Private land pcn issued

jackslipper-50

Hi I hope you can help,
A pcn letter was received by the owner, it said that an issued ticket had not been paid, so now escalated to £100. This is the first the owner knew about the matter.
The driver had been invited to park in one of 3 designated spaces for the use of workmen, pick up, drop off area. The manager of those spaces issued a valid permit which was clearly visible through the front windscreen.
The escalated pcn letter only showed a picture of the rear of the vehicle. There was no pictoral evidence of either the permit or the pcn supposedly issued.
I followed your suggested procedure, sending the "older" copy and paste letter on the newbies site, when I noticed you had changed the letter, I sent that 10 days later also. I included the points, no pcn left on car, valid permit in windscreen permission to park.
This is their response, I am sure it is not legal as they are foregoing their own body's due process.

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

"We do not know both the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver. We write further to our notice to keeper letter advising you as the registered keeper of the vehicle you have now become liable for a contractual breach charge.

You as the registered keeper had the option of either paying the amount due within 28 days of our notice or notifying us of the identity of the driver.

You failed to do either and as a result we are now entitled to contractual damages from you as registered keeper.

The sum of £100 to which the charge related to is now due from you and is to be paid within 28 days of the date of this letter.

We have to inform you that if we do not receive payment from you within 28 days of this letter, we will issue court proceedings in respect of the outstanding amount and please be advised that failure to comply with the Practice Direction of Pre-Action Conduct within the Civil Procedure Rules may result in further legal costs being sought against you".

We look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
Pre-Court Preparations Department.

Please could one of you experts help me in this matter, they have made no mention of a validation code for me to escalate the appeal to POPLA, I thought this was the next step.

Many thanks in advance. 28 days from date of letter is 25th Nov, so I haven't got long.

pogofish

Start by reading the Newbies Sticky and take it from there.

jackslipper-50

I think you have mis-understod, I have followed the newbies thread. Sent out the copy and paste letters.
I would like to know how to respond to the letter I received from the parking company in response, they did not even give me a validation code to escalate the appeal to POPLA. I am new to this site, I would appreciate a more in depth answer really.
Thanks for responding though

HO87

It would help us if you identified the parking company concerned. The use of the term contractual damages suggests that it is a BPA member rather than an IPC member.

Did you keep a copy of the letters of appeal you sent and do you have proof of postage?

If the company is a BPA member then a complaint to them [EMAIL="Steve.C@britishparking.co.uk"]Steve.C@britishparking.co.uk[/EMAIL] about the failure to respond and offer you a POPLA code should be made ASAP attaching copies of your letters and the PPC's response.

Besides anything elese what they claim represents a Letter Before Action does not comply with pre-action protocols despite their calling it that.

jackslipper-50

the parking company is ethical parking, I have kept all proofs of postage and made copies of both my and their communications. Would you suggest that I respond by asking for a validation code

Coupon-mad

Ethical are a joke! This misses out one important option:

You as the registered keeper had the option of either paying the amount due within 28 days of our notice or notifying us of the identity of the driver.

...which should have been 'you as the registered keeper ALSO had the right to challenge the PCN for 28 days from the Notice to Keeper' (or similar words!).

In fact the answer is in the Newbies thread, in a way, as post #6 of it gives you the email addy to complain as keeper, to the BPA. Just attach a copy of the correspondence exchanged and any proof of postage you got, and say that Ethical have refused to send you a POPLA code or properly consider or reject your challenge which was sent in good time from when you received the Notice to keeper.

jackslipper-50

Ok thanks, I will send an email to Addy as suggested.
Many thanks