Parking Eye PCN

PeterPoorParker

Today I received a PCN from PE.

The PCN contains photos of the car entering and leaving a private car park and requests payment £100 or £60 if paid within 14 days.
This wasn't a car park for a shop or anything, but for an office block.

Should I ignore it or reply?

Please can you provide me with some advice.

Thanks

spacey2012

No Never IGNORE parking eye, you can take them to POPLA a appeals panel where they get shafted every time and it cost them money.
Someone will be along to explain how to shaft them over.

PeterPoorParker

Fantastic, thanks.

Umkomaas

Here's a 'walk-through' to get you started. It's generic (saves me typing most of it out n times a day) so work your way through it. The forum is best used as a research facility where you get to learn about all this stuff, which equips you better to handle things, but with a little help from regular contributors as you progress through it.

It will require your effort to get rid of your problem. We will help out with advice along the way, but the sheer volume of daily requests for help prevents us providing a personalised service. If you want that, time to see a solicitor (@ £350 per hour!).

Here you go, work through it, if there's anything specifically you don't understand come back.

A WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS

Firstly, you don't have to pay the charge, it is not a fine, it is not a penalty, it is a speculative invoice from a Private Parking Company that has no statutory authority. However, you will need to go through a few hoops to get rid of it.

The first thing you MUST do is to start to understand what all this stuff is about. The only way to do this is to spend a day or so reading this forum - the most recent threads, say from the past month. If you see the advice 'IGNORE' you MUST ignore it. Ignoring a Parking Charge Notice will bring you months of fun and games that I can assure you, you don't want to be dealing with.

In a nutshell this is the process you will need to follow.

1. Read recent threads.

2. If the parking incident was at a retail park/shop go back to the store the Parking Charge Notice relates to and see THE manager, complain about a genuine customer being harassed and ask that they cancel the ticket. Show him/her any receipts for the day in question. If they are unable to do this ask for the name and address of the MD/CEO, as you will now write to them (and DO it!).

3. If it was a general car parking facility you need to find out who the landowner is (Google search) and send off a letter of complaint to them.

4. If you have receipts for the day (or bank/credit card statements) proving purchases, send (redacted) copies of them to PPC with covering letter stating you were a customer on the day, and shopping at their principal's establishment was the only cause of any overstay.

5. If 2, 3 or 4 above don't work, then you're into the more formal stuff.

6. If it was a windscreen ticket, do not contact the PPC at this point, you must wait for the 'Notice to Keeper' (NtK) to arrive. This should be no sooner than 28 days after the incident and no later than 56 days after it. Theses dates are very important, and you must retain all tickets and letters you receive.

7. If it was an ANPR camera incident and the first correspondence you've received is the NtK, this needs to be received within 14 days of the incident; as above, dates very important, retain all paperwork.

8. Once you receive the NtK the process below will need to be followed.

9. Soft appeal to the PPC (you'll understand this when you start reading the threads).

10. Likely rejection, so in your soft appeal you ask that a POPLA code be given to you if your soft appeal is rejected.

11. Lots more reading about POPLA Appeals (read the 'sticky' at the top of the forum index 'POPLA Decision', especially the last couple of months' reports of victories - it will give you a good idea of which points win at POPLA).

12. Draft POPLA Appeal and let us see it for further advice before submission.

13. Send to POPLA.

14. Await POPLA (positive) result with PCN cancelled - we're running at 100% success rate on the forum. A POPLA decision is binding on the PPC, but (in the event of an unlikely loss), not binding on you.

---

Please confirm a couple of things (if they are not already contained in your opening post)

a. Was the incident, and do you live, in England or Wales?
b. Is the car a lease/hire or company vehicle (important as the process will be slightly different and you will need to act quickly)?
c. Are you under 18?

---

Now - final, but IMPORTANT points.

* Never say who might or might not have been the driver on the day - there is no obligation on you to do so (some PPCs will ask you to name the driver/motorist before they can deal with your appeal - DO NOT comply with their wishes). In any correspondence with the PPC, always refer to the driver in the third person, never say 'I didn't see the signs' or 'my wife didn't see the signs', you say 'the driver didn't see the signs'.

* Always be aware of any deadlines, PPCs impose them (but most of these are challengeable), but if they are reasonable do keep to them. The important one is the POPLA deadline - strictly 28 days from the date the rejection letter containing the POPLA verification code is sent to you by the PPC. Miss it and you miss the one golden opportunity you have to totally kill this charge. I cannot stress that enough.

Sorry this is a bit long, but it does more or less cover most bases.

PeterPoorParker

OK just to clarify, the incident was in England, it's not a lease/hire car and I'm over 18.

Is there a particular thread as where to start with the soft appeal?
There's so many threads with unique circumstances it's really difficult to know where to start.

Umkomaas

PeterPoorParker wrote: »

OK just to clarify, the incident was in England, it's not a lease/hire car and I'm over 18.

Is there a particular thread as where to start with the soft appeal?
There's so many threads with unique circumstances it's really difficult to know where to start.

They're contained in most threads. Use the search engine on 'soft appeal' and go from there - top R/H side of forum index page. The MSE search engine is very good and will find things for you. As I said, the more about this you get to know, the better your chances of putting together a strong case.

PeterPoorParker

OK thanks, does this sound reasonable for a soft appeal?

Dear Sir / Madam

In the capacity of the registered keeper of the vehicle, I am writing to you regarding parking charge notice reference XXXXXX / XXXXXX issued to vehicle xxxx xxx on XX/XX/2013.

This charge is being appealed on the following grounds:

• The signage for the car park is not clearly displayed. The car park is situated on a one way street and the parking notice is displayed on the opposite side of the entrance and as such is not clearly visible from a moving, right-hand drive car when entering the car park. Additionally, the font is displayed in barely legible, small print and as such is difficult to understand.
• The charge is punitive, unjustifiable and unenforceable. Additionally, the charge of £100 is disproportionate to the amount of time spent in the car park (allegedly 16 minutes).

I require you to either cancel the charge forthwith or provide me with a POPLA code so that I can refer the matter to POPLA.

Regards

Name.

Umkomaas

PeterPoorParker wrote: »

OK thanks, does this sound reasonable for a soft appeal?

Dear Sir / Madam

In the capacity of the registered keeper of the vehicle, I am writing to you regarding parking charge notice reference XXXXXX / XXXXXX issued to vehicle xxxx xxx on XX/XX/2013.

This charge is being appealed on the following grounds:

• The signage for the car park is not clearly displayed. The car park is situated on a one way street and the parking notice is displayed on the opposite side of the entrance and as such is not clearly visible from a moving, right-hand drive car when entering the car park. Additionally, the font is displayed in barely legible, small print and as such is difficult to understand.
• The charge is punitive, unjustifiable and unenforceable. Additionally, the charge of £100 is disproportionate to the amount of time spent in the car park (allegedly 16 minutes).

I require you to either cancel the charge forthwith or provide me with a POPLA code so that I can refer the matter to POPLA.

Regards

Name.

Yep, that will do. It will inevitably be rejected (almost all are), but the bigger prize is the POPLA code.

Come back when you get that but put the intervening time to good effect by doing lots of POPLA related reading meantime, here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4488337

and here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=17

Read the most recent posts to get a good feel for the appeal points that achieve most success.

PeterPoorParker

Great, thanks. Will wait and see what happens.

PeterPoorParker

Does it make any difference whether the appeal is done online or via post?

Umkomaas

PeterPoorParker wrote: »

Does it make any difference whether the appeal is done online or via post?

On line gives you proof that you've sent it, but if you also post it snail mail you can get a free proof of postage from your local PO. Covers all your bases then.