UKPC/DRP/Resolver/POPLA

helpadviseneeded

Good Evening All

I hope someone can give me some guidance.

I have read through some of the posts and will try to keep it short as not sure how much detail you need to get a gist of what is going on. Apologies if I am in the wrong place.

My husband works for a company that are in a shopping centre. He parks in the same place every day and received a PCN around Christmas time for not displaying his valid permit. He came back to the car and it seems that his permit had blown off the dash.

It was UKPC and he appealed on line and explained what had happened and how the centre can confirm he is a store manager and he kept an eye on his emails. He gave his work email address which again verified that he works for that particular company. I have read somewhere that these companies keep an eye on these forums so I am trying not to be too specific.

He heard nothing further and didn't mention it to me as my father was ill in hospital and sadly passed away in early January.
Unfortunately a letter arrived in the post from DRP in the middle of March requesting £160 and threatening cost action.

My husband said he thought it was dealt with so we appealed via resolver detailing everything and included the permit. UKPC responded within a couple of days as:

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your email.
After reviewing your parking charge, I can see that the parking charge has been issued correctly as your vehicle was parked in a permit area without displaying a valid parking permit.

I note your appeal on 28th December you advise you would like the response type to be sent by email, to the email address you had provided within your appeal.

A request for additional information was sent to this email address on 18/01/2017 requesting a copy of your valid parking permit.
As this request was ignored, the decision was based upon the information already provided and a final letter again sent to the email address you had requested on 06/02/2017, advising you of the options available at that stage.

Subsequently this was further ignored, and therefore the parking charge is now with Debt Recovery and we would advise you liaise directly with them regarding this matter.


My husband responded and asked for further clarification as no emails were received and he requested confirmation as to where and when they were sent.
This was on: 23rd March

Nothing further was received from UKPC and they did not reply to Resolver.

The time passed and Resolver stated he can escalate to POPLA.

UKPC was contacted by my husband again on 3rd April confirming we still had not heard and were trying to get this resolved.

Nothing was received so the case was escalated to POPLA on 6th April. They haven't responded at all and further letters have been received from DRP.
The last was on 24th April advising they are willing to reduce the £160 to £136.

We have not contacted DRP and UKPC were informed from the onset that the centre can confirm that the pass is valid and this misunderstanding cleared up. They initially responded via resolver but nothing further was received rom them.

Can someone kindly be direct me to the right place or tell us what the timescales that POPLA adhere to?
Many thanks
Dee

Redx

no idea what half of the above means , like RESOLVER

But what I can tell you is that if UKPC issued a popla code , it would have the date embedded in it and it lasts for 28 days

within that 28 days you have to submit a popla appeal to popla , usually on their website

so the question is , was a popla appeal made using a valid code and within their 28 day appeal window ?

ie:- you dont escalate anything to popla , an appeal is made to the popla website and the ombudsman service deal with it within several weeks

none of your opening post seems to deal with what I said above

but I can only tell you how it works , so if no popla appeal was made in the appeal window you cannot put one in later

helpadviseneeded

Thank you for your reply.

Resolver is a complaints website in association with Moneysaving expert.
UKPC have not issued a POPLA code.

Resolver advised to escalate to POPLA as the timeframe for UKPC to deal had lapsed.

Coupon-mad

I wish you had come here first. I really wish people wouldn't use 'Resolver'. IMHO - from too many posts from people who've wasted their time relying on their too generic template stuff - it's not great!

The time passed and Resolver stated he can escalate to POPLA.

See what I mean? Useless *advice*. You can't escalate a case to POPLA, they are not a regular of parking firms! Of course they didn't reply, this is nothing to do with POPLA. You didn't use the POPLA code they reckon they emailed on 6.2.17 so POPLA isn't an option now.

Please read the top thread 'NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST' back one click where you clicked on NEW THREAD, you needed to read the sticky thread first. Post #4 of it is about tedious debt collector letters and post #2 is about court claim defences (we win 99% of cases and this is NOT a reason to get scared and pay).

The very first piece of advice there says 'ALWAYS COMPLAIN TO THE RETAILER/LANDOWNER'. And he's a Store Manager!

Finally, did Resolver actually tell you ANY useful stuff about UKPC, like this about their winding up petition from HMRC?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/72469248#Comment_72469248

You could try an email complaint to the BPA (they are NOT on your side but they are UKPC's Trade Body) complaining that UKPC have failed to send you a POPLA code, and when challenged UKPC invented an email response from 6.2.17 that didn't exist. State clearly that no POPLA code was ever provided, no email at all until the later exchange. Attach a copy of the PCN and their final reply email (not the laughable DRP letter, forget them, as is covered literally in every place on this forum for a decade, tens of thousands of threads about ignoring them).

BPA email:

aos@britishparking.co.uk

Apart from that (and the BPA may well fob you off), why hasn't he simply asked the landowner/Managing agent to cancel the PCN? He is Store Manager and should be 100% familiar with how to cancel these for customers who surely complain about this protection racket all the time? He's a Store Manager, get it cancelled! Who does he think let UKPC in there...it is the site Managing Agents, one email away. Send them a simple email (or better still, get another Deputy Manager with a different surname to ask the landowner/agent to cancel it, so it's not obvious it's his own PCN being asked to cancel).

People need to wise up and NOT appeal like this ever again:

It was UKPC and he appealed on line and explained what had happened

Oh dear.

Redx

POPLA wont have anything to do with this because no popla code was issued and no popla appeal was put into them via their website either

you do not escalate anything to POPLA, they are currently the OMBUDSMAN SERVICE appointed by the BPA

I am not surprised that they have not replied as they have no jurisdiction

budwyza

get your husband as store manager to write to them and write off the ticket, they wont know who it is surely. DRP are toothless anyway, cant take legal action.

Coupon-mad

Yes as I said, surely any Store Manager knows to do this for customers every day of the week anyway? No customer should ever be turned away by a Store Manager when complaining about one of these crappy PCNs, so the Store manager themselves must know what the (simple) procedure is to contact the Site agent and cancel it.

helpadviseneeded

Thank you to all that have replied.

My husband has advised he spoke to the centre management immediately and they stated its out of their hands and to liase with UKPC.

It is a car park for staff that work in the centre and for deliveries to come in.
He has worked for the company for 2 years but had only been at this particular store for 6 weeks, so he is not that familiar with the centre management, so they may have just fobbed him off as he was only meant to be covering in that store for a few weeks.
He is however still there and will be for the next 6 months.

Coupon-mad

My husband has advised he spoke to the centre management immediately and they stated its out of their hands and to liaise with UKPC.

They're lying.

UKPC are ex-clampers who do not own the car park and are contracted by the landowner via the managing agents. Don't speak to a manager, do it by email and get another manager (another surname so there is no connection to the appellant, your OH) to clarify who contracts with UKPC and can cancel these. If the site manager doesn't know, who does?

helpadviseneeded

Will contact the centre in writing and update you accordingly.
Many thanks for all that took time out to respond.

helpadviseneeded

The centre have finally responded as:

We terminated the contract with UKPC earlier this year for this reason, people who had permits were getting tickets and they would not allow us to cancel them.

As UKPC will not cancel the tickets with my authority I can only suggest that manager takes the matter to the BPA. (British parking association)

I am happy to send supporting documentation if I can help in anyway.


In the meantime Zenith have wrote to my husband stating they are now representing UKPC.

Should we contact BPA as suggested by Coupon- mad now?