To show images, read the advice in this thread:
READ THIS FIRST - Private Parking Charges Forum guideIt is not unusual to see this failure to notify the appellant of the appeal rejection and so deprive you of an opportunity to appeal to POPLA. It costs PG £35 if they have to contest an appeal made through POPLA.
You are dealing with scamming, ex-clamper thugs. Don’t imagine for a moment that there is any “customer service” in these intellectually malnourished companies.
What you received and appealed is no a “fine” and calling it such imparts a sense of “authority” that is definitely undeserved. A PCN is simply an “invoice” for an alleged breach of contract by the driver. It is not a “fine” or a “penalty” issued by an “authority” such as a council or the police.
PG are an unregulated private parking company and have no statutory powers. They belong to the BPA and are bound to comply with the Code of Practice (CoP) if they want to be able to obtain Keeper data from the DVLA.
Have you tried Plan A yet? Asking the landowner or whoever contracted PG to manage the car park? That is always the easiest course of action.
You have done Plan B which was the initial appeal. Plan C is the POPLA appeal, which you have been denied. Plan D is a claim in the county court.
For now, try Plan A and also make a complaint to PG about their failure to send you a POPLA code. They are going to claim that they Cupid send it to you and will produce a copy of the letter or email. However, that is not proof that they did.
The only way they could prove they did is if the have a certificate of posting or a signature for delivery if sent by post or an email if sent electronically. If it was by email, they would have to show all the email headers to prove it was sent.
Point this out in your complaint and threaten to escalate it to the BPA. The burden of proof is on PG to evidence they actually sent it, not on you to prove you didn’t receive it. As you are complaining, they should put any debt recovery action on hold until they have responded to your complaint.
You can safely ignore all debt collector letters. They are powerless to actually do anything. Never, ever, ever communicate with the debt collectors. They are a third party to any contract allegedly breached by the driver. Ignore them.
Show us what you intend to write in your complaint to PG before you send it.
When you appealed, did you identify as the driver? If the Notice to Keeper (NtK) was not PoFA compliant, you will have thrown away a legal protection that would have helped.
If this escalates all the way to a court claim, don’t worry. There is a greater than 99.9% chance that it will never get as far as a hearing and they will discontinue before they have to pay the hearing fee. Once they realise that you intend to go all the way, the save themselves the hearing fee and go off in search of more gullible victims.
Even in the highly unlikely scenario that it ever went to a hearing and you somehow were unsuccessful in defending the claim, it would cost no more than ~£200 with zero chance of a CCJ if paid in full within 30 days of judgment.
I workday give odds of 100:1 of it ever going that way. A discontinuation is the most likely scenario if you are not provided with an opportunity to appeal to POPLA.
So, for now, read the linked thread and show us the NtK and prepare a complaint to PG for review.
You won’t be paying a penny to PG.
