NCP "Pay Later" appears on website for car park but not available in reality - I now have Penalty

L17Limited

On the evening of Saturday the 6th of May 2023 I was booked to do some film extra work, starting at 9am the following morning. The location given was Cambridge Arcade, Southport PR8 1AS.  As I am unfamiliar with Southport I had a look on the internet and found the closest parking was at the NCP Southport Rail Station Car Park.  As there was no finish time given for the filming and from experience working with the same company, I knew it could be from 2 to 12 hours, during which time I would not be able to return to my vehicle, I was looking for a payment option which would cover me for these possible time periods.

I saw at the top of the NCP website page for this carpark a large logo for “Pay Later” so I clicked on this and it says:

"Thank you for choosing to Pay Later. This payment option is available if:

·       You’ve parked in one of our participating ANPR ticketless car parks

·       You haven’t yet paid for your parking session

·       You’ve already driven out the car park

·       It’s within 24 hours of the time you exited the car park - (we now offer a further 24 hours before we may take enforcement action so please ensure you pay within this time)"

This option was ideal for me so I opted to ‘Pay Later’ once I had returned home after a long days work (We finished filming at 8pm.).

When I got home I attempted to use the Pay Later option on the NCP’s website but it would not work for me.  I immediately contact NCP’s Customer Service saying “I used your park Southport Train Station Car Park | London Street today, intending to use your Pay Later function. But now I am trying it, it says that there is 'no invoice' against my vehicle registration. What can I do to pay what I owe?”

I received a reply a reply at approximately 1am on Monday Morning:

“Please accept my sincere apology for the trouble this matter has caused you, I apologise but our Southport London Street is a pay&display car park wherein you need to manually create your parking session on your parkpass app upon arrival and select the duration of your parking session or use the pay machine that is situated inside the car park and payment should be made upon arrival as well. Please be guided that you need to set-up your parkpass app account first prior on entering the car park and I apologise but pay later is not supported for this car park.

Please know that if no payment was made on time then there is a possibility that a Parking Charge Notice would be issued out. For the meantime if you have received a Parking Charge Notice, you need to follow the appeals process on the back of your notice to submit your appeal or use the following link to make an appeal

If you encounter the similar situation on your future parking session, please contact our contact centre on 0345 0507080 and by pressing Option 2 and either myself or one of my colleagues will assist you accordingly. Apologies for any inconvenience or trouble this matter has caused you.

Should you have any questions or clarifications, or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.”

In due course I received a Penalty Charge Notice issued on the 23rd of May relating to the incident of 7th of May which included images of my number plate entering the car park at 90.05 and leaving at 20.04

As suggested by Customer Response Advisor of National Car Parks Ltd I put in an appeal against the Penalty Notice on the grounds that:

·       The information on their website clearly linked the “Pay Later” option with the car park I used.  I even checked that ANPR cameras were in operation so that the NCP would know when I entered and left the car park.

·       There was no way of being aware of the error until I had left the car park and attempted to pay.

·       I had made every effort to pay for the parking immediately I was aware there was a problem.

·       The NCP representative had told me to appeal if I should receive a penalty notice.

 

On the 15th of June 2023 I received the following in an email:

"Re: Parking Charge Notice Number

Site: Southport London Street

Issue date: 23/05/2023

Thank you for your appeal received on 02/06/2023 regarding the above detailed Parking Charge Notice, we have reviewed your case and considered the comments you have made. Your appeal has also been considered in conjunction with the evidence gathered by our Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, which record your entry and exit times. Our records show the notice was correctly issued as your vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms and Conditions of Parking.

We are therefore unable to cancel the Parking Charge Notice as it was issued correctly. We have now extended the discounted payment period by a further 14 days to allow you time to pay the discounted settlement amount.

Please now make payment of £60 to reach us by 29/06/2023 or £100 to reach us by 13/07/2023. We must advise you that once the discounted settlement rate passes it will not be offered again."

 

I am obviously going to appeal to POPLA, but I’m open to any (helpful) comments.

Fruitcake

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner (train operating company or Network Rail) and your MP. Do this before you try PoPLA, but don't miss the appeal deadline.
You should also complain to the BPA about this entrapment site.

Am I right in thinking you gave away the driver's details? Had you not done so this would have been an easy win since the keeper cannot be liable where railway byelaws apply.

Never mind, that cannot now be helped. You should appeal to PoPLA using "frustration of contact" and "contract void for impossibility" as well as all the other points available to you from the third post of the NEWBIES. These should include,

Not the landowner
No standing to issue charges in their own name
Inadequate signage
Anything else relevant

Coupon-mad

You didn't get a 'Penalty' Charge.

We sincerely wish you'd come here before appealing because you only had to do this:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80115467/#Comment_80115467

Now you will have to just ignore it if you lose at POPLA.

You no longer have the 100% win you had open to you as registered keeper, so your appeal will probably lose.  But you don't pay.

No-one pays just because they lose at POPLA.

L17Limited

I'm intending to using the contra proferentem rule in my appeal: The legal doctrine in contract law which states that any clause considered to be ambiguous should be interpreted against the interests of the party that created, introduced, or requested that a clause be included.

I think you can see from the attached that I had good reason to believe that "Pay Later" was an option at this NPC Carpark:

Umkomaas

I'm intending to using the contra proferentem rule in my appeal: The legal doctrine in contract law which states that any clause considered to be ambiguous should be interpreted against the interests of the party that created, introduced, or requested that a clause be included.

You could add that to the standard 'Signage' POPLA appeal point (NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post), but POPLA assessors fight shy of anything that they don't (or won't) understand. But you must add the impossibility of reading all the guff on the plethora of signs, all in one place, you show in your photo. Confusion and misunderstanding guaranteed. 

Use all the other available appeal points and you might find that NCP throw in the towel and withdraw their charge. No guarantees, you need to go through the process to find out. If you don't succeed at POPLA, it's no reason to pay this, not at all. 

Taiko

For a bit of help, and in the interests of a bit of balance, this doesn't look like was one of their pay later car parks. 

This is a sign at one of theirs near to me, and I can't see that on the signage you posted. I know the error you mean though about no invoices found, as I've had the same and got my own PCN's. Signage indicates on my case that you either pay at the machine/using app before leaving, or online after you have driven out of the car park. I drove out, got the error of no invoices found, and got the PCN. Appealed as registered keeper, rejected, submitted the appeal to POPLA with screenshots of all, again as RK, and NCP withdrew before adjudication. 

The others on here will be able to assist on other appeal points already posted. I think though you might run into issues with just the Pay Later option on their website. 

L17Limited

I've checked with Merseyrail and they say NCP own the site.

I've complained to BPA and they have referred me to POPLA

I'm not finding it easy to navigate to other posts. How do I easily get to: this FAQ section?

"You could add that to the standard 'Signage' POPLA appeal point (NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post), but POPLA assessors fight shy of anything that they don't (or won't) understand. But you must add the impossibility of reading all the guff on the plethora of signs, all in one place, you show in your photo. Confusion and misunderstanding guaranteed."

Coupon-mad

It's under every reply I make...

L17Limited

Here we go then - After the full story I'm planning to submit this:

I believe NCP should cancel the Parking Charge Notice on the grounds of Contra Proferentem, that the terms and conditions of parking as published by NCP are not clear and is misleading.

I made every effort to comply with the NCP’s terms and conditions for payment of my parking session as I understood them from the information published by NCP.

 NCP have made no effort to warn customers that the ‘Pal Later’ option is not available at all sites where ANPR is in operation.

 The phrase used on the NCP website “This payment option is available if: You’ve parked in one of our participating ANPR ticketless car parks” does not indicate how to identify which NCP Car Parks are “ANPR ticketless car parks” or how to identify which NCP car parks that have ANPR do or do not offer the  “Pay Later” option.  The only warning on the NCP's Pay Later webpage is “Please note: our Pay Later functionality is not compatible with older internet browsers...”.

I made every possible effort to pay for may parking session within the terms and conditions as I understood them, but NCP would not accept the payment. (I contacted NCP’s Customer Service Department immediately I discovered that there was a problem making a payment with their Pay Later option, but they were unable to take a payment from me. Despite this being well withing 24 hours of the time you exited the car park as stated in their terms and conditions.)

 It is a ridiculous situation that the only way to find out that the ‘Pay Later’ option is not available is when you exit the car park and try to make a payment. This feels like ‘entrapment’.  Where there is an ambiguity in the ‘contract’ NCP should be proactive in making the situation clear. I note that even after notifying NCP that by including the ‘Pay Later’ symbol at the top of the details for Southport Rail Station Car Park they clearly give the impression that this option is available, they have not made any alteration to the website or added a prominent caveat to remove the ambiguity.

Coupon-mad

That's not a POPLA Appeal as shown in the NEWBIES thread 3rd post. It will lose.

‘Pal Later’ is a typo.

L17Limited

The one headed "12 January 2014 at 8:43PM edited 26 July 2018 at 11:33AM

SECOND STAGE APPEAL - POPLA OR IAS POPLA IS OFFERED BY BPA AOS FIRMS"?