How to deal with Athena Parking Fines 2014

gmwoolven

Hi,

I have received a £90 parking charge notice from Athena for parking at Lidl. I have read lot about just ignoring the letters and not contacting them at all but these were from threads a few years old.

I wondered what the best thing to do is in 2014? I read somewhere something changed to the laws or something in 2012 and didnt know if this was still the best way to deal with them.

I havent had the notice too long, so if there is something I should be doing rather than just ignoring them I'd like to know.

Thanks

Browntoa

Do not ignore

Follow the steps in the "newbies" thread at the top

No mitigation , just the template letters to Athena and then POPLA

Dee140157

And if you shopped there go in and complain loudly to manager with receipt in hand. They have facility to get a cancellation for you. Look at successful complaints linked to in Crabman's sticky at top of forum.

It never ceases to amaze me that Lidl are trying to be in competition more and more with major supermarkets but only allows you a maximum of an hour to be within the boundary of their car park. Such a nonsense business model.

gmwoolven

Thanks for your reply.

i did shop in Lidl. I'm not sure i still have the receipt though. It was our first time shopping there and lost time as we had our little boy with us and i didnt realise id need a coin for a trolley, plus i wanted to have a good look round.

Im wondering why every thing ive read says to just ignore and they'll go away? What will happen if I do ignore them? From my understanding they have no power.

Isn't speaking to the store manager admitting I was the one driving?

Cheers

Umkomaas

What on earth are you reading that tells you to ignore this? I bet nothing that has a date more recent than around February 2013 (18 months ago)!

'Ignoring' might seem the least painful solution for you now (just like a child puts their head under the pillow to avoid the bogeyman!). But I can promise that ignoring this will definitely not be the least painful strategy.

You must appeal this via two easy steps detailed in the NEWBIES sticky - alongside you making simultaneous complaints to Lidl.

We can't do more for you if you decide not to take the advice we are offering you here. Sorry!

Coupon-mad

gmwoolven wrote: »

Im wondering why every thing ive read says to just ignore and they'll go away?

Makes me wonder why you've been Googling and reading old threads from 2012 without spotting the old date on them...sorry! But if you read old advice on old forum threads randomly found, it's almost not even worth searching (except to find a forum to then move to the first page of) as I said only yesterday to someone else:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/66302750#Comment_66302750

We don't really want to try to teach people how to Google things more effectively - sorry that's not the intention, honest, but how else do I put it? The attached post is an example of how common this is when people have read old stuff - never a good plan when a money related subject is at stake. But what else can we say when faced with posts saying people have read threads telling them to ignore (advice that's 2 years old or older?). Neither we nor MSE can clear/delete the tens of thousands of old forum threads from Google, so it has to be up to the searcher to check the dates of results and hop to page one before reading what's what on a subject.

Anyhoo you are here now!

gmwoolven

Ok I get the point. I'll get on to it after work tonight. Out of curiosity what changed in 2012? When I Google this company and its charge notices the majority of results are few years old. That's why I included 2014 in the title of my thread.

Thanks

Redx

gmwoolven wrote: »

Ok I get the point. I'll get on to it after work tonight. Out of curiosity what changed in 2012? When I Google this company and its charge notices the majority of results are few years old. That's why I included 2014 in the title of my thread.

Thanks

POFA 2012 came in on 01 OCT 2012 and changed the rules by moving the goalposts and make the RK liable for the pcn invoice, its as simple as that

it also outlawed clamping on private ground and brought in POPLA and later the IAS (BPA and IPC)

in simple terms, a new law was implemented, which they do all the time , rules change , laws change , people adapt

I would have thought that POFA 2012 might well have been mentioned on your current pcn ?

gmwoolven

So just about to post your template letter.

Should i include point C? The charge notice says there are signs clearly displayed and to be fair i did see them but didnt really study them.

Once sent do i just await a reply and then go to POPLA?

Thanks again, you guys are awesome

Coupon-mad

Yes and yes, don't delete anything from the template, include point C, light the blue touch-paper (so to speak) and stand back and wait for your POPLA code.

Dee140157

If the signs are anything like the signs in my Lidl, they are a nightmare to read, so full of words it takes a a eg to read and understand. So definitely leave signage in!