Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: Redeye on May 27, 2024, 07:43:19 pm
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The notice was deemed "given" on Tuesday 9th April. The keeper had until Tuesday 7th May to appeal. By not appealing within that time, they have missed the opportunity to appeal to POPLA.
The keeper is now in a sort of limbo. They will be the recipient of numerous debt collector letters with an additional fake £70 added. All the debt collector letters can be safely ignored. No debt collector can initiate legal action as they are not a party to the contract that the driver allegedly breached. File them or use them as kindling.
What is likely to happen eventually, is the keeper will receive a Letter of Claim from a a firm of roboclaim solicitors. This will give them notice that they have 30 days to pay the alleged debt or expect a county court claim any time after that. A response to the LoC is worthwhile although not essential. However, once an actual N1SDT claim form arrives from the CNBC, it must be responded to. The keeper is a way off that for now.
ECP are easily defeated should it ever get that far and it is unlikely that the keeper would even have to go to court as they use DCB Legal as their roboclaim solicitors and you can guarantee that as long as the advice you will receive and submit a robust defence using a template defence, they will discontinue before it ever reaches court.
There is one thing the keeper can try for now... As the keeper does not reside at the address where the car is registered, it can be argued that, whilst it is a valid address, the NtK was not received within the time to allow an appeal. The BPA CoP v9 has a new clause at 23.8 which states that they must have a process for considering appeals received outside of the normal 28-day period allowed for lodging an appeal where the appellant provides evidence of exceptional circumstances for the appeal not being lodged within the normal timeframes – where the addressee only discovers and can show that a parking charge notice has been issued in their name after the 28-day period the period must restart and any enforcement, excluding court action, must be paused.
I would suggest that the keeper email ECP and inform them that the NtK was received after the date that an appeal could be made because the keeper does not reside at the address where the vehicle is registered and therefore, under BPA CoP rule 23.8, they should send a new NtK to the keeper at their residential address and reset the clock. It's worth a try.
Is the keeper a student living at temporary student accommodation but the car is registered to the home address?
Under no circumstances should the keeper identify who was driving. They are not obliged to do so. The NtK does not include the requirements of PoFA 9(2)(e)(i) and so, they cannot transfer the liability for the charge from the unknown driver to the known keeper. Any correspondence is only as the keeper. No "...I parked". Only "...the driver parked".
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There's no date that shows when the NTK was sent
"Date issued" in the top right of the first notice, 05/04/2024. It is presumed delivered 2 working days after the date sent, unless the contrary can be proven (and of course, proving something wasn't delivered is tricky).
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Hi, thanks for that.
I've attached the back of the notice to keeper.
There's no date that shows when the NTK was sent so I was wondering how we know if they sent it within the required time of 14 days. Is it worth asking for prrof of when it was sent? If it went to a court claim wouldn't they have to prove that?
Thanks,
R
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The alleged offence dates back to March but there was no ticket on her car so she only found out today when her Mum gave her the letter (the car is still registered at her Mums house).
As an aside before we get onto the case in question - if she does not live at that house, and it takes that long for post sent there to reach her, she'd be wise to register the vehicle to her own address. Because of the delay, it is now technically too late for her to appeal, so she will probably have to wait and see if Euro Car Parks decide to take the matter to civil court (small claims).
A good starting point is generally to speak to the store and see if they will intervene - the chances here seem pretty low, as it would seem that the driver was not a customer if they were parked when the store was closed... That said, little to be lost by trying.
Can you show us the back of the initial notice? (not the reminder)
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Hi,
The registered keeper recently received a letter from Euro Car parks (see attached). The alleged offence dates back to March but there was no ticket on her car so she only found out today when her Mum gave her the letter (the car is still registered at her Mums house). The driver had parked in Sainsbury's car park in the belief that she was allowed upto 2 hours free parking. On closer inspection of the sign (attached), it states that out of store hours you're only allowed 10 minutes free.
She's only 17 and £85 is a lot of money for her so I just wondered if there is any scope to appeal this?
Many thanks,
R
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