Getting a parking ticket is often a cause of concern for drivers. A new App is now available to help motorists challenge such tickets.
Private companies have long issued parking charge notices use a combination of contract law and Protections of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA 2012). Councils issue penalty charge notices which primarily are based on the Road Traffic Act 1991, Traffic Management Act 2004 and Civil Enforcement … 2007.
The first reaction for most drivers is that the parking ticket is unfair and a money-making scheme. Whilst this is true in principle, the fact is all parking enforcement falls under some legislation which councils and private companies have to comply with.
The trouble is, most motorists do not have time to read each law and the regulations in order to understand how to fight their parking tickets. Previous apps have sorely focussed on helping drivers write letters based on mitigation.
The New App
This has now changed with the launch of the Parking Mate UK app which provides a simple way to write appeal letters but the defences also include references to the law which makes it easier for drivers to fight their case.
The Parking Mate UK app allows drivers to:
• Write appeal letters for private and council issued parking tickets
• Receive a PDF of the appeal letters instantly
• It also warns drivers if they are mentioning something that could harm their appeal chances
The company is currently reviewing a data set of ALL successful London Tribunals appeals from 2004 to May 2020 to build easy options for each contravention and allow every motorist to appeal any parking fine. For example, notices have to be issued within specific time limits and the wording of notices must be correct.
An Example: Westminster Penalty Charge Success
There was a case of Westminster council issuing 12 tickets to 2 vans for a local business during lockdown at £130 per ticket. The law does not allow councils to issue more than 1 parking ticket to a vehicle, instead, if they believe a vehicle is a persistent offender, they should remove it. The defence for this appeal was simply that the council had issued more than 1 PCN for a continuous contravention and 10 tickets were cancelled right away saving £1,300.
Less Than 1% Of Council Tickets Are Appealed
Of the 5,952,808 tickets issued in London in 2018-19, only 36,511 were appealed, which is 0.61%. If 20% of motorists appealed, the company estimates that 90% of these appeals would win their appeal on a number of factors:
Statistics from 2018-19 in the London Tribunal for the percentage of appeals allowed says: Harrow 75%; Redbridge 73%; Ealing 68%; Lambeth 67%; and Hillingdon 63%. The lowest was Sutton with 24%.
The App producers believe that if they can make the process easy for motorists to appeal their parking tickets, we will see more appeals being successful and drivers saving their hard earned money.
About Parking Mate UK
The company was founded by Leo Musami, a former Senior Technology Project Manager who had worked with leading companies such as Accenture, C2FO, Summit Media and Centrica.
Leo has long been helping family and friends appeal tickets and after winning a number of cases for relatives, he decided to dedicate his time to helping drivers. The goal initially was to focus on helping drivers to write appeal letters, however it quickly became clear that debt recovery, court claims and bailiff enforcement were problems affecting many motorists.
Website link: https://parkingmateuk.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London
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