Horizon Parking and Epping Forest

delabc

Hi all, unfortunately I've only just discovered this forum which provides lots of useful information and tips, many of which I've broken over the last few months. I've searched for other threads which cover my case but can't find anything similar so I hope I haven't broken any rules or breached etiquette by starting a new one.

To keep it as short as possible, my wife and I (in her car) attempted to park in one of the Epping Forest car parks on 22nd April to go for a walk. We spent about 5 minutes looking for a space and then moving to a better one when a car left. We then saw that payment was via the RingGo app, which neither of us had on our phones. I tried to download the app, which took some time as the mobile phone signal was not very good. After downloading you then have to register with name, email address, password, car reg etc. This completely failed to work after several attempts. Each time I put in my details and pressed "Next", it just went back to "Register".  Eventually, we realised that all this was taking time and we were at risk of getting a ticket so we decided to leave. A few weeks later, we received a PCN addressed to my wife, as the registered keeper, from Horizon Parking with a charge of £100, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. They supplied ANPR evidence that 19 minutes had elapsed between entering and leaving the car park, which we do not dispute. I appealed on behalf of my wife (first mistake) straight away (second mistake) to explain the circumstances. This was rejected, although Horizon did seem to accept the truthfulness of the appeal by stating that "the mitigating circumstances, whilst unfortunate, cannot be considered valid grounds for appeal". At was at this stage that we remembered that I drove the car in and my wife drove it out, but by then the 28 days allowed to transfer liability had expired (third mistake). I then appealed to POPLA on my wife's authority with the same explanation and saying that the charge was unfair as Horizon seemed to accept that the circumstances were truthful, but decided to pursue the charge anyway. Of course, we could not provide any physical evidence to support our case. POPLA rejected our appeal and we have now received a demand to pay £100 within 28 days from the revised issue date of 8th August, although we received the letter some time after that. I have complained to the chair of the Epping Forest and Commons Committee of the City of London Corporation (the land owners), who was very sympathetic but said that the outsourcing of the parking functions to Horizon Parking and RingGo has removed Epping Forest from direct involvement with complaints and it would not be fair, appropriate or proper for her to override or change any decisions or outcomes made by their partners or POPLA.

We now intend to fight any court action taken by Horizon on the grounds of fairness, a long established principle of English justice. We accept that the T's and C's of the car park were technically broken (although we do not know if a grace period was allowed or how long it might have been) but, having accepted the mitigating circumstances, it was unfair of Horizon to continue to pursue the charge. What do the parking experts on this forum think are the chances of a successful outcome?

Castle

delabc said:

Hi all, unfortunately I've only just discovered this forum which provides lots of useful information and tips, many of which I've broken over the last few months. I've searched for other threads which cover my case but can't find anything similar so I hope I haven't broken any rules or breached etiquette by starting a new one.

To keep it as short as possible, my wife and I (in her car) attempted to park in one of the Epping Forest car parks on 22nd April to go for a walk. We spent about 5 minutes looking for a space and then moving to a better one when a car left. We then saw that payment was via the RingGo app, which neither of us had on our phones. I tried to download the app, which took some time as the mobile phone signal was not very good. After downloading you then have to register with name, email address, password, car reg etc. This completely failed to work after several attempts. Each time I put in my details and pressed "Next", it just went back to "Register".  Eventually, we realised that all this was taking time and we were at risk of getting a ticket so we decided to leave. A few weeks later, we received a PCN addressed to my wife, as the registered keeper, from Horizon Parking with a charge of £100, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. They supplied ANPR evidence that 19 minutes had elapsed between entering and leaving the car park, which we do not dispute. I appealed on behalf of my wife (first mistake) straight away (second mistake) to explain the circumstances. This was rejected, although Horizon did seem to accept the truthfulness of the appeal by stating that "the mitigating circumstances, whilst unfortunate, cannot be considered valid grounds for appeal". At was at this stage that we remembered that I drove the car in and my wife drove it out, but by then the 28 days allowed to transfer liability had expired (third mistake). I then appealed to POPLA on my wife's authority with the same explanation and saying that the charge was unfair as Horizon seemed to accept that the circumstances were truthful, but decided to pursue the charge anyway. Of course, we could not provide any physical evidence to support our case. POPLA rejected our appeal and we have now received a demand to pay £100 within 28 days from the revised issue date of 8th August, although we received the letter some time after that. I have complained to the chair of the Epping Forest and Commons Committee of the City of London Corporation (the land owners), who was very sympathetic but said that the outsourcing of the parking functions to Horizon Parking and RingGo has removed Epping Forest from direct involvement with complaints and it would not be fair, appropriate or proper for her to override or change any decisions or outcomes made by their partners or POPLA.

We now intend to fight any court action taken by Horizon on the grounds of fairness, a long established principle of English justice. We accept that the T's and C's of the car park were technically broken (although we do not know if a grace period was allowed or how long it might have been) but, having accepted the mitigating circumstances, it was unfair of Horizon to continue to pursue the charge. What do the parking experts on this forum think are the chances of a successful outcome?

The RK can transfer liability at any point up to when a court claim is issued.
                                                 BUT
Epping Forest is subject to Byelaws, so only the Driver can be liable.

Car1980

Eventually, we realised that all this was taking time and we were at risk of getting a ticket so we decided to leave

This is contract law. You have not formed a contract with Horizon as no consideration was exchanged. They received no money and you left the premises and did not benefit from the hire of a parking space.

Everybody has rejected your appeal because you argued mitigating circumstances instead of no contract was formed.

If you get a Letter Before Claim from Gladstones or DCB Legal I suggest you scare them off by replying with more bite. Come back here if you receive a LBC.

Coupon-mad

We now intend to fight any court action taken by Horizon on the grounds of fairness, a long established principle of English justice.

What about defending under the doctrine of Frustration of Contract that I posted about here just yesterday:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6624981/newbie-pcn-stage-parkingeye/p1

These cases are a cinch to defend.

This month, we need you:

PLEASE bookmark this thread below and do the government's Public Consultation if you haven't done it yet.

Their proposals are wrong in many ways but you'll be interested in their proposed new appeal point - exactly covering your case...

See this thread: -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6617396/parking-code-of-practice-consultation-8-weeks-from-11th-july-2025/p1

We need every poster to come back & complete this vital Consultation before the deadline! Just under 2 weeks left but please don't rush it. You can do some then save it and come back to it as you have time.

We understand that you may need some pointers. It looks laborious, we get that.

So to try to help, I've written some guidance on that thread.

Any questions on the Consultation please ask - on the dedicated thread - but I've covered up to question 20 already in that first post, openly telling everyone what I'm going to put and/or what sort of evidence you might wish to use for your response, if you agree with what we'll be saying from our experience.

People like you have lived & breathed the greed and unfairness first hand, and you lost at POPLA despite having a perfectly good example of frustration of contract, so your voice is needed!

delabc

Thank you very much for your helpful posts. Coupon-mad, I promise that I will look at the thread on the Public Consultation and complete my response as best as I am able before 5th September.

I'm now a bit confused about what is the best way of fighting this. Do I argue that no contract was formed or Frustration of Contract or both? We can't provide any definitive evidence that we tried and failed to make the RingGo app work. In both our initial appeal and the POPLA appeal we pointed to numerous examples of similar experiences reported by motorists on the Trustpilot website, but POPLA said that the views and reviews of others could have no bearing on their decision. Instead they cited evidence provided by Horizon showing numerous successful payments made via RingGo for the same car park on the same day. This is, of course, totally irrelevant to our case because those users would have already had the app downloaded and would have registered their details before they parked. If this ever came to court, we would have to rely on the judge believing our account.

A couple of other questions:-

Castle has posted that the Registered Keeper can transfer liability at any point up to when a court claim is issued. How do I do this? Horizon state in their original PCN that transfer of liability should be requested via their online portal within 28 days. The portal now does not allow a transfer to be requested and I cannot find an email address. Is their 28 days deadline unlawful and should I send a snail mail letter to their postal address, which I do have?

The City of London Corporation (COLC) has said that they cannot intervene but there is a suggestion on other posts that the land owner can intervene, depending on their contract with the Parking Operator. I could ask COLC to provide a copy of their contract but I suspect that they will say it is Commercially Confidential. Do you have any views on this?

Car1980

Frustration of contract is mostly for unavoidable circumstances which cause you to breach or fail to perform e.g. you have a heart attack and overstay.

Personally I would argue no contract; as the mitigating circumstances, whilst amounting to a frustration, occurred before the contract was formed. They might argue you parked and did not pay for the time during which you were attempting to pay. But you aren't expected to retrospectively pay for the time you spent finding a space (which can take 10+ minutes in a big multi-storey). And you could easily spend 5 minutes reading the essay on their signage before attempting to pay etc etc. So the time can tick by.

Google the stages required to form a valid contract.

But it all depends on *if* they tried a court claim what the particulars are.

Car1980

If you want to transfer liability, you can email them at any time up until proceedings are issued (if they are). You'd copy in the solicitors if it got to that stage.

The 28 day window is for them, not you. But they often lie and say it's too late after the 4 weeks. Which would be.... fraud.

Transferring liability would only be advantageous if one of you woulld better in a court room. Although the chances of it getting that far for a single ticket are <1%.

Re. evidence - what you state is taken as the truth. The claimant has to provide the evidence if they claim you are not telling the truth, not you, which they won't and can't.

Popla is a law unto itself, and there is no burden on the claimant to make their claim, unlike county court.

Coupon-mad

Car1980 said:

Frustration of contract is mostly for unavoidable circumstances which cause you to breach or fail to perform e.g. you have a heart attack and overstay.

No it isn't, that's mitigating circumstances and they are not one and the same thing. See the post I made about frustration of contract which I linked for the OP above.

Do I argue that no contract was formed or Frustration of Contract or both?

Both of course, these are alternative defences (both valid) going into your para 3 which is the only tiny little bit that the Defendant would need to draft in the Template Defence.

We can't provide any definitive evidence that we tried and failed to make the RingGo app work.

So? Not your burden to prove. Did you miss the three recent hearing outcomes reported by

@flowercuppatea
and @babtunde345
and @Lemonhead39 

Castle has posted that the Registered Keeper can transfer liability at any point up to when a court claim is issued. How do I do this?

By emailing Horizon's complaints ir DPO email on their website. But is the driver a stronger person than the keeper and better placed to follow our instructions to easily defend a claim?

If the keeper is better and more resolute, leave it as that person.

delabc

I would definitely be better placed to defend the claim. My wife is the Registered Keeper but she would not want to follow this up and definitely not in court. I definitely drove the car in and parked. She drove it out. I don't have an email address so I suppose I have to mail a letter to get the liability transferred.

delabc

Sorry, I see what you mean now. There is no email address on Horizon's website but there is a means of communication via their complaints portal so I'll use that.

Coupon-mad

delabc said:

I would definitely be better placed to defend the claim. My wife is the Registered Keeper but she would not want to follow this up and definitely not in court. I definitely drove the car in and parked. She drove it out. I don't have an email address so I suppose I have to mail a letter to get the liability transferred.

No. You can't transfer liability. Only she can (and only before court claim) so now is the time!

She CERTAINLY DOES NOT lose this chance by sending something snail mail. And you don't do this in your name. You can't respond yet. Only the keeper can.

There is no email address on Horizon's website but there is a means of communication via their complaints portal so I'll use that.

You won't. She will!

Are you telling us you found no DPO email address on their data privacy page? Are you sure?