Civil Enforcement Ltd - KFC

AHZ3WW

Good evening

I'm hoping someone on the forums is going to be able to shed abit of light, I've been reading various posts but can't seem to make much sense of what I should be doing at the current stage of my parking charge.

I received a Parking Charge Notice dated 3rd March 2017 for parking in a KFC car park on 25th Feb 2017 whilst I attended a birthday meal at Frankie & Benny's - it's Birstall Retail Park in Leeds so anyone from the area will know that trying to get parked on a Saturday night is an absolute nightmare. I was also running late so didn't actually notice / check for any parking signs displayed in or around the car park. I was parked from 17:41 til 20:03 which is well over their "Maximum 75 minutes free parking" rule.

After reading up on the internet, I took advice to ignore this letter. Which I now know to be the wrong decision, I received a "Final Reminder Before Legal Action" (Second letter) dated 3rd April advising that it's too late to pay the reduced charge of £60 and now the full £100 was due. Again, I chose to ignore this letter.

I have now received a "Letter Before Action" dated 11th May giving me 14 days to pay the outstanding debt which now totals £140.00. I did choose to ignore for the first few days but then came across an up to date forum post stating that I should not ignore these letters and that I should send an email / letter to them which is as follows;

I challenge this 'PCN' as keeper of the car.

I believe that your signs fail the test of 'large lettering' and prominence, as established in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis. Your unremarkable and obscure signs were not seen by the driver, are in very small print and the terms are not readable to drivers.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. You must either rely on the POFA 2012 and offer me a POPLA code, or cancel the charge.

Should you obtain the registered keeper's data from the DVLA without reasonable cause, please take this as formal notice that I reserve the right to sue your company and the landowner/principal, for a sum not less than £250 for any Data Protection Act breach. Your aggressive business practice and unwarranted threat of court for the ordinary matter of a driver using my car without causing any obstruction nor offence, has caused significant distress to me.

I do not give you consent to process data relating to me or this vehicle. I deny liability for any sum at all and you must consider this letter a Section 10 Notice under the DPA. You are required to respond within 21 days. I have kept proof of submission of this appeal and look forward to your reply.

I have also contacted a supervisor at the KFC store and customer service representative at the KFC head office but both have informed me that they have no control over these parking tickets and suggest that I contact the PPC directly.

I'm just after abit of advice on whether this is the correct action to take and if there's anything further that I could do to get this charge dropped.

Many thanks,

A

Coupon-mad

Yes, send that and it might stop them bothering with a claim. If you have sent it in March, the PCN would have been cancelled the same month. Never mind, you live and learn.

But if they do send a court claim then you will have seen from all the other CEL defence/claim threads, what the outcome always is! Surely...?!

AHZ3WW

Thanks for your reply, I haven't heard anything back yet and hope I do before the 14 days from their most recent letter expires.

I haven't received any evidence from CEL to support the parking fine as it costs £10.00 to request this which seems bit comical.

Do you think I could be too late in sending the first steps of my appeal to them as it's coming up on 3 months since the "incident"

The_Deep

Hang on, you parked in a KRC car park, in order to dine elsewhere. You then ignored all correspondence. Is it any wonder companies employ these parasites.

AHZ3WW

What's Infra dig? ��

It's a retail park but technically yes it's KFC section but was at F&B as car park is absolutely rammed on a weekend / evening.

The_Deep

The wrong word, which is why it was deleted immediately. It means beneath one's dignity.

AHZ3WW

Hmmm I'd say thanks for your reply but I'm not sure of the intention behind your post

Coupon-mad

AHZ3WW wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, I haven't heard anything back yet and hope I do before the 14 days from their most recent letter expires.

How does that matter? Stop dancing to their tune - forget their daft 'deadlines'. They are highly unlikely to respond quickly and may well start a claim.

We always beat CEL. Presumably you have searched & read about how to win this by now.

AHZ3WW

Good news - I received a letter from Civil Enforcement confirming that the parking notice had been cancelled.

Coupon-mad

Yay, well done on showing that even a late appeal can get CEL to fold! Nice one.

Even if they'd tried a small claim they would likely have folded when they saw a robust defence, but your way was far less stressful for you. Nice result!