POPLA time limit

tptp

Hi everyone,

I received a parking ticket last November, which I did not consider valid but did not follow up either. From this June I received some letters threatening legal action as well as requesting additional money which I feel they are not actually going to take forward but decided taking it to POPLA to stop them sending me letters.

The company have refused to provide me a POPLA code as they say it's in the hands of their solicitors now. The solicitors (Wright Hassall) argue that since I did not lodge the appeal within 28 days of the ticket being issued I am not entitled to a POPLA appeal. Having looked on the website it appears that you have 28 days to lodge the appeal after receiving the code from the company but it does not specify what the time limit is for requesting the POPLA code. The ticket itself states that you may lodge an internal appeal within 21 days from the parking ticket being issued, but this appears to be an arbitrary limit and I am uncertain of its validity or relevance with regards to getting a POPLA code. POPLA do not offer an advice service to clarify this. Do they have a right to refuse me the POPLA code?

I would be grateful for your advice.

Umkomaas

If you don't appeal within the timescale you've one uphill struggle to squeeze a POPLA code, almost to the point of saying it will be impossible to extract one. You don't 'apply' for a code, you are provided one with the rejection of your initial appeal.

New legislation provided for ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) to be made available for 12 months after an event. Check it out, but no one we are aware of has succeeded in invoking this and in any case, if your parking event was last November, you're sailing very close to the line where even the new ADR legislation won't assist.

Which parking company please?

tptp

Many thanks for you advice.

It was comprehensive management services. However they appear to have passed the details onto a debt recovery company called zpss or something who then contacted Wright Hassall. My impression is they may have sold the debt on and these are pressure tactics as I can't see a law firm taking someone to court over a single parking ticket. I don't want this hanging over my head so will challenge them to get a court date asap which I feel I have a strong case to win anyway.

Redx

I doubt it has been passed on or bought by either ZZPS or WH

ZZPS are a DCA and will be trying to get payment, even by sending WH letterheaded papers

the PPC may engage WH to actually issue an LBC and then an MCOL at some stage , in which case ZZPS will have failed and will receive nothing

normall appeal windows following an NTD or an NTK are 21 days for IPC members and 28 days for BPA members

any subsequent ADR is usually 21 days for IPC members (IAS) and 28 days for BPA members (popla)

given this was over a year ago, as mentioned earlier there is little chance of any ADR by the above

chances are you may need to reply to WH if they actually sent the LBC , or ignore and wait for an LBC or an MCOL

CMS are IPC members so there was never any chance of POPLA

Comprehensive Management Services Ltd

03/02/2014

Coupon-mad

tptp wrote: »

Many thanks for you advice.

It was comprehensive management services. However they appear to have passed the details onto a debt recovery company called zpss or something who then contacted Wright Hassall. My impression is they may have sold the debt on and these are pressure tactics as I can't see a law firm taking someone to court over a single parking ticket.

I don't want this hanging over my head so will challenge them to get a court date asap which I feel I have a strong case to win anyway.

They have not sold the debt - and it's not a debt.

Here is the other day's thread exactly the same, we get the same queries every week:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5560037

Most (99% of) cases never go near a court and are best ignored at debt collector threatogram stage. Personally I would wait and see if they try a claim - and 'they' are unlikely to be WH, seeing as their 'letters' are generally from debt collectors.

tptp

Thanks for your inputs, you are right I probably have overestimated their efforts

Judging by the forum this company has been causing quite the stir