Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all,

Hope you're well. Was looking for some advice. I received a parking ticket at Embassy Gardens which is notoriously poorly sign posted. The car was parked in a space with absolutely no signage. There was nothing to suggest that parking there was not allowed as there were no signs, no painted lines. Parking was paid for the allotted time with many other cars parked here. An appeal was sent a rejected on the basis that there were tiny signs which were neither clear nor close to where the vehicle was parked indicating a restriction.





A little bit of background on the appeal, the ticket was issued late September and the initial appeal was lodged 5 days after the ticket was issued and no response was received. My company then received a letter at the end of November and I once again appealed on the basis that they did not respond to my initial appeal within a reasonable timeframe and therefore should cancel the frivolous ticket. They have responded to that appeal a full 22 days later.

From the advice in the pinned thread is to not bother appealing to the IAS and I'm seeing online in other places too that it is a waste of time as they will just reject anyway. What should I do now?

What should I advise the lease company regarding this Parking Charge?

Date of original ticket 26th September and appeal was done 1st October:

Dear Sir/Madam

I am the keeper of the vehicle which received this purported 'parking charge'. There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. I am not liable and I believe that your signs fail the test of 'large lettering' and prominence, as established in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis. Your unremarkable and obscure signs are in small print and the onerous terms are not readable. There was no clear signage to indicate a parking restriction. 4 hours of parking were paid for as evidenced thus the alleged contravention did not occur.

Further, I understand you do not own the land and you have given me no information about your policy with the landowner, to cancel such a charge. So please supply that policy as required under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

Should you fail to cancel this Parking Notice immediately, I require the following information in order to assess the validity of your claim:

1.      What is the full legal identity of the landowner whom you claim to be contracted by?
2.      As you are not the landowner, please provide a contemporaneous and unredacted copy of your contract with the landholder that demonstrate that PCM (UK) Ltd. have the authority of the landowner to both issue parking charges and legislate in your own name or on behalf of the landowner.
3.      Does your charge represent damages for breach of contract? Answer yes or no.
4.      Please provide dated photos of the signs that you say were on site, which you contend formed a contract.

If you refuse to provide the information requested above, please confirm that you will cancel the charge. If you choose to reject this challenge, please provide me with a POPLA code so I can escalate the matter.

Please also note I do not give you consent to process any data relating to me, or this vehicle. I deny liability and will not respond to debt collectors. You must consider this letter a Section 10 Notice under the DPA, and should you fail to respond accordingly, your company will be reported to the Information Commissioner.

It has also been noted that you are in breach of the BPA Code of Practice in the use of the term PCN, which was not mentioned in any of your signs. Under section 14 ‘Misrepresentation of Authority’ the BPA clearly states:
14.3 The abbreviation ‘PCN’ is also used to mean a ‘penalty charge notice’ in the regulated environment. Unless you have previously defined a PCN as a ‘parking charge notice’ on your signs and notices, you must avoid using the term ‘PCN’ to avoid confusing drivers about the nature of your parking enforcement

Thank you for your cooperation and I look forward to receiving your response advising of the cancellation of this bogus parking charge within the relevant timescales specified under the British Parking Association Ltd Code of Practice.

I received an automated email confirming receipt of the appeal but no response, instead a letter was sent to the office on 28th November which I appealed with the following:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in reference to Parking Charge Notice (PCN) PCXXXXXX, which was issued on 26/09/24. I submitted an appeal for this parking charge on 01/10/24, and I received confirmation from your company that my appeal had been received on 01/10/24.

However, despite the passage of considerable time, I have not received any communication from you regarding the outcome of my appeal. Instead, I have now received a further notice via post dated 26/11/24, which appears to be a reminder or further demand for payment.

As per the guidelines set out in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and the codes of practice of your industry’s governing bodies, including the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC), parking operators are required to respond to appeals within a reasonable time frame (usually within 14 days).

Since I submitted my appeal on 01/10/24, it is my understanding that I should have received a decision within the prescribed period. The failure to respond within this time frame, combined with the sending of a new notice after my appeal, constitutes a failure to process my appeal in accordance with the rules set out by the governing bodies.

In light of this, I respectfully request that you review my case once again, taking into account the timeline for responding to appeals, and confirm the outcome of my appeal. Furthermore, I ask that you cancel this PCN, as it seems you have not followed the correct procedure in handling my appeal and there is no basis for the ticket to be issued due to lack of signage where the alleged contravention occurred.

If you do not uphold this request, I would appreciate your written explanation, and I will be escalating the matter to an independent appeals service such as POPLA or IAS.

I look forward to receiving your response within the next 14 days.

And finally the rejection wad dated 27th December.

That PCN was easily appealed if you'd used their failure to comply with the requirements of PoFA for the following reason:

Key Dates:


PoFA Requirements:


Conclusion:

PoFA compliance was not met. The NtK was issued too late to hold the Keeper liable under PoFA 2012. This makes the NtK invalid for transferring liability from the driver to the keeper. Therefore, the parking company cannot pursue the registered keeper for the parking charge unless they can prove that the keeper was the driver. They can't unless the Keeper identifies the driver, inadvertently or otherwise.

Hence my questions about who was the NtK addressed to and who and in what capacity did you appeal?

The Keeper is the person or company named on the V5C. Is the V5C in the name of a company or is it in your name? This distinction is important.

If the Keeper is a company and the PCN is not PoFA compliant, then only the unknown driver can be liable. If the Keeper is a company, PCM cannot turn around and claim that the keeper must be the driver because a company cannot be a driver.

If you're suggesting that the vehicle is leased, then there is no way you can be the Keeper. The lease company is the Keeper and you or your company are the Hirer.

So, are you the Hirer or is the Hirer the company. I'm just trying to get to there bottom of this and it's a bit like pulling teeth right now.

My sincerest apologies, I'm trying to answer your questions the best I can, I'm not familiar with all of the terms so will explain the best I can.

The lease company are the owners of the vehicle. My company is the leasee. I work for the company and in my appeal identified as the keeper of the vehicle and requested to have all correspondence sent to me so as to avoid any potential admin charges from the leasing Company.

Hope I've covered everything there. Please let me know if I haven't.

The only communication I've had with them is the two emails in my earlier post in one which I refer to myself as the keeper. The only thing sent to my company was the letter addressed to the Hirer.

I only referred to myself as the keeper of the vehicle once but at no point have made any mention to the identity of the driver.