help please

concernedmum70

Hi, trying to help my autistic son who has received a further 3 PCN's from Horizon in the post, having just moved nearby he parked his motor cycle in the m/c bay in car park believing it was free as its widely excepted that motorbikes don't pay parking charges particually as nowhere to put a ticket, he didn't realise that being a private Horizon car park this may not apply, he had parked there on & off from 6th June & stopped parking there on the 24th June. that said on the 24th June he received in the post some 12days after a PCN issue date the12th June, this showed 2 photos showing he had stayed a bit longer than the free 1hour parking allowed realising his mistake he immediately paid it at the reduced amount £40 offered within 14days and then stopped parking there & found somewhere else where he could park for free. Then on the 7th July he received in the post another PCN issued 23th June for incident on 20th June obviously this was received later than the 14days allowed but he has no way of proving this, now in todays post 11th July he has received another 2 PCN's 1st. dated 23rd June & issued on 26th June / 2nd. dated 24th June & issued on 27th June outside the 14days but again he has no proof, these were all for the same car park as before. all 3 of the PCN's only show one photo of his motorbike with a time stamp & a second photo which is of the car park sign & time stamped over an hour later& stating Failure to pay for full duration of stay is this acceptable as it doesn't actually prove his motorbike was still there at that time & as my son comes a goes regularly & he cant remember being there for that length of time so obviously he may have left & returned within that time frame. the photos are taken by an attendant not a camera.
this all seems very unfair especially as he would now have to pay the full amount of £70 per PCN & had he been notified immediately at the beginning he would not have continued to use that car park.
can you tell me if he has a case to appeal & if so how should we word the challenge
sorry its such a long post but do hope someone can give me some advice as I'm totally confused by it all, thank you                     

Gr1pr

concernedmum70 said:

Hi, trying to help my autistic son who has received a further 3 PCN's from Horizon in the post,

having just moved nearby he parked his motor cycle in the m/c bay in car park believing it was free as its widely excepted that motorbikes don't pay parking charges particually as nowhere to put a ticket, he didn't realise that being a private Horizon car park this may not apply,

he had parked there on & off from 6th June & stopped parking there on the 24th June. that said on the 24th June he received in the post some 12days after a PCN issue date the12th June, this showed 2 photos showing he had stayed a bit longer than the free 1hour parking allowed realising his mistake he immediately paid it at the reduced amount £40 offered within 14days and then stopped parking there & found somewhere else where he could park for free.

Then on the 7th July he received in the post another PCN issued 23th June for incident on 20th June obviously this was received later than the 14days allowed but he has no way of proving this, now in todays post 11th July he has received another 2 PCN's 1st. dated 23rd June & issued on 26th June / 2nd. dated 24th June & issued on 27th June outside the 14days but again he has no proof, these were all for the same car park as before. all 3 of the PCN's only show one photo of his motorbike with a time stamp & a second photo which is of the car park sign & time stamped over an hour later& stating Failure to pay for full duration of stay

is this acceptable as it doesn't actually prove his motorbike was still there at that time & as my son comes a goes regularly & he cant remember being there for that length of time so obviously he may have left & returned within that time frame. the photos are taken by an attendant not a camera.

this all seems very unfair especially as he would now have to pay the full amount of £70 per PCN & had he been notified immediately at the beginning he would not have continued to use that car park.

can you tell me if he has a case to appeal & if so how should we word the challenge

sorry its such a long post but do hope someone can give me some advice as I'm totally confused by it all, thank you                     

edited into paragraphs so that it can be read 

Gr1pr

Its an unregulated industry and the scenario above is typical in private parking,  it's easy to rack up multiple pcns for breaching the rules on the signs in private car parks or on private roads, estates and retail parks etc

In this case Horizon Parking are using MNPR , a person with a camera taking pictures,  which are later used in postal notices

We would need to see pictures of the signs and at least one set of redacted pictures of the front and back of one pcn,  if they are all the same apart from the dates

It all may seem unfair and unacceptable,  but it's the way things are in this unregulated industry,  especially in England and Wales 

In future,  he must carefully study the signs wherever he parks or stops,  because these private companies issue around 15 million private pcns per year at the moment 

He does have the option of fighting them in civil court,  where a judge decides the outcome 

concernedmum70

thank you for your reply I will add some pictures of a PCN & the sign the PCN's are all the same except for the dates
I think he has learnt a very harsh lesson, unfortunately having ADHA & Autism he finds things very difficult to understand at times. He is really worried about these PCN's & about paying them, I just hope this doesn't set him back as this is the first time he has been capable of living independently working full time & renting a flat, and he has been doing so well till this.
thank you again, I really appreciate any help & advice you can give

Coupon-mad

Why doesn't he just respond/appeal giving your address as his 'new address' for service?

You sound like you can cope with ignoring the daft debt demands and looking out for a court claim, so why let letters continue to go to him (if that's what has been happening so far)? Any appeal should use your email address and your postal address.