Heathrow APCOA PCN Appeal Denied

sad_woman

Hi
I found and read the 

Group thread for Heathrow and Gatwick drop off PCNs

One family car was used to drop off at LHR
A payment was made to cover the drop off fee of £5 
Unfortunately the wrong car reg was used when making the payment.
This was not realised until the PCN arrived to the car owner via post.

Then, naively, APCOA were contacted and an appeal logged as per their advice on how to resolve the payment detail error. The appeal was rejected because it is the drivers responsibility to enter the correct detail. The charge is reduced though as per ~BPA riles to £20 to cover APCOA admin fees in relation to the PCN.
AARGH! How could we be so trusting as to expect the company to do the decent thing.
The reason given for the error was being very poorly with what turned out to be pneumonia!

Should the driver  just try the standard response as posted in the above thread and see what happens? Or is there a better path?
Has anyone else had a similar issue? I have looked but not found one yet.
Copy appeal rejection letter below:

Many thanks as ever for all and any advice

Grizebeck

You would have won this easily with forum help
No do nothing else ignore apcoa from now on and ignore any debt recovery letters 

Johnersh

Given where you now are, you may find this informative:
https://x.com/ED_LeveyKC/status/1592616540243111936?s=03
Here he explains clearly how charges for minor breaches with a £160 charge can clearly amount to an impermissible penalty.

In the example of the o/p there's no overstay, no non-payment. Difficult to see that they'll make it stick. That's even before you get onto points like bylaws etc 

fisherjim

The landowner imposes this charge and they were not out of pocket, APCOA wnat people to make mistakes so they can cream off their bit they are not litigious and they certainly won't be taking this to court, ignore them.

Le_Kirk

Johnersh said:

Given where you now are, you may find this informative:
https://x.com/ED_LeveyKC/status/1592616540243111936?s=03
Here he explains clearly how charges for minor breaches with a £160 charge can clearly amount to an impermissible penalty.

In the example of the o/p there's no overstay, no non-payment. Difficult to see that they'll make it stick. That's even before you get onto points like bylaws etc 

Cannot read that link as it requires me to sign in,sign up or send them an apple!

Johnersh

@LeKirk Ah - not one of the twitterati. Fair enough. Ed Levey is the silk recently featured in the Times in connection with LGW. His original thread concerned LHR and deconstructs how a charge amounts to a penalty breaching the rule in Beavis and likely consumer law.

My Primary Obligation was to pay £5 promptly.  So here's the test (see para 32 of ParkingEye): is the Secondary Obligation, to pay £80, out of all proportion to APCOA's interest in receiving prompt payment. In my view, yes it is - so it is a penalty.

As it was, they folded as *he* prepared to issue proceedings. Sufficiently riled, he later offered a free counsel advise to MSE,  but I'm told received no acknowledgement/response.

Umkomaas

Sufficiently riled, he later offered a free counsel advise to MSE,  but I'm told received no acknowledgement/response.

I find it hard to believe that not one forum regular responded to what appeared to be legal gold dust. Do you know if he posted on this particular sub-forum, or to the general, overarching MSE forum?  Do you know what username he used?

sad_woman

Thank you to everyone for your support and advice. It seems as though it needs adding to my file of ongoing debt collection/court threat letters.
However, as an OCD type I am itching to reply along the lines that the PCN is likely unenforcible giving some of the myriad reasons... and that as £5 has been paid in time but just needs allocating to the correct car reg I consider the matter closed.
Would this be of any detriment other than 10 mins of my time?(assuming I can find an email address or method do so of course!)

Grizebeck

Why bother