Corporate Services Hereford

JamersPad

Hi there, I need some advice please.
I received a parking charge notice on my works vehicle whilst collecting a curry at 8.15pm in an empty car park on a Sunday night a couple of weeks ago.

As it is a company vehicle that I drive I am not sure what our company policy is, so against my normal beliefs where as I would totally ignore these people I begrudgingly wrote to these scammers included my address as I was hoping that they will not write to my company, my letter to their so-called appeals department as follows:

30th May 2014

Dear Corporate Services,

Notice Number ***** - Vehicle Reg ********

I am writing this letter of appeal, my vehicle was parked in the car park at the back of the black Lion yesterday evening (29/05/14) at 20.04. I had been in the Indian Restuarant for 15 minutes maximum! The car park was completely empty with the exception of a blue van.

I deny any debt to your company and will not make any payment in the absence of a court judgement. If you believe that you are legally entitled to a payment, please go ahead immediately with the action that you have threatened.

If I do not receive court papers within two weeks from the date of this email, I will draw the obvious conclusion and regard the matter as closed.

Don't waste my time and your stationery with any other letters.

They will be ignored!

Yours Faithfully

They have replied via email as follows:

Dear *****,
Re: Parking Charge Notice Number ***** (Vehicle: *****)
Site: Bridge Street Private Car Park Issue date: 29/05/2014
Corporate Services
02 June 2014
Thank you for your appeal received on 30/05/2014 regarding the above detailed Parking Charge Notice. We have reviewed the case and considered the comments that you have made. This appeal has been considered in conjunction with the evidence gathered by the parking attendant. Our records show that the notice was correctly issued as your vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms and Conditions of Parking.
We are therefore unable to cancel the Parking Charge Notice as it was issued correctly. We have now extended the discounted payment period to allow you time to pay the discounted settlement amount. Please now make payment of £60 to reach us by 16/06/2014 or £100 to reach us by 30/06/2014. We must advise you that once the discounted settlement rate passes it will not be offered again.
You are required to display a valid permit when parking in this car park. These conditions are clearly displayed on the signage on site. As this vehicle was not clearly displaying a valid permit we uphold our operatives decision.
Payments can be made by cheque or postal order made payable to Corporate Services. Please ensure you write your Parking Charge Notice number clearly on the reverse.. Payment can be made using a debit or credit card on our website at herefordshirecspm.org. For our full Complaints Procedure please visit our website.
If you wish to appeal against our decision you may be able appeal to Parking on Private Land Appeals System (POPLA). Please visit their website, popla.org, for further information on grounds for appeal and to download an appeals form. You will require the verification code ********** to access this service.
Yours sincerely,
Appeals Department
CORPORATE SERVICES (PARKING MANAGEMENT)

I am sure that they will now contact DVLA and then my company, I will have a chat with my director later about this but just would appreciate some advice. Can they contact DVLA? I guess they need too in order to obtain the vehicle details, so much for data protection eh any advice would be appreciated.

da_rule

They won't go to the DVLA as you have identified yourself as the driver so you will now be liable.

Your next step is to use the POPLA appeal code they gave you and appeal to POPLA. Details of how to appeal and what to include in the appeal are in the 3rd post of the Newbies sticky thread.

JamersPad

da_rule wrote: »

They won't go to the DVLA as you have identified yourself as the driver so you will now be liable.

Your next step is to use the POPLA appeal code they gave you and appeal to POPLA. Details of how to appeal and what to include in the appeal are in the 3rd post of the Newbies sticky thread.

I did not think that i had identified myself as the driver, I said my vehicle was parked while I was in the Indian, or does that not make any difference?

da_rule

JamersPad wrote: »

I did not think that i had identified myself as the driver, I said my vehicle was parked while I was in the Indian, or does that not make any difference?

I'm assuming that this followed a notice that was stuck to your vehicle (known as a notice to driver). Some Parking Companies will interpret your response as being an admission of you being the driver. Even if you have appealed as the 'keeper', they now have your details so would not need to waste the money on a DVLA application.

You only have a limited amount of time to appeal to POPLA so that needs to be your next step. There would be no need for your company to ever know.

Redx

JamersPad wrote: »

I did not think that i had identified myself as the driver, I said my vehicle was parked while I was in the Indian, or does that not make any difference?

identifies yourself as keeper then , as you could have been a passenger and not the driver

in any case, as its a company vehicle you do not want them dealing with the actual owner (registered keeper) and so you do want them dealing with you as keeper (or as driver)

also, edit your post to remove the popla code (in post #1)

JamersPad

da_rule wrote: »

I'm assuming that this followed a notice that was stuck to your vehicle (known as a notice to driver). Some Parking Companies will interpret your response as being an admission of you being the driver. Even if you have appealed as the 'keeper', they now have your details so would not need to waste the money on a DVLA application.

You only have a limited amount of time to appeal to POPLA so that needs to be your next step. There would be no need for your company to ever know.

Thank you for your replies.

This was on a Sunday night and there was only 1 other vehicle parked in the whole car park, these scammers must of drove in probably took a photo, stuck their sticker on my windscreen and drove off and I could see my vehicle from the Indian, so they must of been there seconds! I am not sure which example appeal I should use, also the deadline to pay £60 ends Monday with Corporate Services but I have until June 30th to appeal their refusal to POPLA.

I took a photo of the one of only 3 signs in the car park: (one you can hardly see as it is on a strange wall that you would only see when leaving, there is no sign upon entry)





I am tempted to use the one about unfair and unrealistic prices:

ColliesCarer

You need to see the example POPLA appeals in How to Win at POPLA (hyperlink to which is in post #3 of the NEWBIES thread).

Your appeal needs to be based on the known winning legal arguments
1/ Not a genuine pre estimate of loss
2/ No authority to levy charges
3/ Unclear/non compliant signage therefore no contract with driver

In addition you should also include a point about self-ticketing.

Post up a broken link to the sign pic if you would like feedback on it.

JamersPad

It is not allowing me to post links as a new user? But I have put the url up of both signs.

JamersPad

ColliesCarer wrote: »

You need to see the example POPLA appeals in How to Win at POPLA (hyperlink to which is in post #3 of the NEWBIES thread).

Your appeal needs to be based on the known winning legal arguments
1/ Not a genuine pre estimate of loss
2/ No authority to levy charges
3/ Unclear/non compliant signage therefore no contract with driver

In addition you should also include a point about self-ticketing.

Post up a broken link to the sign pic if you would like feedback on it.

Could you please explain what you mean by self ticketing?

ColliesCarer

JamersPad wrote: »

It is not allowing me to post links as a new user? But I have put the url up of both signs.

As a Newbie you're not yet able to post full links so just leave off the http:// part and you will be able to post it as a broken link

JamersPad wrote: »

Could you please explain what you mean by self ticketing?

A number of firms have an arrangement with the landowner (or just a someone with a camera phone) to take a photo of the alleged event and issue a ticket - supplied by the parking company - the ppc often don't patrol they just process the ticket and pay an amount to the ticketer for every paid ticket.

But you can make a point about - If this was issued by a self-ticketer then you require proof that they were trained etc to comply with BPA Code of Practise.

JamersPad

ColliesCarer wrote: »

As a Newbie you're not yet able to post full links so just leave off the http:// part and you will be able to post it as a broken link



A number of firms have an arrangement with the landowner (or just a someone with a camera phone) to take a photo of the alleged event and issue a ticket - supplied by the parking company - the ppc often don't patrol they just process the ticket and pay an amount to the ticketer for every paid ticket.

But you can make a point about - If this was issued by a self-ticketer then you require proof that they were trained etc to comply with BPA Code of Practise.

Ah I think I understand now, yes, I think someone just drove in issued the said ticket probably took a photo, which I am yet to see and then drove off. I have added the images of the notice above, comments of advice would be appreciated, also will I have to pay the full £100 instead of the reduced amount if I loose a POPLA appeal?