PCN Appeals

Quickathri

Hello


Today, I wrote to the shopping centre telling them about the most recent debt collectors letter and asking them if the PCNs had been cancelled or not. I had not been back from the Post Office for long when the mail arrived with another letter from PCM. This one is dated 26 June and tells me it relates to the PCN issued in March - the first charge that I appealed but did not get any response to at all. Anyway it starts "Thank you for your correspondence regarding the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). I have considered your case carefully and have decided to reject your appeal on the following grounds:" Then there is a blank space on the form for a number of lines and then the bit telling me I have a number of options - the second of which is an appeal to POPLA. It also tells me if I choose to do nothing, they will seek to recover monies owed to them via their debt recovery procedures and may proceed with Court Action against me. I immediately wrote again to the shopping centre. I enclosed a copy of the latest letter and amongst other things asked them to explain why I have been sent the letter. I have asked for a quick response but I now have little faith in the abilities of the person dealing with cancelling the PCNs.


If I have not heard anything early next week I am going to take matters up the shopping centre chain, again. However, I am going to work on a POPLA appeal just in case - at least I have a number to quote on any appeal. I can't work out if I'm in !!!!-up or conspiracy territory. I think there is an element of the PPC getting me to spin my wheels for daring to challenge the PCNs directly with the shopping centre. Plus, based on what I have read on this forum maybe they think they can frighten me into paying the charges. Obviously they have not addressed the point I made to them that they are out of time concerning giving me a response to my appeal. What do you think? Is there anything else you think I should be doing at this stage?

Redx

I would write back telling them you are reporting them to the BPA and to the DVLA for not including a popla code in their rejection letter (as per the BPA 2014 newletter) and to issue the popla code

I would also report them to the BPA and DVLA with copies of all correspondence , dates etc (see post #6 of the NEWBIES thread)

and dont let the landowner/retailer off the hook either, fight them on all fronts !

Quickathri

OK. Thanks for your continuing interest and support. I shall begin working my way through your action points. If there any further developments I shall let you know.


Family and friends cannot believe all of this. The reputation of the shopping centre is being damaged badly. Plus, people I have spoken to about it are going to the other shopping centre we have within driving distance - they do not want to risk falling foul of the PPC with such little support from those managing it. Still perhaps business is so good the centre where I was given the PCNs do not care.

Coupon-mad

Is the POPLA code a current one, issued on 26th June after all this time? Check it against the POPLA code checker linked in post #3 of the NEWBIES sticky. Then you'll know how long you've got to appeal to POPLA, and you can also then click on 'How to win at POPLA' in the same post to copy/adapt a template winning appeal.

Quickathri

I have received an email to tell me that my IPC appeal has been successful. Hurrah. One down another PCN to go. Thank you, thank you for all your help so far.


I sent my POPLA appeal yesterday based on what was in my IPC one. Obviously, I changed it to include reference to the BPA Code etc. Although they are different organisations I am hopeful that there will be some sort of consistency in what are regarded as valid appeal points. Fingers crossed. Maybe my success at the IPA was the reason why the PPC suddenly responded to my first appeal without giving me any reasons for rejecting it.


I decided not to leave things to the vagaries of the shopping centre requesting a cancellation of the charges. I'm not really convinced that the person I am dealing with at that end understands the issues involved and the need for speed. Anyway, if the one outstanding charge gets cancelled all well and good if not then at least my POPLA one will have got to them in good time.


On a slightly different note, on the POPLA website I read a statement by the Chief Adjudicator about a recent appeal being incorrectly represented/confidences being broken. I think he included the activities of those of you who advise people on this forum, in his background remarks. I'm not too sure he is entirely happy with your activities (although it was not just this forum he spoke about) or perhaps I misunderstood what he was trying to say.

Coupon-mad

Well done on winning your IPC appeal, they certainly are quick!

Umkomaas

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Well done on winning your IPC appeal, they certainly are quick!

With so few PPCs on the IPC AOS list I hardly expect work is flooding in! :cool:

Quickathri

And there I was thinking the validity of my appeal had won them over pdq (joke)!! How long do POPLA usually take - or am I asking the how long is a piece of string question?

I could not have been successful for the first one without the help of this forum. I'll let you know how I get on with the second. As I said, I hope that the same points will carry the similar weight at POPLA.

ColliesCarer

POPLA will acknowledge your appeal giving you a date around when your appeal will be assessed - usually about 5 - 6 weeks hence.

I've had a quick skim read of your IAS appeal and you've covered the main winning grounds of Not a GPEOL, no standing/authority, inadequate/non compliant signage so providing your POPLA appeal has those in too, you should be fine.

Quickathri

Thank you for doing that. The POPLA appeal has some additional details that I found out after the IPC one. It was also neater and easier to follow - I hope. One point I made was that as the PPC did not give me any grounds for rejecting my appeal I was hampered by not being able to address those specifically.