Parking Charge Notice Bath University - F1RST PARKING

bongo_boy

Thank you for the quick replies people.

Is there any information on here as to which rules they have have broken?

I can get a letter away today if someone has the information necessary to complain to BPA etc

Otherwise this is my letter to BPA:
Dear BPA,
This is a complaint about the operating practice of First Parking Limited (FPL).

According to FPL records my vehicle was given a windscreen ticket on 10/10/14, while parked on private land that FPL do not own.

As the registered keeper I received a 'notice to keeper' (NTK). This was issued on 17/11/14 requesting payment for the said ticket. The NTK received by myself in early December.

I have appealed to First Parking. This appeal was posted on 8/12/14, and the appeal has not been responded to.

The NTK stated that should the fine (a staggering £60) not be paid within 28 days, that FPL reserve the 'right' to collect the debt by other means.

However, on 10/12/14, only 23 days after the NTK was issued, I have already received a letter from a debt collection agency (Debt recovery Plus Ltd) for an astonishing £120 from this original ticket, the ticket that I have appealed against anyway and am still awaiting a reply.

This is in breach of the BPA's CoP, as well as that of POFA 2012, specifically:
4(4)The right under this paragraph may only be exercised after the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice to keeper is given.

As such am making a formal complaint and would like action to be taken immediately.

I can provide copies of the original NTK, proof of postage of appeal, and the debt recovery letter should this be necessary.

Yours truthfully,

bongo_boy

here are the images:
As I can not post urls (Newbie rules) please amend the links with the prefix World Wide Web Dot

FRONT OF WINDSCREEN TICKET:
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/16029465755/in/photostream/

REAR OF WIDSCREEN TICKET (3 PARTS):

1: Top part of rear of ticket (Breach of contract codes)
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/16028788682/in/photostream/

2:MID Part RE Appeals
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/16029467765/in/photostream/

3: Bottom part - Information & Payment
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/15842050108/in/photostream/

FRONT OF NTK:
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/16003693846/in/photostream/

REAR OF NTK:
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/15843721197/in/photostream/

Debt Recovery Letter:
flickr.com/photos/93572583@N06/15407215814/in/photostream/

bod1467

Email BPA, don't write. aos@britishparking.co.uk is the address I believe.

Minor edit suggested:

I have appealed to First Parking. This appeal was posted on 8/12/14 (1st class with a certificate of posting retained), and the appeal has not been responded to.

I know you mention the proof of posting at the end, but the edit makes it clear that you appealed in time.

bongo_boy

Ok, just as an update... Email sent. To save time I included copies of the relevent documens, i.e., NTK, reciept of postage of appeal, debt collector letter.

BPA have confirmed their receipt of this and "are investigating" or to quote: "An investigator will contact you once the case is concluded or if further information is required."

Thanks for the heads up on the BPA action route. Though I've no idea what action (if any) could occur as a result of them concluding that yes, First Parking Limited did not follow the correct proceedures....

Coupon-mad, yes i agree, it is too soon to expect a response to my appeal... But as soon as I do i'll update you all...

bongo_boy

UPDATE:

Here is the letter I received recently from BPA:

Thank you for your patience whilst we have been further investigating your complaint.

If we receive evidence of a possible breach of a point raised in the BPA Code of Practice, we will carry out an investigation and request further information from the parking operator concerned. The operator will be required to deal with any issues raised during our investigation, and to provide satisfactory evidence of this having been done.

We have internal processes and a Sanctions Scheme that is applied to all parking operators within our membership, and annual audits are carried out to address any issues that may arise.

From the information you provided and as per the copy of the letter sent to you by DRP Ltd, we can see this letter has been sent earlier than the 28 days the motorist has to pay or appeal the charge. The motorist should be given 28 days from the date of the NTK and as per the code, the charge should not be increased.

We have been in contact with the operator and they advised the following;

First Parking have investigated the concerns raised by you and have spoken to their client; University of Bath and provided a copy of the email chain between yourself and "Mr representative".

(NB this email was sent before I found information regarding appeals on this forum. In the future, I would not send an email as I had admitted liability. On reflection, this was a huge error on my part.)

From the information provided, "Mr representative" at The University of Bath received an email from yourself on the 13/10/2014 to which "Mr representative" replied on the 14/10/2014.

First Parking have confirmed they did not receive an appeal from the owner/driver.
We note you have provided proof of postage for the letter you sent to the operator but unless an item is sent recorded delivery we are unable to prove whether mail has or has not been received. This being the case we cannot comment further.

They accept the NTK letter was sent on the 17/11/2014 and as they received no response the case was sent to Debt Recovery Plus on the 09/12/2014 (this being in error as per the 28 days).

The parking operator advises that due to an IT issue the case was sent 22 days (not 28) after the date of the NTK and due to this, they have cancelled PCN: 123456789 and instructed DRP to cancel their proceedings.

First Parking are implementing procedures that will avoid this error occurring in their system in future. In the interim they have instructed DRP to send no letters until the amendment to their IT system has been completed.

A contract is entered into where a motorist enters and decides to use a private car park, private road or section of private road. The charges, terms and conditions of parking are determined by the private landowner, who then contracts the private operator to manage the land on the landowner’s behalf.

The terms and conditions as displayed on the signage are then used by the private parking operator to determine whether the motorist has breached these terms. The operator will issue a parking charge notice on this basis (as a breach by the motorist). The private parking operator does not have to own the land, to issue parking charges on it, providing there is a contract between the land owner and the approved operator.

The amount of the parking charge notice is determined by the private land owner and advertised on signage at or throughout the site. Per the BPA Code of Practice we advise the amount of the charge should not exceed £100 and a minimum of a 40% reduction (of the full amount) of the charge be offered, if payment is made within 14 days of the date of the alleged parking contravention.

PoFA 2012 Section 56, working with Schedule 4, introduces the legal basis of recovering charges from the registered Keeper. Therefore a private parking operator will use this piece of legislation to pursue the keeper.

I have attached a copy First Parking’s letter of cancellation and will now conclude our investigation. I hope you appreciate that we are primarily a member services organisation, not a regulatory body we have no legal authority to control the activities of our members.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and endeavouring to assist us in our efforts to drive up standards in the parking industry.

Yours sincerely

bongo_boy

Here is the letter from Parking F1rst Ltd:

Dear Mr bongo_boy
Re: 123456789
We acknowledge receipt of your complaint via the BPA.
After reviewing all the information received from the BPA and due to the circumstances; on this occasion I have cancelled PCN: 123456789.
I have instructed Debt Recovery Plus to cancel the PCN from their system; please accept this letter as confirmation that the PCN is now closed and there are no monies due.
If you have any questions; please do not hesitate to contact me. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Yours Sincerely

bongo_boy

In other words, that's a WIN.

I would like to thank all that have advised me on this matter, which has been concluded in my favour.

bongo_boy

For information for future forum users please could someone clarify the following:

It was my understanding that proof of postage alone was sufficient when mailing my appeal (royal mail).
However, FPL stated that this was never received, as per information above.

For future users, can the postage situation be clarified, i.e., should it be sent registered mail (despite being a PO BOX address)?

Redx

free proof of postage is all that is required, its also the methods these companies use when sending out their invoices and by law is deemed delivered 2 days later - so its the same as they di with you

they didnt ask you to send recorded, nor do they send the mail recorded, so its do as you would be done by and if it ever went to court the judge would take the legal view that with proof of postage its deemed delivered 2 days later.

The fact they hide behind a PO BOX address only makes it worse for them and recorded deliver may not be accepted at all or they may deliberately choose not to accept recorded delivery

the BPA may not accept this but that is their problem and they dont uphold the law , but are clever in the way they sidestep issues like this

glad you got it sorted out, but in legal terms you create a paper trail, and a free certificate of posting at the PO is all that is required for any appeal

bongo_boy

Do you (or anyone else for that matter),have a case reference where this has been used / accepted in court which could be used to support the argument for any such case in the future?