Free Traffic Legal Advice

All - great news, APCOA cancelled the PCN!

Their exact response was as follows:

Thank you for your letter rregarding the above Parking Charge Notice. Having considered the circumstances, we have cancelled the Parking Charge Notice on this occasion.
We would like to take this opportunity to explain that if you receive further Parking Charge Notices' under similar circumstances, we will be unable to cancel them. Please retain this letter as proof of cancellation, should you need it in the future.

I do find it interesting they said the further PCNs would not be cancelled...

A huge huge thanks to you for your help b789 - I am very grateful.

Hi all

I've managed to obtain the LoA from the lease company. Please could you let me know whether there is anything specific i need to be aware of when I appeal, or do I simply use the wording above? (Just checking whether it makes a difference I am a hirer appealing under a LoA?)

Also - I assume I appeal just following the instructions on the PCN?

Thanks!


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Just for completeness - this is what the LoA says - let me know if there is any issue:

LETTER OF AUTHORISATION

Reg Number: XXXX Notice Number: XXXX

I refer to the above numbered Private Parking Charge document issued date 23/10/2025, incident dated 23/10/2025 10:14

We are a vehicle leasing company and we hereby give permission for the below mentioned hirer to appeal and discuss the above mentioned:

The name of the Hirer/Lessee is:-
XXX XXX

This is a long term lease which commenced on XX/10/2024 and is due on XX/10/2027.

Thank you for your assistance.

Ok so could you please confirm my understanding:

- If I can receive a LoA (specific to this PCN) ahead of APCOA issuing the notice to the lease company:
   > I can respond to the PCN and appeal.
       > The consensus is that APCOA should allow the appeal and the matter should be closed.


- If I can't recieve the LOA ahead of APCOA issuing the notice to the lease company:
   > I should ensure the lease company do not pay (contact them ahead of time) and instead, all they should do is follow the law and transfer liability to me.
   > I can challenge the lease company for any admin fee on the basis this is not a "fine".
   > Once I receive the NtH, I can respond to the PCN and appeal.
      > Again, the consensus is that APCOA should allow the appeal and the matter should be closed.


For the appeal in either scenario - I can use the wording above (i.e. "APCOA cannot hold a Hirer liable for any alleged contravention on land that is under statutory control...").

Is that correct?

Thank you all.

The lease company has a charge of £15 - so not end of the world. And as you say - I may be able to defend.

I note the point you've made about them transferring liability and it being easy to appeal on the basis the driver is not identified.

A few questions from me:

(1) I think the lease company can provide me with a LoA. Do I need to wait until APCOA send the notice to them and they transfer liability to me, or can I take any proative steps to appeal this in the meantime?

(2) Also - can I just check, once in motion - will APCOA accept this appeal and remove the charge? Or will I need to go through POPLA?

Great news update!

Got a reply from Zenith apologising, saying the £50 charge will be refunded, as will the £10 administration fee, and they will apply a £10 goodwill credit for the inconvenience.

They've also committed (so they say) to reviewing their processes for future occasions.

Thank you so much for your help @b789 - could not have gotten anywhere close to a resolution without you. Hugely grateful for the time you spent in helping.

After chasing multiple times - I finally received a response...

Good Morning,

Please accept my apologies for the lateness of the reply to your email regarding the Parking Notice [XXX]. I hope that I can go some way to providing an satisfactory response to each of your points.

1. Failure to Transfer Liability under PoFA Schedule 4
As the legislature in PoFa Schedule 4 states, the registered keeper of the vehicle becomes liable for the parking notice subject to the parking operator complying with a series of requirements on issuing the NTK (Notice to keeper). It also includes details on how the registered keeper may request a transfer of liability for the notice to another party. The legislature however was written to address the transfer specifically for a hire vehicle and does not have clauses that support a similar option where a vehicle is on long term lease, especially to a corporate customer, as is the case with this vehicle. One of the strict requirements is for the keeper to provide a signed copy of the hire agreement, a document that contains the admission of the hirer to accept liability for any parking notices incurred while the vehicle is on hire. Unfortunately the lease agreement we have with your employer is unsuitable for this and so we are unable to meet the legal requirement to request a transfer of liability under schedule 4 of PoFA. Transfer requests such as this are met by the parking company rejecting the request as not meeting the legal requirement, and escalating the cost of the notice to the full value, typically £100. To avoid this situation the agreement with your employer is for us to make payment of parking notices when received to take advantage of the discounted amount.

2 Incorrect Application of Lease Agreement Clause
It is important to us that our policy agreements are clear and easily understandable by our customers. As part of making the policy document clear we had opted to use the colloquialism 'Fines' for Parking Notices as they can be referenced under a number of different titles, Parking notices, penalty notices, Byelaw contraventions etc. The term 'Fines' while not technically accurate as you have stated, is one that the majority of readers would be able to identify against a parking notice.

3 Preclusion of Appeal
Briefly mentioned above, our agreement with your employer is for us to make payment for the parking notices we receive as soon as possible to take advantage of the discount period, this usually reducing a £100 notice amount to £60. Most of the parking companies allow appeals to be submitted post payment as they understand that the NTK may not be sent to the driver of the vehicle who may wish to appeal the notice. There are however a few parking companies that will not consider an appeal after payment has been made. We are working with the BVRLA and are submitting our experience in the current Government consultation on private parking to have this option to appeal after payment be a legal requirement that parking operators have to allow. Understandably this doesn't help with the notice we have paid for this vehicle and can appreciate the frustration the outcome of the parking companies refusal to consider an appeal now. Our recommendation in these rare situations would be for you to submit all the appeal information to your employer to consider if they believe the appeal would have been successful had the parking company considered it, if reasonable they may consider not recharging the notice to yourself.

Given the frustration this may have caused you, I will arrange for us to credit back our administration fee and hope that this gesture and the above information goes some way to ameliorate your experience. If, however, this does not please let me know and I can pass this on to our complaints team.

Kind regards

My comments/questions are as follows:

• I am not sure whether they have a point on the Schedule 4 piece. But regardless, there was a seprate paragraph in the letter under of 'Transfer of Liability' that did not need the agreement. They haven't addressed why they didn't use that
• I don't really think they've addressed the 'notice v penalty' point at all
• The preclusion to appeal isn't my issue. They should have realised this and addressed it with me sooner.

I would very much welcome your views on what they've said, and would of course appreciate any wording to use in a response.

Hi both

See below from Zenith - not very helpful...

I am sorry to hear you unhappy with how we have handled this notice. Please note this notice has been paid and recharged in line with the agreement made with your company. Due to this we would be unable to amend this process. We would advise to speak to your Fleet team or HR team if you are unhappy with the current agreement.

In regards to the appeal process; Although Issuing authorities portals will not allow you to submit an appeal due to the payment being made, you are still able to appeal in writing directly with the issuing authority. To do so you will need to write a letter of appeal and send this along with the third party permission letter attached directly to Premier Park. Please note the address for Premier park can be found on the third party permission letter. If your appeal is successful we will need proof of cancellation and refund from Premier park so that we can raise the appropriate credit.

As we have followed the process agreed with your company correctly we would not be able to issue a refund and would advise to appeal with the issuing authority in writing if you believe the notice has been issued in error.

To my mind a few points coming out of this are:

• They've effectively ignored the crux of the arguments made
• Them to point to what provision in the agreement they have with my employer talks about notices like these (as opposed to penalties and fines, which this is)
• My agreement (which is from my employer, but surely based on the terms they entered into with Zenith) only talks about penalties and fines
• Whilst I have no experience, it would hugely surprise me if writing in to appeal overturned what they've clearly written in the letter and what POPLA write on thier website (i.e. if you pay you admit liability - end of story no appeal permitted)
• I wonder if I am still permitted to go through their complaints procedure without needing to go through my employer

Would welcome your thoughts on how best to respond.

Thank you both - this is incredibly helpful (and apologies for missing the emphasised point on charges versus fines/penalties - annoyed I missed that!)

Just to confirm, there is no other reference to 'parking charges' (or similar) in the agreement.

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Ok - so I will escalate via the lease company in the first instance and report back. Thank you for the template wording above - this is incredibly helpful.

In respect of the charge itself - am I right in saying there is no way of appealing it (either via company or POPLA)? Just wondering whether running that appeal in parallel to the complaint with the lease company gives two avenues as opposed to one.