Hi guys,

Want to try and get the final word on this! I've been googling and researching for days and all the information seems to be different...some say ignore completely, some say appeal after 21 days, some say appeal to POPLA, some say just pay up. Let's see if we can get to the bottom of it.

Basically, I'm guilty as charged. I nipped out for a catch up with my friend, parked the car in the nearby carpark for an hour, as I had done many times before after 8pm, didn't pay anything, and came back to find the ticket on my car. I used to work in the club nearby and always parked my car in the car park, never a problem, so was very surprised to see the ticket. I looked on the sign near the entrance which stated the car park is owned by NCP (National Car Parks Ltd) and for an hour I should of paid £1.70 (or something like that). I'm in the wrong and can accept that.

I did the research and the general consensus seemed to be...ignore. Don't get in touch with them, they'll give up. As expected, I've received my first warning letter. I came back online just to make sure what I was doing was correct, and came across something saying ignoring hasn't worked since 2012. The letter does say something about the "Protection of Freedoms Act 2012", so now I'm panicking. Am I going to have to give in and pay the £100?

I've read about appealing to POPLA, and how NCP can't legally enforce a fine that large, and should just be asking for the price of the original ticket (£1.70) plus administrative costs (a couple quid). Can someone please advice me on what to do from here?

Thank you...

When did you get your first letter and what was its date? When was the alleged parking event?

The first letter came on Monday afternoon, and said "date of posting of this notice: 02/10/2014, date this notice is given: 06/10/2014." The alleged parking event took place on the evening of Friday the 22nd of August.

Can anybody advise me on this?

I'm surprised nobody's posted this link, so...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4816822

for all you need (or could ever wish to) know .

In friendlier terms:

You've sussed that they are entitled to £1.70 - this is also actually plus £2.50 to get the registered keeper's details from DVLA plus a few quid for paper, ink, envelope, stamp, a minute for a template letter to be sorted on the PC... Say a tenspot - which clearly does NOT total £100 (reduced to £60 within the first 14 days or whatever they are offering). The guts of this argument are what is called a "GPEOL defence", ie the amount claimed is not a Genuine Pre-Estimate Of Loss" (GPEOL, geddit?? ) arising from the alleged parking event.

You need to appeal to NCP in these terms and add a couple of other points (eg NCP do not have sufficient interest in the land to offer contracts and the signs were too small/unreadable [and unlit, if it was dark?] on entry to the car park and you were therefore unaware that parking needed to be paid for at that time of night), but they will almost certainly deny the appeal (whereupon they must include a POPLA code, IF they are BPA members*, which costs them £27). Then appeal to POPLA (with the rider as in previous sentence) where the "GPEOL defence" will win (but also include the other points) and the ticket will be cancelled...

In the meantime, please can you scan or photograph the paperwork you have, 'redact' or 'wash' it (remove all personal details and reference numbers, car park locations and any other identifying marks) then save the pics to an external picture hosting website (photobucket etc) and link them on a new post on this thread, so we can see EXACTLY what we're dealing with?? Thanks


*If NCP are not BPA members (other posters will indicate this, I'm a relative amateur on here in the fine details ) then other advice seems to be needed and other posters will clarify what you need to do.

Yes simply appeal to the company stating that their charge is nothing but a penalty and that you expect the POPLA code should they not cancel the charge.

Come back when they reply, but you can easily beat them.

Hoping this will work...this is the original parking charge notice: http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah30/c...zps75976f1f.jpg

And this is the letter I received earlier this month: http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah30/c...zpsd641f0b0.jpg

There is photographic evidence of my car on the website. So are people thinking I should tell them I'm willing to pay GPEOL, but not the fine they've given me?

Follow Matts advice above as you could time out by not appealing. The first stage is a simple one so no need to overthink it - and do not make any offers to pay or anything that looks like an offer to pay. It just marks you out as a victim to harass