PCN already paid - any chance of claim for breach of contract

joelyp

This relates to my 79-year-old father, who received and paid a PCN in Wales (he did not mention it to me at the time - I would have advised him not to pay).
Car park run by One Parking Solution. He entered the small car park on Father's Day in a tourist trap, car park was completely full. Sat waiting for a space for 16 minutes with engine running but no spaces became available, so he drove off. He didn't appreciate the camera system and automation would yield a PCN.

The PCN arrived, and of course it had a huge picture of what appeared very similar to a speed camera on it, and what seemed to him to be rather official and threatening wording. So he paid by cheque.

Having spoken to me since, he is now wishing he had appealed rather than paid.

He did subsequently write to One Parking Solution asking for the fee to be refunded (giving his reasons), and they responded that the ticket had been correctly issued as he had "used the facility". It struck me as odd that One Parking Solution did not simply state that he had accepted the terms and paid and that was the end of it. Can it possibly be argued that their response amounted to entering into an appeal (albeit after having paid), and therefore that a POPLA code should be issued?

Citizen's Advice (yes, I know...) suggested taking action in small claims court on the basis of either breach of contract or there having been no contract (CAB was aware PCN had been paid), but given that the PCN has been paid, is there any mileage there?

I spoke briefly to POPLA in general terms (having no POPLA code), and they said that there was flexibility within Section 13 of BPA code to give more than the 10 minutes of grace period, in appropriate circumstances. I'd suggest that the information my father provided (particularly busy day) and nothing that the latest Google Maps picture of the car park shows it to be full with 2 cars waiting, should be sufficient to show his argument is reasonable.

Any advice greatly appreciated. I have read through the full Newbies advice, but could not find much for situations whereby the PCN had already been paid.

Quentin

Chalk it up to experience and move on

Make sure that he now understands the ways ppcs operate

brewdog

i have a court case coming up registered by premier parks- i am one for fighting these unreasonable excessive charges that they dream up- they have got away with it for too long a time- a district Judge has just thrown out a case in southampton case no F0DP201T for ABUSE OF PROCESS- forget about BEAVIS on this one! parking companies love to threaten with Beavis who lost at the high court regarding overstays bla bla bla, take this to the small claims court and quote the case that judge Taylor threw out against BW legal- as this gains momentum it will snowball and take out the parking companies like a bowling ball-

The_Deep

It is likely that there was no contract and I do not see why such a claim should not succeed. It would largely depend on how a judge feels about these companies conning the vulnerable, (and how vulnerable your father is), and the amount of threats/deceits employed by the scammer.

In my opinion it would not hurt to get your father's MP involved. as nine times out of ten these tickets are scams. This one certainly was.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies. n.