinterpreted the law for their own financial gain. I received the following letter this morning.

(sorry can't put links so will type relevant bits below):

Dear Mr X

ParkingEye can confirm receipt of your correspondence dated [original date] .... We can confirm that we have now reissued the Charge to the details provided in your correspondence dated [original date]. DRPL have also been informed that this case has been reissued.

Kind Regards
ParkingEye Ltd

How they can send those original, incorrect letters is beyond me - surely this is illegal, extorting money through a 'fine' for an incident that never legally happened and passing off legislation in whichever way they please to achieve it.

The REAL appeal can now start with the driver now that the POPLA clock has been reset. I will be back for help if that's ok. ;-)

Also, both the BPA and the DVLA have taken on board my official complaints and replied in kind. No word from Morrisons themselves yet but that is something that I will be pursuing further in the coming days.

Coupon-mad

Nice, so the driver has got a Notice to Driver now, yes? They can indeed appeal and likely win this at POPLA now, with our help.

Was there a 'good' reason for the overstay? Disabled or pregnant or elderly passenger/driver who is slower to shop, or broken down car or a delay at the tills in store?

jeanraffio

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Nice, so the driver has got a Notice to Driver now, yes? They can indeed appeal and likely win this at POPLA now, with our help.

Was there a 'good' reason for the overstay? Disabled or pregnant or elderly passenger/driver who is slower to shop, or broken down car or a delay at the tills in store?

Not yet, but I expect the driver to receive the notice in the next few days I should imagine.

The mitigating circumstances are none of the above, simply it was a brand new Morrison's store (just opened that month) and the lack of signage IMO was woeful, so wasn't aware of a limit, and it was a simple case of overstaying ever so slightly. Is that enough to warrant a valid POPLA appeal?

ILW

Could just try parking within the conditions. Would save a lot of hassle.

Stroma

You could try offering constructive advice. Would save a lot of hassle

esmerobbo

ILW wrote: »

Could just try parking within the conditions. Would save a lot of hassle.

Read the post!

"lack of signage IMO was woeful, so wasn't aware of a limit"

Difficult to abide by conditions if you don't know what they are!

zzzLazyDaisy

jeanraffio wrote: »

Is that enough to warrant a valid POPLA appeal?

Yes. POPLA doesn't take mitigating circumstances into account anyway, unless they fall into the specific categories that Coupon-Mad has highlighted above, and even then they try their best to ignore them and find some other way of ruling in your favour (strange but true).

How long was the 'short overstay' overstay? It may fall into the category of 'grace period' which all operators must give. See BPA CoP here:

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/609_AOS_CoP_June_2013_update.pdf

Apart from that the two main winning points at POPLA are 'no contract' and 'genuine pre-estimate of loss'. Have a look at the last few pages of the POPLA decisions thread (top thread on this forum). You will soon see how to word these points.

Also put 'morrisons' into the advance search bar and click parking forums, lots of posts will come up and there will probably be some draft POPLA appeals that people have posted for the regulars to check before sending.

Final point - don't 'go it alone'. The regulars have loads of experience with POPLA appeals and 100% success rate with forum assisted appeals. So do post the draft appeal here before submitting it. Also do bear in mind that the POPLA code has a strict time limit, so it is worth getting your ducks in a row while you are waiting for the result of the appeal to the PPC.

D

Coupon-mad

jeanraffio wrote: »

Not yet, but I expect the driver to receive the notice in the next few days I should imagine.

The mitigating circumstances are none of the above, simply it was a brand new Morrison's store (just opened that month) and the lack of signage IMO was woeful, so wasn't aware of a limit, and it was a simple case of overstaying ever so slightly. Is that enough to warrant a valid POPLA appeal?

Not on its own but it's one very relevant point.

POPLA guidance and examples of winning wording here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/62180281#Comment_62180281

You must have the 'no genuine pre-estimate of loss' and 'no contract with landowner that...blah blah' paragrpahs.

jeanraffio

Ok, another update - the ticket has now formally been re-issued to the driver of the vehicle at the time. So now the true appeal process has started.

A soft appeal shall be written to PE, requesting a POPLA code if (when) this fails. Given the certainty of the appeal to PE failing, should I concentrate my efforts on the POPLA appeal and getting hold of the code?

No word from Morrisons direct, and no further updates from BPA and the DVLA.

Stroma

Just put in the soft appeal that the true pre estimate of loss is nowhere near what is demanded. Then send it off and wait for the reply