Advice on parking charge

tomstanway

Hi all, a bit of advice if you could, things have got a little complex. I received a parking charge notice in the post in July having left my car overnight at the tram stop in Sale (not my original intent so I had not checked any signage). I had not originally receieved the parking notice (I can only guess someone had kindly removed it) so had not had chance to respond but all the same the charge had already been bumped up from £60 to £100. I responded to the issuer telling them that I had not received the original notice and that I believed the £100 was not a true reflection of the loss incurred by the landowner.
They responded by saying that they had considered but rejected my appeal and I now had the option of appealing with POPLA which I did. This was then followed by an email back from POPLA saying 'As the operation of POPLA is passing from London Councils to Ombudsman Services limited on 1st October 2015, the british parking association has asked us not to register any further appeals.
Your details have therefore been collected and will be passed to Ombudsman services Limited who will contact you as soon as they are able to register appeals, which will be on or after the 14th Septeber 2015. When Ombudsman services contact you they will advise you what you need to do to register your appeal.
In the mean time we have copied this letter to Anchor Security Services Ltd. This will ensure the operator takes no further action to persue the parking charge notice until advised by Ombudsman services limited.'

Well to date I have not heard from the Ombudsman services and I have now been contacted by a debt recovery agency 'demanding' a payment of £160. I sent a message to the issuer of the parking charge explaining the situation , have received no reply and have now had a follow up letter from the debt recovery agency with 'NOTICE OF INTENDED COURT ACTION'

I am at a loss. I think I have followed the appropriate course of action. Can anyonre give me advice on next steps

thanks Tom

enfield_freddy

yes two things spring to mind


1: a robust letter to the BPA , including the letter to say its on a POPLa "hold" , and inc a copy of the letter from the Debt recovery company , when POPLa wrote to the PPC the told them outright NOT to chase the claim whilst it was on hold


2: does that land not come under bylaws , ie railway bylaws?




and 3 , notice the wording from the debt collectors "'NOTICE OF INTENDED COURT ACTION'


please check that wording , does it say "we will suggest to the PPC that he issues a 'NOTICE OF INTENDED COURT ACTION'"


a: the debt collector CANNOT take you to court
b: bull%hit to get you worried

Umkomaas

As per freddy's advice - strong letter of complaint to the BPA with copies of all correspondence AND send the same complaint and copies to the DVLA.

enfield_freddy

Umkomaas , has this site (or similar) come up before and bylaws mentioned , tablet powered so struggling to check outcomes

Redx

not necessarily that sie, but the METROLINK sites have come up in various locations, all with the same outcome, not relevant land

the OP should make the complaint to the BPA as mentioned earlier and then search the forum using suitable search words like tram and metrolink to see the other examples on here (I think they were Care parking)

here are the BPA website details

Anchor Security Services Ltd t/as Care Parking

Umkomaas

I agree with Redx, freddy. Definitely had cases for the Metrolink, but from recollection they were more central Manchester - Redx has a better geographical knowledge of the area than me - mine runs out at the airport!

Redx

we have had them for Derker (near Oldham), plus probably Bury and various places on that Metrolink system , Sale is on the way to Altrincham (the current last stop) but the Metrolink does have a spur to the airport now too, the Sale stop is about halfway between Altrincham and the Stretford stop for Old Trafford at the old Warwick Rd train stop

have a look through this 2015 thread from 6 months ago where I collated various threads plus it has the byelaws link I think too

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5243467

under the old popla they failed on POFA2012 , no keepr liability due to it being "not relevant land"

tomstanway

Hi all. Thanks for your swift responses. I will follow your advice and sent a letter to the BPA, I am interested to know why I should copy the DVLA? Is there a specific department I should send this to there?

In terms of the wording of the letter from the debt recovery agency it says in big bold letters 'Notice of intended court action' but later says 'to prevent this case being recommended to the creditor to commence court proceedings' so thanks, it seems it is just B.S. and an attempt to intimidate.

Thanks also for the advice on the appeal (when I get offerered the chance). Is it OK to use both the arguments in this appeal ie 'bylawas' and 'Not a frue reflection of the loss'?

Tom

Coupon-mad

Try your POPLA code on the website for 'new POPLA' - does it work?

http://www.popla.co.uk/poplahowto

If yes, get on with it!

If no, you need to email new POPLA urgently, with a copy of the confirmation from old POPLA that your intent to appeal was lodged, and tell them you have never heard anything so have been unable to lodge your appeal so far. Ask if they can send you postal forms to appeal that way instead.

Are you sure you did not miss an email from new POPLA between 14th/20th September as they all came out to appellants then and your chance to appeal to new POPLA was in that email.

But try the code to see if it is accepted, if not, then contact them to explain your difficulty; new POPLA are quite flexible.

If your code is accepted do NOT try to fill in all the answers on New POPLA, don't rush! Read the NEWBIES thread post #3 and write a decent POPLA appeal over the weekend and submit it under 'other'.

tomstanway

OK so I contacted POLPA and they have confirmed 'They havechecked their records and my details were not passed to them by London Councils.' so I guess I need to follow the strategy of writing a letter to a 'robust letter to the BPA'. As suggested by Enfiled Freddy.

I will keep you all updated

thanks

Tom