Smart parking, overpaid my ticket but just not quite enough, still liable?

cactusmelba

Hi all.

£2.40 from 8a.m. to 6p.m, then a further pound for 6p.m. to 8 the next morning.

We paid £3.00, so 60p overpaid, and left the car park at 6.17pm. So we WERE 17 minutes over, but had overpaid enough for about seven extra hours of overnight parking!!

Anyway, we received the pcn, appealed, got denied, (officially "due to insufficient paid time") and they ignored the 'pre-estimate of loss' section, saying that it's no longer a requirement by the BPA as of October 2014.

My question? Is it worth going to POPLA considering we were actually 17 minutes over? Does the extra 60p overpaid count for anything? Dang it, 40p short for a £60 (or £100 if not paid in time) charge..

Many thanks for any assistance offered, I've spent ages reading the forums but couldn't find a comparable situation!

Helen

Redx

ignore the "situation"

you paid to park, not to enter, find a spot, go to the machine , pay for a ticket and put it in the car, plus the exit time from leaving the space to leaving the car park, which could be the 17 minutes

just appeal it in the usual manner to popla on the usual grounds

NTK flaws
POFA discrepencies
no contract with landowner
poor signage
not a gpeol (subject to the Beavis outcome)
paid for 2 hours, parked for 2 hours, the rest of the time is entering and exiting

smart monitor time on site , not parking time

cactusmelba

Unfortunately they have photographic evidence of the exact time the vehicle arrived and left the car park.

I reckon the only grounds for appeal will be GPEOL, it clearly wouldn't have taken the driver 17 minutes to exit the car park! (It's a tiny car park)

Redx

nope, totally wrong, the photos are of time on site, not time parked

you paid for parking, so were entitled to 2 hours parking

entry and exit times , plus 10 minutes to read the signs and comply , are not a part of the contract to park

plus you should query the accuracy of the anpr cameras too, like hundreds of other people do

appeal on all the grounds I said, not just gpeol

you havent seen the anpr accuracy maintenance sheets

you havent seen the contract between smart and the landowner

you havent checked that the signage meeets the BPA CoP

you havent checked the NTK against POFA 2012

I think we know this game better than you do

cactusmelba

Flipping right you do!! ��

We actually paid for ten hours, (8 am to 6 pm), and only used 6 1/2 hours, (11.51am to 6.17pm) but the last seventeen minutes were out of the tickets reach..

As for that phenomenal list of claimables, it sounds very impressive but it's so blinking complicated to get my head around!!

Redx

ok, so plagiarise this popla appeal and adapt it to suit, making sure you have covered all the items in my shortlist

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5229730

put gpeol and Beavis last, as its not been decided yet

cactusmelba

Thanks mister redx, much appreciated!
I was just thinking it was quite clear cut that we were out of time on the ticket so wouldn't be worth claiming, but it's obviously a lot murkier than that isn't it!

Do you know if we lose the POPLA appeal, would the £60 charge be enforced or would it not be discounted anymore, jumping to 100 squids?

Redx

the popla decision is binding upon them, not binding upon you

if you did fail at popla , which is almost impossible to do when faced with "not so smart" , then I would still refuse to pay and let them take you to court , especially as its clear you overpaid for parking and their sign was gobbledegook in that it was not clear at the time of payment what those terms actually were

there was no loss to the landowner as you overpaid, so as you have the right to defend yourself in court, I would excercise that right and let a judge decide. not that I believe this will happen, smart are not known for court cases, but never say never

in other words, it doesnt matter what their charge is, because you wont be paying them a penny if you do this correctly, but if you were daft enough to lose at popla then its 6 years of checking for court papers and ignoring debt collector letters

have a look at this recent popla appeal too

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5311370

I would adapt this one if I were you

Coupon-mad

cactusmelba wrote: »

Thanks mister redx, much appreciated!
I was just thinking it was quite clear cut that we were out of time on the ticket so wouldn't be worth claiming, but it's obviously a lot murkier than that isn't it!

Do you know if we lose the POPLA appeal, would the £60 charge be enforced or would it not be discounted anymore, jumping to 100 squids?

Wise up! No-one here actually PAYS Smart parking and no-one loses at POPLA here either.

cactusmelba

Thanks mister redx, I'm formulating my reply right now. One last thing, do I have to let smart parking know I'm going down the POPLA route so they don't send me any more bills, or should I just ignore them and get on with it?

The_Deep

Smart Parking is a misnomer, they are far from smart.


Wanting a large sum of money from you when they have lost nothing is far from smart, and were they to take this to court a judge would almost certainly find against them and award you your costs. They rely on the mugs who pay unnecessarily in order to stay in business.