Help POPLA rejected appeal.

beniboi1986

Hi - I am a complete Newb to all of this and have made some silly mistakes for reading up on appeals AFTER I had started the process.

First, let me give you a bit of back round about what happened.

I received a ticket from MET on my windscreen for parking at my gym (Virgin Active - Stockley Park) The reason for the ticket was because I didn't have my permit displayed properly.

I appealed that night saying I wasn't going to pay because I was a paying member of the gym and although the permit wasn't displayed correctly I still have one.. Provided proof of permit along with my virgin active membership number.

Surprise, surprise.. They rejected the appeal.. So I appealed again saying I wasn't going to pay for the same reasons.. Rejected again..

I then shopped around for another way to fight these and found something on a forum here.. I then appealed to MET,not POPLA (Big mistake) under the grounds of the following ;

1. Not a genuine contractual fee nor genuine pre-estimate of loss 2. Unreasonable/ Unfair terms.
3. Unlawful Penalty Charge.
4. No landowner contract assigning rights to MET to enforce contracts with drivers
5. No contract formed by the signage

This was again rejected by MET.
I continued to fight with them for some time believing I was appealing under the correct grounds until I realized I needed to appeal to POPLA.

I did this about a week ago but today I received a letter back from them saying I am past the 28 day period allowed for appeals to them.

In my appeal to POPLA I had stated I had appealed a number of times to MET incorrectly, Is there any way to get this over turned?

Can I appeal to POPLA again?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Ben

bazster

You will not be able to take this to PoPLA now.

As regards MET, you are now in ignore mode. They are not litigious, so ignore everything except in the very unlikely eventuality of receiving a letter before claim from MET or it's solicitors, or genuine court papers.

Now concentrate your fire on the gym. Demand that they get this cancelled, and if they refuse or fob you off cancel your membership as soon as you can and find another gym.

beniboi1986

Thanks very much for the reply.

Would you recommend I put anything in writing to my gym?

To be honest, I don't want to cancel my membership as its probably the best gym around and is in a very convenient location for me.

Also, with regards to further letters from MET, if I was to get a letter from their debt collectors, would you recommend me send anything to them to state I'm not paying?

Further more - There's one last thing I forgot to add.. I'm not the owner of the car, it's my girlfriends.. But as I was driving, I appealed the fine.. Does this make any difference to anything?

Redx

yes you should write in strong complaining language to your gym, or their head office

read post #4 of the NEWBIES sticky thread about debt collectors and their letters

if MET know who the driver is then it could go to court over the next 6 years, past performance does not guarantee the future outcome of this, therefore its best to get it quashed by the landowner, even if its empty threats about leaving

beniboi1986

Thanks. I will be writing a letter to both Virgin and Stockley Park who I'm told are the land owners.

Lets just say nothing still gets done & it does go to court.. Would I be liable to pay? And will it affect me in any way? I.E Credit score? Getting a house.. Stuff like that?

The_Deep

Were it to go to court, they would have to prove that either your dastardly deeds cost them or the landowner £££, or that you knowingly contracted to pay them £££ for overstaying, that ther signage was clear and unambiguous, and that such a contract was fair and reasonable and fully conformant with consumer legislation, that v.a.t. was properly accounted for, and that they were fully authorised by the landowner to bring the action in their own name.

A firm such as MET would struggle to jump these hurdles.

bazster

Also, if they did take you to court it would be a first for MET, and you'd be incredibly unlucky to be their guinea pig!

For anything to affect you credit rating the following would have to happen:

(i) they sue you (unlikely)
(ii) they win (even less likely)
(iii) you still refuse to pay (in your hands).

beniboi1986

Excellent - Here's hoping they don't make me their guinea pig then.

I'm going to send the letters I need to the land owner and hope for the best..

Everything else I will just ride out.

Thanks for the comments.

Am I right in thinking if the land owner doesn't budge and the demand notices start to roll in it could take up to 6 years for everything to settle down? Or did I read that wrong somewhere?

Marktheshark

If they took you to court you could counter claim from the gym as they are land holders if this is correct.
Let them sought out who owns what between themselves in court.

People employing PPC's just want the cash and no hassle, getting dragged to court with court cases soon makes them re-think the worth of the contract.

bazster

Theoretically they have up to six years to file a court claim. Most of these companies don't keep sending letters for years, a few months will usually see an end to it. However, some of them (or, more accurately, their toothless debt collectors) do resurrect old cases and send some more empty threatograms years later.

beniboi1986

Thanks again guys.

One last thing, which I commented on earlier.

As I'm not the registered keeper of the car, and I've only written to MET & POPLA as the driver at the time, would it be an idea to have my partner raise an appeal as the registered keeper and go about it all that way? Would POPLA issue another code?

I only ask this to get it out of the way with sooner rather than later?

Rgds
Ben