APCOA PCN for not validating parking at Tescos

[Postgatescat]

Hi all, I'm a newbie here, so please go easy on me!

I visited Tescos on 11th Sept 2020. You have 1hour of free parking regardless, but up to 2 hours, as long as you spend at least £5 in store. You receive a parking voucher which needs to be validated on a machine before you leave the car park.
I spent 90mins in the car park and spent nearly £100 on shopping. I am pretty sure I validated my parking as it is unusual for me to spend so long there and was acutely aware I was over the time limit for validation.
The signs in the car park state that you will be fined £70 if you fail to comply with the following conditions:

Stay less than 2hours
Spend at least £5
Only use disabled bays if possess a blue badge
Only park in parent and child bay if you have young child with you
Must park within the marked bays.

APCOA's own photos show I stayed less than 2hours
I have the receipt for the money spent in store.

I received the letter from APCOA on 12th Oct, for a parking contravention on 11th Sept.
They state that the contravention is either overstaying 2 hours or failure to validate parking.

It would seem that they are too late chase me for the parking charge.

HOWEVER
I think I did something dumb and appealed the charge on the basis that I satisfied the conditions of parking. Not validating the parking is NOT a stated condition of using the car park.

I have now read that if they did not state they are contacting me under the terms of POFA 2012 then they are pursuing me under contract law and I have effectively identified myself as the driver through sending proof of the spend in Tesco.

So after all that my questions are:

Can I still claim they are too late sending the PCN to me?

If not, am I correct that not validating the parking voucher is not a conditon of parking?

Many thanks for any help!

PC

[ostell]

Post up the Notice to Keeper you received, suitably redacted but leave dates.

Just in case edit your post so the identity of the driver cannot be inferred.

If the signs with the terms and conditions do not mention validating a ticket then it is not a condition. Where is the requirement to validate advertised?

Was there a ticket on the windscreen? Is it a hire car.

Post up a photo of the signs.

They don't have to specifically mention POFA in the letter but they have to comply with the requirements of POFA to be able to transfer liability from the driver to the keeper. It's all done under contract law, the signs create the contract

Proof of the spend is not necessarily identifying the driver.

Can you post up a redacted version of your appeal

[Postgatescat]

Hi Ostell,

Sorry yes I should have added that it was a PCN issued by post using ANPR to record the entry and exit to the car park. Their own photos show I was in the car park for 90 mins.
I have attached the terms of the parking and also the NTK.
I cannot post any details of my appeal as I it online and upon submission got a message saying that they were unable to send me an email transcript of my appeal submission. ( I find this highly suspicious tbh and took a screen shot of the message). In summary, I used 'I' when talking about the shopping spend, etc.I sent a picture of the terms and conditions of parking and proof of the minimum spend in store and stated I had satisfied the terms and conditions.
The are instructions to validate on signs above the parking conditions but are separate from the APCOA signs and labelled as Tesco signs. As such I do not believe they are part of the conditions as you say. As you can see from the photo, I think the conditions of parking at quite explicit.

Many thanks,
PC Scan from 2020-10-19 12_03_57 AM.pdf Scan from 2020-10-18 11_34_28 PM.pdf

[Postgatescat]

Update on my parking issue:

I had a very constructive conversation with a manager at Tescos today. I was enquiring to see if they had CCTV covering the validation machines as I am sure I validated my parking and wanted proof that I went to the machines. They said that for GDPR reasons they did not cover the machines.
The good news is that she felt that since I have the receipt to prove that I spent more than £5, APCOA should see sense and cancel the ticket. If they do not she said to come back into the store as they 'can sort things from this end'. So fingers crossed and I will keep the updates coming.

[Bluey4543]

APCOA won't just cancel the ticket. Go back to the store and tell the Manager to do it, tell him to copy you in on the email so you know he's told them.

[ostell]

So appeal to APCOA that the alleged reason for breach of contract does not appear on the terms and conditions displayed and therefore there can not have been any breach of a non existent condition.

include a copy of that sign

[Postgatescat]

Success!!!!


So after a long wait, I finally received a reply, cancelling my ticket in this instance but telling me not to do it again. Keeping the shopping receipt almost certainly helped. I am sure that I validated it though. I am going to video the process in future to make sure I have proof of validation.

Frankly I am amazed, and pleasantly surprised. I think the fact that they go to great lengths to emphasise that the conditions of parking are clearly displayed but that validation is not one of them, meant that they did not feel they had a solid case. It is nice to see some pragmatism being exercised by a parking company.
Thanks for all the advice guys.