NEWBIES first appeal for any private parking ticket (England/Wales)

Coupon-mad

First appeal to the PPCs now changed again, keeps them on their toes. The added bit relates to parking events after 13th June 2014 so anyone sending a late appeal re a parking event prior to 13th June can delete paragraphs 2 and 3 and obviously get rid of the sentence about the purpose being threefold.

Newbies - it's in this sticky thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63730576#Comment_63730576

Here you go, UKPCS and UKPC this is the version you will now get - you can throw in the towel/the toys out of the pram/issue a POPLA code and lose anyway (your choice):



Dear Sirs

Re: PCN No. ....................

I refer to the above notice which I challenge as keeper of the car, on the following grounds:

a). The sum sought does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of any loss and yet it is intended as a deterrent, so the charge is a penalty. There is no commercial justification for the charge.
b). The signage on site is deficient, the wording unclear and it fails to comply with the Code of Practice.
c). In the absence of any evidence it is my case that you lack any or sufficient proprietary interest in the land.
d). Your notice was deficient and fails to comply with Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
e) Any contract with myself, or the driver, is denied.

The purpose of this communication is threefold:

1. This is my formal representation
There will be no admissions as to who was driving that day and no assumptions can be drawn in the absence of evidence. I have decided to appeal this as keeper and as such, you must either rely on the POFA 2012 or you must cancel the charge if you know you cannot claim keeper liability in this case. Please uphold this challenge or send a rejection letter, so I can escalate this matter to the independent appeal service offered by your Trade Body.

2. ''Drop hands'' offer
The alleged 'parking charge' is baseless but I understand that you will have incurred nominal costs in the mostly automated process of issuing a Notice/letter. Equally, I have incurred costs to date, for researching the law, reading your Notice & handling the matter and responding, despite a lack of any contract existing in a durable form. I calculate both my costs and yours to be under £15 at this early stage. Therefore, this is a formal “drop hands” offer as my costs and yours so far, are similar. Withdraw your charge within 35 days of receiving this offer and I will not pursue you for my costs.

3. Notice of my withdrawal from this alleged contract
I hereby give notice that I am exercising my right to withdraw from the alleged contract (the validity of which is denied) for the apparent parking event described in your Notice. The alleged contract was never properly offered or explained by you, nor was any service from you expressly requested by the driver or by me - and it is hereby cancelled. Any obligations now end, save in the case of an independent appeal being offered to me at this stage by you.

If I avail myself of that provision then my notice of withdrawal extends merely to undertake that process in the interests of good faith. But my alleged obligations end immediately after the decision (whatever the outcome) made by the IAS or POPLA.

Neither the driver nor myself gave 'prior express consent' or any consent at all for the alleged contract. A contract derived merely from a sign is at best based upon implied consent/performance (which is also denied). Nor was the driver or myself informed in a clear and comprehensible manner, of the right to withdraw from a consumer contract and the duration and manner in which this could be done. Nor did your signs/Parking Charge Notice state certain information required for a contract, such as (but not limited to) the name and geographical address of the client on whose behalf you are acting as agent. Nor did you serve the required contractual information by durable means prior to the parking event.

As such, you have breached the information requirement of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Payments) Regulations 2013.

Yours faithfully


{the registered keeper's name}

ADD A SQUIGGLE IF POSTING IT - NO NEED TO USE A REAL SIGNATURE

ampersand

I've always liked 'drop hands' from old case/another field long ago, c-m. Suggested it to someone the other day.
EXCELLENT. A* - as if we'd expect anything less:-)

Kayne

Interested in how these get drafted up to be changed as I noticed the one i used changed recently and now changed again. What decides the changes?

bod1467

Nice.

Regarding the NEWBIES thread ... there's a section right after this template appeal that says "If no time to 'dig out flaws' in paperwork, just use our appeal example unless your PCN was from". Knowing what newbies are like, they'll see the template appeal, copy/paste and fire it off, and not look any further down the thread. It might be useful to highlight BEFORE the template appeal that there is a section immediately after it that should be checked before blindly using the template.

Coupon-mad

Kayne wrote: »

Interested in how these get drafted up to be changed as I noticed the one i used changed recently and now changed again. What decides the changes?

Me because I write the thread and practically 'live here' around everything else in life! I am here posting while watching TV, cooking the kids' tea, and while my husband is on late shifts too, once the kids are in bed.

But the latest addition is something I ran by a few other regulars first and I may well tweak it if anyone adds anything useful or knows I have something wrong.

bod1467 wrote: »

Nice.

Regarding the NEWBIES thread ... there's a section right after this template appeal that says "If no time to 'dig out flaws' in paperwork, just use our appeal example unless your PCN was from". Knowing what newbies are like, they'll see the template appeal, copy/paste and fire it off, and not look any further down the thread. It might be useful to highlight BEFORE the template appeal that there is a section immediately after it that should be checked before blindly using the template.

Good point.

Kayne

What I meant coupon-mad is its quite a change from the version I for instance used back in July. Is it just a change to keep parking companies guessing what the template appeal might look like or is there some sort of precedent that prompts the change (ie something in the POPLA decisions or from court cases?)

Coupon-mad

It's partly to keep them guessing, yes.

And partly due to the new Consumer Rights regs I was reading up on this weekend. I realised that consumers can withdraw from a contract and that PPCs mess up (as per usual) so I have incorporated that to (hopefully) make life easier at POPLA/IAS or court stage.

ampersand

c-m, here 'and the duration and manner in which this could be done', although 'duration' is a nicer word, it doesn't sit with 'in which this', so 'timespan'?...imho:-)

Kayne

Thanks Coupon-Mad. that makes sense now. Wasnt sure what caused changes in the templates and having been reading the threads here was interested in the process.

Coupon-mad

ampersand wrote: »

c-m, here 'and the duration and manner in which this could be done', although 'duration' is a nicer word, it doesn't sit with 'in which this', so 'timespan'?...imho:-)

Yep I struggled with that sentence! Suggestions?

mrtiggles

Many thanks for the updated template Coupon Mad....but please forgive the expected question arising from this.....what about appeals that have already been submitted to PPCs using the previous template for PCNs issued after 13 June 2014? Will they still have the same degree of clout as this new one as, no doubt, a PPC won't accept a 2nd appeal from me using your updated version? I only submitted my PPC appeal to NCP yesterday in connection with a PCN issued on 15th September after following your advice to do so around the 21 day milestone.