Already made an appeal and acknowledged myself as the driver - Excel Parking

carlogesualdo

Hi there,

I have just read the NEWBIES page, and have a few questions and seeking reassurance and advice. Apologies if I ask something obvious or that has already been answered.

I'm at the 'debt collector letter' stage, and I've read enough of the NEWBIES page that I know I should ignore it.

Firstly, I realise now that I have obviously made a mistake in acknowledging that I was the driver in the appeal. I parked at a car park for 4 hours without paying, got back to my car, realised I hadn't paid, so I bought a ticket retrospectively to cover my time before I left the car park (I owed the landowner money for my parking, I thought that was reasonable). Obviously the parking people caught me on ANPR and didn't care about my explanation. I have learned a lesson.

After getting their appeal rejection, I returned to the car park to have a look at the signs, and there are no signs whatsoever in the back stairwell, and indeed some of the doors leading to that stairwell don't have signs either so I feel like I can argue that there is no contract here, and indeed since I actually bought a ticket, the only contravention is their 10 minute grace period policy. I parked in that car park multiple days that week and have all the tickets if that matters.

Am I too late to complain to POPLA and is it worth it?

Honestly, I'm worried about fighting this further since I'm about to have a baby and want to focus on being a parent and not messing around with these shysters.

Any advice very welcome. The parking people in question are Excel. Apologies again if I'm asking anything that I should have already read somewhere.

Many thanks

Half_way

Whos car park was this?

carlogesualdo

Excel Parking

KeithP

You cannot appeal to PoPLA. Excel Parking Services Ltd are an IPC Accredited Operator so any second level appeal would be with the IPC.

carlogesualdo

Is it worth appealing to IPC?

KeithP

carlogesualdo said:

Is it worth appealing to IPC?

No.                 

carlogesualdo

If this went to court, is there any grounds for me to actually win? How much more would I have to pay if I lost?

Gr1pr

There are always grounds for a defendant to win on, various legal reasons, but it's up to the judge, not us, but we will assist you if necessary 

A typical loss in court for a single PCN is about £200 in total 

carlogesualdo

Thanks very much for your response Gr1pr, I'll see what happens

carlogesualdo

Since my last post, I decided not to capitulate. I received another letter from the bailiff people which I promptly ignored. Since then, I have received a 'Letter of Claim' from DCB Legal. I found the forum post that details how DCB Legal operate, which is reassuring: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1 and should this case discontinue I will link this thread back to that one.

I'm not necessarily asking for further assistance at this stage, but I am just posting where I'm at in the process, in case it may help anyone in the future who finds this thread and is going through a similar battle. That being said, if someone with knowledge reads this and sees that I am doing something wrong, correction would be much appreciated, but I believe this forum has made my next steps clear. The only thing I was unsure of was what benefit there was to adding my reasons for disputing the claim to my 'LoC' response? The Newbies thread implies it is optional but doesn't explain why I should or should not elaborate. "You can briefly state your reasons for disputing..."

I intend to send the template from "Pre-action stage:" for responding to letters of claim from the 2nd post of the Noobies thread with an additional paragraph and a bit explaining why I am disputing. The additional paragraphs I intend to send are as follows:

I am disputing the alleged debt for the same reasons that I initially argued in my appeal to Excel Parking Services, but also owing to signage that does not meet the IPC Code of Practice to which Excel Parking Services Ltd are bound.

Again, please do not send me blather that the signage is compliant; I have read the IPC Code and have been to the car park and I am confident that it is not.

I intend to send this to info@dcblegal.co.uk close to the 30 day deadline in order to maximize my time since I don't want to have to mess around finalising a defence when my child has just been born.

Then I shall await the next steps...

Coupon-mad

Looks fine.

And do report DCB Legal to HMRC when they reply about VAT (search the forum for a line from their reply template).