Assistance Please - PCN Robin Hood Airport

MissElle1982

Hi

I've been following advice from the forums but now need a bit of help please.

I received a PCN from VCS Ltd and responded within the allotted time as below, based on a successful appeal from another member:

"With regard to the above Parking Charge Notice dated 16/01/2014; following legal advice the keeper denies all liability to your company as it is an unlawful penal charge. The amount of the charge is disproportionate to the loss and is punitive, contravening the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997.

You may wish to simply cancel your invoice; alternatively you must supply a POPLA verification code for formal independent appeal.

This penalty is an alleged breach of terms of conditions and yet you are unable to quantify the alleged loss; therefore the parking charge amount is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and should be withdrawn immediately.

In many cases motorists are raising this issue and POPLA are continuingly accepting the appeal. You are, therefore, fully aware that there is no prospect of your charge being upheld.

I must inform you that I may claim my expenses from you and my time at the court rate of £18 per hour. The expenses, while not exhaustive, may include the cost of stamps, envelopes, travel expenses, legal fees etc. By continuing to pursue me you agree to pay these costs when I prevail."

I initally got a holding letter back acknowledging receipt and saying they would respond "no later than 35 days from the date we received your appeal/challenge".

I now have a letter which basically is saying that I said I'm not the driver, which I didn't I just didn't state either way as the forums made clear, and no POPLA code so now I'm not sure what to do.

The main point of their letter is below:

"Please note that responsibility for this PCN lies with the driver of the vehicle at the time the parking contravention was observed. It is, however, evident from your correspondence that you were not the driver of the vehicle on the day in question and we are therefore unable to process your representations for this reason.

The following options are available:

1. For us to process your representations, we would require a signed and dated statement from the driver of the vehicle confirming that you are authorised to appeal on his/her behalf. This statement MUST contain the drivers FULL NAME and a valid FULL UK POSTAL ADDRESS FOR SERVICE. Please note, we require an original signature and not a photocopy or a stamp.

2. Notify the driver of the vehicle that they will need to appeal to us directly.

3. Pay the PCN (blah blah payment details)

As a gesture of good-will, we have placed the case file on hold for an additional 14 days to enable the above mentioned actions to be administered. If we receive either no payment or further communication by 14th March 2014, the right to appeal may be lost and the charge may revert to the original (non-discounted) rate.

Please be aware that if you fail to provide a valid name and address, we will revert to the registered keeper for recovery of the Notice in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

Blah blah pay up 14th March."

Basically now they won't let me appeal if I'm not the driver without the drivers consent, so I can't get a POPLA code without giving up that I was the driver?

Help greatly appreciated. I've tried to provide all info but let me know if more is needed.

Stroma

Yes you can get the popla code, you are the keeper, under pofa 2012 you are allowed to deal with this. I would write back saying that they don't need the driver details, and that the dvla through the bpa has sent this to them.

They are in direct breach of the bpa Code of Practice. Now make complaints to the dvla and bpa post #6 in the newbies thread. Attach all correspondence including yours. Don't admit who was driving, deal with it as the registered keeper

“the following practices may be considered as Code breaches and must not be continued:
• Asking the motorist to enter into additional correspondence to obtain a POPLA code
• Failing to include a correct and/or valid POPLA Code within the Rejection correspondence
• Issuing a POPLA Code with a date identifier which is significantly different from the date of rejection
• Appearing to indicate that the issue of a POPLA Code is conditional on driver details being supplied “

bazster

Letter to DVLA:

Please find attached a copy of a letter I have received from VCS.

This letter blatantly flouts the BPA AOS Code of Practice, and the reminder that has been issued recently to AOS members regarding the issue of PoPLA codes.

Failure to comply with the AOS CoP also constitutes a breach of the KADOE contract VCS has signed with DVLA. You have the power to terminate that contract and put an end to this nonsense. How much more of this rubbish do you need to see? Get on with it!

Copy to your MP.

MissElle1982

Do I tell VCS I'm going to write to BPA, DVLA and my MP?

bazster

MissElle1982 wrote: »

Do I tell VCS I'm going to write to BPA, DVLA and my MP?

Yessum. Let them know that their nonsense is noted and acted upon.

MissElle1982

OK, sending the below:

"I am in receipt of your letter in which VCS blatantly flaunts the BPA AOS Code of Practice regardless of the reminder that has been issued recently to AOS members regarding the issue of POPLA codes by:

• Failing to include a correct and/or valid POPLA code within the Rejection correspondence; and
• Appearing to indicate that the issue of a POPLA code is conditional on driver details being supplied

Failure to comply with the AOS Code of Practice also constitutes a breach of the KADOE contract VCS has signed with the DVLA.

For your information I now intend to engage in correspondence with BPA, the DVLA and my MP informing them of your actions."

bazster

You might want to suggest that they now seek to mitigate their non-compliance by either supplying a PoPLA code by return, or cancelling the charge.

MissElle1982

bazster wrote: »

You might want to suggest that they now seek to mitigate their non-compliance by either supplying a PoPLA code by return, or cancelling the charge.

Ok last bit amended to:

"For your information I now intend to engage in correspondence with BPA, the DVLA and my MP informing them of your actions. You may seek to mitigate your non-compliance by supplying a POPLA code by return or simply cancelling the charge."

bazster

Works for me!

bazster

Incidentally, the word is "flouts" not "flaunts"!

bazster

Incidentally again, I suggest you edit your original post above to remove the bit in brackets beginning "between us", because it's not between us, it's a public forum!