Britannia's response to template letter.

tumbledowngirl

So, I sent the template letter from the sticky post, to appeal against the parking ticket I received from Britannia. My letter was sent following a NTK from them AND a final reminder.

Today, I received a letter from Britannia, informing me they had reduced the charge to £15 as a goodwill gesture, to cover their costs.

Pay it, or ignore?

Fruitcake

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

So, I sent the template letter from the sticky post, to appeal against the parking ticket I received from Britannia. My letter was sent following a NTK from them AND a final reminder.

Today, I received a letter from Britannia, informing me they had reduced the charge to £15 as a goodwill gesture, to cover their costs.

Pay it, or ignore?

Why would you even think of paying this, or ignoring it? If Britannia are BPA members they must have provided a PoPLA code that you then use to make a winning appeal to PoPLA using the info in the NEWBIES thread.

Just checked and they are BPA members so get you down to the NEWBIES thread and concoct your winning appeal. Show the draft here before you submit it.

edward123

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

.

Pay it, or ignore?

Neither. Use the POPLA code and win(by using the winning template in the sticky thread for newbies). And by winning end it there and then and forever and ever, Amen.

tumbledowngirl

Their letter following the NTK informed me that I was no longer able to use the POPLA service, and despite requesting a POPLA number in my soft appeal letter, they haven't provided me with one.

Fruitcake

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

Their letter following the NTK informed me that I was no longer able to use the POPLA service, and despite requesting a POPLA number in my soft appeal letter, they haven't provided me with one.

Then you may have sent the first appeal too late. Have another read of the NEWBIES thread about late appeals.

tumbledowngirl

Fruitcake wrote: »

Then you must have sent the first appeal too late. Have another read of the NEWBIES thread about late appeals.

Yes, my appeal letter was apparently too late - even though a time scale wasn't given in their letter.

I will have another look at the newbies thread, thanks.

Guys_Dad

If you can't get a POPLA appeal, then the PPC will do one of 3 things

1. Go away quietly
2. Set the Debt Collectors to torment you with worthless threatening letters promising a plague of frogs or facial warts or similar.
3. Take you to court any time in the next 6 years.

One of the regulars will confirm the chance of option (3). I don't think they do court currently, but am not sure.

You know how robust you would be in handling debt collector letters, remembering that nothing would appear on your credit record unless option 3 was taken, and you lost, and you didn't pay and got a ccj as a result. If it would worry you to death and cause you lots of grief, £15 isn't a huge amount, so consider paying it. (Sorry Fruitcake and Edward, but sometimes pragmatism is better than principles, depending upon the person)

If you feel strong enough, then continue to ignore, keeping all paperwork, in case of getting Northampton Court papers through.

Fruitcake

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

Yes, my appeal letter was apparently too late - even though a time scale wasn't given in their letter.

I will have another look at the newbies thread, thanks.

Just a thought but if you haven't already named the driver you could do that now and reset the clock. That way you could appeal within the timescales and get a PoPLA code.

Guys_Dad

Fruitcake wrote: »

Just a thought but if you haven't already named the driver you could do that now and reset the clock. That way you could appeal within the timescales and get a PoPLA code.

Good point. Worth trying.

tumbledowngirl

Guys_Dad wrote: »

If you can't get a POPLA appeal, then the PPC will do one of 3 things

1. Go away quietly
2. Set the Debt Collectors to torment you with worthless threatening letters promising a plague of frogs or facial warts or similar.
3. Take you to court any time in the next 6 years.

One of the regulars will confirm the chance of option (3). I don't think they do court currently, but am not sure.

You know how robust you would be in handling debt collector letters, remembering that nothing would appear on your credit record unless option 3 was taken, and you lost, and you didn't pay and got a ccj as a result. If it would worry you to death and cause you lots of grief, £15 isn't a huge amount, so consider paying it. (Sorry Fruitcake and Edward, but sometimes pragmatism is better than principles, depending upon the person)

If you feel strong enough, then continue to ignore, keeping all paperwork, in case of getting Northampton Court papers through.

Thank you very much for this response.
Part of me feels that I should do my bit for the cause and hold out for a complete cancellation of the ticket.
However, I have a chronic illness that is worsened by stress and am already looking at a potential small claims case against a local flooring company, so have enough to be going on with.

I'll give it some careful thought, thanks.

StaffsSW

I've recently had correspondence with the BPA on the refusal to issue POPLA codes, they confirmed to me that there is no time limit on them being issued (besides the 28 days to be used from the date of issue).

The event occurred in January, and I've been "debating" with the PPC since April on this.

Dear StaffsSW,

BPA – xxxxx.

I have investigated your complaint with the operator and can advise as follows.

The operator believed you were out of time to appeal the charge and therefore no POPLA code was issued. I have informed operator that there is no time limit on issuing a POPLA Code and therefore a POPLA Code should be issued on every rejection letter they issue.

Please find attached a copy of the letter xxxxx LTD have sent out to you which confirms your POPLA Verification Code. This will allow you 28 days to appeal to POPLA. If you wish to dispute the matter further, I suggest you submit your appeal to POPLA.

In view of the above, I have closed the investigation.

Thank you for bringing the matter to my attention.

Kind regards,

It's worth emailing the BPA (aos@britishparking.co.uk) with a complaint that the code was not issued. They acknowledged the complaint the following day, and took about 3 weeks to get the above reply.