PCN letter received 30 days after contravention

[england1500]

Good Morning, this is the response to my email to Armtrac, the certificate of posting is a document from Unity 5 stating 5th January, it didnt arrive until 30th January.



************************************************** ************************************************** **********

We have received your email. This has been received out the of the appeal time frame as stated on the Notice To Keeper of 21 days and to an email address not provided on the Notice To Keeper.



A link through which to appeal was provided on the Notice To Keeper under Contesting this Parking Charge. The link now states ‘Unfortunately you are unable to appeal this charge at this time’ as you are out of the appeal time frame of 21 days. The Notice to Keeper was sent on ********* Please see attached Certificate of Posting. Reminder Notice was issued on *******



Upon searching the system there is no purchase of a ticket or cashless payment session for the VRM *******. Therefore, the PCN has been correctly issued.



Signage at the site informs ‘ You must display a valid pay & display ticket within the windscreen or be in the possession of a cashless payment session for your entire parking period.’



As a one-off gesture of goodwill, we will agree to settle the PCN at the reduced amount of £60. Payment needs to be made by 5pm, 17th February 2024. Should payment not be received to settle the PCN in full the PCN will be passed to the legal team for recovery.



The PCN will not be cancelled and will be pursued.



We will not correspond any further regarding this PCN.

[des8]

Your choice now is either pay the £60 or wait for their "legal team" to try and effect payment.

I would let them take it to court rather than pay.
IMO you have a good chance of defeating them, but court is always a bit of a lottery and can be stressful (especially first time)


PS I wonder about the validity of a certificate posting from Unity 5!

[england1500]

Can't post anything?

[england1500]

Could you give more detail on the court lottery please. Thanks once again

[des8]

In the County Court the judge is king, but is not as highly qualified or experienced as a senior judge.

Sometimes this means it is difficult to understand how a decision is reached, and as a party to a dispute you can't be sure of winning as you don't know exactly how the other party are going to impress.

I recall one case I attended a few years ago where the defendant challenged a parking charge on the basis that the Welsh Language sign was not the same as the English Sign. The PCN was issued on the basis of the English sign.
The hearing was in Welsh (with an interpreter for the English party!).
The judge agreed with the defendant that the PCN was incorrect, and tied the claimant's rep in knots.
And at the end gave judgement in favour of the claimant!
Even the claimant was gobsmacked

That's what I mean by a lottery
It isn't normally that bad, but you can never be 100% sure of winning, no matter how certain you are about your own case.

[england1500]

What do you make of this https://parking-prankster.blogspot.c...-scam.html?m=1

[des8]

If you see as many parking "incidents" as we do here, it would not surprise you.
Parking companies sole object is to make money from motorists who fall foul of their rules, so they contrive matters to suit themselves

[england1500]

But this is the location that the PCN in this post relates to

[des8]

Parking Prankster's post is 7 years old, and i don't see how it can help your defence.

All you can do now is wait and see what their next move will be.
An appeal to their "independent" IAS will probably cost you £15 (as you are out of time) and wouldn't be successful anyway.
I'm guessing they might send some threatening letters (even with scary red writing) and perhaps even use a toothless debt collector.

All that will need attention is a court claim

[england1500]

Because the car park is still in the same confusing sorry state it was back in 2017

[des8]

But your defence is that you did not contract to park.
The haphazard state of the car park doesn't enter into it, unless you are going to claim it was so confusing you decided not to park

But wait and see what their next move is

[england1500]

The next move was pay £60 in the next few days so they've dangled the carrot. I can't quite believe how flawed this parking industry is. It's almost like you are at risk just because you own a car.

[des8]

Your choice then ..... pay £60 and it ends or wait and see what else they are going to do.

They might (i)write further letters to you, or (ii) get a DCA to write to you or (iii) eventually initiate a court claim.

Options (i) & (ii) are no problem, but (iii) will require you to defend the claim.

IMO you have a good defence,

[england1500]

Was just swayed a bit by the 'lottery' comment you made the other day

[england1500]

Does the £60 offer show a bit of omission that the PCN's have had a delay problem in the post, or that the PCN is so ridiculous because it's 6 minutes. Surely anything severe they would have been adamant on the £100?
Armtrac known for court cases?