Parking Charge Notice Issued after 14 days

[poplar]

I received a parking charge 14 days after it was issued. Timeline of events:

06/05/2023 - Date of parking
16/05/2023 - Date of issuing letter (10 days from parking)
02/06/2023 - Date of receiving letter in the post. (27 days from parking)

I did not receive any parking tickets on the day, there was no sign of a ticket on my car. Am I correct in my understanding that since I received the parking charge 14 days after the day of parking that I do not have to pay the fine? The parking company may argue that the issue date of the letter was within 14 days though I was advised by Citizens Advice that I could request a freedom of information request to get them to share when they sent the letter out in the post. There is no date on the envelope that the letter came in and the letter states that I am notified under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

[poplar]

Here are images of the redacted parking charge:

[poplar]

Today I received another letter in the post, this time they claim to have sent a reminder letter on the 2nd June but I received nothing. They have also increased the charge to £170 even though they never gave the the opportunity to pay the reduced £60 fine due to them sending the letter past 14 days. I have attached the letter received today.

[poplar]

charitynjw

[R0b]

Do you still have the envelope that the letter came in? I'm curious if the letter contains any post markings that indicate what date it was printed or paid for and then compare that to the date of issue. It appears quite dubious that the date of issue was 16 May which is just shy of the 14 day window to hold the registered keeper liable under POFA yet you actually received the letter over 2 weeks later.

That's something I would be challenging and put them to proof because unless there are really bad postal strikes in your area, 17 days to deliver a letter seems awfully long especially if it was first class or even second class. What I am alluding to is that the date of issue was manufactured but that's difficult to prove on your end but I would definitely raise it nonetheless as a real and substantial defence.

[poplar]

Do you still have the envelope that the letter came in? I'm curious if the letter contains any post markings that indicate what date it was printed or paid for and then compare that to the date of issue. It appears quite dubious that the date of issue was 16 May which is just shy of the 14 day window to hold the registered keeper liable under POFA yet you actually received the letter over 2 weeks later.

That's something I would be challenging and put them to proof because unless there are really bad postal strikes in your area, 17 days to deliver a letter seems awfully long especially if it was first class or even second class. What I am alluding to is that the date of issue was manufactured but that's difficult to prove on your end but I would definitely raise it nonetheless as a real and substantial defence.

I have the envelope that it came in but there no dates marked on it. There are dashed lines which may have been imprinted by the courier and may indicate a date in which the letter was sent.

[charitynjw]

I have the envelope that it came in but there no dates marked on it. There are dashed lines which may have been imprinted by the courier and may indicate a date in which the letter was sent.

Ask at your Post Office if they have a scanner.
Mine does.

[charitynjw]

Today I received another letter in the post, this time they claim to have sent a reminder letter on the 2nd June but I received nothing. They have also increased the charge to £170 even though they never gave the the opportunity to pay the reduced £60 fine due to them sending the letter past 14 days. I have attached the letter received today.

This is a reminder letter.
Do you have the original postal Notice?

Edit....scrub that.

Other than your say so, do you have any demonstrable proof of the delivery date?

[poplar]

This is a reminder letter.
Do you have the original postal Notice?

Edit....scrub that.

Other than your say so, do you have any demonstrable proof of the delivery date?

All I have is the original letter and the envelope it came with, I will ask my Post Office to see if they can date it. The issue date for the parking charge is the 16th May and I definitely received the letter well past 14 days of the parking incident. I check my front door letter box everyday so it's impossible for me or my wife to have not seen a letter for almost 2 weeks.

[poplar]

I went to the Royal Mail sorting office and they said that they can't prove when the letter was sent as it was a pre paid envelope. There is no tracking code that can be associated with a date on this particular type of envelope. I believe I have two options:

Option 1) I am thinking now to pursue a freedom of information request to see when they sent the letter. If there is no way that I can prove it on my end then the onus should be on them to prove when they posted it.

Option 2) My other approach is to make an appeal. If my appeal is rejected then I will take it up with the independent adjudicator, Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) as the parking company is a member of British Parking Association. Since I received the letter on the 2nd May then I am still within 28 days of the appeals process.

charitynjw what is your advice in this situation and what letter template can I use to send them.

[poplar]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have just received your Notice to Keeper xxxxx for vehicle VRM yyyy

You have failed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not limited to, failing to deliver the notice within the relevant period of 14 days as prescribed by section 9 (4) of the Act. You cannot, therefore, transfer liability for the alleged charge from the driver at the time to me, the keeper.

There is no legal requirement to name the driver at the time and I will not be doing so.

Any further communication with me on this matter, apart from confirmation of no further action and my details being removed from your records, will be considered vexatious and harassment. This includes communication from any Debt Collection companies you care to instruct.

Where xxxxx is my name as the Keeper and yyyy is the car registration number plate (VRM).

Is this appropriate for me to send via first class post, I will make sure to keep a record of the postage receipt.

[R0b]

Freedom of Information request does not apply here and I think you are getting confused with subject access request. An FOI are request for information to public organisations such as local authorities whereas a subject access request is a right, under the Data Protection Act 2018 / GDPR that allows individuals to request information held about them (both public and private organisations).

It would be sensible for you to make that request anyway since they have 30 days to comply. Even though you never received the first letter, I still think you should write an appeal to them, explaining at the beginning of the letter that you never received the letter within the 14 day appeal period (from the date of issue) to enable you to appeal and therefore they should agree to consider your appeal and follow the appeals process.

Now, if they decide to refuse to consider your appeal and tell you that you were out of time regardless, then I think you would have grounds for a defence to say that they have failed to comply with Schedule 4 of POFA on the basis that there was an appeal process but because of the time it took to arrive/be delivered, you were already out of time to exercise your appeal (which you would have done had you received the letter within the 14 day window).

Also I noticed in POFAit says this:

A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered (and so “given” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)) on the second working day after the day on which it is posted; and for this purpose “working day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday in England and Wales.

What I take from this is that whilst the original notice has a date of issue of 16 May 2023, that doesn't necessarily mean the letter was actually posted on the same day and the obvious factor here was that it took 17 days to deliver the letter for what should have been no more than a few days or a week at best, particularly as you received other post from Royal Mail and your wife can attest to that also, it puts doubt as to whether the letter was in fact sent on the same date or later. Given that there's no date on the envelope, the burden should shift to CP Plus to provide evidence as to when the letter was posted or handed over and the date calculated from there. If it got to court and there was no evidence = no case to answer.

Why don't you draft an appeal response and we can take a look and provide feedback.

[poplar]

Freedom of Information request does not apply here and I think you are getting confused with subject access request. An FOI are request for information to public organisations such as local authorities whereas a subject access request is a right, under the Data Protection Act 2018 / GDPR that allows individuals to request information held about them (both public and private organisations).

It would be sensible for you to make that request anyway since they have 30 days to comply. Even though you never received the first letter, I still think you should write an appeal to them, explaining at the beginning of the letter that you never received the letter within the 14 day appeal period (from the date of issue) to enable you to appeal and therefore they should agree to consider your appeal and follow the appeals process.

Now, if they decide to refuse to consider your appeal and tell you that you were out of time regardless, then I think you would have grounds for a defence to say that they have failed to comply with Schedule 4 of POFA on the basis that there was an appeal process but because of the time it took to arrive/be delivered, you were already out of time to exercise your appeal (which you would have done had you received the letter within the 14 day window).

Also I noticed in POFAit says this:



What I take from this is that whilst the original notice has a date of issue of 16 May 2023, that doesn't necessarily mean the letter was actually posted on the same day and the obvious factor here was that it took 17 days to deliver the letter for what should have been no more than a few days or a week at best, particularly as you received other post from Royal Mail and your wife can attest to that also, it puts doubt as to whether the letter was in fact sent on the same date or later. Given that there's no date on the envelope, the burden should shift to CP Plus to provide evidence as to when the letter was posted or handed over and the date calculated from there. If it got to court and there was no evidence = no case to answer.

Why don't you draft an appeal response and we can take a look and provide feedback.

Hi Rob,

The draft below is one I have taken from this forum that has been used in the past:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have just received your Notice to Keeper xxxxx for vehicle VRM yyyy

You have failed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not limited to, failing to deliver the notice within the relevant period of 14 days as prescribed by section 9 (4) of the Act. You cannot, therefore, transfer liability for the alleged charge from the driver at the time to me, the keeper.

There is no legal requirement to name the driver at the time and I will not be doing so.

Any further communication with me on this matter, apart from confirmation of no further action and my details being removed from your records, will be considered vexatious and harassment. This includes communication from any Debt Collection companies you care to instruct.

Where xxxxx is my name as the Keeper and yyyy is the car registration number plate (VRM).

If you agree that the wording is correct then I can send via first class post, I will make sure to keep a record of the postage receipt.

[R0b]

It's a little lacklustre in my opinion and I wouldn't really see that letter as a response or an appeal, rather it's more of a generic statement. If you want to send that off it is up to you but you may lose out on potential defences around the appeals process and other arguments should this go to court which could be likely.

I'm happy to put together an outline of a response if you fill in the gaps but only if you actually want to go down that path otherwise I'll just be wasting my time. The reality is you will still likely see this going to court but you can show the court you have tried to respond and be reasonable about things which makes CP Plus look bad in the way they have handled this.

Up to you how you want to approach it.

[poplar]

It's a little lacklustre in my opinion and I wouldn't really see that letter as a response or an appeal, rather it's more of a generic statement. If you want to send that off it is up to you but you may lose out on potential defences around the appeals process and other arguments should this go to court which could be likely.

I'm happy to put together an outline of a response if you fill in the gaps but only if you actually want to go down that path otherwise I'll just be wasting my time. The reality is you will still likely see this going to court but you can show the court you have tried to respond and be reasonable about things which makes CP Plus look bad in the way they have handled this.

Up to you how you want to approach it.

Hi Rob, I would appreciate if you could draft something as this is not an area that I'm good with. I do want to go down the route of making an appeal, I don't have any other choice.