Horizon PCN, at Tesco

estevenin

Hi all,

Got a PCN at Tesco Kensington, for the reason "Exceeded Maximum Stay Period".





Without giving away the details, between the entry time and the exit time there is about 36mn, I do not know the rules, Google (third party website) seems to say 1.5 hours, and 15mn when the store is closed, not sure if this applied to car charging, but no official answer to that yet.

It was in the middle of the night, literaly no other cars were there, for the purpose of charging an electric car at their dedicated charging point. Now this is a multi-storey car park, and it already takes quite some time to drive through all the floors to find the charger, then start the machine to charge the car.

I have absolutely no clue of the signs, they didn't send anything, and since it's a multi-storey car park, only the entrance can be found on Google Maps (with no signs), but this is a picture from 2016... : https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4932575,-0.2024306,3a,75y,129.29h,108.2t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sBOfRF7siws3hU2fn0Odufg!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=-18.20459166165834&panoid=BOfRF7siws3hU2fn0Odufg&yaw=129.28528748010564!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

So I suppose they'll unfold their cards when they send their POPLA pack. I'm not too keen on driving down there again at this stage, but would do if it ever goes to small claim, and I found some pictures online, with no signs whatsoever near the charging point, that's all I could find.

Step 1 : Complain to the landowner : Redirected to Horizon
Step 2 : Appeal to Horizon : Appeal Rejected (It was something of the sort I believe, which I found in another thread : 

This is an appeal by the Registered Keeper - No driver details will be given. 

Please do NOT try the usual trick of asking for driver details in order to get around the fact that your Notice to Keeper does not comply with Schedule 4 of The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

As there is no keeper liability, liability cannot flow from the driver to the keeper and so this will be an automatic win at POPLA. Please cancel this Parking Charge Notice or issue a POPLA code at which point you will auto withdraw.

Response :

Dear Appellant, 

Parking Charge:

Thank you for your recent correspondence concerning the above referenced Parking Charge.

Review of your Appeal

 The Parking Charge was issued lawfully and in full and proper accordance with the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice issued by the British Parking Association (the ‘BPA’).

There are signs located at the entrance to, and within the car park that state the terms and conditions that apply when parking. 

One of the terms and conditions is that vehicles must not exceed the maximum stay period allowed. As this vehicle was found to be parked longer than the maximum period allowed, a Parking Charge was correctly issued.

The signs throughout the car park are clear and comply fully with the BPA’s prescribed rules and regulations.  When parking on private land, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure they adhere to the terms and conditions of the car park concerned.

As we have not been provided with the name and a serviceable address for the driver/hirer, under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, we do have the right, subject to meeting the requirements of the Act, to recover from the Registered Keeper the amount that remains outstanding. We have obtained the name and address of the registered keeper of the vehicle from the DVLA for the purposes of enforcing this charge.

Given the above, and whilst we have considered your representations carefully, on this occasion your appeal has been rejected. 

The Charge Amount and Methods of Payment

In good faith, Horizon will hold the charge at the current amount of £60.00  for a further 14 days from the date of this correspondence to allow you further time to pay.

Payment of the outstanding charge can be made using our 24-hour payment line: 020 8106 0789 or online at https://horizonparking.co.uk/pay-parking-charge-notice/

Alternatively, payment can be made via cheque made payable to Horizon Parking Ltd and posted to Horizon Parking Ltd, Finitor House, 2 Hanbury Road Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3AE

Additional Types of Appeal

If you have no evidence that you wish to submit to us then you have now reached the end of our appeals procedure.  Although we have rejected your appeal, the Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA) provides an independent appeals service. To use this service, you must appeal to POPLA within 28 days of the date of this correspondence.

For full instructions of how to appeal to POPLA, please visit their website at www.popla.co.uk. If you would rather progress this matter by post, please contact our Appeals Office and we will send you the necessary paperwork.

Your POPLA reference number is 3761285187

Please be advised that if you elect for independent arbitration of your case, you will be required  to pay the charge at the full amount and as such will no longer qualify for payment at the reduced rate. Please also be advised that POPLA will not accept an appeal where payment is made against the Parking Charge in question.

We are required by law  to inform you that Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org/) provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal;  however ,  Horizon has not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service.  As such, should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA as explained above.

Yours sincerely,

Step 3 : Ready to send a Popla appeal, here's my draft, again with the help of another draft from another thread :

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xwp3uwxptusfp2yp6beqt/Popla-Appeal-An.docx?rlkey=b1xxarqxeowqmohw9yyg9occd&dl=0 (Dates have been changed for the purpose of anonymization)

In summary :

1.     Non-compliance with the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012

The notice mentionned "Liability must be transfered within 28 days of this parking charge", so, based on my calculations, this is 8 days early. The charge was sent 3 days after the alledged offence, then 2 working days over the weekend it's 4 days more, and it should start the next day, so 8 days.

However they also mention on the 1st paragraph, the correct wordings, which is PoFA compliant. So I'm not too sure if this point will still be valid, it's a bit confusing that they have 2 different periods, mentionned in those 2 paragraphs, but anyway I still put that point (I did read that they starting doing that very recently).

 2.     Inadequate signage and insufficient notice of the sum of the parking charge 

No signs on Google maps, no signs at all on the images taken by users from the zapp-map app (electric charging point map), only a mobile sign (movable), with no contract, allowing 1.5 hours of stay (which would then not be a breach of contract!)

I guess I will see more when they respond.

3.     Lack of evidence of Landowner Authority

And that's it.

I actually don't know yet if it's a 15mn limit, or if it was just not allowed to enter at night, as they didn't send any evidence yet (15mn sounds pretty short to go through the parking and charge a car!), so if they decide to keep fighting, I suppose I will know at that point and will respond accordingly.

Hoping those 3 points will do, if not and if it ever goes to small claim, I'll work on more points.

So I think it's good to go, posted it here simply for sharing that case and also if someone sees anything that I would have missed.

Thanks!

Car1980

Sounds good, but we've never seen a Tesco and Horizon case ever go to a county court claim.

Have you complained to Tesco?

estevenin

Car1980 said:

Sounds good, but we've never seen a Tesco and Horizon case ever go to a county court claim.

Have you complained to Tesco?

Thanks for the feedback. I have yes, they said there's nothing they can do, that I have to follow the appeal process through Horizon. Not very high up though, I suspect that if I went down to speak with the shop manager face to face showing my bank statement, they might do something about it. But online I'm not too sure that they know anything. Perhaps a letter at Tesco HQ, I might try if Popla fails. But as you said, I don't feel that this would go any further either anyway.

Coupon-mad

Go get photos of:

1.  the complete lack of Horizon contractual sign at or near the Charging bay and

2.  a pic of the sign that IS in that bay, and

3.  a pic of the Horizon entrance sign and t&cs sign elsewhere (there won't be one next to the EV bay - never are - hence why (1) is needed as evidence for POPLA).

While you are there, go and insist on speaking to the Store manager and ask what they are playing at by the mixed messages of offering EV charging on the one hand but having sneaky hidden terms (unlit, on a different floor and not beside the EV bay, so they couldn't have been read) pretty much banning anyone from using the EV charger in hours of darkness.

How fair is that? What are Tesco doing letting Horizon threaten people with court for using Tesco's EV partner's bay for the correct purpose?

Tell the manager: there should either be a camera exempting EVs using that bay to charge OR they need a barrier to stop drivers being duped into entering. When you search online for 'nearest EV chargers' this one comes up, so drivers are positively invited to use it. This is unfair and a scam and you'll be raising it with your MP if Tesco fail to cancel the PCN.

estevenin

Hi all,

Just updating this case as I received the POPLA decision, the appeal was allowed. Below is the assesor's decision, for your entertainment. For anyone else finding this post after receiving a fine in that same location, please feel free to use all drafts that I published here, and / or contact me by MP for further help.

And thank you all again :

The appellant has provided a detailed account surrounding the parking event in question. For the purpose of my report, I have summarised the grounds raised into the points below. • Non-compliance with the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012. • Inadequate signage and insufficient notice of the sum of the parking charge. • Lack of evidence of Landowner Authority. The appellant has provided: 1. Appeal doc. 2. Sign. 3. Photo of the car park. After reviewing the operator’s evidence, the appellant has expanded on their grounds of appeal. • The parking operator have added picture of the signs which are supposed to be in the parking lot. • It is noted that, there is no evidence whatsoever, that the signs were there, at the time of the alleged breach of contract. Most live pictures are dated from 2021 / 2022, and no assumption can be made that those signs were there in 2025. • No visible sign at the parking's entrance has been shown, as the Operator's own evidence, page 31, which is like the evidence they have provided. All of the above has been considered in making my determination.

I am allowing this appeal and will detail my reasoning below: By issuing a PCN the parking operator has implied that the terms and conditions of the private land have not been met. When an appeal is brought to POPLA, the burden of proof begins with the parking operator to demonstrate the breach they claim has occurred. I must therefore assess the terms and conditions of the site, any relevant code of practice, or legislation to determine if the PCN has been issued correctly. In this case the operator has issued the PCN for exceeding the maximum stay period. In the appeal the appellant has explained there isn’t any signage within the charging port bays. They have also provided two images which demonstrate this. The British Parking Association (BPA) has a Code of Practice which set the standards its parking operators need to comply with. Section 19.3 of the Code says parking operators need to have signs that clearly set out the terms. In this case whilst I appreciate the parking operator has provided an image of the sign on page 24 of the case file, they have not provided me with any of the signs in situ therefore i cannot be certain the terms and conditions are clearly advertised. I acknowledge the parking operator have provided a site map on page 18 however this doesn’t demonstrate the location of the signage within the charging bays. I note they have also provided images which have been circled showing the entrance signs on page 31 of the case file. This demonstrates there is a 3 hour stay; therefore, they contradict the terms displayed inside of the site. I have not been able to conclude with the required certainty that this PCN has been issued correctly, from the evidence presented to me. I must allow the appeal. I note the appellant has raised other issues as grounds for appeal, however, as I have decided to allow the appeal for the reason above, I did not feel they required further consideration.

Gr1pr

Please link this thread in the Popla decisions sticky thread too

Coupon-mad

Nice result!