Proposed Letter to POPLA

HoneyBadger945

Hi all,

I got a £70 invoice from ParkingEye for overstaying by 15 minutes at the Co-Op Rosehill / Aldi car park in Ipswich. I appealed using the template letter on the Newbies thread, but it was rejected. PE responded with:

"You have provided evidence of purchase. However, please be advised that this did not meet the discretionary criteria set by the landowner in this case. We are therefore writing to advise you that your recent appeal has been unsuccessful. This is because you have not provided sufficient evidence to show that you did not break the terms and conditions on the signage."

Here is my POPLA appeal letter:

" Dear POPLA Assessor,

I am the registered Keeper of the above vehicle and I am appealing against the above parking charge. I contend that I am not liable for the parking charge on the following grounds and would ask that they are all considered.

1. A copy of the bank statement clearly demonstrates that the driver had been shopping at Aldi on the day of the alleged breach of contract.
2. The terms and conditions on the signage are not clearly visible.
3. The amount being claimed by ParkingEye does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of loss and no proof was provided of the alleged loss incurred by an overstay of only 15 minutes.
4. My mitigating personal circumstances

1. The bank statements
The bank statements clearly show that the driver is a regular customer and shops at Aldi on a regular basis, as shown on the 13th of July and the 28th of July. (Please see pictures of both of the driver’s bank statements and please note that the transaction for the day of the alleged breach went through on the 29th of July.) The driver finds it outrageous that they would be fined as a regular customer for an overstay of only 15 minutes.

2. Terms and Conditions
ParkingEye do not own the land mentioned in their Notice to Keeper and it is not clearly visible on the signage that they are lawfully entitled to demand money from a driver or keeper. (Please see picture of the signage.) I require ParkingEye to produce a copy of the contract with the landowner as I believe it is not compliant with the BPA’s CoP and, without it, ParkingEye have no legal standing nor authority at this site which could impact on visiting drivers.

3. No genuine pre-estimate of loss
ParkingEye have no basis for claiming the £40 or £70 charge since it could in no way represent the loss they would have incurred for an overstay in a car park by 15 minutes only. In a free car park, the damages would therefore be little or nothing. As such, the £40 or £70 is clearly intended to be a penalty which would be unenforceable under contract law currently. The car park at which the alleged contract breach occurred is “free” and there was no parking charge levied. No damage nor obstruction was caused so there can have been no loss arising from this incident.

4. Mitigating personal circumstances
I am currently facing some difficult financial circumstances and have had to resort to consulting an insolvency Agent and as a result have entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA see picture attached, also publicly available on the IVA online Register ). I am currently living separately to the family home. This unexpected and unfair parking charge will only stretch my already compromised financial situation and put myself under further unduly stress.

I respectfully request that my appeal is accepted.

Thank you for your time."

I was just wondering if this is ok?

Redx

no , for the following reasons

POPLA no longer accept appeals, you have to register the popla code and they will pass it on to the new service, the Ombudsman Service (it tells you this on the popla website)

their website also tells you that mitigation is not allowed for appeals, so I doubt that the Ombudsman Service will allow mitigation either

any appeal has to be on legal arguments only

it would be a reasonable set of arguments to either the landowner or a judge

it should also include

NO CONTRACT
POOR SIGNAGE
any POFA 2012 mistakes too (non compliancy)

Umkomaas

You must mention in any signage and/or contractual appeal point that the 'discretionary criteria' is a hidden clause and the driver (NOT me, myself or I - THE DRIVER) was not made aware of this within the signage that PE argue the terms of which were broken.

If you can get a photo of the signage to include with your subsequent appeal to the Ombudsman Service, that will add weight to your case.

Ralph-y

Have you been back to the store manager / national ceo / face book page .... to ask what the 'discretionary criteria' is .... how do you know it ?

so is it £30.00 what if you only spend £29.00 .... what if you spend £10 4 times a week ?

Keep up the fight

Ralph:cool: