Apcoa parking fines not received

FuzzyPegasus56

Hi - newbie here so please be kind! I have read various threads but am a bit confused...

My husband pays for railway parking using the Apcoa app but managed to pay 4 times in a row for the wrong car (mine rather than his). He received one 'Penalty Notice' from Apcoa dated 3 Sep 2024, got stressed about multiple deadlines at work, tried to pay (failed) and then received a debt collectors' letter from Debt Recovery Plus. Panicked, he then paid it. He has not received any more Penalty Notices from Apcoa but has now received 3 more debt collector letters (including two in one envelope this morning).

He has obviously missed the 28 days to be able to challenge the PNs (as not received) (we know other people have been able to get Apcoa to move their paid parking from one registration to another when both cars are registered to the same address and thought we might be able to do the same) so we can't fill their online form in, but is there any way to still challenge this or have we just got to pay? Could be a rather expensive mistake but feels very unfair that we haven't received any earlier letters (obviously we don't know if this is an Apcoa or Royal Mail error).

For reference: The Penalty Notice is addressed to him by name and states that this is a Notice being given to the Registered Keeper. It mentions that the PN has been issued due to breaches in Railway Byelaws. The reverse states that there has been an offence. It also says that we have to exhaust the Apcoa appeals process before we can apply to POPLA.

Thank you!

Gr1pr

Once the 28 days deadline to pay has passed, ignore the debt collectors demands, debt collectors are powerless so he shouldn't have paid them, too late, money down the drain now, but no more 

Any that are postal notices and are within the 28 days appeal deadline should be appealed using the responses in other recent cases on here, as keeper 

The main aim is to drag them out past 6 months, the timeout deadline for a penalty notice 

FuzzyPegasus56

Gr1pr said:

Once the 28 days deadline to pay has passed, ignore the debt collectors demands, debt collectors are powerless so he shouldn't have paid them, too late, money down the drain now, but no more 

Any that are postal notices and are within the 28 days appeal deadline should be appealed using the responses in other recent cases on here, as keeper 

The main aim is to drag them out past 6 months, the timeout deadline for a penalty notice 

Thank you! Lesson learnt for next time (tell your wife!)...So do we just not pay? We have 3 debt collector letters now which all say they'll recommend that court action should be taken and we don't want that

Gr1pr

No paying debt collectors 

The person named on the PCNs comes back here with anything that is NOT a debt collector letter, debt collectors are powerless, they cannot and will not do anything except send misleading letters, APCOA are unlikely to try any legal action 

Save your money 

Grizebeck

Of course you don't pay
They couldn't recommend a bottle of wine let alone court action.

Umkomaas

FuzzyPegasus56 said:

Gr1pr said:

Once the 28 days deadline to pay has passed, ignore the debt collectors demands, debt collectors are powerless so he shouldn't have paid them, too late, money down the drain now, but no more 

Any that are postal notices and are within the 28 days appeal deadline should be appealed using the responses in other recent cases on here, as keeper 

The main aim is to drag them out past 6 months, the timeout deadline for a penalty notice 

Thank you! Lesson learnt for next time (tell your wife!)...So do we just not pay? We have 3 debt collector letters now which all say they'll recommend that court action should be taken and we don't want that

They can 'recommend court action', but never do. Even if they did, APCOA have never taken up any such 'recommendation'. In fact they have never progressed any private parking charge to court, and in relation to a Penalty Charge, they can never pursue that through the Magistrates Court (the court appropriate to penalty charges), as that route is only open to the Train Operating Company. 

Don't let empty threats empty your wallet!

Coupon-mad

I'm so sad he paid Debt Recovery Plus £170.  Really frustrating because a 'keying error' (wrong car) case would have been resolved for £20 if he'd sent one appeal email explaining about the wrong VRM.

How come no other PNs were received though?  Three going missing is really odd, after one PN arrived.

Anyway he can't appeal now and must just ignore them and they'll all time out in 6 months. Scam over. NOTHING HAPPENS.

FuzzyPegasus56

Coupon-mad said:

I'm so sad he paid Debt Recovery Plus £170.  Really frustrating because a 'keying error' (wrong car) case would have been resolved for £20 if he'd sent one appeal email explaining about the wrong VRM.

How come no other PNs were received though?  Three going missing is really odd, after one PN arrived.

Anyway he can't appeal now and must just ignore them and they'll all time out in 6 months. Scam over. NOTHING HAPPENS.

I'm pretty sad too! I have no idea why the other PNs weren't received. It's really odd. We hardly get any post  now as most things come through electronically so it's hard to miss anything. Holding our nerve here...