Parking company ignores its own appeals process

mrportman

Hi all,

I have searched and not found anything quite like this case - if there is that would be a relief, so please signpost me there.

So - I got a 'parking ticket' on 16 November which I disputed because I was parked on a side road with no yellow lines or parking signs on it. I followed the parking company's (Capital Car Park Control) online appeals process and heard nothing further.

11 weeks later on 5 February I got a notice to driver (not keeper) chasing payment so I got in touch with them to say I still haven't heard the outcome of my 'appeal' and that if I did not hear back from them in 7 days I would consider the matter closed.

On 21 February I got a letter before action so I wrote to them yet again to remind them I had heard nothing about my appeal. I also made a subject access request to see what records they hold about me and where they got them from because logically their letter to driver can only be generated from data I gave them in my appeal.

Then on 12 March I got a letter from a debt collection agency reading that they would recommend court action if I didn't pay them within X days. I also wrote to THEM explaining where we are with the 'appeal'

My question is, after all that,where do I stand if they do try to take me to court? If the parking company haven't followed their appeals process then I can't take my appeal to the next level (they are members of BPA so it would be POPLA) so surely court action can't succeed?? Can it???

Thanks,

M

nosferatu1001

Of course court action can succeed. Its an invoices. Invoices do not have any stat requirement to have an "appeals" process.

I presume the drivers identity was revealed? Just say YES or NO, with NO OTHER INFO, as a response to this question.

mrportman

Thanks, but I'm not sure that you have that right. The 'appeals' process is set out in the company's own literature as part of its membership of a trade body; and in statute in (schedule 4 of) the Protections of Freedoms Act. This issue is fundamentally not the payment of an invoice but whether they are behaving reasonably within the terms of the presumed contract they are seeking rightly or wrongly to enforce.

Yes, the driver's identity was revealed but that is not an issue. My intention at all times was and is to pay the charge if the appeals process is exhausted and the ticket is upheld.

twhitehousescat

one man band , complain to bpa asap , https://bmpa.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203753681-Capital-Carpark-Control

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for alleged breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They nearly always lose, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P.

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind most of these companies may well be put out of business by Christmas.

mrportman

Thank you again - I'm more than happy to go to BPA and my MP. I sincerely appreciate the replies but they do not address my question.

Redx

POFA2012 does not apply to drivers, so is irrelevant

if they failed to follow the initial appeal process and didnt issue a POPLA code, complain to the BPA if they are in the BPA AOS members list (by email with copies of all paperwork and a timeline of events etc)

where do you stand ?

as a defendant in the small claims court, IF the PARKING COMPANY (not the debt collectors) decide to issue an MCOL, on a "charge" of not paying an invoice and as an alleged debtor

we have not seen the "contract" that they have with the landowner or managing agent , so cannot comment on its legality, nor seen the signage etc so cannot comment on that either

KeithP

mrportman wrote: »

My intention at all times was and is to pay the charge if the appeals process is exhausted and the ticket is upheld.

Your intention is misplaced - unless your 'appeals process' includes a County Court Judgement.

mrportman

Many thanks but schedule 4 of the POFA2012 does describe how the driver must be given an opportunity to appeal. POFA2012 allows parking companies to pursue the keeper, which is a new statutory power, but again the point of the post was to ask, if the company does not follow this appeals process, how likely is a court case to succeed? Is there precedent on this? Are there examples or experiences forum members can share of this scenario?

Coupon-mad

My intention at all times was and is to pay the charge if the appeals process is exhausted and the ticket is upheld.

Wow, nonono. So many colours of wrong.

schedule 4 of the POFA2012 does describe how the driver must be given an opportunity to appeal.

Remind us?

Not following an appeals process could be mentioned as unreasonable conduct in defences, and yes, people have asked in their defence for the court to refer the case back to POPLA. And it has happened.

mrportman

Thanks KeithP but firstly it's not MY appeals process it's theirs - again, their failure to follow it prompted my post - and I'm not going to risk a CCJ for £60. If I'm in the wrong (I don't think I am) then so be it.