Birmingham Airport PCN-Failing to park in a designated area (POPLA appeal submitted)

Dee140157

They should reply within 35 days. And no never assume it has been cancelled. They could well tell you in 3 months time that they sent a letter rejecting your appeal, but you never appealed to POPLA and are out of time.

Give it the 35 days from appeal the. Write/email and ask for confirmation of cancellation or a POPLA code.

Tyler_Du

Just a quick update, my father in law has received a letter saying that they will take him to court if he does not pay the fine. I haven't seen this letter myself yet, will post more details when I get them. I think the letter might contain a POPLA code.

The_Slithy_Tove

When you check the letter, you will need to establish if it's actually a rejection of your appeal (which should come with a POPLA code), or if they have conveniently lost/not received your appeal (which is only too common with these people), and so don't even acknowledge its existence.

If the former, then it's on to POPLA.

If the latter, then it's time to raise a complaint to the BPA, and also to reply to APCOA, telling them you have already appealed, and enclose a copy of the original appeal and a copy of the proof of posting you (hopefully) got.

Tyler_Du

Heres the letter of reply with the POPLA code.
I assume that as they have supplied this I now need to appeal directly with POPLA.

Letter_of_Reply wrote:

Thank you for your letter of appeal against the Parking Charge Notice issued by us to you on
[DATE REMOVED]
Having carefully considered the evidence provided by you, we must advise your appeal
has not been successful on this occasion.

Please note red routes are ¡n operation around the airport site in order to maintain the safety of our
passengers, visitors and staff. Drivers are prohibited to stop, unload or park on the red routes,
which are clearly marked around the airport roads via signage and double red road markings. A
vehicle monitoring and enforcement operation ¡s in place, with an enforcement charge of £100.



In addition to the double red lines, the restricted zone signs shown above are ¡n place at the
following locations around the airport:

[IMAGES OF SIGNAGE AND MAP OF AIRPORT HERE]

APCOA is not liable to justify the charge as set out in section 19.5 of the BPA guidelines, ‘If the
parking charge that the driver is being asked to pay is for a breach of contract or act of trespass, this
charge must be based on the genuine pre-estimate of loss that you suffer. We would not expect this
amount to be more than £100. If the charge is more than this, operators must be able to justify the
amount in advance.’

As per the BPA guidelines we believe the parking charge is fair and reasonable at £100 reduced to
£50 if paid within 14 days. The sum, and calculations which have been made in setting it, have been
approved and agreed by the landowner.

It is well established that a contract can be made by offer, in the form of the terms and conditions
set out on the notice and acceptance by parking a vehicle. Ifa motorist is unhappy with the contract
terms, they should not remain on the site. By choosing to remain on the site you agreed to the terms
and conditions and as such agreed to abide by the condition set out on clear signs at the entrance
and throughout the site.

You vehicle was parked in breach of these terms by failing park in a designated parking area.
Notices on private land are issued in accordance to British Parking Association (BPA) guidelines and
APCOA being an approved operator of BPA is authorised to issue notices on behalf of Birmingham
International Airport. Proof of this landowner authority is provided below:

[SCAN OF LETTER SHOWING AUTHORITY HERE]


As your vehicle was parked ¡n contravention of the terms and conditions of the site we are satisfied
that the notice was correctly issued in accordance with the BPA code of practise and are not able to
waiver the charge on this occasion.

Therefore you now have a number of options;
1. Pay the Parking Charge Notice at the price of £100.00. You can pay by the following
methods;
By Post — Send a cheque or postal order crossed and made payable to APCOA Parking, P0 Box
1010, Uxbridge, UB8 9NT.
Web —
By Phone—0845 301 1151

2. Make an appeal to POPLA within 28 days of this letter—The Independent Appeals Service by
completing the accompanying form quoting reference number [REF NUMBER HERE]

3. if you choose to do nothing, we will seek to recover the monies owed to us via our debt
recovery procedures and may proceed with Court action against you.

Yours Faithfully
APCOA Appeals Department

Redx

frankly , nobody here gives 2 hoots what apcoa write about airport land, so yes you appeal to popla using one of the typical apcoa and airports popla appeals linked in post #3 of the newbies sticky thread , ideally a recent birmingham airport popla appeal

The_Deep

Just a quick update, my father in law has received a letter saying that they will take him to court if he does not pay the fine.

They would be extremely foolish were they to do so, even if they can prove that he was the driver.

Has he involved his trade union? I suspect that the last thing the airport would want is a taxi strike, and the resultant publicity would not be good for the PPC.

Coupon-mad

Tyler_Durden_UK wrote: »

Just a quick update, my father in law has received a letter saying that they will take him to court if he does not pay the fine. I haven't seen this letter myself yet, will post more details when I get them. I think the letter might contain a POPLA code.

Wow, was that REALLY his interpretation of that twaddle - seems very naïve to read that letter and only glean the above from it...it's NOT a 'fine' and to read the court threat and not notice the POPLA code is madness! Surely the POPLA code was what you told him to look at, not the drivel?

This is so easy, there is already at least one APCOA Airport example POPLA appeal. Wins every time - send it in the name of the keeper - game over.

Tyler_Du

POPLA_Appeal_V1 wrote:

POPLA Verification Code: (to be inserted)
Vehicle Registration: (to be inserted)
PCN Ref: (to be inserted)
Alleged Contravention date and time: (to be inserted)
Date of initial notice: (to be inserted)
Date of my response: (to be inserted)
Date of rejection to my response: (to be inserted)
Parking Charge Amounts: (to be inserted)


Dear POPLA assessor

As the registered keeper of the above vehicle, I am appealing against the Parking Charge Notice issued against this vehicle on the grounds stated below..

1) Amount demanded is a penalty not a genuine pre estimate of loss
2) Not relevant Land under POFA 2012; no registered keeper liability
3) No landowner contract nor legal standing to form contracts or charge drivers or Keepers
4) No Contract with driver

1) The amount demanded is a penalty and not a Genuine Pre-estimate of loss.
The parking charge does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of loss and therefore is unfair as defined in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. As APCOA are alleging a 'failure to comply' yet cannot show this is a genuine pre-estimate of loss, they have breached the BPA Code of Practice, which renders this charge unenforceable.

2) Not Relevant Land as defined under POFA 2012; no registered keeper liability.
The driver has not been identified, yet APCOA are claiming POFA 2012 registered keeper liability for this charge. The registered keeper is not liable for this charge as Birmingham Airport is designated as an airport by the Secretary of State and therefore roads within the airport are subject to airport bylaws and so POFA 2012 does not apply. I put the Operator to strict proof otherwise if they disagree with this point and would require them to show evidence including documentary proof from the Airport Authority that this land is not covered by bylaws.

3) No landowner contract nor legal standing to form contracts or charge drivers or Keepers
As APCOA are not the owners of this land and as such they cannot form a contract with the driver or Keeper, I wish APCOA to provide me with a full un-redacted legally certified by an independent solicitor as a true copy of the original copy of their contract with the landowner which allows them to form such a contract. A witness statement as to the existence of such a contract is not sufficient. I believe there is no contract with the landowner that gives APCOA the legal standing to levy these charges nor pursue them in the courts in their own name as creditor. This was shown to be the case by District Judge McIlwaine in VCS v Ibbotson, Case No 1SE09849 16.5.2012 (transcript in the public domain). So as regards the strict requirements regarding the scope and wording of landowner contracts, APCOA have breached the BPA Code of Practice section 7 and failed to demonstrate their legal standing, which renders this charge unenforceable.

4) No contract with driver.
If a contract is to be formed, upon entering the site a driver must be able to read, understand and agree to the terms and conditions. A driver could not be expected to stop in order to read non compliant located signs as they enter the road. In any case, as APCOA are only an agent working for the owner, mere signs do not help them to form a contract. VCS -v-HMRC 2012 is the binding decision in the Upper Chamber which covers this issue with compelling statements of fact about this sort of business model. In this instance, there was no contract formed whatsoever. , no consideration was capable of being offered to the driver.


In addition to the above mentioned points on my appeal rejection letter Apcoa state that (page 2 of attached scanned copy of letter ) that and I quote:
“As we do not know either the name of the driver or their current serviceable address, we request that you
either pay the full amount outstanding as noted above; or if you were not the driver of the vehicle at the
specified period provide us with the name of the driver and their current serviceable address and pass this
notice onto them.”

This would indicate that Apcoa are looking at this under POFA which is not enforceable due to the following:
Birmingham Airport Land is Not Relevant Land as defined under POFA 2012 so therefore there is no registered keeper liability.

Either way therefore the Payment Charge Notice has been invalidly issued, and this appeal should be upheld.

This is a suitable appeal ?

Redx

doesnt look good enough to ne

the not a gpeol needs a lot more work, plus you havent included any signage and few if any private car parks have compliant signage

obviously POFA 2012 cannot apply so maybe expand that one too

have a look at recent JLA and RHA appeals for similar wordings, even if they are VCS or some other PPC , adapt accordingly , especially if its vcs at JLA like this one mentioned in the POPLA links

VCS at ANY AIRPORT, new version with quote from POPLA re commercial justification

just amend the location and PPC etc

Tyler_Du

It was based on a successful appeal letter at Luton airport, I'll amend it appropriately.