NCP PCN's and Dash parking app -Ticket cancelled :)

jimthediver

So, parked at a London Underground station car park at about 0830 one morning and ran to get on the tube (was running late). When I got into work at about 0900, I loaded up the Dash parking app and paid for my days parking - total cost of £5, plus 10 p for the privilege of being informed my parking was "active" (no opt out on the texts sadly!!!).

Returned to my car that evening, to find that I had been given a PCN by NCP at 0845 for not paying for parking!! :mad: As you can imagine, I wasn't impressed. But, having been a fan of this site for over a decade, this is where my moneysaver brain kicked in. I took photos of all the parking signs around the car park - including those that state "Have you paid and displayed?"

Now this is where the Moneysaving attention to detail kicked in - there is NOTHING on any signage in the car park to say when you have to pay, if you are paying using the Dash payment app!!!!

So, nothing ventured, nothing gained

I researched and wrote the following letter, which I have adapted into a template if anyone else wants to give it a go:

National Car Parks Limited
Notice Processing
PO Box 839
Northampton
NN4 4AL

Dear Sir / Madam

PCCN number: (PCN NUMBER)
Vehicle registration number: (INSERT REGISTRATION)

You issued a PCCN to my vehicle on (DATE) but I believe it was unfairly issued and I will not be paying your demand for payment for the following reasons:

• There was insufficient signage
The car park in question has no clear signage to explain what the relevant parking restrictions are when paying by the use of the Dash parking mobile phone app. The signage displayed within your car park does not state that customers are required to pay before leaving the car park or within a specified time period from entering the car park, when using the app. This means no contract can be formed with the landowner and all tickets are issued illegally. Please see attached evidence, 4 photos showing the relevant sections of signage within the car park, I have gathered as proof. Please note – none of the signage clearly states the time period in which a customer is required to pay the full parking fee when using the Dash app. I would draw your attention to the following legal summation that contract conditions must be 'drawn to his attention in the most explicit way'
(Lord Denning, Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd [1971] 2 QB 163, Court of Appeal):
'The customer is bound by those terms as long as they are sufficiently brought to his notice beforehand, but not otherwise. In {ticket cases of former times} the issue...was regarded as an offer by the company. That theory was, of course, a fiction. No customer in a thousand ever read the conditions. In order to give sufficient notice, it would need to be printed in red ink with a red hand pointing to it - or something equally startling.'

• The fee is disproportionate
According to the Unfair Consumer Contract Regulations, parking charges on private land must not exceed the cost to the landowner during the period the motorist is parked there. In my case, the £100 charge you are asking for far exceeds the cost to the landowner of £5. As the fee is £5 per day, I would need to have been parked for 20 days to justify this level of charging being applied.

• I have paid the full days parking fee
I paid the full days parking fee, using the Dash parking app, at (TIME)hrs on (DATE). Order number: (DASH PAYMENT REFERENCE). National Car Parks Limited have therefore received in full the monies owed for the use of the car parking space. As the parking period permitted in exchange for this fee is between 0300 (DATE) and 0300 (DATE), and there is no displayed explicit requirement for customers to pay with the Dash app within a specific time period of entering the car park, I contend that this PCCN was issued both unfairly and unlawfully.

If you choose to pursue me please be aware that I will not enter into any correspondence and this will be the only letter you will receive from me until you answer the specific points raised in my letter.

Yours faithfully,

(INSERT NAME)

I sent this, along with photos of the car park signage to NCP. Un-surprisingly, I never heard anything more from them and when I looked on their online PCN payment system, I discovered the ticket had be cancelled :rotfl:

Whether the arguments I put forward are actually legally sound, or whether they just gave up because it would cost them more to pursue me than write off the debt - who knows (or cares!).

Hope this helps someone else out there, HIHO!:beer: