APCOA station car part penalty notice - autopay didn't work

specificus

Hi all,

I did read the newbie guide, but I still have questions!

I've just received a penalty notice (by mail) from APCOA. It is for parking at a station car park in Surbiton. The notice says the car park is railway property.

They have recently installed cameras and have pictures of me entering and leaving.

Now the issue is, I've been parking there on and off fairly regularly and at one point noticed that they automatically charged me at the end of the day which was fine with me. So I just assumed that's what's going to happen going forward and since then parked there twice more and haven't even opened the app as I'd assumed it'll just go through.

Clearly not. I'd just checked my RingGo app setting and autopay was NOT enabled, even though I know I was charged automatically before.
I'm certain there's another penalty notice coming my way.

What would be the best way forward here? Appeal stating the above (that the app has charged me before so it's not my fault it didn't on this occasion) or ignore and hope they'll time out after 6 months?

Thanks

Le_Kirk

Same as any APCOA just appeal AS KEEPER,  not mentioning who was driving. Use the standard appeal found in blue text in NEWBIE sticky. Also search for and read any other APCOA threads.

Umkomaas

Just a basic check - can you confirm the letter is headed 'Penalty Charge Notice', not 'Parking Charge Notice'?

D_P_Dance

As they are taking payment and not providing  service they are in breach of contract.  Take the matter to Trading Standards and complain to your MP.

specificus

Umkomaas said:

Just a basic check - can you confirm the letter is headed 'Penalty Charge Notice', not 'Parking Charge Notice'?

It says "Penalty Notice", not even penalty charge notice.

Coupon-mad

Ignore it.

Nothing will happen and it times out in 6 months (NB: this timeline is only the case with private firms issuing PENALTY NOTICES. not parking charge notices which must also NOT be paid - all the time this industry remains unregulated - but unlike this one, parking charge notices use contract law and thy can bother people for 6 years).

Ask Ringo why a transaction went through automatically on xxx date but not on yyy date for the same location.  Tell them the first transaction was correct so you are not disputing it, but why did the 'autopay' that worked once, then become disabled.  Can they please explain what happened because you were expecting the 'autopay' system to work again on yyy date and instead it turns out it had reverted to 'not enabled'.

You should get to the bottom of what happened.  No phone calls though, obviously.

specificus

Coupon-mad said:

Ignore it.

Nothing will happen and it times out in 6 months (NB: this timeline is only the case with private firms issuing PENALTY NOTICES. not parking charge notices which must also NOT be paid - all the time this industry remains unregulated - but unlike this one, parking charge notices use contract law and thy can bother people for 6 years).

Thanks very much. So you're saying simply ignore it (not even appeal?) as per previous advice in this thread because of it being a penalty notice, not a parking charge.

Good point re: contacting RingGo, I'll see what can be done (separately to the penalty). I've had bad experience appealing autopay not going through before with NCP car parks, they just said well it's not been activated and you have to pay (albeit a reduced charge as a "goodwill gesture") even though I remember going through the motions setting it up and activating, but there's just no way to prove it. 

Coupon-mad

Up to you. Ignore, or appeal then ignore!

specificus

Right, so I've appealed with standard wording on the last day of the deadline. Here's what I received. What are my next steps? Ignore and let it time out, or go to POPLA?

Thank you for your appeal received DATE against the above Penalty Notice. Having carefully considered the

evidence provided by you, we must advise your appeal has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Please note, this is a Penalty Notice issued on Railway land as a breach of the terms and conditions of parking has

occurred, you are the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and therefore you are liable for this Notice.

The Railways byelaws state:

In England and Wales

(i) The owner of any motor vehicle, bicycle or other conveyance

used, left or placed in breach of Byelaw 14(1) to 14(3) may be

liable to pay a penalty as displayed in that area.

For further clarification, the owner, in relation to a vehicle, means the person by whom the vehicle is kept, which in the case

of a vehicle registered under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (c. 22) is presumed to be the person in whose

name the vehicle is registered. If the Penalty Notice remains unpaid, APCOA Parking is entitled to pursue you as the keeper

through the Magistrates Court by way of a private criminal prosecution for payment of the Penalty Notice.

This penalty notice was given for 'Use of Private Car Park without making a valid payment'. There is adequate signage

upon entry and throughout this car park. All payment options are advertised on site and multiple signs within the car park

inform drivers that they will be issued with a Penalty Notice if they fail to make a valid payment for the duration of their stay.

The photographic evidence shown above was taken by ANPR cameras when the vehicle entered and exited the site.

The ANPR cameras captured your vehicle entering the car park at: TIME and leaving at: TIME. During this time, no valid

payment was matched to your vehicle.

At the time the ANPR cameras observed the vehicle they noted that it had used the car park without a valid payment,

therefore it was parked in breach of the terms and conditions of the car park and a Penalty Notice was issued. It is the

motorist’s responsibility to ensure that they read the terms and conditions on the signage in the car park and that they have a

valid payment for the entire time that they use the car park.

There is a 20-minute free parking period at this location which allows for dropping off and picking up. Motorists that use this

car park for longer than 20 minutes are required to purchase a valid parking session.

As your vehicle was parked in contravention of the terms and conditions of the site we are satisfied that the notice was

correctly issued in accordance with the BPA code of practice, and therefore not able to waiver the charge on this occasion.

Therefore you now have a number of options:

Pay the Penalty Notice at the discounted price of £50 within 14 days. Please note that after this time the Penalty Notice will

increase to £85.

How to pay

Online at https://pcnpayments.apcoa.co.uk

Or send a Cheque or Postal Order made payable to APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd to: APCOA PARKING, PO BOX 222,

LOWTON WAY, HELLABY, SHEFFIELD S98 1NX.

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure. You now have the option to make an appeal to POPLA -

The Independant Appeals Service. You can do this within 28 days of this letter by completing the online appeal form at

https://www.popla.co.uk quoting the verification reference number 0510243030. Please be advised that if you opt for

independent arbitration of your case, the Penalty Notice will be considered at the full amount of £85. If you require a hard

copy of the POPLA form please contact our customer service centre on 0345 301 1151 where one of our customer service

agents will be happy to assist you.

By law we are also required to inform you that Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org/) provides an

alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal. However, we have not chosen to

participate in their alternative dispute resolution service. As such should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA,

as explained above.

If you choose to do nothing, we will seek to recover the monies owed to us via our debt recovery procedures and may

proceed with Court action against you.

Coupon-mad

Get closer to the 6 month time-out by responding slowly.

Just calculate day 32 from the date of that rejection letter and diarise to bung in a POPLA appeal on that day, copied from another APCOA Railway Penalty POPLA appeal.

Fruitcake

APCOA tell lies. Imagine my surprise.

A driver can, an owner may, but a keeper can never be held liable for a railway byelaws offence.
There can never be any assumption in law that a registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver or owner.