Good morning people, I was hoping you could help me in regards to a parking charge I received back on the 27th of July.

The car park I used is free for the first 3 hours, but you have to get a ticket.

I had done this, went to have some lunch

on return to the car had a parking notice on the windscreen from UKPC.

I found this very odd as I'd got a ticket as soon as we had arrived.

Once in the car I noticed that the ticket had fallen next to the gear stick.

It must have been blown by the wind when we were getting my daughter out of the car

(this took a little longer than normal as she was Having a meltdown)

the ticket was just a paper one, no adhesive.

I immediately sent my appeal explaining the above, (I now know I shouldn't have done this) I received an automated response that i very quickly scanned and the only part I took in was how they'd respond within 35 days.

With that I put it to the back of my mind.

On Saturday the 14th of October I received a letter from a debt recovery agency telling me I owe them £160!

I do find this totally unfair considering my appeal was obviously ignored.

I still have the original display ticket that had blown out of my windscreen.

And the original parking charge ticket.

I emailed BPO with all the information and have received a response today saying ,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I can confirm UK Parking Control Ltd are members of the BPA and an Operator under the Approved Operator Scheme.

Please be advised that unfortunately if UKPC can provide copies of the rejection letter they sent we cannot advise there to be a breach of the Code of Practice.

Are you able to provide copies of all correspondence you have sent and received from the Operator?

Please also detail any dates of calls made to the Operator so we can contact them with a timeline if necessary.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Gemma Dorans

AOS Investigations Team

Any help from you guys would be gratefully received.

Many thanks

please complete this:

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?462118-Have-you-received-a-Parking-Ticket

ignore DR+, they are nothing and can do nothing.

As for the £160 they just hope you are stupid enoigh to pay them without questioning it.

We need to see the signage at the car park to get stuck into this,

by appealing you have removed the protection the law give you in the procedural matters and now it is just a straightforward matter of contractual obligations or not.

For a windscreen ticket (Notice To Driver) please answer the following questions....

1 The date of infringement? 27/07/17

2 Have you yet appealed to the parking company yet? [Y/N?] Y

if you have then please post up whatever you sent and how you sent it and the date you sent it, suitably redacted.

I stupidly didn't take a screen shot, and as it was an online form I don't have it as a sent email. But it was the as I wrote it in the original thread. It was sent the day of the penalty.

has there been a response? Only the automated response that it had be received.

Appeal Confirmation - Ref :1....

‪[email protected]‬

Thu 27/07/2017 12:38

Thank you for your email.

UKPC confirm receipt of your on-line appeals form

Your charge will be placed on hold whilst under appeal and we will aim to respond to you by formal letter/e-mail to the address supplied within 35 days, should you not receive a response within this time, please contact our information line on 0333 220 1070.

Please do not respond directly to this email as it is automatically generated and you will not receive a reply.

If you have already been issued with a final letter in response to a previous appeal and you are not providing any further evidence to substantiate your case, then please do not expect a response from us.

Assuring you of our best intentions at all times

If you haven't appealed yet - ,.........

have you received a Notice To Keeper? (NTK) [must be received by you between 29-56 days]

what date is on it

Did the NTK provide photographic evidence?

3 Did the NTK mention Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PoFA) [Y/N?]

4 If you appealed after receiving the NTK,

did the parking company give you any information regarding the further appeals process?

[it is well known that parking companies will reject any appeal whatever the circumstances]

5 Who is the parking company? UKPC

6. where exactly [Carpark name and town] did you park?

St Stephens Place Leisure, Trowbridge, BA14 8Ah

......................... ....

I will get over to get some pictures of the signage asap.

Thanks for your replies

one small point

it is not a penalty

Here are the two types of sign on display around the car park.

Parking PDF.pdf

I've now received the letter from DRP with Notice of intended court action. And how they will pass my file onto their client with recommendation they take court action against me.

They keep referring to a court win back in 2015!! Have they had none since?

DR+ have never had a court win because they are just letter writers.

The case they refer to is always trotted out without them actually understanding what was decided and how it applies.

In short the courts agreed with Parking Eye that a charge of £80 is allowable without them having to produce a schedule of loss as it was commercially justifiable and not an unconscionable amount for a particular circumstance.

Since then all the parking co's quote it as justification for charging "100 and claiming it is a golden bullet so they don't have to actually have a contract, adequate signage permissiosn etc that actually still apply to their operations.

as for the sign, it isnt a contract as it refers to conditions that are not on the sign and has reference to an unfair contractual term, namely the addition of a £60 PENALTY if they pass matters on to a recovery agent.

This is in breach of the Consumer rights Act and entitles you to reject the entire contract, not just the unlawful bit

Thanks for your help..

So keep ignoring them then?

only the originator can do court

read the letters properly

doesnt say will anything.

a DCA IS NOT A BAILIFF

and have

stuff all legal powers

no, you read up on dca's and their lack of any powers first and then you ignore them in the certain knowledge that they are all mouth and trousers.

ignoring them is not the same as ignorance so do some homework.

Start off with a random buch of threads here then go and read a couple of years woth of the Parking Prankster's blog as that contains a mass of info on court claiims and how they were handled and the law behind the decisions.

You will then be better informed as to what to do when you get the next letter should that arise.

Thanks for your help..

 

So keep ignoring them then?

Thanks for all your help,

Today I received a response from BPA,

And hThank you for your patience whilst this matter was investigated.

I have received a response from UKPC who advise that they received your appeal on 27/07/2017 and subsequently rejected this on 31/08/2017.

UKPC advise that they responded to your appeal via e-mail

– please find the attached copy of the outcome sent to you.

I note that you advise that you did not receive the appeal rejection outcome,

however, it is not possible for us to ascertain whether e-mail or mail has or has not been sent or received by either party

and as such, the BPA will not become involved in a dispute on this point.

I hope that the above information is of assistance to you.

As I have not identified a breach of our Code,

I will not be investigating this matter further at this time and this case is now closed.

Kind regards,

which is why we say never ever give these idiots your email address.

I guess the research will have to continue just in case the decide to take me to court

Lesson learnt that's for sure!

Thank you for your recent correspondence in relation to the above Parking Charge.

We have investigated your appeal based on the information you have submitted and confirm that this parking charge was correctly issued because there are sufficient signs at St Stephens Place Leisure Park advising drivers that a valid pay and display ticket must be clearly displayed.

UK Parking Control Ltd does not issue or collect “Penalty Charges”, “fines” or “Excess Charges”.

Such things are only relevant to the on-street or civil enforcement area and enforced by police/traffic wardens or council civil enforcement officers under the Traffic Management Act 2004 or the Road Traffic Acts.

This legislation is not applicable to private land.

We can confirm, however, that UKPC has the authority to issue and enforce Parking Charge Notices, for breach of contract in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

Our appeals process is now concluded,

you may now pick one of the following options:

1) Pay the parking charge detailed above at the reduced rate of £60 to UK Parking Control Ltd. PLEASE REFER OVERLEAF FOR PAYMENT OPTIONS AND ADDRESS DETAILS.

2) Make an appeal to the independent adjudicator POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) using the verification code provided above.

Please note that if you wish to appeal to POPLA,

you will lose the right to pay the discounted rate of £60 ,

and should POPLA reject your appeal you will be required to pay the full amount of £ 100 .

If you opt to pay the parking charge you will be unable to appeal with POPLA.

Appeals to POPLA must be made within twenty-eight days from the date of this letter.

To appeal with POPLA

Here is a copy of their supposed email.

Although in the response from BPA it looks more like an actual letter to be posted.

It adds links for POPLA for an appeal, but as I've only just got the rejection letter the code is out of date and obviously the 28 days to appeal with them has expired!

Convenient got UKPC!

so what rubbish did you fire off as an appeal?

looks like it was a load of ole twaddle...

I told them what had happened,

how the wind must have blown he ticked down onto my gearstick as we were getting the baby out of her seat..

as it was just a paper ticket with no adhesive backing to make sure it stayed put.

I had a ticket, still have it in fact.

I'm annoyed at myself for not actually having a copy of what I actually sent,

as it was one of those online forms I don't have it in my email sent items!!

well keep it safe

they probably think you are a soft touch as you stupidly went on about fines etc

which ofcourse you now know is rubbish

id be ignoring them now

if it ever goes to court

the ticket would win your case hands down.

Lots of lessons learnt.. thanks for all the help/advice.

Anxiously waiting for the next letter now!!

shred it

ignore them totally

just don't ignore a claimform pack from the COURT.

but I very much doubt you'll get one of those

and as already explained

it will be easily defeated if you did you have your ticket.

no-one has ever lost in court whereby they had it.

That's really good to know... thanks again. The ticket is very safe!

Also as UKPC couldnt produce their email copy they have no evidence they did follow the protocols of the POFA so that itself means that they have failed to create a liability.

Now, the CPR's state that proper notice of a debt must be sent to the defendant before a legal action can be taken.

As they have failed to do this then they may well lose 50% of anything they claim even if the claim is sound.

File all of the correspondence, even the stupid BPA letter is evidence that UKPC didnt produce evidence fo following the CoP they are supposed to and the cowards just cant be bothered to take action against their members who cant be bothered to behave properly.

Shows what use the trade associations are when it comes to enforcement

I've had my Final settlement letter from DRP... £136 to avoid court action. They are recommending their client take court action. And it's their clients final offer to settle the matter berfore considering court action.

I like the threat that a Court Judgment against me could seriously affect my future creditworthiness and employability! Nice touch

as always.

Now zenith collections are writing to me! Same threats as DRP.. I’ve read they’re DRP in disguise! Still offering me a reduced amount if paid within 14 days of the letter date!

Do these guys ever get bored and give up?

Do these guys ever get bored and give up?

They do. It's usually 3 or 4 letters from DRP, then 2 or 3 from Zenith. The last letter from each will contain a "Reduced payment offer", isn't that kind of them