Excel Parking Peel Centre LBC

UhOh45

Hi guys,

In the summer of last year I received a PCN through the postfrom Excel as a result of parking at the Peel Centre without purchasing aticket (all the retail parks around where I live do not require purchase of aticket so it never even crossed my mind that I would need to here).

I appealed against the PCN and received a POPLA code (albeitlate, as confirmed by the BPA in email correspondence). Due to various circumstances, my appeal toPOPLA was late and therefore I did not submit the strongest defence as Ithought it would not be considered in any case. However, POPLA seem to have given it their usual attention and havefound in favour of Excel (Excel submitted their usual fictitious PEOL and othersupporting ‘evidence’).

I have now received a letter from Excel reminding me of theoutcome of the POPLA appeal and stating that they may take court action and thatI should pay up. Previous to this I havereceived the usual scare-o-grams from Rossendales aswell.

My two questions are:

1) Is this a ‘letter before claim’, or do I treat it as oneand begin the correspondence chain as per the Daisy sticky?

2) Am I able to appeal against the POPLA decision with astronger defence (I am unable to ‘reset the clock’)?

Do the forum think that Excel are now being more aggressivein pursuing claims in the SCC for those victims who have lost at POPLA? There must be hundreds of people who doappeal to POPLA but are not aware of MSE/PePiPoo and don’t submit a robustenough defence. Are these people beingpursued?

I am amazed that these claims do not get laughed out ofcourt. Do the findings of cases such as Clarke not set a legal precedent and surely the judiciary are aware of the tenuous legal cases brought by the PPCs?

Thanks

ColliesCarer

From your post you have obviously been reading the sticky threads for info and advice and have found the LBCCC fightback thread.

1) Is this a ‘letter before claim’, or do I treat it as one and begin the correspondence chain as per the Daisy sticky?

Without seeing the wording it's hard to say but as Excel have now begun corresponding with you again after Debt Collector letters from Rossendales - I think you would be wise to treat it as a LBCCC

2) Am I able to appeal against the POPLA decision with astronger defence (I am unable to ‘reset the clock’)?

Unfortunately as you are unable to re-set the clock - then No, you have exhausted the appeals processes (POPLA are extremely unlikely to allow a second appeal).

Do the forum think that Excel are now being more aggressive in pursuing claims in the SCC for those victims who have lost at POPLA?

They don't bring a large number of claims (66 last year) but losing at POPLA may make it more likely that Excel would see this as a winnable case. Search the forums for Peel Centre to find other threads of people dealing with this PPC there.

There must be hundreds of people who do appeal to POPLA but are not aware of MSE/PePiPoo and don’t submit a robust enough defence. Are these people being pursued?

Hard to say as the forums may not be aware of them unless they come seeking help after getting an LBCCC or court papers.

Do the findings of cases such as Clarke not set a legal precedent?

Small claims in the County Courts can not set legal precedents.

Surely the judiciary are aware of the tenuous legal cases brought by the PPCs?

They are becoming increasingly aware especially as a result of the large volume of claims brought by Parking Eye - have a read or Parking Pranksters blog

Coupon-mad

Oh dear, you could even have emailed POPLA with a stronger set of wording while you waited for their decision, or as a reply to the 'evidence' from Excel.

Never mind, now you will need to learn the 'winning words' the hard way in small claims, I expect. Read the NEWBIES thread section on small claims to see how to defend, what happens when. Read all the links in post #5 of the sticky so you can see people's experiences, advice, and defence wording ideas.

Have you admitted you were driving and all? Ooops. That means the sum they can claim is not even pegged back by POFA 2012 to the amount of the PCN. Not that they can add silly money 'cos they can't. - but I expect any claim would be increased to £150 or so.

Robustly reply to the LBC, copying in Excel but not expecting any decent reply from them or the hired debt collector pen pushers. This can be defended but you have made your job hard by not simply refreshing your POPLA appeal to the winning words in time. We beat their GPEOL calculation every time so it wasn't that which won it, it would have been that your appeal wasn't clear/strong enough as I am sure you have realised. Onwards & upwards!

UhOh45

Thanks for the reply guys, i thought that would be the case but wanted to make sure.

To clarify, I haven't admitted who the driver was , but I was the driver and am the registered keeper, so I take it i can't 'reset the clock' unless someone other than the registered keeper was driving?

I will start the 'Daisy'-chain of letters wrt the LBCCC.

Coupon-mad

Yep you have it right, respond robustly, don't leave any letters unreplied to, now. And come here if you get court papers as this is very defendable (keep ALL letters).

UhOh45

I have had the expected letter back from Excel saying that the Practice Direction is not applicable in this instance as the BPA appeals process is utilised.

I know that there is a post somewhere providing a template response to such a letter. I thought it was oin Daisy's sticky thread but cannot find it.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Coupon-mad

We've seen that before and it's utter rubbish. I found this thread Daisy replied on a few months ago:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4733887

and although Daisy cannot come on the forum much at the moment she posted this today:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4914969


HTH