Driver parked up, noticed the signs said 2 hours free and hadn't read further detailing a "free ticket" was required as proof of free 2 hours as the car park is for a major supermarket. Driver came back to the car to find the charge notice attached. Signs do say the car park is camera controlled, and the notice lists the time the driver entered the car park, thus they know the driver left around 4pm and was not over the two hours. As the registered keeper I already have an debt collection letter for a previous ECP car park. Would it be wise to recommend the driver appeal this one on the basis of the rules being different to most other supermarkets and not exceeding the time which they already know the driver hadn't, or ignore it and hope they don't see the registered keeper as a bigger target to take to court with 2 fines? Thanks in advance.
Don't Scottish residents know that there is no Keeper liability in Scotland, for now at least?
I sincerely hope that you have not blabbed the drivers identity for this or your other ECP Parking Charge Notice (PCN). ECP have absolutely no idea of the drivers identity unless the Keeper blabs is, inadvertently or otherwise. Simply appealing and saying silly things such as "I did this or that" instead of referring to the driver in the third person such as "the driver is this or that" is how most people proverbially shoot both feet off when they have what is known as a "golden ticket".
There is no legal obligation on the Keeper to identify the driver to an unregulated private parking company. The driver is unknown to ECP. The Keeper is known. All the Keeper has to do is either ignore everything that comes their way or simply appeal with the following:
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 this parking charge relates to an alleged contravention in Scotland, the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PoFA) do not apply. This means that ECP 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. Since only the driver can appeal to POPLA in Scotland, and no driver has been identified, ECP has no means of enforcing this charge. You are therefore urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.
Yes I am aware of the no keeper liability in Scotland and as the registered keeper I have not identified the driver to ECP at any point. My main worry was that if they have two cases against me as the registered keeper, would they feel more obliged to pursue the charges? Thanks for your response though regarding the appeal template, will keep that in mind.
No, they can't. As b789 says, they can only pursue the driver, and they don't know who that was - as long as you don't tell them!
You could have 100 PCNs issued as Notices to Keeper (NtK), you still cannot not be liable for any of them unless you also admit, inadvertently or otherwise, that you were also the driver. As there is no legal obligation to do so, why would you?
If you appeal only as the Keeper and it is rejected, all you do is ignore everything else that arrives in the post until they give up. You certainly don't respond any Debt Recovery Agent (DRA) letters. The DRAs are not a party to the contract allegedly breached by the unknown driver and are powerless to do anything except to try and scare the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into coughing up the dosh out of ignorance and fear.
Unfortunately, thanks to the ex-"dear leader", once the upcoming Private Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 comes into law, Keeper liability will also come into force in Scotland. So much for wanting "independence" from England.
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