Free Traffic Legal Advice

Just wait to receive your own notice then come back here.

I havent yet received a response from Arval from yesterday's email.

This is the email arval sent (with the attached PCN):

Dear Customer
 
What is happening?
 
We are writing to let you know that unfortunately we have received a parking fine or penalty charge notice for your vehicle OE74RYN
 
The details of the offence are as listed below:
•   Fine / Penalty Charge number:                       LU3554261
•   Date & Time:                                                      10/08/2026 19:39:00
•   Location:                                                            Luton Airport Pick Up / Drop Off Zone
•   Issuing authority details:                                 APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd
•   Hirer address:                                                   <my address>
 
What happens now?
We have contacted the issuing authority on your behalf and have asked them to send the fine direct to you, at the 'hirer' address listed above. This is because in your leasing contract you are responsible for either paying the fine/penalty amount or appealing upon receipt from the authority.
 
Important information you need to know
Please be aware that :
•   Some authorities can take up to one calendar month to reissue a fine. If you don't receive the fine/charge notice after this time, then please contact the authority in question. If the address details above are incorrect you must contact us immediately so that we can update our system and resend the correct address information to the issuing authority listed above.
•   When an authority reissues the fine the discounted payment period restarts. However, please be aware that if you make an appeal and you are unsuccessful, you may lose the opportunity to pay at the discounted rate.
•   For any further information about the offence, please visit the issuing authorities' website, and enter the fine or penalty charge notice number. By accessing the website you may be able to:
      -request a copy of the fine or penalty charge notice
      -view the evidence of contravention, including images from the Issuer
      -review your payment options
      -get details on how you can appeal
•   Arval are unable to liaise with the authority regarding the offence once the liability has been transferred due to data protection
•   We have charged you or your company an administration fee of £12.50 +VAT, in line with your contract with us. This fee will appear in your next monthly invoice.*
 
We have also attached a frequently asked questions document which you might find useful. Click here to view the document
Best Wishes
Fines Team - Arval UK Ltd

Other than that APCOA isn’t any sort of “authority”, this seems fine, they’ve given your details to APCOA who will send you your own Notice to Hirer in due course, which you can appeal. Please just post the NtH here when you get it, but it should be a relatively simple appeal - based on not being “relevant land” as previously stated - and APCOA will probably cancel. Even if they don’t, you should know that we have no knowledge of APCOA ever taking any one to court.

Yep, thank you. However, the charge for parking was already paid so the PCN is a mistake, however **** them. I'm happy to make them do the run around since they've made me do the same by sending it.

According to the OP, they were not the driver.

The OP does not have first-hand knowledge of whether the driver paid as required but believes that 'The parking fair was paid but was sent this anyway. It COULD be that when the fair was paid the registration O was added as a 0 (zero), but nevertheless it was paid.'

In which case the keeper will have some work to do because they are not in a position to prove that the charge for VRM ****** was actually paid as required.

It's just a guess. All I know is that I have a bank statement showing a parking payment that aligns with the date in question. There are no receipts available, so I can't evidence exactly what VRM was entered, but equally there's no evidence at this stage that the parking tariff wasn't paid.

The bank statement is evidence that a payment was made, therefore it'd be for the parking company to produce evidence showing why that payment did not satisfy the parking charge e.g. their payment/VRM records for the relevant period.

Personally, I would forget about all this stuff about bank statements, payments, receipts, VRMs.

No need to complicate things.

When you receive a NtH in your own name, it will say that the driver is liable, and it may or may not claim that the hirer is liable under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. In either case you can simply respond that the hirer can not be liable, and if PoFA 2012 is mentioned then it is not “relevant land” and so the legislation can’t be applied.

From your searching the forum you will have seen that
(a) APCOA usually cancel in the face of an appeal based on non-compliance with PoFA 2012.
(b) APCOA never take people to court anyway.

Yeah probably will do that. Doesnt that mean that one could always use the parking for "free"?