Athena Lidl ANPR

borntodj

Hello All,

Firstly thanks in advance for all the great information on this site about these parking charges.

I have received a parking charge notice from Athena for parking at Lidl, didn't realise that they needed a number plate, none of the Lidl shops I usually use have this requirement.

The car is leased and the NTK was sent to the lease company followed by a notice to hirer to my home address, all within the required time periods.

Looking at paragraph 13(2) of POFA schedule 4 it says that the lease company must give the creditor statement that the car was hired, a copy of the agreement and a copy of the signed statement of liability. The "Notice to Hirer" letter from Athena specifically states that all 3 are attached.

Looking at the letter from the lease company, they have provided the first statement that it has been hired to me. They have then given a lease number but have refused to give a copy of the lease for confidentiality and commercial reasons. They have also confirmed that they have a copy of the liability declaration in their possession but haven't disclosed it.

Strictly speaking does this mean that Athena haven't complied with the POFA and the charge is then invalid 28 days after this letter?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Danny

Umkomaas

The technical stuff on PoFA is rather academic at this point. It would be pertinent if you had access to POPLA to appeal your PCN, where non compliance with PoFA would generally see your appeal being upheld.

Unfortunately, Athena joined the IPC last year and you do not have access to POPLA. The IPC version is the IAS where virtually no motorist's appeal is upheld, so we don't advise anyone following that appeal route.

The technical stuff would be of help should this ever get to court, where you would receive a much fairer assessment of things by a judge. Athena have never previously sued in the county court, but they do have the balance of 6 years to do so, past performance is no guarantee of how they will behave in future.

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Athena_ANPR.html

You need to send in an initial appeal to Athena (the IPC version from the NEWBIES FAQ sticky) to show you are following due process with them. It is inevitable the appeal will be rejected. You will be offered the IAS, but we don't recommend appealing there.

Athena will then instruct debt collectors to send you 'scary' letters (some in red ink!), but all of these are ignorable; debt collectors are powerless, restricted just to sending letters, they cannot take things further.

Your plan of attack must be direct with Lidl. If you are a genuine customer, show them that by letting them see receipts, bank/cc statements proving patronage. Tell them that the inconsistency in the approach at the store you shopped at which needed (unbeknown to you) the input of VRM details, compared to all other Lidl stores you have patronised which had no such requirements, has caused the harassment of a genuine (but possibly, depending on their response, a former) customer.

Ask them why you were not informed/reminded of this by their till staff, who, by serving you, knew you were a genuine customer and owed you a duty of care to prevent you falling foul of this non-standard VRM trap.

Be assertive!

Coupon-mad

Lidl's CEO is the person to email - this is covered in all other Athena threads, so search this board for 'Athena Lidl CEO'.