Hi, I would greatly appreciate a bit of advice. Having previously naively paid PCNs many years ago in NHS car parks where I have worked , in recent times I have wised up and appealed multiple tickets successfully. I am currently awaiting an NHS car parking permit from the Hospital I am working at, but I have been advised there may be a long delay. There is no public parking space in the area and I live to far away to take public transport. I have had a few PCNs that I have provisionally appealed against on grounds of Empark not owning the land and the charge being disproportionate to losses incurred (am awaiting the outcomes of the appeals). I have previously appealed on these grounds multiple times and always been successful either on initial appeal or at the POPLA stage. I note that some companies have started quoting recent appeals that have been rejected on such grounds to try and deter the appeal, however POPLA still seem to continue approving appeals on these grounds. My query is, can a private parking company make a larger case against someone for multiple PCNs, or is each PCN taken on a case by case basis? Many Thanks

Just a few things to update on. My partner found out the claim form was genuine. She spoke to APCOA who refused to discuss the claim, and advised they had passed it onto the DR+ (although I'm puzzled as to how the solicitors of APCOA can threaten us with court action when they don't even own the land). She raised the issue with her hospital car parking department/in conjunction with the hospital's legal services. The stated that once a parking offence is committed they transfer the responsibility to APCOA. However they were sympathetic to the fact that £140 a ticket is ridiculous and the current outcome is that they will do what they can to reduce the charge. However they implied that we couldn't justify just paying the face value of parking tickets given the number of repeat offences. To my frustration my partner does not feel like fighting this all the way, and whilst she doesn't want to pay £140 a ticket, she is considering paying a reduced charge (if they offer this); I'm working on convincing her not to do this. I am still waiting to hear what they are going to want us to pay. Should we not be happy with this, what is the probability that if this went to court, we could get off just paying the face value of the tickets?

Thanks for all your help (and thanks to everyone else as well). I will keep the forum posted as to how this pans out.

You are correct, the claim form is on behalf of Apcoa (there is no mention of DR+ on it). My partner spoke to Apcoa on Friday, who advised that they have passed the issue onto DR+. DR+ then said that if the amount said on the claim form is paid, that particularly ticket issue won't go to court (however the multiple other tickets just haven't got to court proceeding stage yet, they said that to avoid it we need to cough up the other 3 grand or so to avoid this). APCOA and the hospital car park team are aware that the RK is not involved with this case. I understand the mistakes made by my partner, and know that the best result we can get is to pay off the losses sustained by the NHS trust from the lack of parking tickets (at best this would probably be the value of the tickets themselves, however I guess the trust to claim damages per ticket, I'm not sure how they could justify £140 per ticket). She is going to check on monday if the claim form/court summons was in fact valid, and then speak to APCOA to start the appeals process for the other tickets. AFAIK the court summons issue is sorted for that one ticket as she has paid the charge.

Apologies, I should have specified that in the start, I didn't think it was relevant who the RK was, as it is whoever is driving the car that is responsible. The close relative was initially worried about these letters, but as my partner and I thought you could ignore these from the start, we just kept picking up the letters from the relatives house as they stacked up. However, not until last week was anything a real threat IMO. Does my relative have to do anything, or can my partner and I proceed as aforementioned (my partner has already taken responsibility by paying the claim form off). Also, she is in the process of changing the RK to her own name (something she should have done before to save some of the hassle).

RK is a close relative, but my partner was using the car when the tickets were issued (she essentially is the primary driver). The fine is essentially my partner's, the matter has not really gone away. As the RK is a very close relative, either of us paying would be the same result principally speaking. My partner spoke to DR+ who stated that she needed to pay the amount on the claim form to stop court action; she then asked how much else is in arrears to which they stated 20+ tickets at £140 each.

Thanks. Do we need to send these arguments to DR+, APCOA, the legal department of the hospital (or all three)?

Bank states we need to ask the debt collectors to give the money back, if they refuse then the bank has some sort of process (partner will hopefully try today). @LiverPoolCarePathway: because we throw away most of the DR+/APCOA documentation (also as my partner was not the registered keeper of the car at the time, most of the stuff did not come to us directly); I can't actually find the ticket/APCOA reminder/DR+ documentation for the claim form in question (likely thrown away), and I have 19 current DR+ demands for each ticket, but none for that date (that doesn't mean to say that it is not valid, as my partner throws away most of the demand documentation as aforementioned). As this is before POFA, does it make it harder to defend? (Most of the tickets are post-2013 however)

Thanks, the other issue is that my partner is not the registered keeper of the car (at the time of the tickets), will this affect anything? Also, I was looking at a similar case: http://www.penaltychargenotice.co.uk/private-land-enforcement/court-cases/court-cases-for-private-parking-tickets/ Look at the case of NHS Aintree vs. Perera; he HAD a parking permit but knowingly parked on a double yellow 25 times and owed 2 grand after ignoring the parking charge notices. This in some ways is a similar case to mine. The judge ruled in favour of Perera, however I would like to point out the following: He argued that he had paid for a parking permit, and this coupled with the fact parking in the yellow line did not cause any financial loss for the hospital, meant that there were no damages that he owed. In our case, my partner did not have a permit and allegedly did not pay for a parking ticket i.e. She did not make any effort to fix the damages (unlike Perera who had a valid permit). If this went to court and this was conceded, could the judge still make us pay £140 per ticket, or would it be based upon the damages sustained by the NHS trust (which would essentially be the cost of the parking tickets, and not any further penalties). Also, couldn't the NHS trust argue that the damages per ticket is £140 as the losses sustained by the trust include the amount they pay APCOA to chase up parking tickets as well as the value of the parking ticket itself? Unfortunately the courts aren't open today: It should be noted that one the claim form the claimant is APCOA parking, as they are not the landowners does this render this claim form redundant? Thanks (I know you cannot 100% accurately predict what a Judge will say, as anything is possible)

Just realised PM Doesn't work as I don't have enough post counts. I have the following questions: 1. So my first course of action would be to check if the claim form is legit (I assume it probably is as it has a stamp, a barcode and advice from the HM Courts and Tribunals service). 2. The next course of action would be to check if APCOA have actual evidence regarding the 20+ parking tickets, would you recommend contacting APCOA about this? 3. With regards to admitting liability, hospital workers generally have a strict code of being honest apparently, so I doubt my partner would deny the tickets completely. Thus, how would we approach writing to the Risk and legal dept.? 4. Further to the above, should APCOA have good evidence and my partner admits liability, are you saying in the worst case scenario all she owes is the actual face value of the parking tickets? 5. Does the fact that she has paid the value on the court summons made her open to further attack by DR+?

By debit card. SM, thanks for your reply buddy, I will PM you. All the help is greatly appreciated guys.

I have tried to freeze the payment, but unfortunately it has gone through. My partner's bank has advised that they can try and claim it back however, we need to ask DR+ to give it back first, and if they disagree then we have to go through a dispute of claims process. As this payment has gone through, will this leave me with a diminished defence if future claims orders are sent? I have read the stickies but am still not clear as to what argument I can use in my defence?

So what you're saying is that their claim of taking me to court is rubbish? If I get another one of these (and I suspect I will be getting a few), should I ignore or respond? They attached guidelines written by the HM courts and tribunal service (is this basically more rubbish to increase the validity of the threat?). Not sure what my next course of action should be. Do I sit it out and ignore everything so far? Or do I need to speak to the hospital and build a case just in case it is taken to court?

Done!

Sorry done as pdf, the APCOA debt collection letter is attached in this one (NB: 20+ for different tickets as this one). Claim form in the one before.