APCOA's Parking Problem

Imagine my surprise when I received a £140 debt recovery notice for a £1 parking charge that I'd paid via APCOA's parking app, alleging “parking without a valid payment or permit”. I called the collection agency (Debt Recovery Plus) and explained that both the app and my credit card statement show that I paid the £1 to park my car at the relevant location (for the second year running, I might add). But, "Aha!" they said. We can see that the registration number entered in your version of the APCOA app has one letter different to your car's actual registration number (an "O" instead of a "P"), so neither the payment APCOA took from your credit card nor the permit it issued to you were valid. That means APCOA can now charge you a £140 penalty!

There are so many things wrong with this that I'm actually kind of hoping it goes to court. Here's the gist of what I've written to all concerned (yet their processes grind on): 

1. APCOA knew of the mistake (through its licence plate recognition system), yet had proceeded to charge my credit card by submitting the payment to its card acquirer as a valid transaction; and duly issued the parking permit for my vehicle, regardless of the typo in the app (for the second year running). My contract debt of £1 was discharged. The end. Everything that followed was of no legal consequence at all, void, unenforceable. You cannot somehow revive or rely on a contract debt once it is discharged. It's irrelevant that I missed a deadline in a later document APCOA wasn't entitled to issue in the first place. The “terms and conditions of use” at the location don't entitle APCOA to collect a parking fee of £1 and then seek payment of further charges as if it had not already been paid. If English contract law were to allow that, the wheels of commerce would come to an abrupt halt. 
2. If APCOA regarded the typo in the app as a problem at all, then it had elected not to take the point and reject my payment, so it could not later claim that the typo somehow rendered the attempted transaction invalid.
3. APCOA had suffered no loss, because they had received the £1 charge and not refunded it.
4. APCOA is also estopped by its conduct from claiming that the payment/permit was invalid, issuing the parking charge notice and other enforcement activity. By issuing the notice with the correct registration at my address, APCOA (and later the collection agency) demonstrated that it was on notice that I was the registered keeper of the relevant vehicle at the relevant location on the day in question and that I had paid a £1 parking charge using my card (also registered to the app).
5. To charge 140 times the amount of a contract debt is extravagant and unconscionable in comparison with any legitimate interest, particularly in circumstances where APCOA had in fact accepted payment for a £1 charge and both it and its collection agency were aware of an obvious mistake. The charge is also not a genuine pre-estimate of any loss, since there is no loss!
6. The debt recovery firm is also on notice of the obvious mistake and is similarly estopped, but has no better claim to payment than APCOA in any event.
7. To the extent that APCOA seeks to rely on the “terms and conditions of use” as the basis for additional charges, those terms and conditions fail the fairness and transparency tests and/or are otherwise unenforceable under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. 
8. Any contract formed on the day for the use of the car park would be rectifiable for obvious mistake to cure the minor typographical error in the reference to the registration number. Alternatively, APCOA breached the contract by collecting my payment but failing to apply it to the vehicle that it knew to be the one I had parked, for which the damages are at least equal to the amount they subsequently try to claim from me in charges (plus my costs). 
9. The debt collection agency has also misrepresented that the UK Supreme Court decision in Cavendish Square Holding BV v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67; [2016] AC 1172 entitles APCOA or the agency to act as they have. 
10. Both APCOA and the debt recovery agency have acted wrongfully on several occasions in pursuing the amount of the charge. In all of the circumstances, APCOA and its collections agency are in breach of their duty not to trade unfairly under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. 

While some of the remedies to which I am entitled may well be beyond the jurisdiction of the small claims court, they would include:

• judgment in my favour on any attempt to recover the charges;
• An order that each of the parking charge notice and debt recovery notices are void and/or unenforceable. 
• An order that any contract formed by my App and the terms and conditions of use of the car park at the Location should be rectified by the court to cure the minor typographical error in the reference to the registration number. 
• Damages equivalent to all amounts sought by APCOA and its collections agent and my costs and expenses incurred, including (where recoverable under the relevant court rules) legal fees and expenses in defending any proceedings.   

I have written to APCOA, the debt collection agency and APCOA's Managing Director for UK and Ireland, putting them on notice of the above and reserving all my rights and remedies. So far, their highly automated processes grind on...