Appeal Process

How can a motorist lodge an appeal

Stage 1.

Appeals can be made online via our website www.faacmobilityservices.co.uk/appeal-or-pay-your-parking-charge-notice only which reduces the risk of the appeal not being received and logged in a timely manner on our back office system, failing that appeals can be made via the post to the address below.
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Appeals shall not be accepted if the parking charge has been paid. The only exception being:

Evidence subsequently identified suggests wrongdoing by the parking operator in respect of the issue of the notice.

Recording appeals

Stage 2.

Appeals made online atwww.faacmobilityservices.co.uk/appeal-or-pay-your-parking-charge-notice or in writing to the address below within 28 days of the notice being issued

FAAC (UK) Ltd, ta FAAC Mobility Services
Unit 10 Hatch Industrial Estate,
Greywell Road,
Hants
RG24 7NG

Appeals will be logged through our back-office system automatically through the above link or manually in to the back-office system if received via post. At all times we will adhere to the data protection policy. If appeals are received by email/post it is important to reference the process that happens about protecting the personal data that is required. Appeal responses will be then processed through the back-office system only to ensure all data is retained within the secure platform and available should we receive a Subject Access Request (SAR). If the process requires a full name and address to be provided, and the appellant doesn’t provide this, the operator must still reply to the appellant to tell them that they have not complied. This cannot just be ignored.

When an appeal has been registered, enforcement action shall be halted

Appeals out of time

Stage 3.

FMS shall consider appeals which are received outside of the normal period usually allowed for lodging an appeal where there are exceptional circumstances for the appeal not being lodged within the normal time frames.

Exceptional circumstances include where the registered keeper can evidence that they were not the driver and evidence they were not aware that a parking charge had been issued. This includes the recipient being away or abroad, hospitalised as an inpatient, or delivered to the wrong address through no fault of the motorist.

Where the Registered Keeper has changed their address and has failed to inform the DVLA in accordance with Part IV (regulation 18) of the Road Vehicles Registration and Licensing Regulations 2002, this shall not be classed as exceptional on its own.

FAAC Mobility Services require the motorist to sign a statement of truth confirming that they have not received any previous correspondence.

If exceptional circumstances have been established, then the parking charge shall revert back to the start of the 28-day period and any enforcement action must be paused.

Investigating the appeal

Stage 4.

Investigations shall be completed by trained appeals handlers. Each appeal should be fully investigated, the process of investigation includes:

Reviewing any evidence that has been supplied by the motorist
Checking images captured
Checking CCTV footage
Reviewing witness statements from parking attendants
Checking logs of machines to ensure that they were working correctly at the time of issue
Checking logs of web-based payment providers to ensure that they were working correctlyat the time of issue.
Checking for accidental keying errors. Where accidental keying errors are found theparking charge will be cancelled if it is the first occasion.
Checking to see if the appellant has any exemptions that may warrant the cancelling ofthe parking charge.
Investigating any mitigating circumstances provided by the appellant
Checking to see if reasonable adaptations have been made for motorists who reveal a disability

When investigating an appeal, it is acceptable to ask the appellant for additional information regarding their appeal. For example:

Where a vehicle has been parked in an accessible bay and the motorist had forgotten to display the valid Blue Badge required for the vehicle to be permitted to park in that bay the motorist will need to provide a copy of a valid blue badge. They will need to identify whether it is their blue badge, or if not what the circumstances were regarding the parking event and their relationship with the Blue Badge holder.
Where a vehicle has been parked in a bay that required the motorist to pay a tariff and display a ticket but no pay and display ticket was clearly visible on the dashboard of the vehicle so a parking charge was issued the motorist will need to provide a copy of the valid pay and display ticket for that parking session that they had purchased to validate their stay.
Where a parking charge has been issued to an emergency services vehicle, the emergency service in question can provide a letter on headed paper confirming the vehicle was parked in the course of its duty while attending an emergency.
Where a vehicle has been driven on to controlled land due to instruction from a member of the emergency services the motorist would need to have evidence from the emergency service that there had been an issue which resulted in the request for the vehicle to enter the controlled land
Where a breakdown or recovery vehicle was attending an incident, the company or organisation must provide an activity log to demonstrate the date, time and location, the details of the vehicle that was being attended to and the nature of what the issue was and what the resolution was
Where the vehicle was used by a doctor attending an emergency call, the Dr must provide details of their registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) and provide details of the emergency they were attending. They do not need to disclose details of the patient as this would be breaching GDPR.
Where a vehicle has been parked in a bay that required the motorist to display a parking permit but no permit was visible on display so a parking charge was issued the motorist will need to provide evidence of a valid permit at the time of the parking event.
Where the vehicle would have been permitted to park in the location, but the driver failed to enter the registration number into the terminal. For example, a member of a gym who would be permitted to park and has parked in accordance with all the other terms and conditions, but upon entry to the gym they forgot to enter their registration correctly on the terminal the motorist would need to produce confirmation on company headed paper from the organisation that they visited that their vehicle was permitted to be parked at the time of issue

Appeal decisions

Stage 5.

Appeal decisions shall be made within 28 days of the appeal being lodged. If a decision cannot be made within 28 days, the motorist shall be provided with an acknowledgement that the appeal has been received and is being considered and be provided with a timeframe for concluding the appeal.

If an appeal is accepted the parking charge shall be cancelled.

If an appeal is rejected the appellant shall be afforded the opportunity to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service https://www.theias.org

Responding to appeals

Stages 6.

Appeals will be responded to within 28 days.

The reduced rate of payment should be offered for a further 14 days from the date of rejection of the appeal where the original appeal is received within the timeframe for making payment at the reduced rate

Appeal responses shall:

Not imply or cause the recipient to infer statutory authority where none exists
Not use prohibited terminology as set out in Annex E of the Code of Practice.
Not be threatening or misleading
Not infer potential consequences that cannot be enforced
Be clearly dated
Include a contact address
Include the amount of the debt
Include date and time of the contravention for which the original PCN was issued
Include the details of the contravention
Include details of how the debt can be paid

Responses should also respond to all the relevant points that the appellant has made in their correspondence.

Appeal rejection letters will inform the motorist that they can appeal to the Independent Appeals Service. They will include the details for how to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service and the fact that they have 21 days to submit their appeal.

Responding to appeals

Stage 7.

Decisions made by the Independent Appeals Service (https://www.theias.org) are binding. If an appeal is allowed then the parking charge shall be cancelled, and no further enforcement action shall occur.

Further Challenges

Stage 8.

If a keeper has appealed the parking charge, and the appeal has been heard and rejected, the keeper may still then identify the driver if they were not the driver themselves, and the driver may still exercise their right of appeal. In this case the appeal process shall revert to stage 1

Crrective action

Stage 9.

If the appeal is upheld, any corrective action required shall be recorded. Corrective action may include:

Staff training
Staff disciplinary
Amending processes
Suspending enforcement on a site

Recommencing enforcement action

Stage 10.

Following the rejection of an internal appeal, enforcement action shall not recommence until the deadline for the motorist to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service has lapsed. Following the dismissal of an appeal by the Independent Appeals Service, enforcement action shall not be restarted until 14days post the decision being made, this includes the addition of any additional fees.