If you missed the deadline to appeal to Parking Eye (or you appealed late and they refused to give you a POPLA code because you were late), you have the following options:
1. If you are confident to defend yourself in court.
Do nothing. Wait and see if they take you to court, and if they do, put in a defence and defend it.
2. If you want to resolve this now.
If you would rather resolve this now, rather than waiting to defending yourself in court, there is a template letter here for that purpose.
Send the standard appeal letter to Parking Eye, adding the indented text below to the start of the standard appeal letter . The text below should be added after the line “I am the registered keeper of the above vehicle and have received the above demand from you” and before the line “I dispute owing you any amount and deny all liability in this matter”.
My appeal on this matter is included below. I do not accept liability for the above parking charge and I have no intention of paying the money you have demanded. Although my appeal is being submitted late, should you decline my appeal I still request a POPLA code from you. To help facility an efficient resolution to this matter, I am willing to be provide you an undertaking to be bound by the decision of POPLA, thus guaranteeing that this case will not proceed to court.
I draw your attention to the Practice Direction requirement to utilise an appropriate form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) before commencing court proceedings. In the circumstances of you not accepting my appeal, I invite you to refer this dispute to the Parking On Private Land appeals service (“POPLA”), which is the appropriate form of ADR set up by the parking industry for this precise situation.
Please note: not withstanding the fact that any decision of POPLA is legally binding on the parking company, and not the motorist, in the spirit of exploring an amicable resolution of this dispute, I am providing you an undertaking to be bound by the decision of POPLA, thus ensuring that this case will not proceed to court. If I lose the appeal, I agree to pay the original parking charge notice amount.
A referral to POPLA will avoid you incurring legal fees and expenses, and perhaps more importantly will reduce the burden on the court (which is the reason for this Direction). Please do not seek to rely on any POPLA deadlines as POPLA has confirmed that it does not impose any time limit on an appeal to POPLA, and all that is required is for your client to issue a POPLA code.
I remind you that a failure or refusal by you to agree to my offer of both parties abiding by a POPLA decision would be clear evidence of your client’s failure to mitigate its alleged loss.
If you reject my offer to refer this dispute to ADR and instead choose to issue court proceedings, I shall invite the court to stay the case and make an order referring the case to POPLA. Further I shall oppose any application for costs that your client may wish to make, owing to its failure to mitigate, and shall instead make an application for my own wasted costs according to the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Practice Direction and CPR 27.14.
In the meantime, and in the absence of a compliant Letter Before Claim, you should place a note on your file to the effect that this charge is disputed and your firm is required to cease and desist all further contact with me. For the avoidance of doubt, the same applies to any debt collection agency you may choose to instruct.
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