G24 appeal rejected... what to do next?

confuzzle

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who've posted in the stickies at the top of the forum. It's helped me feel empowered, but now I'm stuck!

On the 31st Oct 2014 a car that is owned by a third party lease company was recorded using a car park for 411 minutes. The PCN states that the free parking period for this car park is 120 minutes.

The car park is managed by G24.

I have photos of the signage at the car park, but I can't add a file or hyperlink to this post as I'm a new member. I'm not sure whether these are old or new signs, but I suspect they are new signs that bare the yellow and blue IPA logo next to the blue BPA logo.

After reading the stickies on this forum the following letter was sent to G24, without divulging the details of the driver.

G24 have responded by rejecting the points raised in the letter, and offer 4 options.

Again, I can't link to the letter, but a summary of the options contained in the letter from G24 are:
1. Pay the PCN (£100)
2. Appeal to IAS
3. Do nothing, resulting in debt recovery action
4. Supply receipts for the day in question

From reading posts on this forum it seems that option 2 is not worth pursuing, however the third party lease company have offered to appeal on behalf of the driver. Should the lease company be directed to appeal, or not? Is there specific guidance they should be given in addition to the points raised in the original letter.

Option 4 is not possible, as no purchase was made.

For option 3, the lease company policy indicates that if there is further demands for payment by the issuing authority (G24) then the lease company will make the payment and recharge the cost to the lease agreement (plus administration charges).

The posts on this site seem to unanimously suggest ignoring letters from a DCA, unless they are from a court. Does anyone have any advice on how to instruct lease companies with regards to the debt collection route?

What are the right next steps?

Any of the above documentation can be provided by hyperlink as it is hosted on Dropbox. Please let me know how to send links as a new user.

Thanks

bazster

You can study the lease contract to see if it gives them the right to do this (they often don't), and if not fight with the lease company and tell them you refuse to pay. If "issuing authority" is their term then I strongly suspect they are one of the lease companies who can't tell the difference between a real parking fine and a speculative invoice from G24, and there may be gold dust to be found in the contract. G24 is not an "authority" in any shape, manner or form.

The alternative is to write to G24 naming the driver and then ignore the ensuing blizzard of bullsh|t coming through your letterbox.

Coupon-mad

Who sent the first appeal, the driver or the lease co?

If the lease co then they 'can try' an appeal to IAS but it needs sooo much detail and proof and legal arguments it's really not worth it = e.g. a lease firm could PROVE 'they' were not the driver as they are not a person. But you never know with IAS, they've continually thrown out 'no keeper liability' arguments recently, and the lease co would have to attach both sides of the NTK showing exactly how it breaches the conditions in Schedule 4 for Keeper liability. Such a faff; ridiculously cumbersome and unfair for any consumer or company to even be arsed to try, only for the smarmy (anonymous) gits at IAS to look down their noses and say 'that argument is without merit, now pay up'. Biased? Who knows. Does the IPC make the decision? Apparently not...they protest it's independent and the DVLA have swallowed it. Is it a kangaroo court? We believe so.

If the first appeal was from the driver then the lease co cannot now appeal. And the driver should ignore it and the silly debt collector drivel that will follow. Debt collectors cannot litigate nor affect your credit rating nor knock on the door, nothing. They send letters...no mark on your credit record is possible as this isn't a debt, there's no default of a CCA agreement like there would be for any financial issue. It's junk mail, ignore it.

If those letters are likely to come to the lease co then ask them to give your name & address as driver, instead of appealing, so that their liability is zero (surely they MUST prefer that?) and it's then yours to ignore. Remind the Lease co of their Trade Body (the BVRLA)'s Memorandum of Understanding they signed with the BPA nearly a year ago, where lease firms are supposed to simply give the name & address of the hirer/driver. That removes the company from the equation - it's categorically none of their business after that and the PPC can only contact the driver/hirer named.