Parking Charge - Middlesbrough

You do need to understand what you need to in terms of the whole process.

Have a look at this 'walk-through' of the process you now need to follow. It's a generic template, which avoids me having to type it out every time we have a 'newbie' query. Most of it will apply to you. Get back if you don't understand anything.

A WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS

Firstly, you don't have to pay the charge, it is not a fine, it is not a penalty, it is a speculative invoice from a Private Parking Company that has no statutory authority. However, you will need to go through a few hoops to get rid of it.

The first thing you MUST do is to start to understand what all this stuff is about. The only way to do this is to spend a day or so reading this forum - the most recent threads, say from the past month.

In England and Wales the advice to 'IGNORE' is now outdated. You must NEVER ignore a parking charge notice. You may receive a series of subsequent letters that will require no action, but you must give them your attention. Ignoring a Parking Charge Notice will bring you months of fun and games that I can assure you, you don't want to be dealing with.

Retain all documentation relating to your PCN - this is important.

In a nutshell this is the process you will need to follow.

1. Read recent threads.

2. If the parking incident was at a retail park/shop go back to the store the Parking Charge Notice relates to and see THE manager, complain about a genuine customer being harassed and ask that they cancel the ticket. Show him/her any receipts for the day in question. If they are unable to do this ask for the name and address of the MD/CEO, as you will now write to them (and DO it!).

3. If it was a general car parking facility you need to find out who the landowner is (Google search) and send off a letter of complaint to them.

4. < SNIP > in light of further experience since writing this Walk Through

5. If 2 or 3 above don't work, then you're into the more formal stuff.

6. If it was a windscreen ticket, do not contact the PPC at this point (unless they are one of the smaller ones, as per the NEWBIES FAQ sticky - if so follow advice there), you must wait for the 'Notice to Keeper' (NtK) to arrive. This should be no sooner than 28 days after the incident and no later than 56 days after it. Theses dates are very important, and you must retain all tickets and letters you receive.

7. If it was an ANPR camera incident and the first correspondence you've received is the NtK, this needs to be received within 14 days of the incident; as above, dates very important, retain all paperwork.

8. Once you receive the NtK the process below will need to be followed.

9. Initial appeal to the PPC using the template in post #1 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, or draft your own based on that template. But very important if you're drafting your own, DO NOT indicate who the driver was, and don't drone on in it telling the 'story' of what happened - mitigation just does not work, (you'll understand more about this when you start reading the threads).

10. After your appeal (the PPC has 35 days to deal with it), you should get a cancellation (highly unlikely) or the more likely rejection with a POPLA verification code. If you don't receive a POPLA code, then email a complaint to both the BPA and DVLA (email addies in post #6 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky).

11. Lots more reading about POPLA Appeals (read the 'sticky' at the top of the forum index 'POPLA Decisions', especially the last couple of months' reports of victories - it will give you a good idea of which points win at POPLA).

12. Draft POPLA Appeal and let us see it for further advice before submission.

13. Send to POPLA.

14. Await POPLA (positive) result with PCN cancelled - we're running at almost a 100% success rate on the forum. A POPLA decision is binding on the PPC, but (in the event of an unlikely loss), not binding on you.

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Please confirm a couple of things (if they are not already contained in your opening post)

a. Was the incident, and do you live, in England or Wales?
b. Is the car a lease/hire or company vehicle (important as the process will be slightly different and you will need to act quickly)?
c. Are you under 18?

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Now - final, but IMPORTANT points.

* Never say who might or might not have been the driver on the day - there is no obligation on you to do so (some PPCs will ask you to name the driver/motorist before they can deal with your appeal - DO NOT comply with their wishes). In any correspondence with the PPC, always refer to the driver in the third person, never say 'I didn't see the signs' or 'my wife didn't see the signs', you say 'the driver didn't see the signs'.

* Always be aware of any deadlines, PPCs impose them (most of these are challengeable), but if they are reasonable do keep to them. The important one is the POPLA deadline - strictly 28 days from the date the rejection letter containing the POPLA verification code is sent to you by the PPC. Miss it and you miss the one golden opportunity you have to totally kill this charge. I cannot stress that enough.

CONTEXTUAL LINKS

1. BPA Code of Practice
http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS_Code_of_Practice_October_2014_update_V5.pdf

2. BPA Approved Operators
http://www.britishparking.co.uk/Approved-Operators

3. POPLA
http://www.popla.org.uk

Sorry this is a bit long, but it does more or less cover most bases.