I have 22 parking fines from APCOA

[ToastedDrive]

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one. I basically bought a new car 4 weeks ago and never updated my car registration for my parking permit and now i have had 8 fines come through the post dating back from the 8th April, i am anticipating 22 in total as that's how many times i have parked there since having my new car. In total, it would be £1320 to pay all 22 or £660 if i pay them within 2 weeks but they've only just come through the post, sooo...

Anyway i've updated my reg now and i called the APCOA parking kiosk at my work and they said i shouldn't have to pay that but they told me to go see the Parking Admin on Monday to appeal.

In the event she tells me i will have to pay them, what options do i have here? I few people have told me i can just bin them all... any advice here?

[Squiddly Diddly]

Don't ignore them.

You are doing the correct thing negotiating with them.

It would not though, in my opinion, be unreasonable they receive come compensation for the work you have caused them by your omission. Others will disagree.

[KungFuPanda]

Wait until you see the parking admin and then worry. There’s no point worrying now.

[4rephill]

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one. I basically bought a new car 4 weeks ago and never updated my car registration for my parking permit and now i have had 8 fines come through the post dating back from the 8th April, i am anticipating 22 in total as that's how many times i have parked there since having my new car. In total, it would be £1320 to pay all 22 or £660 if i pay them within 2 weeks but they've only just come through the post, sooo...

Anyway i've updated my reg now and i called the APCOA parking kiosk at my work and they said i shouldn't have to pay that but they told me to go see the Parking Admin on Monday to appeal.

In the event she tells me i will have to pay them, what options do i have here? I few people have told me i can just bin them all... any advice here?

As the parking situation is related to your job, I wouldn't just bin the fines (not until you the situation sorted out at least), because things could escalate, and there could be further repercussions.

Before you start worrying about what might or might not happen, go and see the parking admin on Monday, explain the situation in full, take any evidence of you owning the new vehicle in question with you, showing exactly when you bought it, explain that this vehicle is the replacement for the vehicle that they have on record as belonging to you, and that it was parked in the car park instead of the recorded vehicle.

Next, explain that you are happy to pay the standard parking rate for the days it was in the car park, on the basis that it is the exact amount that you would have paid for the recorded car to have been parked there, and point out that as it was a simple case of parking a replacement car in the car park, rather than being an additional car being parked there, they will have suffered no lose of revenue.

Stay calm, be polite, and explain that it was a genuine mistake on your part.

If they refuse to budge, and insist on applying the fines, it may be worth explaining what has happened to your manager, to see if they can help resolve the situation, and/or, possibly your Union rep (I'm assuming being part of the NHS, that you are in a Union ).

That's the route I'd go down before I'd even think about simply throwing out the fines and ignoring them.


(I'm sure others would completely disagree though! )

[Sir Bagalot]

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one.

I doubt very much that APCOA own the car park. With NHS hospitals the usual case is they own the car park (bought by the tax payer) they then lease it to a third party and allow them to charge for parking.

[Pica-Pica]

Sir Bagalot said:

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one.

I doubt very much that APCOA own the car park. With NHS hospitals the usual case is they own the car park (bought by the tax payer) they then lease it to a third party and allow them to charge for parking.

New car parks are more than likely to have been bought by a loan, not from the tax-payer, then paid back via parking income. Hospitals mainly get their income from Clinical Commissioning Groups, who pay given tariffs for specific procedures (and outcomes).

Here is the wrong place for OP to ask. As others have said go through line-management/union/estates.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one. I basically bought a new car 4 weeks ago and never updated my car registration for my parking permit

Well done for working in such an important sector. How on earth did you forget such a basic piece of admin?

[babelfish]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one. I basically bought a new car 4 weeks ago and never updated my car registration for my parking permit

Well done for working in such an important sector. How on earth did you forget such a basic piece of admin?

what a pathetic comment

[anonymous-user]

Surely you can show them there was no material loss - you were only using the 1 space, but with a different car

Hands up to forgetting to change your reg on the system - I bet you are not the 1st or last

Encourage them to recognise their lethargy in issuing 1st ticket

I’d be disappointed if they didn’t cancel the tickets, maybe with just a small admin fee

[elanfan]

OP is your new car leased by any chance? As if so you can challenge if they failed to some procedural stuff.

Get yourself over to pepino or Money Saving Expert forums. DO NOT admit you were the driver. Point out to APCOA that 22 POPLA appeals will cost them nearly £600 plus 22 lots of admin time etc

Edited by elanfan on Sunday 19th May 05:16

[Dombo63]

elanfan said:

OP is your new car leased by any chance? As if so you can challenge if they failed to some procedural stuff.

Get yourself over to pepino or Money Supermarket forums. DO NOT admit you were the driver. Point out to APCOA that 22 POPLA appeals will cost them nearly £600 plus 22 lots of admin time etc

Forget the Do Not Admit stuff as since the Protection of Freedoms Act of 2012 the registered keeper is liable for any charges if the driver is not identified. As others have said, explain the situation re the new car and that you simply forgot to update the details - very easily done if you had the previous car for a while, arranged it ages ago and payment is taken automatically. Appeal to their better nature rather than how much the POPLA appeals will cost, as 22 penalties at the usual £95 a pop is well worth them pursuing.

[Kuji]

babelfish said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

ToastedDrive said:

So i work at a Hospital for the NHS and i have to pay for a parking permit each month which automatically comes out of my wages. The car park is owned by APCOA and it is an ANPR camera one. I basically bought a new car 4 weeks ago and never updated my car registration for my parking permit

Well done for working in such an important sector. How on earth did you forget such a basic piece of admin?

what a pathetic comment

No. You are pathetic.

OP, whilst I am sure that they will let you off (based on personal experience of changing a vehicle mid-permit), you shouldn't really blame them for the fact that you did nothing about it for so long.

Most companies would seem to have a process around changing vehicles, that involves a temporary permit. but, you need to tell them first.

[MikeGoodwin]

Are they still operating under the BPA?

Worth looking on Money Saving Expert Parking Fine Forums, if these cowboys are BPA then theres a fairly straight forward process to follow, just two steps. See the thread sticky at the top of the parking fine forums and dont over complicate matters.

Idea is to hook the operator with an initial appeal to get a POPLA code then submit a POPLA appeal using the forum templates and guidance

Personally I'd open up a spreadsheet to keep track of them and get them all overturned by POPLA.

I used to turn my permit upside down to bait UKCPM back when they operated under the BPA, all 22 (same as you) overturned.

[speedking31]

elanfan said:

DO NOT admit you were the driver.

If he wasn't the driver then the car was parked unauthorised in the staff car park and would be subject to ticketing anyway

[S11Steve]

speedking31 said:

elanfan said:

DO NOT admit you were the driver.

If he wasn't the driver then the car was parked unauthorised in the staff car park and would be subject to ticketing anyway

If they know the drivers' name, then it is a "simple" case of breach of contract between the two parties.

If they are chasing the keeper, then the PPC need to jump through more hoops to enforce the charge, and the vast majority stil fail to comply with POFA 2012, despite nearly 7 years of practice. In this situation, it is sometimes tricky to avoid confirming yourself as driver as it was a workplace parking incident, the identity of the driver will be fairly obvious.

The easiest way is, as advised, is to try to get them resolved at source with the admins - you are clearly a legitimate user which is not (officially anyway) what the parking enforcement is intended to penalise.

Hospital parking charges are a hot topic in the local and national press, and there is bad form in the industry for targetting legitimate users - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wal...

(I also understand that an agreement was reached after this case which meant it was something of a pyrrhic victory for the parking company)

[Mandalore]

S11Steve said:

speedking31 said:

elanfan said:

DO NOT admit you were the driver.

If he wasn't the driver then the car was parked unauthorised in the staff car park and would be subject to ticketing anyway

If they know the drivers' name, then it is a "simple" case of breach of contract between the two parties.

If they are chasing the keeper, then the PPC need to jump through more hoops to enforce the charge, and the vast majority stil fail to comply with POFA 2012, despite nearly 7 years of practice. In this situation, it is sometimes tricky to avoid confirming yourself as driver as it was a workplace parking incident, the identity of the driver will be fairly obvious.

The easiest way is, as advised, is to try to get them resolved at source with the admins - you are clearly a legitimate user which is not (officially anyway) what the parking enforcement is intended to penalise.

Hospital parking charges are a hot topic in the local and national press, and there is bad form in the industry for targetting legitimate users - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wal...

(I also understand that an agreement was reached after this case which meant it was something of a pyrrhic victory for the parking company)

Surely honesty is the best approach in the OP's scenario.

This isn't a case of someone repeatedly parking on private land without permission, this is simply a case of someone having permission, but forgetting to change a permit.

Why should the Op have to lie about facts and be deliberately difficult in reaching a practical outcome? He made a mistake and forgot. He didn't intentionally set out to be dishonest.

[nsa]

I doubt you are the first employee this has happened to at your hospital. If you have paid for the permit during the period covered by the fines, I imagine you would just have to prove that you changed cars. Take your reg document and any proof of purchase to the meeting with the parking admin. It should be fairly straightforward, unless APCOA are well aware that things like this happen and take advantage accordingly. If they do, threaten to go to the local paper.

[S11Steve]

Mandalore said:

Surely honesty is the best approach in the OP's scenario.

This isn't a case of someone repeatedly parking on private land without permission, this is simply a case of someone having permission, but forgetting to change a permit.

Why should the Op have to lie about facts and be deliberately difficult in reaching a practical outcome? He made a mistake and forgot. He didn't intentionally set out to be dishonest.

The problem is that even though the OP may have made an honest mistake, it's not as if he is dealing with an operator in an industry that is renowned for performing with, or rewarding, honesty and integrity.

APCOA simply want their £60/£100 for each charge issued, because they "very generously" provide their parking management services to hospitals for free.
The only way they can make money is by issuing "penalty" charges, and whether the user is genuine or YPLACing, APCOA, and the rest of them don't particularly care.

[DanL]

I will be interested to see how this one pans out - I'd expect that they'll cancel the charges, given that you've paid for parking but "just" forgotten to tell them about the change of car. I was in a similar situation with the same company - I park in a station car park managed by them, using ANPR.

When they first moved to ANPR I had a couple of fines come through for some reason, despite my car being registered with them and having a "normal" number plate (no odd spacing or font, and a "regular" AB12 CDE registration). They cancelled them without issue when I emailed to query.

Similarly, I called them up to change the registered car - I called midweek as I was changing the car the following weekend, and thought they might need some processing time - I asked for them to change the registered car over on the weekend, rather than on the day of the call.

Whilst I thought I was being efficient, turns out not so much as they changed it on the day and I was fined for parking the "old" car in the car park for the rest of that week. Again, a quick e-mail explaining what must have happened, and the cancelled the fines. I also learned that I should just call up on the day to change it in future, rather than trying to do anything in advance...

So, technically you're in the wrong, and they could fine you. Equally, you're a paying customer, and they will (hopefully!) do the right thing to try and retain your custom.

[cheesesliceking]

Pica-Pica said:

New car parks are more than likely to have been bought by a loan, not from the tax-payer, then paid back via parking income. Hospitals mainly get their income from Clinical Commissioning Groups, who pay given tariffs for specific procedures (and outcomes).

Here is the wrong place for OP to ask. As others have said go through line-management/union/estates.

Sounds like someone is familiar with Commissioning.