You have the option to appeal against the parking charge notice (PCN) you have received. However, we would issue the following guidance should you wish to pursue this course.
A parking charge notice (PCN) is issued if a vehicle is parked in contravention of the advertised conditions on property we own, lease or have been contracted to patrol. Please be aware that our signage meets or exceeds the requirements of the International Parking Community (IPC) Code of Practice.
If you are considering appealing a PCN we recommend reading our Appeals FAQ first.
Should you wish to pursue an appeal against the parking charge notice (PCN), please ensure your appeal contains the following information or we will be unable to process it:
We aim to provide a fair PCN appeals service, carried out by our experienced appeals team. The appeals team uses photographic evidence, reports from our systems, on-site operatives and your correspondence when dealing with any parking notice dispute.
Once your PCN appeal is received we will acknowledge your appeal within 14 days. We will then contact you within 28 days with our appeal outcome.
If you are unhappy with the final decision, you are now able to appeal directly to the Independant Appeals Service (IAS). Appeals cannot be heard by IAS until a decision has been made by the parking operator. Full details of IAS appeals will be provided with your appeal rejection letter should your appeal be unsuccessful.
All IAS appeals will only be considered at the full parking charge amount and the right to any discount is lost if you choose to appeal to IAS, these are their rules not ours.
Refunds of any payments received will only be provided if a PCN appeal is approved by our parking charge notice (PCN) appeals manager and are at the discretion of the management.
Pay & Display car parks apply conditions of parking that Pay & Display parking tickets must be displayed on the dashboard of your vehicle, with the issue and expiry time clearly visible to our staff. If failure to display, or incorrect display is the reason for the parking charge notice (PCN) you have received, any parking charge appeal would be dealt with by our appeals team reviewing the photographic evidence supplied by our parking enforcement officers. In this case producing a valid parking ticket, after the event, for the time the parking charge notice (PCN) was issued with an appeal would not be sufficient cause to cancel a parking charge notice (PCN).
It is our company policy to uphold an appeal for parking in a disabled bay without displaying a valid badge as long as a valid disabled parking badge is produced to the on-site operative and recorded prior to leaving the site.
Please read the relevant sections on Blue Badge use before submitting an appeal for this type of contravention.
In the modern era, there is a lot of information available through such media as advice websites, social media groups and forums online. However, most of this information is unregulated and is not controlled for accuracy or relevance in line with current case law or legislation. It is therefore essential that appeals are submitted in your own words and that they are based on the facts surrounding your case.
Two examples of this are as follows;
“I was not the driver and I don’t need to tell you who was”
Since 2012 The Protection of Freedoms Act has covered this, and while there is no requirement to name the driver and provide a serviceable address, failure to do so, providing that the conditions have been met, transfers the liability of the charge to the Registered Keeper. As an IPC member company we can apply directly to the DVLA for the Registered Keeper details to pursue collection of the charge from them if the charge remains unpaid.
“The charge is unfair and disproportionate”
In November 2015 the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Parking Eye vs Beavis with regard to the case of a Parking Charge Notice issued. In summary they accepted that the charge was reasonable, that a Contract had been formed as signage was in place, and that breach of the conditions shown on the signage in place was sufficient to issue the charge, this ruling replacing older case law. The full judgement can be found here.
Find out what to do if you receive a parking charge notice.
Know your parking rights!
You should choose whether to pay or appeal, you cannot do both. There is no requirement for us to consider an appeal that has been paid in full.
The car parks managed by Ocean Parking have clear terms and conditions, as detailed on the contractual warning signage in place within the car park. If you fail to comply with the car park terms and conditions, (for example, overstaying the free period or not paying for your parking), then a Parking Charge will be issued.
If you lodge an appeal with IAS, then you will have already lost your right to the early payment discount offered. Should your appeal then be refused by IAS, to avoid any further action being taken, you should pay the outstanding parking charge amount within 28 days of IAS’s decision.
We are members of the International Parking Community (IPC) and all parking charge notices are issued in line with the International Parking Community (IPC) Code of Practice.
It states in Section 13.1 of the IPC Code of Practice The parking operator must allow a consideration period of appropriate duration, subject to the requirements set out in Schedule 7, taking the following factors into account:
a) the time required for a driver to identify and access a parking bay appropriate to their needs; 1. For example, a driver seeking a Blue Badge parking bay or a parent and child parking bay, waiting for another vehicle to vacate a bay, returning to the vehicle to check the VRM, queuing at a payment machine, etc.
b) the time required for a driver to identify and read signs that display the parking terms and conditions, or the consequences of choosing to park where public parking is not invited;
c) the time required for a driver to identify and comply with requirements for payment; 2. This is particularly important for controlled land where the requirement is to pay and display a permit using on-site machinery, make an exact payment in cash using specific coins, or pay-by- phone or online through a process that could take several minutes.
d) the time required for a driver to leave the controlled land if they decide not to accept the terms and conditions;
e) the impact of the layout of the controlled land on 13.1a) to 13.1d); f) the impact of the number of vehicles accessing the car park on 13.1a) to 13.1d); and
g) the impact of the volume of traffic within the controlled land on 13.1a) to 13.1d). 3. The consideration period ends at the point where there is evidence that the driver has, by parking, accepted the terms, conditions and restrictions applying (whether or not they have chosen to read them) which may be evidenced by the driver parking the vehicle and leaving the premises, paying the applicable parking tariff, or turning off the ignition of the vehicle and remaining stationary for more than 5 minutes.
It also states in Section 13.2 of the IPC Code of Practice ‘A grace period as set out at Schedule 7 to this Code must be allowed by the parking operator at the end of the parking period, such that in calculating whether a parking charge is due the permitted period allows for a grace period beyond:
at public use car parks and private use car parks for the defined set of vehicles allowed, other than for clearly signed, designated ‘short stay’ locations.The grace period does not apply other than for the circumstances above where the driver has parked in compliance with the applicable terms and conditions – it does not apply in isolation so as to allow free parking up to the sum of the consideration and grace periods.
All appeals must be submitted in writing, via our website, a letter, or an email. Details regarding our appeals process can be found on the reverse of the Parking Charge. We are unable to accept verbal evidence, and therefore an appeal cannot be submitted over the telephone.
Several of our car parks are monitored by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, and our systems link your transaction from the payment machine to your vehicle registration.
You should therefore always ensure you enter your full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine when purchasing a ticket.
The Department for Transport’s Blue Badge Scheme allows blue badge holders to park in certain restricted areas for up to three hours. However, this concession applies to the public highway only, and doesn’t apply on private land. Whilst some landholders provide disabled parking bays, these bays are generally subject to the same terms and conditions found elsewhere in the car park, including any parking tariffs and/or any maximum stay period allowed. You should therefore always check the terms and conditions displayed on the contractual warning signage on site.
If you did not receive a Pay & Display ticket from the parking machine, it may be your transaction was not completed correctly and as a result, your payment may not have been successful.
We recognise genuine mistakes can occur, which may result in a parking charge being issued even when a motorist can demonstrate they have paid for their parking. In line with the International Parking Community (IPC) Code of Practice, a minor keying error is categorised as one letter or number incorrect or letters and numbers in the wrong order.
A major keying in error is one that has multiple number and letter keying errors, the first three digits only have been recorded or a completely incorrect registration number is used.
If you believe a minor or major keying error has occurred, we advise you follow our appeals process, and provide evidence of the ticket purchased.
All appeals are acknowledged within 14 days of being received. If you have not received an appeal acknowledgment, we may not have received your appeal.
Once we have received your appeal, the charge will be placed on hold, and remain at the charge amount and stage it was at when the appeal was received, until an appeal outcome is issued. Appeals are answered within 28 days of the appeal being received.
Please note, all appeals are answered by the means in which they are received. For example, if you email an appeal, your response will be sent by email, to the address from which it was received.
