Hi All,

A month ago, I traded up an old car which had a personalised plate (Let's call it A12 OLD).

The new one came with a standard one (XY65 NEW).

It took about 5 days from the day I drove away the new car,

to get the DVLA red tape sorted (documents received etc)

so the garage could put A12 OLD on the new car.

At the block of flats where I live is a car park,

and each vehicle that "lives" there gets a permit,

which bears the registration of the vehicle.

It's managed by a company called Euro Parking Services Ltd.

We put a note on the dashboard explaining the situation,

and put the permit on the dashboard as always.

But still, on the 3rd Day, we got a parking ticket.

I've appealed this to the company (showing them the letter from the DVLA which explains

that "A12 OLD can now be put on XY65 NEW") and they have rejected it.

I have also gone through the IAS (Independent Appeals Service), and they have rejected the appeal.

I've got all the documents since day 1, and I'll happily answer any questions.

As an aside,

the company's address is just up the road,

is there any value in walking up there and having a face-to-face conversation with someone?

Or should I just ignore it?

I'd laugh it off. You live there, and if youre lease says you have a parking space as part of it, then you have supremacy of contract and theyre screwed. IAS will always reject an appeal. Theyre a mickey mouse appeals service.

Also, get that idea about a face to face meeting out of your head. Unless you want to end up in court on criminal charges.

Thanks renegadeimp.

I didn't mean the "face-to-face conversation" as anything like a fight , just going and seeing if there was someone to talk to. Or will they hate that just as much?

There's no mention of the parking space in the Tenancy Agreement.

Does having gone through the appeals, and failed, mean that I'm accepting some kind of accountability?

What you can do now is ignore them.

Can you imagine a judge reading all the evidence and not say they are wasting the courts time?

They are a relatively new outfit so not much history, but this will not go near a court.

Can you post up the IAS rejection please, as these are worth reading due to the ridiculous language and reasoning they come up with...

(suitably redacted of course.)

So I'll just ignore everything, and not respond? Won't they want to take me to court over this?

The IAS Rejection:

Having considered all of the evidence in this case, I am satisfied that the Operator has a established a prima facie case.

 

The Adjudicators only role is to determine whether the charge is lawful or not. Adjudicators will only have regard to the legal principles that apply in any matter and NOT to any other feature. Mitigation is not considered.

 

The evidence demonstrates that at the time the parking charge was issued, the Appellant was not displaying a valid permit relating to the vehicle registration number on the vehicle at that time.

 

Whilst I have taken note of the Appellant's explanation, the parking charge was lawfully issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. As such I am unable to interfere with it and the appeal is dismissed.

Also, for good measure, the Euro Parking Services Rejection:

Thank you for your appeal received on 05/02/2016 regarding the above detailed Parking Charge Notice. It is not our intention to cause undue worry and frustration when enforcing our clients parking regulations. We have investigated the appeal and considered the comments that you have made. A decision has been made based on the information submitted by the appellant along with the evidence gathered by the parking attendant, and can confirm that at this instance the Parking Charge was issued correctly for the following reason.

 

As per our clients instructions, all vehicles must clearly display a valid permit to park in this area. This is in place to prevent unauthorised vehicles parking on site. Unfortunately when the Parking Charge was issued a valid parking permit was not clearly displayed in your vehicle. Your vehicle was left unattended on Private Property, therefore giving you no authorisation to park. There are sufficient signs in the car park warning motorist that should they park their vehicle without clearly displaying a valid permit this will result in a Parking Charge being issued to the vehicle. We have taken your notes into consideration and have thoroughly looked into the evidence you have provided. We understand you are currently in the process of swapping number plates over, to which was written on the permit however, the signs clearly state that a valid permit must be on display at all times. Although we understand you are stating you were waiting for paperwork to come through regarding your personalised VRM, this does not make your vehicle exempt from the terms and conditions of parking your vehicle here. It is the responsibility of the resident to make the building manager/site manager aware of the situation who then may relay the information onto the patrol officers. This action was not taken meaning the patrol officers were not aware of the situation. We understand you had left a note on the dashboard of your vehicle however this note is not sufficient enough. The note states that you are waiting for new plates to arrive, I'm sure that you can agree that holds no relevance to the patrol officer at the time the contravention occurred. A permit must be on display which holds the correct and relevant information at the time of the contravention. The number plate of the vehicle and the permit did not match therefore making it invalid. We have taken into consideration the letter form the DVLA stating the confirmation of new number plates however this does not hold a link between the current VRM and the permit. We would like to advise that you may have also called Euro Parking Services Ltd to make them aware of the situation if no success was met by approaching the building manager/site manager.

Well as has already been said, you are NOT their client, you live in these premises, and you have a parking space, YOU hold all of the aces in this, whatever your LL and these clowns have agreed in their contract is nothing to do with you.

Ignore!

Thanks all.

It's not like I get a parking space allocated. There's a garage underneath which you need a fob to get in or out of (me and the mrs affectionately call it "the Batcave"), and everyone has a permit with their Registration Number and Flat Number on.

I'll ignore for now. And if they come back with court summons, you'll see me back here

Thanks!

Ok, post up some pictures of the signage (in PDF ), and we'll show you they are gibberish I suspect.

As usual, the parking co is being greedy and pig headed. they have no right to claim a penny and they know it but are hoping you are too timid or thick to challenge their silly claim.

As for the appeal decision, as usual they have got the burden of proof completely arse about face and they know it.

My suggestion is ignore them up to the point of any letter that is headed letter before action or letter before claim and then we can compose a suitable response that will either make them drop the matter or leave them in a position of any claim being knowingly false or reckless and thus open to recovey of full defence costs.

Just my 2p

It may not be in your agreement about parking but you were issued a fob and a permit. How would unauthorised cars get into the 'bat cave'?

The IAS allow a fraction of appeals to make them appear legitimate. They are not! They are not independant as they proclaim but a buddy of the parking companies. If they were fair and impartial, they wouldn't use Gladstones solicitors (who also run the IPC) to run the appeals service as it would be a conflict of interest.

The appeal assessors wouldn't have to be anonymous if the IAS were fair.

The fact that you have a permit for your vehicle outweighs any spurious claim they have. If they did try it on in court (which I doubt) they would end up bent over a chair and getting their backsides spanked for wasting court time.