My appeal to APCOA, please take a look

Hi all,

I'm constantly receiving this dross from APCOA and have put this appeal together with an additional paragraph suggesting that they whitelist the car to prevent them incurring printing and postal costs in future.
I'd be interested to know if anybody else has tried this approach - and if it worked.

Thanks in advance,


I am the registered keeper of the vehicle and appeal against this Parking Charge Notice solely as keeper.
APCOA cannot rely upon Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (“POFA”) to transfer any liability of the driver to me as registered keeper. Heathrow Airport, including the Terminal Drop-Off Zone, is subject to statutory control, including the Heathrow Airport Byelaws. Land subject to statutory control is expressly excluded from the definition of “relevant land” in Schedule 4 POFA.

Accordingly, there is no statutory keeper liability under POFA in this case.

If APCOA contends that I am nevertheless personally liable, it must identify and establish the legal basis upon which that liability arises. The mere fact that I am the registered keeper does not establish that I was the driver, nor does it create contractual liability for a charge incurred by the driver.

I do not admit to being the driver and I decline to identify the driver. There is no general legal requirement for a registered keeper to identify the driver in circumstances such as this, and APCOA cannot circumvent the absence of POFA keeper liability simply by inviting or pressuring the keeper to provide driver details.

Nor can liability be transferred to the registered keeper merely by an assertion of agency. If APCOA's case is that a contract was breached, it must establish that the person it seeks to hold liable was a party to that contract and incurred the alleged liability. Keeper status alone is insufficient.

I therefore require APCOA either to cancel this Parking Charge Notice or, if it rejects this appeal, to provide the appropriate POPLA verification code so that the matter can be independently determined.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am appealing solely as the registered keeper. I do not identify the driver and I do not accept any liability for this Parking Charge Notice.

Please also ensure that no further requests for driver identification are treated as an admission of liability or as evidence that the registered keeper was the driver.

I invite APCOA to cancel the Parking Charge Notice now rather than incur the unnecessary costs of pursuing a charge for which it has no basis in keeper liability.

 As a practical matter, and to avoid unnecessary correspondence and costs arising from future notices issued in respect of this vehicle, I also invite APCOA to add this vehicle registration to an appropriate whitelist or otherwise flag the vehicle against my keeper details. I have made my position clear that, as registered keeper, I do not accept liability for driver-only charges where no statutory keeper liability applies. It would therefore be disproportionate and wasteful for APCOA to repeatedly issue and pursue charges against me in circumstances where the same issue has already been explained. 

Kindly confirm receipt of this email and provide confirmation that the Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled. I would also ask you to confirm that the vehicle registration has been added to your whitelist, or otherwise flagged to prevent similar notices being issued in future.

I'd be amazed if they added your vehicle to any sort of whitelist. APCOA have been hired by Heathrow to enforce parking/drop off - the drop off charges almost certainly go to the airport, with APCOA retaining PCN income. If they put your vehicle on a 'whitelist', they would potentially be breaching the terms of their contract with Heathrow by allowing drivers of a particular vehicle to be exempt from the charges Heathrow have put in place.

At face value (leaving aside arguments around signage etc.) the driver enters into a contract, and flowing from that ends up owing money to APCOA. Whilst they can't rely on PoFA to hold you liable, they can send you PCNs in the hope that you pay up or dob in the driver. If the driver(s) of your vehicle don't pay the drop off charges, the consequence is PCNs that you will have to appeal each time.

Based on DVLA data, APCOA issue about 6,200 PCNs every day, yours will be a drop in the ocean.

I'd be amazed if they added your vehicle to any sort of whitelist. APCOA have been hired by Heathrow to enforce parking/drop off - the drop off charges almost certainly go to the airport, with APCOA retaining PCN income. If they put your vehicle on a 'whitelist', they would potentially be breaching the terms of their contract with Heathrow by allowing drivers of a particular vehicle to be exempt from the charges Heathrow have put in place.

At face value (leaving aside arguments around signage etc.) the driver enters into a contract, and flowing from that ends up owing money to APCOA. Whilst they can't rely on PoFA to hold you liable, they can send you PCNs in the hope that you pay up or dob in the driver. If the driver(s) of your vehicle don't pay the drop off charges, the consequence is PCNs that you will have to appeal each time.

Based on DVLA data, APCOA issue about 6,200 PCNs every day, yours will be a drop in the ocean.

You are probably right, but there's nothing to lose from my perspective; If I DO hit the jackpot I'll be sure to post here!

What's the 'jackpot'?

You have received a Notice to Keeper.

Post the notice pl.

You can put together a standard response which you simply lift off the shelf as and when needed.

This is superfluous IMO, your first para. is sufficient. The more you write, the more they think they've got to you.

If APCOA contends that I am nevertheless personally liable, it must identify and establish the legal basis upon which that liability arises. The mere fact that I am the registered keeper does not establish that I was the driver, nor does it create contractual liability for a charge incurred by the driver.

I do not admit to being the driver and I decline to identify the driver. There is no general legal requirement for a registered keeper to identify the driver in circumstances such as this, and APCOA cannot circumvent the absence of POFA keeper liability simply by inviting or pressuring the keeper to provide driver details.

Nor can liability be transferred to the registered keeper merely by an assertion of agency. If APCOA's case is that a contract was breached, it must establish that the person it seeks to hold liable was a party to that contract and incurred the alleged liability. Keeper status alone is insufficient.

I therefore require APCOA either to cancel this Parking Charge Notice or, if it rejects this appeal, to provide the appropriate POPLA verification code so that the matter can be independently determined.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am appealing solely as the registered keeper. I do not identify the driver and I do not accept any liability for this Parking Charge Notice.

Please also ensure that no further requests for driver identification are treated as an admission of liability or as evidence that the registered keeper was the driver.

I invite APCOA to cancel the Parking Charge Notice now rather than incur the unnecessary costs of pursuing a charge for which it has no basis in keeper liability.

 As a practical matter, and to avoid unnecessary correspondence and costs arising from future notices issued in respect of this vehicle, I also invite APCOA to add this vehicle registration to an appropriate whitelist or otherwise flag the vehicle against my keeper details. I have made my position clear that, as registered keeper, I do not accept liability for driver-only charges where no statutory keeper liability applies. It would therefore be disproportionate and wasteful for APCOA to repeatedly issue and pursue charges against me in circumstances where the same issue has already been explained.

Kindly confirm receipt of this email and provide confirmation that the Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled. I would also ask you to confirm that the vehicle registration has been added to your whitelist, or otherwise flagged to prevent similar notices being issued in future.

What's the 'jackpot'?

You have received a Notice to Keeper.

Post the notice pl.

You can put together a standard response which you simply lift off the shelf as and when needed.

This is superfluous IMO, your first para. is sufficient. The more you write, the more they think they've got to you.

If APCOA contends that I am nevertheless personally liable, it must identify and establish the legal basis upon which that liability arises. The mere fact that I am the registered keeper does not establish that I was the driver, nor does it create contractual liability for a charge incurred by the driver.

I do not admit to being the driver and I decline to identify the driver. There is no general legal requirement for a registered keeper to identify the driver in circumstances such as this, and APCOA cannot circumvent the absence of POFA keeper liability simply by inviting or pressuring the keeper to provide driver details.

Nor can liability be transferred to the registered keeper merely by an assertion of agency. If APCOA's case is that a contract was breached, it must establish that the person it seeks to hold liable was a party to that contract and incurred the alleged liability. Keeper status alone is insufficient.

I therefore require APCOA either to cancel this Parking Charge Notice or, if it rejects this appeal, to provide the appropriate POPLA verification code so that the matter can be independently determined.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am appealing solely as the registered keeper. I do not identify the driver and I do not accept any liability for this Parking Charge Notice.

Please also ensure that no further requests for driver identification are treated as an admission of liability or as evidence that the registered keeper was the driver.

I invite APCOA to cancel the Parking Charge Notice now rather than incur the unnecessary costs of pursuing a charge for which it has no basis in keeper liability.

 As a practical matter, and to avoid unnecessary correspondence and costs arising from future notices issued in respect of this vehicle, I also invite APCOA to add this vehicle registration to an appropriate whitelist or otherwise flag the vehicle against my keeper details. I have made my position clear that, as registered keeper, I do not accept liability for driver-only charges where no statutory keeper liability applies. It would therefore be disproportionate and wasteful for APCOA to repeatedly issue and pursue charges against me in circumstances where the same issue has already been explained.

Kindly confirm receipt of this email and provide confirmation that the Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled. I would also ask you to confirm that the vehicle registration has been added to your whitelist, or otherwise flagged to prevent similar notices being issued in future.

It goes beyond a simple 'one-off' appeal. I'm attempting to short-circuit their processes (as is apparent from my email) to issue an INVOICE for each use of the drop-off zones; pushing the envelope for want of a better term. As a family with a number of vehicles - self, wife, two daughters, and a son, I am looking to reduce my administrative burden by stopping the issue at source. I'm not a commercial operator of vehicles;  I have a family who own vehicles and frequently have to take family members to Heathrow; currently we have two very ill old relatives in European countries and am not prepared to pay APCOA to drop my kids off to visit their gran weekly. It's enough to pay £8 to pick them up when I collect them from the car park - assuming there's no hold-up in baggage reclaim. If there is a way to mitigate their greed and make my life easier, I'll use it and hopefully if my 'jackpot' (whitelisting/flagging) pays off, I'm happy to share it. By suggesting this, I am suggesting they don't waste their resources issuing invoices that will be appealed. In addition I have asked HAL to provide some info relating to their contract with APCOA to ensure that their authority is not being exceeded. I don't want my reply to be construed as combative as I do know that the Airports are by-law land etc.