PCN/Not in allocated bay/Breach of contract

bazster

I'd take it in baby steps if I were you, 'cos the BPA will need dragging every inch of the way. My next reply to the BPA Ltd. would be to simply ask them to explain how Car Park Management Services (CPMS) Ltd. could possibly have joined the BPA on 01/05/2013 when it wasn't incorporated until 18/06/2014?

Tell them to use the Companies House free Webcheck service if they need to check this: http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk//wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

The_Deep

I agree with Mr B, keep it simple, one step at a time, keep asking the same question until you get a (hopefully unsatisfactory) reply. Build up a massive paper trail and let them dig themselves into a hole.

The hit them with a tirade of complaints, especially as many as you can to Trading Standards.

Edna_Basher

Relevant legislation on business names was laid down under the Business Names Act 1985, the Companies Act 1985, the Companies Act 2006 and the Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008.

Subject to certain restrictions in Law, any person, partnership or company can operate under a business name that is not the same as their own name. Therefore you would be perfectly entitled to operate a business called “Fawkes Parking Management Services”.

However, the Law requires that wherever you carried on your business and where you dealt with customers or suppliers, you would also have to prominently display the true identity of the legal entity operating under this business name. For example, if you were operating as a sole trader your signs would have to state “A.A. Fawkes trading as Fawkes Parking Management Services”.

This is where Lesley (in her sole trader days) came unstuck. She did not reveal her identity on the car park signs which just referred to the business names “CPMS” and / or “Car Park Management Services” such that “customers” did not know the true identity of the person responsible for the management of the car park. This is why the car park signs were incapable of forming a contract (i.e. uncertainty as to the identity of the contracting parties).

With regard to the BPA’s flimsy response to your query, “CPMS” does not exist as a legal entity and lacks the capacity to enter into contracts (it therefore cannot be a member of the BPA). The company by the name of “CPMS Limited” (Company Number 3792701) was dissolved on 16th January 2014 and so it is not possible for this company to be a current member of the BPA. As per Bazster’s advice, you will have to spell your questions out to the BPA in words they can understand (i.e. at Fisher-Price level). You need to ask them to provide you with the exact details of the person, partnership or limited company trading under the business names “CPMS” and “Car Park Management Services” that joined the BPA on 1st May 2013 and which they claim remains a member to this day.

You will need to ask a similar question of the DVLA in respect of the identity of the person, partnership or limited company that signed the DVLA’s KADOE contract under the business names “CPMS” and “Car Park Management Services”. The DVLA should not be providing keeper information to any person, partnership or limited company that has not signed a KADOE contract in its own right – I suspect that this will include Company Number 09091690, Car Park Management Services (CPMS) Limited.

Edna_Basher

Being polite doesn’t mean that you can’t also be honest; you didn’t really appreciate the BPA's failure to properly answer your question, so it’s okay not to express any appreciation.

How about.....

“Dear BPA

Thank you for your reply.

However, this does not provide me with the requested details of the identity of the person, partnership or limited company trading under the business names “CPMS” and “Car Park Management Services” that you advise joined the BPA on 1st May 2013.

My request is very straightforward:

• If the body trading as “CPMS” and / or “Car Park Management Services” which joined as a member of the BPA on 1st May 2013 was a sole trader, please provide me with their name and serviceable address.

• If this body was a partnership, please provide me with the name and serviceable address of that partnership.

• Alternatively, if this body was a limited company, please provide me with its registered name, company number and serviceable address.

Given that it is a legal requirement under the Companies (Trading Disclosure) Regulations 2008 for these details to be prominently displayed at any location where this body is carrying out its business, this information cannot be considered to be confidential or commercially sensitive. My request is necessary only because the legal entity trading as “CPMS” and / or “Car Park Management Services” has failed to fulfil its legal obligations and has not disclosed its identity on any of its car park signs.

Please confirm if the legal entity trading as “CPMS” and / or “Car Park Management Services” which originally joined the BPA on 1st May 2013 is still a member of the BPA.

Finally, please confirm whether the current membership of the BPA includes any other legal entities that trade under the business names of “CPMS” and / or “Car Park Management Services”; if so, please provide me with their names and serviceable addresses, together with details of the dates that they were accepted by the BPA as members.

Thank you for your assistance and cooperation and I look forward to receiving the requested information.

Yours etc.”

bazster

Good letter from Edna there. Go with that.

Coupon-mad

BPA Approved means nothing much at all. They'll take weeks - the BPA lets them take 35 days or more on appeals.

Coupon-mad

Be much more patient - even a decent firm should be allowed a couple of weeks to reply to such questions and this isn't a decent industry so you'd expect them to drag their feet even more.

ampersand

Initial digging here:
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/09091690/CAR-PARK-MANAGEMENT-SERVICES-CPMS-LTD

Check all the tabs.
#
I'd use their ineffectual reply as excuse[not that you need one] to send Edna's very strong letter. Did it really come from the BPA? Over whose name/position?

Just re-jig the start:

'Your email[date/time]fails to satisfactorily address any of my concerns, which should also be yours.
You have NOT provided me with....]

-as per Edna's excellent letter, #46:

'

bazster

Dear BPA Ltd.

There is no route in law by which a sole trader can become a limited company and maintain continuity of the legal entity. The sole trader and the limited company are different and distinct legal entities. Car Park Management Services (CPMS) Ltd. cannot have been a member of BPA Ltd. before its incorporation for the simple reason that it didn't exist. So, on what date did Car Park Management Services (CPMS) Ltd. become a member of the BPA Ltd.? I'm not asking when some sole trader joined BPA Ltd., I'm asking when this limited company joined the BPA Ltd. Surely that is not a difficult question?

Please note I am raising this matter with the DVLA also because of the Data Protection Act implications of this company requesting keeper details for parking events which may have happened before it existed and/or before it became a member of BPA Ltd.

bazster

They are indeed digging a hole. When you do complain to DVLA it's going to be along the lines that BPA Ltd. refuses to tell you when a limited company became a member, instead hiding behind a legal fiction about some sole trader becoming a member; that you suspect the reason for this obfuscation is that the company has been obtaining registered keeper details for parking events that occurred before it existed and/or became a BPA member; and that action needs to be taken against BPA Ltd. for yet again demonstrating that it is unfit to hold ATA status.