UKCPS email contact

Largenton

Apologies for this taking so long, but I had more important issues that I had to deal with over the past few days. Here is the letter I sent via the complaints procedure for IPC. I will post the letters to my MP and Sir Greg Knight later. Please note I have erased confidential information.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you concerning UKCPS's breach in the code of practice established by the IPC. Please note that this does not just apply for the two Parking Charge Notices mentioned but for every PCN issued at the Railway Institute (RI) car park. I have clear evidence, which I can provide via email, that UKCPS has breached Section 11 of your code of practice, which also invalidates their invoices to all customers of the Railway Institute car park that they administer. I am also concerned with some of their other practices at this car park which may include predatory behaviour when issuing parking charge notices.

The breach in question is on the parking permits that are issued for valid parking at the RI. These permits have Terms of Use in full that are not mentioned on the signage anywhere else in the car park. These Terms of Use outline what constitutes as a valid permit and provide more detail than the signage in reference to terms and conditions.

On the RI permit, the Terms of Use state explicitly that any breach of these terms will result in a Penalty Charge Notice being issued to the Keeper of the Car. This is in direct violation of Section 11 of your Code of Practice for members. This Section outlines that in no part of company stationary, correspondence or communication that members including UKCPS can refer to their Parking Charge Notices as "fines" or "Penalty Charge Notices", or that they have any government or regulatory powers.

UKCPS have breached your Code of Practice by stating that they can issue Penalty Charge Notices. This is a contract that they have interpreted strictly having rejected appeals due to reasonable mitigating circumstances (see PCNs XXXX & XXXX). UKCPS did drop the charges after an appeal to the IAS, however, these cases were straight forward and could have been decided with an internal appeal. UKCPS also did not issue me a Penalty Charge Notice, but a Parking Charge Notice which was pointed out in the IAS appeal for PCN XXXX which was sent on 22/08/2018. As this has already been pointed out to them in an appeal to the IAS, UKCPS should have been adequately notified about their breach but yet have still failed to address it 5 months on.

I would also like to note that whilst the permit is issued by the RI, the responsibility for ensuring that the permit is valid is entirely UKCPS's according to Part B Section 4.

UKCPS have breached your Code of Practice. They have misrepresented their legal authority (in that they can only issue invoices not fines). They have also been predatory in their behaviour, issuing Parking Charge Notices which have been dubious or that should have been appealed immediately.

I have had five occasions where UKCPS have attempted to issue me with a parking charge at the RI car park. The first was early last year when the RI ran out of parking permits. When I got back to my car one evening I found the parking attendant present attempting to write me a ticket. Whilst he did refrain from doing so as I had returned, he refused to listen to my point that there were no parking permits available from the RI and got rather irate. I later found out that the Site Manager of the RI had also informed him of this fact. I have also heard similar complaints from other users of the RI which whilst I cannot confirm, I am certain that the staff would be able to do so.

Another instance was when my pen ran out one day. I filled the permit out when I returned to the car and when the parking charge notice was sent to me, I sent an appeal with photographic evidence. This appeal was rejected with UKCPS stating there was nothing that they were able to do as the parking attendant had issued it correctly according to the Terms of Use. However, a subsequent appeal to the IAS, along with my observation about being sent the wrong paperwork meant that UKCPS dropped the charges 2 days later.

Finally, the last charge I was sent was XXXX. This charge occurred when I accidentally put the previous day's date on the permit, caused by a poor short term memory which is one of the symptoms of dyslexia, a disability that I have been diagnosed from an early age and have had several assessments. Despite stating that I could provide evidence that I was not present at the RI that day and noting my dyslexia (which under the Equality Act and your Code of Practice they are obliged to make reasonable adjustments for), UKCPS rejected the appeal, despite having no evidence that I had breached the terms of use as the photograph of my permit was too blurry to make out the dates on the permit. Again, a subsequent second appeal to the IAS meant that the charges were dropped.

This behaviour where two reasonable appeals were rejected internally then accepted with an independent body are suspicious. The latter clearly had no evidence of a breach in the Terms of Use as was pointed out to them. Yet the internal rejection suggests that there may be a company policy of rejecting appeals out of hand rather than considering them on merit. This is predatory behaviour and unacceptable according to your Code of Practices.

The evidence here shows clear breaches of your code of practice. Please note that I will be also sending a copy of this complaint to my local MP and Sir Greg Knight as evidence of UKCPS's misdeeds and to support the Parking (Code of Practice) Bill. If you wish for anymore assistance in this matter such as photographic evidence I will be happy to oblige. I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours Faithfully

XXXXX

I will post responses as soon as they are received.

Coupon-mad

Interesting to hear that UKCPS didn't contest several IAS appeals.

Maybe they are on the edge of an abyss and are worth pushing...

Largenton

I have just noticed this.....

Yeah, I thought I might as well keep pushing this as they have been doing some extremely dodgy stuff (I mean they tried to charge me when their photograph had no evidence of violating terms and conditions).

I received a response back from IPC today saying they have forwarded the complaint to UKCPS and are awaiting a response from them. I honestly can't see much they can do as according to the terms and conditions, they have been breaking their own terms and have had notification of this.