Free Traffic Legal Advice

Amongst other things, that notice does not

(a)specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates;

and is probably non-compliant with PoFA 2012 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/schedule/4) for a number of other reasons also, so the keeper should appeal on the basis of non-compliance and therefore inability to hold the keeper liable for the actions of the driver, who will not be identified.

Wait for a proposed form of words, or a better alternative.

If nothing else, you are right that you can’t be liable for parking under the circumstances you describe. Someone is over-eager (presumably on commission) to spot and report people for “parking”. Parking requires a contract to be offered and accepted, and driving past a sign saying “no parking” doesn’t do this.

Oh, and I’ve just seen your post of the sign, which is total pants. It doesn’t say anything! Unless there are other signs, as it claims.

Follow the advice and you won't be paying a penny to these scammers. There are so many things wrong with that Notice to Keeper (NtK), including but not limited to failure to fully comply with all the requirements of PoFA 21012, no evidence of any contract formation with the driver, lack of evidence that PCS has any legal standing to collect money on behalf of the creditor, PESS.

For now, all you need to do is appeal to PCS. Easy one to deal with… as long as the unknown drivers identity is not revealed. There is no legal obligation on the known keeper (the recipient of the Notice to Keeper (NtK)) to reveal the identity of the unknown driver and no inference or assumptions can be made.

The NtK is not compliant with all the requirements of PoFA which means that if the unknown driver is not identified, they cannot transfer liability for the charge from the unknown driver to the known keeper.

Use the following as your appeal. No need to embellish or remove anything from it:

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 your Notice to Keeper (NtK) does not fully comply with ALL the requirements of PoFA 2012, you are unable to hold the keeper of the vehicle liable for the charge. Partial or even substantial compliance is not sufficient. There will be no admission as to who was driving and no inference or assumptions can be drawn. PCS 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. PCS have no hope at POPLA, so you are urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.

Do not add any of the mitigation that you have told us about. None of that will matter in this case unless it ever went to court as a debt claim, which is highly unlikely. Any initial appeal will be rejected but you will receive a POPLA code with which you can make a secondary appeal which will have a much greater chance of success and we will cover as and when necessary.

Before I submit the appeal, can I ask why we can't add something like "The driver entered and exited the road without parking"? Or is that something that needs to be submitted at POPLA stage?

The appeal was submitted today using their online form on their website. Once submitted a pop up screen appeared that said "your appeal has been successfully submitted". However, no reference number was provided nor any email confirmation of the appeal.

Yes I did, including a screenshot of the completed form before pressing the submit button.