UKCPS parking letter....?

bpascua

Hello All,

Yesterday I got a letter from UKCPS with a notice to pay £100. It is from the Forbury car park in reading.it states "the driver was observed leaving site" as this car park if for the shops on this retail park. They also sent a photo of my car with a penalty notice on it. The strange thing is that there wasn't a penalty notice on my car at all, so maybe they put that there for the photo? Anyway I'm annoyed as I did visit the shops on site but the attendant obviously saw me leave and initiated the fine.

My question is what to do? If I appeal is it a waste of time? And on what grounds can I appeal?

Many Thanks


Brian

da_rule

Yes you appeal. Appeal on the usual grounds that are set out in the Newbies sticky thread. There is a first appeal template contained within that thread which you can use.

fisherjim

You should stop thinking of it as a fine or penalty too, you had an invoice stuck to your windscreen.

Guys_Dad

And point out that the driver may have left site but the passenger who was shopping did not.

bpascua

Hello All,

There is a lot of information on the parking dilema and lots of different ways to tackle this. I took a look at the sticky and I followed the advice I think, I was going to use the following for an appeal, can someone just say YES or NO if this looks OK please?
Bare in mind I was "seen" leaving the car park and the attendant then ticketed my car. I later returned and shopped at the retail park in question, but I am not sure if UKCPS will care abou thte detail? I also never got a sticky ticket on my windscreen......


[FONT=&quot]Dear UKCPS Car Parking Solutions,

PCN number 123456
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:

1) The amount being claimed is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss to your company or the landowner.
2) Your signage does not comply with your ATA Code of Practice and was not sufficiently prominent to create any contract.
3) You are not the landowner and do not have the standing to offer contracts nor to bring a claim for trespass.

Please issue your standard cancellation letter or a specific, detailed rejection letter. If you choose to send the latter, it must state:

- the legal basis of your charge (i.e. breach, trespass or contractual fee?) as your signage was not seen/accepted by the driver and your recent Notice failed to make the basis of the charge clear. As keeper, I cannot be expected to guess the nature of the allegation.

- if alleging breach of contract, with your rejection letter I require a breakdown of the liquidated damages suffered, and by whom, and when this calculation was determined and how this particular 'loss' arose. Please also explain how/why you charge a fixed sum no matter whether the alleged contravention was trivial or more serious and how that can amount to a genuine pre-estimate of loss.

- if alleging trespass please enclose evidence of the perpetrator and proof of the liquidated damages alleged and the calculation of this sum.

- if alleging 'contractual fee' I require that you now send me a VAT invoice by return and explain the daily rate for parking and service provided for the fee. Failure to provide this information and a VAT invoice now that I have requested it, will be considered evidence that this was not in fact a genuine offer to park for a fee and is merely a penalty which is not recoverable in contract law (as found by Mr Recorder Gibson QC, on appeal at Luton County Court in the case of Civil Enforcement v McCafferty 3YK50188 (AP476) 21/2/2014).

Take formal note:

(a) 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.

(b) Any obfuscation on your part, such as pretending I have to name the driver, alleging I am too late or unable to appeal as keeper or requiring more evidence when clearly I have already set out my full challenge for this stage, will be reported to the DVLA and to your respective ATA, as a sanctionable breach of your Code of Practice.

(c) If you reject my challenge and insist upon taking the matter further I must inform you that 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.

Yours,

[/FONT]

da_rule

Looks good. UKCPS won't care that you never received the ticket on the screen (and in reality neither will POPLA) as they can produce the photo showing the ticket attached to the vehicle. It would then just come down to an argument about whether it had been removed by someone else/the weather etc.

I would suggest one slight tweak, point 2, where you mention 'your ATA', change this to 'the BPA'. And the same in part (b) of the take note section at the end.

bod1467

Just send it as-is ... that looks a copy/paste of the template appeal in the NEWBIES thread, and is structured deliberately to be easy to use regardless of whether the PPC is a BPA or IPC member.

bpascua

Hello All,

Just to follow up on this. I got a letter from UKCPS in response to the letter I sent them saying that as a guesture of goodwill they will wave the £100 fine. That was just off the back of the one letter i wrote from the sticky section. So a big thank you to everyone on the forum and please don't be afraid of UKCPS as they seem to back down very quickly. I suspect they make a good living off the 50% of people that just pay up.

Thanks

Brian

Redx

shame you used the f word when its an invoice lol

but well done and it shows how good that template letter has become after months of refinement , UKCPS are well aware of it and where it came from so know where you looked in order to find it , they also then realise that you will use forum advice on any further appeals too , same as JAS , G24 and many other private parking companies

HELLANDBACK

Hello all,

The exact same thing has happened to me, however I have received no photographic evidence with my PCN letter? Is the above advice still valid as I am very keen to get this resolved ASAP? I have followed the advice in this thread and have a similar first appeal letter ready to post, many thanks to Brian and all the excellent contributors above.

Many thanks.

tykesi

Please don't hijack others' threads especially old ones such as this. you need to start a new thread with your specific circumstances but before you do, read the NEWBIES sticky thread at the top of the Parking board which will tell you how to deal with this.