Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: Swifty on December 30, 2024, 04:17:16 pm
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Easy one to defeat... as long as the unknown drivers identity is not revealed. There is no legal obligation on the known keeper (the recipient of the Notice to Keeper (NtK)) to reveal the identity of the unknown driver and no inference or assumptions can be made.
The NtK is not compliant with all the requirements of PoFA because the land is not "relevant land" which means that if the unknown driver is not identified, they cannot transfer liability for the charge from the unknown driver to the known keeper.
Lullingstone Country Park is council owned land under statutory control. As such, PoFA does not apply. Here is an interesting article about the Local Government Ombudsman warning Kent County Council about issuing PCNs under PoFA at this very location:
Ombudsman urges councils to check legislation supporting their parking policies (https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/transport-and-highways/443-transport-and-highways-news/39744-ombudsman-urges-councils-to-check-legislation-supporting-their-parking-policies)
Use the following as your appeal. No need to embellish or remove anything from it:
I am the keeper of the vehicle and I dispute your 'parking charge'. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and I will be making a complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner.
As your Notice to Keeper (NtK) cannot rely on PoFA 2012 due to the fact that the location is not "relevant land", you are unable to hold the keeper of the vehicle liable for the charge. There will be no admission as to who was driving and no inference or assumptions can be drawn. ECP has relied on contract law allegations of breach against the driver only.
The registered keeper cannot be presumed or inferred to have been the driver, nor pursued under some twisted interpretation of the law of agency. Your NtK can only hold the driver liable. ECP have no hope at POPLA, so you are urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.
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You've redacted a bit too much info there - we could do with seeing the dates and times on the notice.
they drove into the area and had an unexpected phone call while parking, about 40mins in length. When they got out to use the services they noticed the parking charges and decided not to park and left.
With the best will in the world, it seems a bit of a stretch to say they 'decided not to park' after being there for 40 minutes. There are likely to be other grounds upon which you can challenge the parking charge, but you'll struggle to convince many people that the car was not parked.
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I received the attached ticket yesterday and I'm a bit annoyed. I'm the registered keeper but not the driver. Having spoken to the driver they inform me that they drove into the area and had an unexpected phone call while parking, about 40mins in length. When they got out to use the services they noticed the parking charges and decided not to park and left. They have offered to pay the fine but it seems a bit excessive to me, any advice greatly received.
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