Invalid Parking Charge Notice

Stubbschris

I have received a parking charge notice from National Car Parks Limited. I was reading through this forum and also parking cowboys and came across the following. "Schedule 4 paragraphs 8 and 9 of the PoFA stipulates the mandatory information that must be included in the Notice to Keeper. If all of this information is not present then the Notice to Keeper is invalid and the condition set out in paragraph 6 of Schedule 4 has not been complied with. Failure to comply with paragraph 6 means that the registered keeper cannot be held to account for the alleged debt of the driver." "Details of the discount for payment within 14 days, The Discount should be at least 40% of the full charge under the BPA Code of Practice (applies to BPA Members only)" I decided to check the BPA current rules and indeed it does state that the minimum discount offered must be at least 40%. The charge on the letter I received is £75 and the discounted payment offered is £50. This is only a 33.3% discount. So does this mean that the parking charge notice is invalid and would not be enforceable in court? National car parks limited are members of the BPA and have clearly violated the terms here.

Redx

no it doesnt mean any of those things

nothing makes a current pcn INVALID, its merely an invoice in an unregulated industry (at the moment)

it may well be that if they have failed POFA2012 a judge may decide it cannot be enforced, POFA2012 is not mandatory but creates a higher bar

only a judge can decide

waamo

It is a useful point for POPLA. I had a ticket a few months back that had the incorrect "discount" and pointed it out. Sadly the ppc backed out of having it adjudicated on.

Redx

the OP could report NCP to the BPA for a breach of the current BPA CoP, which wont help with this invoice but as stated its one of many useful appeal points or defence points, if required

The_Deep

Mention it in your complaint to your MP

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

Coupon-mad

Show us your draft POPLA appeal after reading the examples/templates in the 3rd post of the NEWBIES thread.

If you are not at POPLA stage yet then you just send the first appeal template from the sticky thread, to get that POPLA code.