Parking Charge Notice - an honest mistake, appeal failed, now ignore?

flopadopoulos

I recently received a Parking Charge Notice after paying for a car parking slot, but then driving to the car park in our other car (I have to pay beforehand because there is no signal at the car park). It was a stupid mistake and of course means that I broke the rules by the letter of the law.

I have screenshots of my JustPark app showing the receipt, and the operator's cameras would clearly show that the car I paid for never entered the car park and that the one we did not paid for stayed between the times I paid for. Of course, the operator (Armtracs) doesn't care about that because it's literally their business model to charge me. I have lodged an appeal with them and the Independent Appeals Service, both of which were rejected. The matter has now been escalated to BW legal who are chasing me for an inflated amount (£160). 

The advice online is a bit of a quagmire and I haven't come across this exact case before. I would really like to avoid paying partly on principle, since I did actually pay for the parking in the first place! My hope is that any small claims judge would throw it out as ridiculous, but I am equally aware that by the letter of the law I am liable. I would really appreciate any advice!

Gr1pr

Ignore them until you receive a Letter of Claim or a court claim 

fisherjim

What do you mean by "the letter of the law" which law the private parking industry is unregulated?

The landowner was paid for the parking the only difference is a major keying error meant the wrong vehicle was registered.

Which by the "letter of the ATA's COP" should have meant you were offered a £20 major keying error fee.

F.3 Appeals where the charge should be reduced to £20 for a period of
14 days
In considering appeals parking operators must recognise the below case types as
mitigating circumstances warranting a reduction in the amount of the parking charge to
£20 for 14 days, subject to appropriate evidence being provided. This reduction applies
only for the first parking charge issued to the vehicle for the specific contravention, where
payment is made within 14 days and where no independent appeal is lodged.

a) where the driver has paid the tariff but made a major keying error when registering their
vehicle for example, letters wrong or missing; characters swapped; motorist entered the
wrong car registration (e.g. their previous car or another vehicle from their household)

Armtrac should have told you this at your initial appeal, but these are scammers, they are all in it together, there is no real appeal the IAS are part of the same scam.

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/Sector Code Templates/sectorsingleCodeofPracticeVersion1.1130225.pdf

You are now in ignore mode, don't take any notice of silly debt collectors only react if a genuine court claim comes through.

Read through the newbies thread on here.

Coupon-mad

flopadopoulos said:

I recently received a Parking Charge Notice after paying for a car parking slot, but then driving to the car park in our other car (I have to pay beforehand because there is no signal at the car park). It was a stupid mistake and of course means that I broke the rules by the letter of the law.

No it doesn't.

You are paying private parking firms FAR too much respect and there was no 'Independent Appeals Service' despite its name.  Appealing was a waste of time. Weren't you offered the £20 settlement by Armtrac?

Either way, please read the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

flopadopoulos

Thank you so much for all of the responses. I was not offered a £20 settlement when I informed them of the wrong vehicle being registered, so that is excellent to know. 

May I just also clarify if possible ... in terms of contact only upon receiving a Letter of Claim, does that mean:
- I may not ever receive this if they decide not to pursue the case, and are trying scare-tactics? (because they are parasitic and most people will just pay because it's easier)
- If I were to receive one, I would then be going to small claims court, and would be within my right to make the same case I have made so far but in court?

fisherjim

Yes and yes.

Easyrider66

I'm interested to know how this was concluded? I've been fighting the same company on a very similar case, it's just gone all the way to court and I've lost - leading me to conclude that however strong your case the outcomes can be an expensive & time consuming lottery. Sharing some more details fyi

I've been fighting a Claim from KBT Cornwall Ltd/ BW Legal relating to a two PCNs from Sept 2024 - yesterday it finally reached the Small Claims Court and the judge ruled against me.

I was really well prepared, fairly confident, and I think submitted a strong witness statement and then a good oral defence to the judge. I felt it was going well until he gave his judgement in favour of KBT Cornwall - which to be honest floored me!

It should have been a really straight forward case. I parked on two consecutive dates in the same car park, on both occasions not realising that the car I had registered in the JustPark phone app was a previous vehicle I no longer owned. So on both occasions I paid in full on the app for the period of parking before entering the car park, and left again before the expiry of the parking.

There were literally no other disputed issues or mitigating factors. I simply made a mistake when using the app, not realising it still held my old vehicle registration. So an entirely straightforward 'major keying error'.

I did correctly appeal the PCNs as soon as I'd received them to KBT Cornwall Ltd - and I'd expected them to offer the £20 Reduced Settlement option (which I would have paid without hesitation) - but they rejected my appeals.

KBT were operating under the IPC Code of Practice (9th Edition) at the time, and my evidence referenced the relevant clauses, and also referenced the current Parking Section Single Code of Practice to demonstrate what the Industry now considers a reasonable error which should lead to a £20 reduced settlement.

My heart says that the judge has got this badly wrong and I should appeal. (angry face)
My head says I have already wasted countless hours on this, and now £479, and I should cut my losses, try to let go, and accept that justice is a lottery. (sad face, small tear)