"Ethical" parking charge

daisycobby

While attending a charity function at Sussex County Cricket Club I received a contractual breach charge reason "not parked wholly in a marked bay". I was parked alongside the other cars in the car park in what appeared to be a parking space with no restrictive markings on the ground, or on poles as other spaces had saying "restricted for ...". Nothing about the space made me think it was not a space and I parked centrally in the space with my car in line with the other vehicles along the row. I still do not know what the charge is for as I do not know what was wrong with my parking. My assumption is the space was not a space, but there was nothing to indicate this...


We discussed this with a Sussex County Cricket ground official and he said that there was nothing they could do and that we should send photos and appeal directly to the parking company.


I have read your newbies post on dealing with parking fines and am happy to contest. However, you recommend that beyond the step above we wait for the notification from the VRK which will arrive in about a months time. I am nervous about doing this as the notice states "failure to make full payment within the specified time may result in the registered keepers details being requested from the DVLA in order to enforce this charge. If full payment has not been received within the specified time the debt will be passed to our debt recovery specialists with a further £60 charge added. If at this point the debt is still not settled EPM will apply to have a county court judgement served against the driver/ registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the event".


The charity have already written to the parking company asking for the charge to be waived.


Would you advise me please whether I can send this letter now as I really don't want a debt recovery firm involved. It would stop me worrying about it!




Dear Ethical Parking Management,

This is an appeal against the charge issued to the vehicle with the registration *****, charge reference *****.

It is the registered keepers assertion that :

1. The charge is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss.
2. That the signage does not conform to the BPA CoP to which Ethical Parking Management has committed.
3. That Ethical Parking Management has no authority to issue charges over the land in question.

As such the charge is rejected. You should now either cancel said charge or provide a POPLA code for the registered keeper to appeal to the independent adjudicator.

Any further correspondence other than confirmation of cancellation or a POPLA code will be considered harassment and could result in legal action being taken against you.

Yours,

****

daisycobby

I forgot to say I was displaying a valid parking permit in the windscreen.


The template seems very harsh in its wording to me???

bod1467

Follow the guide - it walks a well-trodden path.

And why would you worry about the 14-day "bribe" when you'll pay ZILCH by following the guidance?

And harsh wording? Do you really think EPM are nice chaps who are "sorry to do this to you but, you know, that's how things are"? Ethical Parking Management is the ultimate oxymoron - they are neither ethical NOR do they manage parking.

Coupon-mad

you recommend that beyond the step above we wait for the notification from the VRK which will arrive in about a months time. I am nervous about doing this as the notice states "failure to make full payment within the specified time may result in the registered keepers details being requested from the DVLA in order to enforce this charge. If full payment has not been received within the specified time the debt will be passed to our debt recovery specialists with a further £60 charge added. If at this point the debt is still not settled EPM will apply to have a county court judgement served against the driver/ registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the event".

Stop worrying - we know exactly what we are doing. They can't go to debt collector stage (which is ONLY letters!) until waaaaay after they've sent a NTK and only if the registered keeper then doesn't appeal. But that's exactly when you (the rk) will be appealing.

I know that car park well, am fairly local. You will win so play it our way and wait. There will be no debt collector letters but even if there were later on if you managed to lose at POPLA, so what?

bod1467

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I know that car park well

Hi Trevor!

(sorry)

Coupon-mad

I know ALL the local car parks of course in East and West Sussex, as I have visited them personally!

bod1467

I was just using a bit of alliteration ... Trevor often says "I know that car park personally" in his appeal rejection letters.

Coupon-mad

I know! Not alliteration though ...that would be something like Twerking Trevor!

daisycobby

Thanks. Am sitting tight for now to await the letter to the registered keeper. I can see why people just pay up so they don't have to stress about it, but I am not going to be bullied into paying to end it!

gertysingh

Daisy - here's a stat for you. In a one year the period between 1 Apr 2013- 31 March 2014, PPCs requested 2.2 million RK details online + 1/3 of a million paper requests. OF that only 25,214 appealed to Popla. That is less than 0.01%. PPCs pay Popla £27 to hear an appeal. Motorists will pay anywhere between £60-£140 to the PPC threat-o-grams.

(fyi: http://www.popla.org.uk/AnnualReport.htm)

So yes - you will have to take off the rose tinted glasses and you will learn a lot. Especially when they start throwing threat-o-grams for a speculative invoice.