Appealing an Ipserv PCN
If you have a received a PCN (or, Parking Charge Notice) in an Ipserv car park, then it is important that you action it rather than ignore - whether you choose pay it, or appeal.
Appealing it puts in a holding cycle which means they can't chase you by default.
Even if you don't think you can successfully appeal the PCN, you should still absolutely appeal it.
It will give them a lot of work to respond to your appeal, so we'll give you some tips for writing a robust appeal with minimal effort.
They will tell you the process in your PCN notice or letter - in summary, your appeal will first go to Ipserv to examine internally, then you can escalate to POPLA to examine externally if it is rejected.
Many online forums will give bad advice to ignore a PCN. However, in Ipserv's case it appears they will not hesitate to request your details from the DVLA if you do not respond to them. Go read on MoneySavingExpert's forums and you'll see they are also known to engage unpleasant third party legal companies to chase you.
That's annoying and although you can ignore those as scare tactics without any court judgement, their track record could suggest they may be likely to pursue you in court.
While that would be extremely expensive for them, and they will struggle to recover their money back - it is a hassle. Ideally, you'll have strong evidence for a PCN appeal, but if you haven't you can still cause them some hassle to make them work for their money.
There's no shortage of guidance online on how to write a PCN appeal, and several no-win-no-fee services that can assist.
You'll see a lot of discussion in online forums and review websites that
the 'authorities' that govern the optional code of practice and appeals in private car parks (namely, the BPA and POPLA) are questionably 'independent'.
Even with overwhelming evidence, they curiously almost always find in favour of the parking operator.
One might think their existence is theatre to quietly take the heat of the aggressive private parking industry by making it look 'fair' and self-governing, and quietly avoid all the court cases which would look very unfavourable to parking operator practices.
Whether you believe that is the case, is also your own opinion.
However, if you run into issues, we strongly suggest you contact your MP to let them know as the private parking industry is under scrutiny already. POPLA, it appears does not currently have any regulator for oversight.
Using AI tools to write a PCN appeal letter in seconds
To appeal a PCN, you'll need to write a letter of supporting evidence (and ideally, submit photos).
Ipserv is part of the British Parking Association (BPA), so go check out their Code of Practice.
If the car park you got a PCN in breaks any of that, then you have a stronger appeal - but, don't hold you breath.
There are many reasons a PCN could be invalid, including poor or missing signage, broken lighting, scrubbed lines etc.
There is a magical new free AI-based tool called ChatGPT that can make writing a robust PCN appeal letter unbelievably easy - and literally take only seconds.
To start, go to OpenAI. Sign up, then login.
You'll be provided an interface where you can send a message and 'talk' with an AI bot. Think of it like your very own assistant -
imagine you are telling them to write a letter on your behalf. Give them context, and some goals. It won't cost anything to keep altering the prompt and experimenting to get just what you want.
Want to see an example?
