Free Traffic Legal Advice

Thank you.

So you have said that you identified the driver, but nowhere in that text do you identify the driver. Have you sent anything else? If no, why do you think you've identified the driver?

Is there any evidence on the appeals portal beyond what is shown on the NtK?

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Regardless of what happened in that other case, you shouldn't be surprised to have a different outcome. Operators rarely apply much logic to anything they do.

The advice of this forum is typically to not bother with the IAS stage since they only accept around 4% of appeals, however you could if you wanted to, or you could follow up your appeal to the operator with a formal complaint. It's likely to be a waste of time.

Aside from that, move on with your life, expect some debt collector letters which you should ignore. If you receive a Letter of Claim or a Claim Form from the courts, come back here. In the unlikely event it goes to court it should be easy to defend.

Yes you named the driver? Or yes you appealed as keeper?

Post the Notice to Keeper and the contents of your appeal with personal information redacted.

Your summary of where you find yourself now is somewhat accurate but I'm not sure how you've figured out you're £100 worse off.

It would likely not have made any difference if you’d named the driver. You can still defend in court as either driver or keeper. You haven’t specified what mitigating circumstances existed but operators typically don’t care. They’re IPC/IAS so you had at best a 4% chance of success at appeal anyway.

We’re still missing a bunch of facts to determine how much of a case you would have if this went to court (signage primarily) but there are likely to be a few angles you can take to fight this if it goes that far.

Per earlier messages it’s also plausible that it never goes there or if it does the claim is defective and is struck out before a hearing.

In terms of your follow up points:

1. Reviews are irrelevant but by all means add one. Website being useless is irrelevant - You received the NtK and all relevant information - you chose to ignore it, that’s on you.

2. ANPR point and timing is important. Code of practice dictates a minimum consideration and grace period. Will be part of your defence if it goes to court.

3. Your opinion isn’t important regarding the lag. Again you had the NtK and chose to ignore. You have been very unlucky in receiving one of the very few NtKs that can transfer liability.

Sorry for bluntness throughout. The team here will absolutely help you defend if you choose to do so. A parking charge of this nature is clearly unreasonable in your case, mitigation or otherwise.

Up to you if you choose to pay, but personally I wouldn’t.

Acknowledge service based on the instructions in this PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xvqu3bask5m0zir/money-claim-online-How-to-Acknowledge.pdf?dl=0

Take a stab at preparing a defence based on the information throughout the forum and await further support from @b789 or one of the other regulars.

Amazing, thank you @b789. Complaint response sent.

On the MP letter, I assume it should be the MP for my constituency rather than the one where the Railway Station is? Any advantage to sending to both?

Update on this one: both of the PNs that were 'incorrectly' transferred to me were cancelled based on my appeals (shortly after I sent the complaint). I also received a response to the complaint on Saturday - stating the third (the one they refused to transfer from the keeper) has also been cancelled.

That hopefully means that any risk of the keeper business paying is gone - unless there are any more to follow!

Along with confirmation, I got what I think was meant to be an actual response to my complaint - but is clearly insufficient.



I intend to respond as follows:

Dear [COMPLAINT HANDLER],

Firstly, thank you for confirming the final ‘Penalty Notice’ has been rightfully cancelled.

I may be misinterpreting, but the tone of your message somewhat suggests this is your formal response to my complaint. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you but per the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice 11.4:

A full response to a complaint must be provided by the parking operator within 28 days of its receipt unless exceptional circumstances apply, in which case the complainant must be kept informed by the operator.

To be clear, I wouldn’t expect you to "comment on internal processes and their outcomes” per your message, but I do expect a full and thorough response to the real concerns raised in my complaint. In summary:

1. Why are you, an unregulated parking company, issuing fake “Penalty Notices” which appear designed to mislead motorists that you have authority that you do not?
2. Why are you even suggesting that Railway Byelaws are remotely relevant in cases of minor parking indiscretions on railway land?
3. Why are you suggesting that a private parking ‘appeals process’ is even vaguely relevant in the case of a breach of Railway Byelaws?
4. Why are you wrongly claiming you have any legal basis to infer the owner of a vehicle based on its registered keeper?
5. Why between your different communications are you unclear on which party you are trying to hold accountable?
6. Why between your different communications are you unclear on what alleged contravention has even occurred?
7. What failing has occurred that your customer service team think it’s acceptable to ignore a customer asking reasonable questions?
8. What failing has occurred that two different members of your customer service team have different views of what information it is okay to share with a customer?
9. Given I was told that information was disclosed to me that shouldn’t have been, what assurances can you offer that my personal information, and that of your other customers is safe?
10. On what lawful basis under GDPR have you been processing and storing my personal data?

Regards,
[G6PRK]

@b789 would appreciate any thoughts you have on this?

My intention is to exhaust communications with APCOA and then prepare a pack to send to the local MP and maybe the local press.

As a related aside, another car which I am the registered keeper of is likely to receive NtKs in the next week or so, so will be interested to see what the process is like in that case.

It's a harmless "debt collector" letter - no need to do anything until you receive a "Letter of Claim".

Do you have the original NtK? And a who's authority is it required to display a permit on the road? Are you a resident?