Apcoa rejected first appeal

eire13

Hi Redx,

Thanks for your helpful reply. Can you please explain exactly how to put on the attachment. I have logged in to the popla appeals website and the box for submitting he reasons is very small where or how do i attach all the evidence. Sorry if I am being stupid.

ColliesCarer

Prepare a document in word or pdf etc
Make sure each page has the POPLA verfication code on it along with a page number (I use the Page 1 of x format)

In the submit appeal option text box just cut and paste the opening paragraphs of your appeal - down to say the end of the list of the points
then add something like "The main body of my appeal has been submitted as file < xxfilename xx>.

Then got to the submit evidence option and attach your file.

eire13

Thanks a lot Collies Carer will do that now :j

Will keep updated on progress.

eire13

All done thanks everyone !

Truckert_2

Hi All

I wonder if you could give me your assistance?

I stopped on the roundabout just out side the drop off point at luton airport as I was picking up my niece and she was standing on the kerb.
I didn't pull over due to there being no traffic and just stopped in the road.

Total time stopped was 3 - 5 seconds (she had no luggage)

Anyway I have received a pcn from apcoa and have drafted this appeal letter for them.
Could you have a read and let me know your thoughts before I send it please ??

Apcoa Parking
PO Box 1010
Middlesex
UB8 9NT

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ticket number: LM1
Vehicle registration number:
The unlawful issue of a ‘Notice to Keeper’ (BPA AOS Code of Practice B.22)
I refer to recent PCN dated xx/xx/2014.

As the registered keeper, I have received your parking invoice which of course, I decline your invitation to pay. I wish to invoke your appeals process, since all liability to your company is denied on the following basis:
I assume your “Parking Charge Notice” and the first line being “Notice is hereby served to the registered keeper” that this is a “Notice to Keeper” and along with other references drawn from the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) it is clear that APCOA is dealing with its claim in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 4 of POFA.

The requirements of Schedule 4 PoFA are quite clear in that there must be strict compliance with all of its requirements in order to take advantage of the rights granted under that Act to pursue the registered keeper in respect of a driver’s alleged debt.

The BPA Ltd AOS Code of Practice (version 2) supports the need for strict compliance (para 21.5 refers).

APCOA has however failed to comply with the statutory requirements as follows;

1) In regards to paragraph 9(2)(h) of Schedule 4, PoFA 2012. Whilst your ‘Notice to Keeper’ has indicated that you require a payment to be made to APCOA, there is no specific identification of the “Creditor”, who may, in law, be APCOA or London Luton Airport or, some other party.

PoFA requires a ‘Notice to Keeper’ to have words to the effect that “The Creditor is….”

The wording of Paragraph 9(2)(h) of Schedule 4 of PoFA does not indicate that the “creditor must be named, but “identified”. To “identify” a “Creditor” a parking company must do more than name that person. The driver is entitled to know the identity of the party with whom he has legally contracted.

This view is supported by the Secretary of State for Transport. He has reserved to himself powers to make regulations to specify not only what must be said in a ‘Notice to Keeper’ but also what evidence should be provided.

He says “The purpose of this power is to leave flexibility to mandate the specific evidence which must accompany a notice to keeper if it becomes clear that creditors are attempting to recover parking charges without providing keepers with sufficient evidence to know whether the claim is valid”

2)In addition to APCOA’s failure to specifically identify the “Creditor”, it has failed to provide any evidence that it, or a third party, is entitled to enforce an alleged breach of contractual terms and conditions.




3) The most serious failure and that which has given me cause to submit a formal complaint to the DVLA.
You have failed to comply with paragraph 9.4 of Schedule 4 of the Act in that you failed to give the Notice to Keeper to me within the “relevant period”.

The alleged infringement occurred on the xxth xxxx 2014 and no ‘Notice to Driver’ was issued at the time. The Notice to Keeper is dated xxth xxxx 2014 which is 16 days after the event and too late to ensure delivery within the statutory 14 days prescribed by PoFA.

Paragraph 9(4) indicates that the Notice to Keeper must be given to the registered keeper not more than 14 days after the car allegedly infringed the car park terms and conditions. Paragraph 9(6) states that “A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered (and so “given” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)) on the second working day after the day on which it is posted” which in this case would be the xx xxxx 2014.

Your company would have been well aware of these facts when it took the decision to send out the Notice to Keeper under PoFA. You have misrepresented the legal position in the full knowledge that there can be no keeper liability.

That is an aggravating feature which the DVLA must take into account in determining what sanction to issue to your company.
I will remind you that:
POFA requires that in order to make use of the provision to pursue the registered keeper (if the driver does not pay the sum demanded) the operator must send a Notice to Keeper within 14 days (counting the day of the parking event as Day 0) - para 9, Schedule 4, Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Your unsupported, unsolicited invoice and any further letters if you persist, will constitute harassment. If you continue, your contact and that of any agent will be deemed a 'serious and persistent unwarranted threat' as found by Lord Justice Sedley in Ferguson v British Gas Trading Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 46 (10 February 2009) and I reserve the right to take the matter further. You have been informed that I consider this to be harassment so any decision to send further letters rather than cancel the invoice will reinforce the evidence of your persistent unwarranted threat and you may be required to justify your actions in court.
Further more I may claim my costs from you and my time at the court rate of £18 per hour. The expenses I may claim are not exhaustive but may include the cost of stamps, envelopes, travel expenses and legal fees as well as liquidated damages for distress arising from harassment. By continuing to pursue me you hereby accept liability to pay my costs when I prevail and you acknowledge and imply full understanding of the above.
I therefore expect you to immediately cancel the ‘parking charge Notice’ and inform me, in writing that you have done so.
If however, you reject this challenge, then, in accordance with the BPA Ltd AOS Code of Practice (version 2) 22.12, please ensure that you enclose all the required information (including the necessary ‘POPLA code’) so that I may immediately refer this matter (and any further issues that I may subsequently raise) for their adjudication on the matter.
I do not expect to receive a ‘generic’ template response and which fails to address the specific issues that I have raised with you. No further correspondence will be entered into.

Yours sincerely

You advice and guidance would much appreciated
(not sure how to start a new post on the subject do I have to ??)

Thanks Truckert

Hot_Bring

The letter is fine but you should really start your own thread so there is no confusion between your issue and that of the original posters.

Truckert_2

Thanks for your swift reply how do I start a new post because I will If it makes life easier for everyone ??

Hot_Bring

Scroll to the top of the page and click on the blue hyperlink roughly in in the middle of your screen that says "Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking". This takes you to the home page of this forum. You will then see a blue button on the left roughly half way down your screen named "New Thread" - click this and away you go.

eire13

Well everyone. Sorry it has taken so long to update. But this is how long this process takes. I received a reply to my POPLA appeal saying I would have a decision on or later than 5th June.

Got an e-mail today 6th June and they have allowed my appeal.

The wording is as follows:

Reasons for the Assessor’s Determination


It is the Appellant’s case that the parking charge notice was issued
incorrectly.

The Operator has not produced a copy of the parking charge notice, nor any
evidence to show a breach of the conditions of parking occurred, nor any
evidence that shows what the conditions of parking, in fact, were.

Accordingly I have no option but to allow the appeal.

So thanks a million to everyone above for their help as without your assistance I wouldn't have had a clue how to challange this. I am over the moon today :j

ColliesCarer

Congratulations eire13 :T

Another one bites the dust

Post your success here including name of PPC and Location

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

to enter the POPLA Decisions Hall of Fame and help others dealing with a similar charge win against them too