Read this thread carefully before posting about your case to ensure you receive the best possible advice on your case. If you haven’t already, make sure you also read the
house rules.
1.
Give your post a clear title – this will provide quick context to members. Helpful information to include would be the parking company, alleged reason for issue, and location.
Example:
“ACME Parking PCN – No Permit – ABC Shopping Centre, Town”2.
Explain the situation – whilst many cases are similar, none are identical, and the correct approach will often be different depending on the context, so it is important to explain the situation concisely but thoroughly. Remember to
stick to the facts. Nobody likes receiving parking charges, but ranting won’t get your charge cancelled, and referring to individuals or organisations as ‘crooks’, ‘scammers’ or ‘criminals’ on a public forum could come back to bite.
Do not tell us who was driving* unless you are advised by the forum that you can. Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act (2012)* allows parking companies to hold registered keepers and hirers responsible for private parking charges, but only if they follow the requirements of the act. Many parking companies fail to do so, meaning only the driver can be held liable. The parking company don’t know who that is, so don’t tell them, and don’t post it on here (these forums are public!). When explaining what has happened on here, talk about what “the driver” did – not what you/your wife/the dog did.
Example:
“Upon entering the car park, the driver found a space, parked up, and went for their appointment. The appointment ran over, and when they left the car park they had exceeded the maximum parking period. On 1st June, I, the registered keeper, received a PCN through the post”Without telling us who was driving, do tell us your relationship to the vehicle; are you the Registered Keeper (with the V5C in your possession, the hirer, etc.?
*IMPORTANT*:
Whilst there is no obligation to say who was driving when posting on here, or when appealing to the parking company or POPLA/IAS, it is important you do not lie, or otherwise mislead anyone (whether intentionally or not) about who was driving, at any stage of the process. If the matter gets to court, you may be asked if you were driving, and must answer truthfully. If you were driving, you must not say that you were not. If you know who was driving, you must not lie and say that you do not know.
If the matter gets to court, you cannot simply put the claimant to proof as to who was driving as each allegation has to be (1) admitted, (2) denied with reasons or (3) neither confirmed nor denied on the basis that it is outside the defendant’s knowledge. If you were driving, you cannot deny this, or say that it is outside of your knowledge.
Lying at any stage can have serious (legal) consequences. Such conduct will also not be tolerated on this forum under any circumstances.3.
Post the notice(s) you have received – as well as providing important context, the notices may contain/omit details that can be used to help you successfully fight the charge. Upload photos of any and all notices you have received from the parking company. You should
show us all pages of the notice(s), remove personal details (name/address, PCN reference number, Vehicle Registration Mark), but
show us all dates and times. Details that you think are trivial could help you win, so don’t leave anything out.
Ideally you will have sought advice here
before taking action, but if you have already responded, show us any correspondence you have sent, and the response(s) you have received in return.
4.
Post photos of the signage in the car park – where possible, you should upload photos showing the layout of the signage in the car park, including any signs at the entrance(s), as well as close-ups showing the text on the signs. Where possible, you should also include a link to a Google Street View of the car park, as this can give a more thorough picture of the layout.
There is some upload space on this site but it's quite limited, so it's best to upload to a picture hosting site (such as https://imgur.com or similar) and post linksNote: you can use the "add image" icon to embed images in your post:

If you are using Imgur (our preferred option), once you've uploaded an image to the site you can use the share link option to copy the BB codes:


You can then paste that into your post and the image will be embedded into the post, just as all the images in this post have been.
**If anyone has any suggested additions/amends to this guide, feel free to PM me**