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Hi all..
I'd like some advice on how to tackle a potential court claim and ask what to expect cost wise if I loose..
BACKGROUND :
I parked at a Car Park in Retford - the NPR type.. A friend leant me the £1 to cover the Parking fee as I had no change
A month or more later I received a parking charge notice.. the reason for the charge was pretty vague "Parking Session Expired or Unpaid'.. Well because I knew beyond doubt it was paid for (I recall my friend lending the £1 coin) then I presumed at that time the £1 was for one hour and i over stayed.. So I wrote a letter to the effect that I knew I'd paid, and that the charge must be for the fact I was there from approx 08.55am until 10.02am .i.e. I was paying for 7 minutes overstay..
I sent them a letter (a money saving expert template letter) stating that I had paid etc and that if they were charging for the 'matter of minutes' overstay it was excessive.. They rejected my appeal.
I then was somewhat frustrated, so I followed there online POPLA appeal process immediately on reading that letter.. only to find out afterwards that I could not send any further information after i'd submitted.. I only found this out afterwards which was annoying because I intended at that point to get my friends to write a witness statement.. I took it upon myself to drive the 1hr journey to the car park, to double check the car park and jog my memory more, only to discover that £1 covered 2hrs of parking... So this proved it couldn't have been the length of my stay but that my car wasn't recorded correctly.
I then thought there was a good chance I had mis keyed the car registration into the machine (the car I was in was brand new and we'd only had it for a few days - so in all likely hood I may have incorrectly entered a character or number of the registration plate).
I did (embarrassingly) get my friends to write a witness statement, and I wrote my own report and sent them to POPLA - they replied to say that would not consider this extra information because it was being sent to them 'after' the appeal was submitted - I wasn't aware I couldn't send extra information, but when I called them to mention this they just pointed out I had excerpted their T's & C's online.
The Parking Company sent me their 'evidence' that stated that they had searched for 'deviations' on the Car Reg plate - but I seriously doubt that. In my report I gave them the name, address, and more importantly Car Registration of my friends vehicle who parked at the same time.. this was they could check their NPR records and see a car arrive shortly after the other number plate and see from their data that my ticket was purchased etc..
Because this valuable information would/could not be considered by POPLA then my appeal was rejected..
Im happy to take this risk of going to court - but I would prefer to know ahead what to expect
Any advice welcome - any legal beagles willing to help would be great.
I'd like some advice on how to tackle a potential court claim and ask what to expect cost wise if I loose..
BACKGROUND :
I parked at a Car Park in Retford - the NPR type.. A friend leant me the £1 to cover the Parking fee as I had no change
A month or more later I received a parking charge notice.. the reason for the charge was pretty vague "Parking Session Expired or Unpaid'.. Well because I knew beyond doubt it was paid for (I recall my friend lending the £1 coin) then I presumed at that time the £1 was for one hour and i over stayed.. So I wrote a letter to the effect that I knew I'd paid, and that the charge must be for the fact I was there from approx 08.55am until 10.02am .i.e. I was paying for 7 minutes overstay..
I sent them a letter (a money saving expert template letter) stating that I had paid etc and that if they were charging for the 'matter of minutes' overstay it was excessive.. They rejected my appeal.
I then was somewhat frustrated, so I followed there online POPLA appeal process immediately on reading that letter.. only to find out afterwards that I could not send any further information after i'd submitted.. I only found this out afterwards which was annoying because I intended at that point to get my friends to write a witness statement.. I took it upon myself to drive the 1hr journey to the car park, to double check the car park and jog my memory more, only to discover that £1 covered 2hrs of parking... So this proved it couldn't have been the length of my stay but that my car wasn't recorded correctly.
I then thought there was a good chance I had mis keyed the car registration into the machine (the car I was in was brand new and we'd only had it for a few days - so in all likely hood I may have incorrectly entered a character or number of the registration plate).
I did (embarrassingly) get my friends to write a witness statement, and I wrote my own report and sent them to POPLA - they replied to say that would not consider this extra information because it was being sent to them 'after' the appeal was submitted - I wasn't aware I couldn't send extra information, but when I called them to mention this they just pointed out I had excerpted their T's & C's online.
The Parking Company sent me their 'evidence' that stated that they had searched for 'deviations' on the Car Reg plate - but I seriously doubt that. In my report I gave them the name, address, and more importantly Car Registration of my friends vehicle who parked at the same time.. this was they could check their NPR records and see a car arrive shortly after the other number plate and see from their data that my ticket was purchased etc..
Because this valuable information would/could not be considered by POPLA then my appeal was rejected..
Im happy to take this risk of going to court - but I would prefer to know ahead what to expect
Any advice welcome - any legal beagles willing to help would be great.
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