Parking Charge Whilst Charging EV Car

PolarBear9

Hi all,

Parking Charge - Bank Park Parking Management

Hoping for some advice please on a parking charge I’ve received recently for an incident on 20/08/2025. I parked to charge my vehicle using a PoGo Charge EV charging station located on the car park in question. Total duration on the car park 0 hours 51 minutes 37 seconds. Total duration vehicle on charge 0 hours 40 minutes (it took a while to initiate charging due to problems with the charger itself). 

Letters Received
1. - Initial notice, dated 30/08/2025. Given 14 days to pay £60.00.
2. - Final notice, dated 13/09/2025. Total due - £100.00.
3. - Notice of debt recovery, dated 27/09/2025 (received today, 01/10/2025). Total due - £170.00.

I’m disabled and have been unwell recently, so I had a pile of unopened letters on the side and by chance happened to open the post that came today, saw the notification of debt recovery letter and then went through the pile of unopened letters to locate the other two as mentioned above.

I’ve got a few questions below following some research I’ve done into it all, but also any general advice would be hugely appreciated please 🙏🏻 
- Could I argue that the legal definition of “parked” is not met as I didn’t leave the vehicle?
- Could I argue that Bank Park Parking Management don’t have permission to issue fines if parked in a bay owned/operated by PoGo Charge?
- I’m in a debt relief order, would this make a difference anywhere?
- I understand that if the parking charge was posted to you (all 3 were), that any payment deadlines start from “date of service” which is normally the second working day after the postmark on the envelope. I didn’t keep the envelopes as I didn’t realise until doing research that there might be a postmark on them, but the earliest possible posting date is obviously the date on the letter. So I would class the first letter date of service as being 02/09/2025, is this right? Or could I argue that the date of issue 30/09/2025 was a Saturday, so they cannot have posted it until the Monday meaning it would push all of the deadlines back even further which would mean I could even argue that they didn’t issue it within 14 days of the incident so it’s invalid?

Sorry for the long post - just trying to dot the i’s and cross the t’s!

Thank you in advance 🙏🏻 🙌🏻 

Gr1pr

PolarBear9 said:

Hi all,

Parking Charge - Bank Park Parking Management

Hoping for some advice please on a parking charge I’ve received recently for an incident on 20/08/2025. I parked to charge my vehicle using a PoGo Charge EV charging station located on the car park in question. Total duration on the car park 0 hours 51 minutes 37 seconds. Total duration vehicle on charge 0 hours 40 minutes (it took a while to initiate charging due to problems with the charger itself). 

Letters Received
1. - Initial notice, dated 30/08/2025. Given 14 days to pay £60.00.
2. - Final notice, dated 13/09/2025. Total due - £100.00.
3. - Notice of debt recovery, dated 27/09/2025 (received today, 01/10/2025). Total due - £170.00.

I’m disabled and have been unwell recently, so I had a pile of unopened letters on the side and by chance happened to open the post that came today, saw the notification of debt recovery letter and then went through the pile of unopened letters to locate the other two as mentioned above.

I’ve got a few questions below following some research I’ve done into it all, but also any general advice would be hugely appreciated please ?


1)  - Could I argue that the legal definition of “parked” is not met as I didn’t leave the vehicle?

2)  - Could I argue that Bank Park Parking Management don’t have permission to issue fines if parked in a bay owned/operated by PoGo Charge?

3)  - I’m in a debt relief order, would this make a difference anywhere?

4)  - I understand that if the parking charge was posted to you (all 3 were), that any payment deadlines start from “date of service” which is normally the second working day after the postmark on the envelope. I didn’t keep the envelopes as I didn’t realise until doing research that there might be a postmark on them, but the earliest possible posting date is obviously the date on the letter. So I would class the first letter date of service as being 02/09/2025, is this right? Or could I argue that the date of issue 30/09/2025 was a Saturday, so they cannot have posted it until the Monday meaning it would push all of the deadlines back even further which would mean I could even argue that they didn’t issue it within 14 days of the incident

5))  so it’s invalid?

Sorry for the long post - just trying to dot the i’s and cross the t’s!

Thank you in advance 🙏🏻 🙌🏻 

Given that you are now at the debt collectors letters stage,  ignore them 

When you say argue,  you are not at an argue stage,  because you are in ignore mode, but if it got to a court claim,  then your Witness Statement may include these arguments,  or some of them

1)  yes, you were STOPPED due to refuelling in an EV bay, parking is prohibited in EV bays so Bank had no parking contract with you, no offer,  no consideration,  no parking contract 

2) Bank do not issue fines, magistrates do, but not in private parking charge civil laws

PoGo will be leasing the bays, they won't be the owner,  but you were going about your legitimate refuelling tasks

3)  I have no idea,  but possibly 

4)  Pofa2012 is not mandatory,  it's optional,  so Bank had 6 months to obtain keeper details and one month to get the pcn to the keeper,  which they have done 

5)  nothing makes a pcn invalid,  but it may well be unenforceable 

The Equality Act 2010 may be of use to you if a claim happens,  due to reasonable adjustment and unreasonable signage or unreasonable requirements to register for the exemption 

There are a lot of these EV cases cropping up, usually due to poor signage and not registering the vehicle whilst charging,  for an exemption 

Car1980

- Could I argue that Bank Park Parking Management don’t have permission to issue fines if parked in a bay owned/operated by PoGo Charge?

This came up the other day. Quite possible that the contract with the landowner is not applicable to the land leased or owned by an unconnected third party. 

At the end of the day this is all something for any potential court claim ie. the only fair appeals service in town.

Brie

3) being in a DRO is of no significance in this.  

born_again

Aside from the advice above.
Many EV chargers are on private land (Tesla are good at this in many locations) & may have restrictions such as you need to register you car for free parking while charging in pub. Hotel or shop.
So always check the signs to avoid issues such as you have.

PolarBear9

Thanks for the replies!

I guess I’m wondering if I can file a last minute dispute, even to get myself some more time, if the 28 days hasn’t quite ended yet due to the date of service.

I mentioned the DRO just incase, as I’ve read of a case with a debt and if in some sort of insolvency it changed the approach to recovering the money. But not to worry if it’s irrelevant.

I really don’t want to go to court, I’m just so unsure what to do at this point! 

Umkomaas

Just ignore it until/unless you receive a Letter Of/Before Claim from the PPC's solicitors, or a County Court Claim via the Northampton CNBC, come back to this thread for further advice. To get ahead of the curve, you could prepare yourself with a bit of gentle reading of the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, second post, and the Template Defence Announcement, both situated near the top of the forum thread list. 

Bank Parking are not recognised as serial litigators, and EV charging is a much bigger can of worms for them than bog standard parking contraventions. 

Gr1pr

Its not as simple as "going to court "

There is the possibility of a Money Claim against you in the future,  but there are several steps and stages before any actual court hearing , which is not inevitable,  many are discontinued beforehand, which I expect in your case 

Coupon-mad

Let it go to a claim form. Defending is easier than any appeal and isn't likely to end up with a hearing. These cases are usually dropped.

kryten3000

born_again said:

Aside from the advice above.
Many EV chargers are on private land (Tesla are good at this in many locations) & may have restrictions such as you need to register you car for free parking while charging in pub. Hotel or shop.
So always check the signs to avoid issues such as you have.

There should be no need to do any of this - charging an EV is refuelling and not parking.  The contractual relationship between the provider of the charger and the driver who pays for the electricity (fuel) must include the space occupied by the EV while it is being charged.

Car1980

Bank Parking use DCB and discontinue anyway.