ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR)

The Independent Appeals Service is listed by The Chartered Trading Standards Institute as a certified Alternative Dispute Resolution organisation. The IAS has been assessed as being competent to deal with domestic and cross-border disputes relating to unpaid parking charges issued by private parking companies.  

There are two types of appeal against parking charges that the IAS can provide;  

• The Standard Appeals Procedure, which provides a no-risk and free-of-charge independent review of the lawfulness of the charge, and, 
• The Non-Standard Appeals Procedure, which is binding on both parties and for which a fee is payable.

The ADR procedure that you may follow, whether there is any payment to make and whether the result is binding upon you is dependent upon several features.

 You may use the Non-Standard Appeals Procedure, if:

1. you have not, and are not able to, use the Standard Appeals Procedure;  
2. the operator has advised you that they will engage with the Non-Standard Appeals Procedure;  
3. you pay a nominal charge of £15 towards the cost of the appeal (with the operator also paying towards the appeal). This is non-refundable whether your appeal is successful or not; and,  
4. you agree to the decision being binding upon you.

Both Standard and Non-Standard Appeals apply the same considerations. The Adjudicators only role is to determine whether the charge is lawful or not. Adjudicators will only have regard to the legal principles that apply in any matter and NOT to any other feature. Features that amount purely to mitigation (i.e. something that amounts to a reason for incurring the charge, but that does not remove your legal liability for it) cannot be considered as a ground to cancel a charge nor can the simple fact that there has been a breach of any Code of Conduct that the parking operator may subscribe to.  

Adjudicators will apply the civil standard of proof; the balance of probabilities. Otherwise, the normal civil rules of evidence do not apply.  

Once you have registered your appeal with the IAS, it is for the parking operator to provide a prima facie case that the charge is payable by you. This means that they must provide sufficient information/evidence to show that, on the face of it, the charge is lawful.  

Once the Operator has uploaded their prima facie case, it is for you to show that for some reason the charge is not lawful.  

Before you are able to use the IAS, you must first register your details. These details may be checked or the IAS may require you to provide proof of identity.  

Once an appeal has been initiated, you are not able to withdraw from it. If you stop engaging with the process then it will continue but without the input that you may otherwise have provided. 

Because the parties to an appeal are each given set periods of time within which to upload their case; the overall length of the ADR procedure contains some inherent delay in order to accommodate this. However, once all of the parties to an appeal have submitted their evidence the IAS seeks to deal with all appeals within 28 working days.  

The total maximum time from an Initial Appeal is as follows:

1. 5 working days for Operator to upload prima facie case.  
2. 5 working days for Appellant to upload appeal.  
3. 5 working days for Operator to respond. 
4. Steps 2 and 3 above are repeated until all evidence has been submitted. 
5. 28 working days for Adjudication.