some quick advice please - PCN Letter

AACBIG

So i've received a PCN in the post and I have responded with the standard letter from the newbies thread and sent it via email to their appeals department. Their website states that acknowledgement of this will be sent to me within 14 days. its now nearly 20 days since i sent the email.

I was intending to send them an email chasing them (as they clearly don't follow their own protocol). But just wanted some advice beforehand to see if it was a good idea?

I was intending to send this:

To The Appeals Department

Further to my correspondence below issued on the 28th April 2014 I hereby confirm the 14 days for acknowledgement of an appeal (stated in your terms of service) has now lapsed. I can only assume you do not intend to proceed and I would therefore ask that you confirm this by issuing your standard cancellation letter.

Regards

X

any thoughts? thanks

ColliesCarer

Which PPC is it?

AACBIG

Sorry, should have said - NPE

Stroma

Pointless just wait until 35 days after appealing as defined under the BPA Code of Practice , my thinking is that you'll get a debt collectors letter as they pretend you haven't appealed, if npe respond to you I'd be amazed. So let's see

AACBIG

OK Fine, thanks. So i'm guessing i'll just receive a debt recovery plus letter in a couple of weeks. But are they likely to send any further correspondence regarding my appeal? either a cancellation letter or (more likely) a rejection of my appeal?

thanks again guys. This resource is priceless!

ColliesCarer

Thanks.
They are a member of the BPA - so it isn't just their own protocol they're not following. The BPA Code of Practise states

22.8 You must acknowledge or reply to the challenge within
14 days of receiving it. If at first you only acknowledge
the challenge, or your reply does not fully resolve it,
normally we would expect you to seek the additional
information you require from the motorist and accept
or reject the challenge in writing not more than 35
days after the information required to resolve it has
been received from the motorist. It is acknowledged
that in exceptional circumstances, an investigation into
a challenge may take longer than 35 days after such
information has been received and in these instances the
motorist must be advised accordingly and given a date by
which they can expect a resolution. If this date cannot be
achieved then the motorist must be written to again and
a revised resolution date agreed. We may require you to
demonstrate that you are keeping to these times


So I would suggest you send a complaint to the BPA (contact details are in post #6 of NEWBIES thread) and write/email to NPE as follows

"I submitted my appeal (appended below) to your PCN xxxxxxxxx via email to your appeals department on xx/xx/xx which you have neither acknowledged nor replied to within the 14 days that is both stated on your web-site and is required under the BPA CoP 22.8. Your breach has, consequently, been reported to the BPA.

I require you to either acknowledge my appeal or issue your standard cancellation letter by return."

Edit: Apologies for the xover - browser lagging seriously - Stroma much more familiar so follow the advice to ignore for now that Stroma gave above

AACBIG

awesome thanks ColliesCarer

Stroma

The reason as to why not send anything now is that the bpa routinely ignores this breach of no reply within the 14 days. If after 35 days you hear nothing then complain.

arabesque_101

Stroma wrote: »

just wait until 35 days after appealing as defined under the BPA Code of Practice

One thing that concerns me with waiting the 35 days before complaining about no response to the appeal, is what happens if the PPC claims they sent a letter to the keeper rejecting their appeal 5 days after they appealed? (e.g. there was a stuff up in the PPC's office and the letter was printed but lost somewhere before being posted without the PPC being aware, or the letter went missing in transit, for example, stolen from the keeper's letter box by kids).

If the keeper waits 35 days to complain, it would now be 30 days since the rejection which means that the keeper is now out of time to appeal to POPLA.

Have I got this right? Is this a valid concern or have I missed something?

Stroma

No they are never out of time for popla, even at a small claim stage, some district judges have ordered the PPC back there rather than court. And if a complaint to the BPA is done, all they will say is that the PPC has 35 days to respond, and it must have been an oversight not sending the letter after 14 days. Trust me I have seen this countless times..

The keeper has to wait for that time to raise any complaints, because the dvla will say the same, and obviously the PPC will as well.

arabesque_101

Stroma wrote: »

No they are never out of time for popla, even at a small claim stage, some district judges have ordered the PPC back there rather than court.

I don't think most people want to have to go to court in order to get their appeal to POPLA.

Stroma wrote: »

The keeper has to wait for that time to raise any complaints, because the dvla will say the same, and obviously the PPC will as well.

The idea is that by writing to the PPC, you are putting in writing that you didn't receive the confirmation (you obtain a proof of postage to prove you sent the complaint). The idea is not so much to ping them, but just remind them. This gives the PPC a chance to send another copy, or provides you a supporting paper trail that your appeal to POPLA is not actually late, and that your POPLA appeal is merely waiting for the PPC to respond first. Or alternatively it is providing a supporting paper trail that the PPC didn't reply to the appeal in time.

Stroma wrote: »

Trust me I have seen this countless times.

I've seen people out of time to go to POPLA (people who didn't want to go to court to get an order to go to POPLA) who couldn't prove they didn't receive a response to their appeal. These people will pay the parking charge as soon as they receive a Letter Before Action, if not before.

I noticed ColliesCarer suggested writing now to the PPC (before the 35 days are up), so am assuming there are different ideas on this.