APCOA Parking Charge Notice (PCN)

therealhyper

Hi,

Last week I rushed to take my wife to the hospital again (we have been expecting our baby so have been to the local hospital a few times) and parked in the available/allocated parking bay.

On this occasion due to the urgency, I rushed inside to ensure my wife was taken straight to the waiting doctors and midwifes so could not purchase a parking ticket straight away. However I had left on my display a previous Authorised Concession Parking Ticket which clearly showed I was a Birth Partner (Birth Partners also receive Concession on parking as long as you pay £5, which covers a 24 hour period).

I later came out to pay for the parking ticket but found APCOA had left a Parking Charge Notice (PCN).

I purchased a parking ticket anyway and displayed it on the windscreen (this would cover the 24 hour period with a Authorised Concession Parking Ticket).

2 days later, I was back again, this time I had paid the full £5 but due to complications to the birth of our child, I didn't have a chance to come out to display the new Concessionary Parking Ticket, but did have previous ones on display. The £5 time period had expired and the parking supervisor slapped another parking ticket ! I later went out and displayed the Concessionary Parking Ticket...which covers 24 hour period.

I do find it a little depressing these Parking Companies placed a parking fine, despite me leaving several of the copies of the Concessionary Parking Tickets which clearly shows the urgency of the visiting person and its not always possible to pay ticket at that precise moment..its a bloomin hospital..life and death is more important than paying a ticket...surely there has to be some courtesy here !

The name of the company on the ticket is:

APCOA Parking (No 2572947) and they issued a Parking Charge Notice (PCN).
Thus far no-one has answered there enquries number 0345 301 1151.

I am not sure what to do now or how to approach this.
Can anyone help?

pogofish

You need to start reading the Newbies Sticky - carefully and in the first instance I would suggest a strong complaint to the Hospital rather than contacting APCOA. Wait for them to send you an NTK and take it from there.

And one very important thing - This is not a fine!

bowlhead99

So basically, the first occasion, you didn't pay to park. You had a concession voucher thing which shows you would have been eligible to buy parking cheaply, but you didn't.

Then after you had been caught for not paying, you went and paid enough to cover you for the next 24hrs from that point, which would have been enough for all the time needed, if you had bought it earlier, which you didn't. Shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

Then on the second occasion you paid for some parking and didn't display a separate ticket to extend it for a longer period. It expired, so they again ticketed you for not having displayed a ticket that covered the period in which you were parking.

So, it doesn't seem like the parking supervisor did anything wrong, because in the first situation you hadn't paid to park, you had just left behind some evidence that you'd paid to park there at some point in the past; and in the second situation you were not showing any valid voucher allowing you to get extended parking, you had just left behind some evidence that you'd been entitled to get these vouchers in the past.

You can't really expect an APCOA attendant to try to second guess all the possible reasons why someone wouldn't pay or wouldn't display. They must get plenty of chancers, along with probably a minority of actual 'life and death' as you put it, and other people who are just stressed and forgot to follow the rules.

If you speak to APCOA they will surely not care about you wanting to weasel out of the charge when admitting you hadn't followed the parking rules because you had other things on your mind or were busy. Telling them what actually happened is just agreeing that you didn't pay or didn't display and then regretted it later and tried to fix it to show good faith. Of course everyone regrets it when they get a charge notice - they will hear that all the time. It would be a dead end. So continuing to call them is not likely to be productive.

As pogofish suggests, it would be better to write to the hospital in complaint about the aggressively high charges and lack of compassion for your circumstances. If they have the time or the inclination then maybe they would contact APCOA with the sob story and request that they drop it. Unlikely tbh. At the end of the day, the cost of APCOA providing or policing the parking is driven by what people will pay in charges and 'fines'. So, hospital administrators don't generally try to get involved in one-off instances of someone forgetting to buy a ticket or failing to display. But you never know. And at least the more complaints they get, the more someone in authority at the hospital will become aware of the issues, even though APCOA are not really cowboys and the hospital might think they do an overall decent job.

Meanwhile, see what paperwork gets sent through the post to the registered keeper from APCOA and then respond to challenge it using some of the guidance from the Sticky thread without admitting that you (as the keeper) are in the wrong in terms of parking, paying or displaying.

APCOA look after a million spaces in 7500 car parks. You can pretty much guarantee that if you say "yes it was me, I'll put my hands up to being there and I know I didn't buy parking when I parked, but I came back later and paid for what it would have cost if I had done it first time", they will just laugh and pursue you for the full penalty charges that they want to enforce. Same with the "bought a concession ticket and didn't display it" in your second 'offence'.

The Sticky that pogofish mentions is at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4816822 ; and see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4896178 for wider reading.

fisherjim

Bowlhead99, did you wake up with a bad headache this morning?:D

bazster

bowlhead99 wrote: »

So, hospital administrators don't generally try to get involved in one-off instances of someone forgetting to buy a ticket or failing to display.

Not true, people often get charges cancelled by hospitals.

bowlhead99 wrote: »

APCOA are not really cowboys

:rotfl:

therealhyper

bowlhead99 wrote: »

So basically, the first occasion, you didn't pay to park. You had a concession voucher thing which shows you would have been eligible to buy parking cheaply, but you didn't.

Then after you had been caught for not paying, you went and paid enough to cover you for the next 24hrs from that point, which would have been enough for all the time needed, if you had bought it earlier, which you didn't. Shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

Then on the second occasion you paid for some parking and didn't display a separate ticket to extend it for a longer period. It expired, so they again ticketed you for not having displayed a ticket that covered the period in which you were parking.

So, it doesn't seem like the parking supervisor did anything wrong, because in the first situation you hadn't paid to park, you had just left behind some evidence that you'd paid to park there at some point in the past; and in the second situation you were not showing any valid voucher allowing you to get extended parking, you had just left behind some evidence that you'd been entitled to get these vouchers in the past.

You can't really expect an APCOA attendant to try to second guess all the possible reasons why someone wouldn't pay or wouldn't display. They must get plenty of chancers, along with probably a minority of actual 'life and death' as you put it, and other people who are just stressed and forgot to follow the rules.

If you speak to APCOA they will surely not care about you wanting to weasel out of the charge when admitting you hadn't followed the parking rules because you had other things on your mind or were busy. Telling them what actually happened is just agreeing that you didn't pay or didn't display and then regretted it later and tried to fix it to show good faith. Of course everyone regrets it when they get a charge notice - they will hear that all the time. It would be a dead end. So continuing to call them is not likely to be productive.

As pogofish suggests, it would be better to write to the hospital in complaint about the aggressively high charges and lack of compassion for your circumstances. If they have the time or the inclination then maybe they would contact APCOA with the sob story and request that they drop it. Unlikely tbh. At the end of the day, the cost of APCOA providing or policing the parking is driven by what people will pay in charges and 'fines'. So, hospital administrators don't generally try to get involved in one-off instances of someone forgetting to buy a ticket or failing to display. But you never know. And at least the more complaints they get, the more someone in authority at the hospital will become aware of the issues, even though APCOA are not really cowboys and the hospital might think they do an overall decent job.

Meanwhile, see what paperwork gets sent through the post to the registered keeper from APCOA and then respond to challenge it using some of the guidance from the Sticky thread without admitting that you (as the keeper) are in the wrong in terms of parking, paying or displaying.

APCOA look after a million spaces in 7500 car parks. You can pretty much guarantee that if you say "yes it was me, I'll put my hands up to being there and I know I didn't buy parking when I parked, but I came back later and paid for what it would have cost if I had done it first time", they will just laugh and pursue you for the full penalty charges that they want to enforce. Same with the "bought a concession ticket and didn't display it" in your second 'offence'.

The Sticky that pogofish mentions is at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4816822 ; and see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4896178 for wider reading.

Hi,
If I contact the hospital and complain about this, wont that imply I am admitting to the parking ticket charge notice ?

And if I don't contact APCOA, wont they chase me / take me to court ?

As for the concession tickets, it is a large A4 sheet, which is date and comments confirm reasons for concession etc, the dates were from day before, which the APCOA chap would have seen, but ignored, admittely they would have been few hours out of date, but their were a number of them on display, which would have given a clue why the car was parked there.

Hear what you are saying, the APCOA guy was doing his job, but does seem a bit harsh considering the circumstances.

bazster

therealhyper wrote: »

Hi,
If I contact the hospital and complain about this, wont that imply I am admitting to the parking ticket charge notice ?

You complain as the registered keeper that you have received an invoice relating to an unenforceable contractual penalty, allegedly incurred when your vehicle was driven to the hospital in circumstances amounting to an emergency.

therealhyper wrote: »

And if I don't contact APCOA, wont they chase me / take me to court ?

I think what pogofish meant was don't telephone APCOA. It's pointless, they will say anything to fool or bully you into paying, they are not interested in the circumstances and just want your money. If you read the Newbies sticky you will see that there is a right way to contact APCOA. They are very easy to beat, but as far as I can see you've received nothing in the post yet. Wait until you do, and then appeal each fake fine separately.

APCOA doesn't do court, it's all bluff and bluster.

therealhyper

bazster wrote: »

You complain as the registered keeper that you have received an invoice relating to an unenforceable contractual penalty, allegedly incurred when your vehicle was driven to the hospital in circumstances amounting to an emergency.



I think what pogofish meant was don't telephone APCOA. It's pointless, they will say anything to fool or bully you into paying, they are not interested in the circumstances and just want your money. If you read the Newbies sticky you will see that there is a right way to contact APCOA. They are very easy to beat, but as far as I can see you've received nothing in the post yet. Wait until you do, and then appeal each fake fine separately.

APCOA doesn't do court, it's all bluff and bluster.

Hello,
so shall I wait to recevie some notification from APCOA before I contact the hospital, or shall I contact them now? (sorry just want to be sure).

Yup, I have not recevied anything in the post yet, just the little yellow envelope they stuck on my windscreen.

bazster

Get the letters ready now, send them as soon as the postal notices arrive from APCOA, and then concentrate of sending your challenges to APCOA as per the Newbies thread.

Nuffy2

Realy not sure how this works but i have been reading endlessly all these posts.

My son (21 years old) parked his car for 6 days in a road that he thought had no parking restirictions, because he could not find a spot in his own parking permit area. He got 6 PCNs when he returned 6 days later.

He immediately emailed Apcoa on 19 November naively asking for mercy. He explained he is a poor university student and there were no signs anywhere, even the civil enforcement officer he met that had issued the tickets said so, and had he realised he was not parked legally he would not have left his car there for 6 days, etc etc.

Naturally Apcoa have written back (on 20 November) saying they will reduce the charges from £70 to £35 per ticket (6 tickets) to be paid with in 14 days. The first ticket was issue on 10 November, the last on 15 November.

So in true young naive style, my son has worked out that he has one day to pay and has asked me if i can lend it to him. I have frantically read all these notes and am now asking has he blown it? He has revealed his name as the driver (i am the registered keeper) which i have read is the first mistake. He has pretty much admitted he was in the wrong but does put up a good case for poor signage which is definitely the case. I THINK it is a private road - only got signs either end of the (long) road saying it was a 'parking permit zone - but no signs up the length of the road.

Any advice at this stage? I feel he needs to pay it becuase i can see that the correct procedures have not been followed according to the advice here on MSE. But £210 is huge money!!!

Coupon-mad

You've posted on someone else's thread. Use the FORUM JUMP on the right here and click GO, to get to page one. Then read the Newbies thread. If he has a POPLA code he has another 2 weeks to appeal to POPLA and will win with our words - not his.

He would be a MUG if he pays a private PCN, don't even THINK about it. Did he forget how to Google or something?! It amazes me people pay these.

But wait - I have just noticed you said 'a road' and APCOA act for Councils sometimes - so look at one of the PCNs - is it a PARKING charge notice from APCOA or a Penalty Charge Notice form the Council with APCOA acting as agents?? The amount sounds like a real Penalty x 6 from the Council which, if the car was not moved in the meantime, can normally be appealed successfully and reduced down to one PCN (not 6).

I THINK it is a private road - only got signs either end of the (long) road saying it was a 'parking permit zone - but no signs up the length of the road.

Could be Council. The PCNs will tell you so look at them properly and tell us whether it's a PENALTY notice or not. Please explain IN YOUR OWN NEW THREAD on page one - I've told you how to get to page one.

DO NOT ANSWER HERE PLEASE, THIS ISN'T YOUR THREAD.