Apcoa Parking Luton Airport

amihai84

Hi,

I hope that someone could help me please. I have received a ticket from Apcoa for parking at Luton airport back in December, which i have challenged as I have no idea what I have done wrong. They said its for dropping off/picking up outside designated area. As far as i am aware I have not done anything wrong and parked in the right bay and paid £3 for the whole minute I have spent there. My appeal was following the advice i read on this forum.
Anyway my appeal was rejected and, due to personal circumstances, I did not manage to appeal at POPLA on time (I didn't know its as time limit). Now I have received a debt collector letter and they want more money obviously. I don't know what to do as I have never been in this situation and I have never had collection letters , so to be honest I am quite panicked at the moment. I have also tried to pay it on line , but i get the following message:

"This Charge Notice has now been passed to an Enforcement Agent and therefore payment cannot be accepted on this website. Payment must be made directly to the Enforcement Agent and you must refer to any correspondance you have received from them on how payment can be made."

Any advice is highly appreciated from anyone who has been in this situation. I will probably end up paying it as i don't want any negative credit or history and can't deal with collectors. However I find it very unfair as I have honestly did not do anything wrong.
PS. In my appeal I have not admired who was driving the car .

Thank you.

Coupon-mad

Would have been as easy as taking candy from a baby, at POPLA.

100% win. What a waste, especially someone as nervous as you sound, not to have killed it off really really easily at POPLA.

I will probably end up paying it

Don't be daft, no you won't.

You are on MSE - don't be so silly. Wise up. It's only APCOA, who never send anything except letters and cannot hold you liable in law anyway.

They are not going to affect your credit rating, nor can they send anyone round.
This isn't TV, there is no ''Can't Pay, We'll Take it Away'' situation with this scam.

Same advice as this one, also about APCOA, only they wasted their POPLA appeal:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5969757/apcoa-victoria-station

APCOA are a joke! IGNORE THEM.

Redx

let it "time out" after 6 months, nothing to do but IGNORE the debt collector letetrs, because there is nothing they can do, they are powerless and APCOA wont take it further

amihai84

How do you know it will time out?
Sorry , I haven’t been in this situation before, always paid all my parking tickets, but with this one I honestly don’t know what I’ve done wrong 🤷🏻!♀️. After my appeal was rejected, I wrote back to them to ask them to send me pictures with what was done wrong as I was as clueless as before. The only pictures received are the ones on the initial fine, pictures of the car parked in the bay while picking up my sister. All the others were parking just like me, in a picking up/dropping off bay and I have paid a fee at the exit , so have no idea what was done wrong. If I made a mistake and have to pay for it, at least I would want to learn from it. They never got back to me on that and next time I’ve heard from them was with the letter to say I now own them £150.
What if they take me to court and I end up paying more just for being stubborn?

KeithP

amihai84 wrote: »

How do you know it will time out?

Experience.

amihai84 wrote: »

What if they take me to court and I end up paying more just for being stubborn?

That won't happen.


Have you read post #1 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread yet?

The_Deep

You seem to be remarkably ignorant of the scam.

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

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 Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this year..

All five readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 7-8 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

What if they take me to court

APCOA don't do that.

Next time, do the appeals properly and it would have been cancelled. You will get lots of letters demanding money which are ignorable when not a court claim.