Appeal Rejected

traceyr

I will try to keep this as short as possible:

Basically a couple of weeks ago my mother had left her car parked at my house while she was away on holiday. She was due to arrive home by bus fairly late so I agreed to drop her car off at a private car park across from the bus station. My husband drove her car and I followed behind him in our own car so he could drop her car off and I would then give him a lift back home. When we got down to the car park I followed him in thinking nothing about it and stopped behind the him with the car running not in a car parking bay. This was around 8pm and the car park was more or less empty. I sat in our car with the car running waiting on my husband to deal with the other car . He came back to ask how long to put on her car so I gave my mother a call to find out the exact Time she was due in on her bus. She then informed me that she had missed her original bus due to a late connection and was just finding out if there was room on the next bus. By the time this was established I had been waiting 10 minutes. My husband then paid £7 for a car parking ticket for my mother's car put the ticket on display and locked it up. He then got into our car and I drove back home. At no time did it even enter my mind to put a ticket on my own car as I was just sitting there waiting.

Just over a week ago My husband received a parking charge from Smart Parking for £60 going up to £100 if it wasn't paid within 14 days. My husband instant my appealed this but realise now after reading through some of the posts on here we may of made a mistake appealing it and maybe should just of ignored it. We had an email back today stating that the charge was being upheld and it needed to be paid.

I am so angry about this and think it's disgusting that companies can treat people like this. I really object to paying a single penny to this company and wonder if anyone can advise me on what to do.
We are in Scotland so from what I have read there is no further route for appeal. Can I just ignore any further letters. What is the chance of the company taking this to small claims court? if they do take us to small claims would we be liable for their costs?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

bod1467

Did they provide a POPLA code with their appeal rejection?

traceyr

No POPLA code on the rejection email.
Does POPLA apply in Scotland?

bod1467

Sorry - missed Scotland from the last paragraph in your OP. You should have ignored them altogether. Now you've just got to ignore them and hope they don't raise a small claim in the Sheriff's Court (which is unlikely).

HedgehogJac

Hello Traceyr, I too have received A PCN from Smart Parking in Scotland. I bought a ticket for four hours one weekday evening. When I returned, I was aware that I had gone over my time by a few minutes near to midnight. At this time the car park was practically empty. There was no ticket on my car, and I was not aware that a new CCTV system at the gates was in force. I have been using this car park for years and did not understand the very new system. A week or so later I received a demand for £100, reduced to £60 if paid on time. I thought this very unfair for 9 minutes clocked by the CCTV and an extortionate amount to pay! I too wrote an appeal letter to Smart Parking within the allotted time, sent by registered post. I have not received any notification or acknowledgement of my appeal, but have received an increased demand for £100 and a letter from Debt Recovery Plus for £160 with threats of a court summons! I am disabled, and I simply can not afford to pay this fine, and find this aggressive form of behaviour distressing. Are SP in breach of the law or industry standards for ignoring my appeal letter whilst sending out increasing charges and threatening letters? I'd be grateful if anybody could help. Date of 'breach' 26/2/15. Thanks

pogofish

HedgehogJac wrote: »

Hello Traceyr, I too have received A PCN from Smart Parking in Scotland.

Please don't hijack someone else's thread!

Now help yourself by reading the Newbies Sticky and paying particular to the advice for Scotland and Post 4 for Debt Collectors - then stop taking them seriously and IGNORE forthwith!

Coupon-mad

HedgehogJac wrote: »

Hello Traceyr, I too have received A PCN from Smart Parking in Scotland. I bought a ticket for four hours one weekday evening. When I returned, I was aware that I had gone over my time by a few minutes near to midnight. At this time the car park was practically empty. There was no ticket on my car, and I was not aware that a new CCTV system at the gates was in force. I have been using this car park for years and did not understand the very new system.

A week or so later I received a demand for £100, reduced to £60 if paid on time. I thought this very unfair for 9 minutes clocked by the CCTV and an extortionate amount to pay! I too wrote an appeal letter to Smart Parking within the allotted time, sent by registered post.

I have not received any notification or acknowledgement of my appeal, but have received an increased demand for £100 and a letter from Debt Recovery Plus for £160 with threats of a court summons! I am disabled, and I simply can not afford to pay this fine, and find this aggressive form of behaviour distressing. Are SP in breach of the law or industry standards for ignoring my appeal letter whilst sending out increasing charges and threatening letters? I'd be grateful if anybody could help. Date of 'breach' 26/2/15. Thanks

Oh come on it's not a fine. No idea why you appealed, why not research it first? And why not just search 'Debt Recovery Plus' as well, seeing as everyone gets those letters and ignores them and you could have found that out in minutes. People have ignored that letter chain for a decade.

You don't need any help, this is nothing. Just read about what you should have done which in Scotland was to ignore the fake PCN, and now you should ignore the silly letter chain until it stops after half a dozen mad letters screeching about court (won't happen). Relax. Next time research first, but either way you would have got this letter chain so it doesn't make much difference that you wasted your time thinking there was an 'appeal'.

Please don't post about every letter, no need to start a thread. Find out which letters come next by simply Googling something like 'Smart Parking Debt Recovery'. There are half a dozen boring letters to ignore, about one every 3 or 4 weeks. So what, really. They are letters, it's no biggie.