Private Parking Charges in Scotland

Thunderbird6

It doesn't look as if there have been many posts in the last year or so on this, and was wondering if there have been any updates or changes in law since.
I was issued a Parking Charge Notice in a car park in Kinnoull St Perth. I hadn’t realised that it was not a council car park and began their own appeals process. As expected, the appeal was rejected even though I had paid the correct fee but had mistakenly put in one digit wrong on the registration.
The enforcement company is "Smart Parking". Annoyingly their registered address is in Scotland but the appeals address is in England. Their enforcement notice references POPLA but I’m not sure if this works if the "offence" was in Scotland. Is there a Scottish version of POPLA?
I realise that lodging the appeal was probably the first mistake, but was wondering if there had been any updates to law since or any additional advice that someone could give? Thanks

Redx

no changes to scottish advice no , and no popla and no POFA2012 for scotland and no changes in the law either AFAIK

please read the NEWBIES sticky thread for further details

a PPC can only pursue the driver (if known) in scotland

ps:- put the search word SCOTLAND into the forum search box and there are loads of results for advice on scotland , it comes up weekly if not daily

pogofish

Thunderbird6 wrote: »

It doesn't look as if there have been many posts in the last year or so on this, and was wondering if there have been any updates or changes in law since.

There have been been a good number and the Kinnoul St car park has been one of the most frequently posted about - the newbies sticky is kept fully up to date on the matter. Last update was the end of May.

Herzlos

Thunderbird6 wrote: »

The enforcement company is "Smart Parking". Annoyingly their registered address is in Scotland but the appeals address is in England. Their enforcement notice references POPLA but I’m not sure if this works if the "offence" was in Scotland. Is there a Scottish version of POPLA?

There's no POPLA in Scotland, but if they've given you a code you can try lodging an appeal (it'll cost them £27+VAT) and you might get it killed off.

There's no keeper liability in Scotland, so you can just ignore them

Thunderbird6

Firstly, thank you to all who replied and apologies for the lack of knowledge on using these forums. I do have a few further questions that I hope someone can help me with. I seem to have committed three fundamental errors.
1. Used their online appeal system. This gave no receipt or copy of text submitted. My problem is that I do not know if I effectively fingered myself as the driver in doing so even though I was doing the appeal on behalf of my wife the registered keeper, and wrote it in first person. I stated that we had used the Ringo App to pay and that the ticket had been wrongly issued.
2. Perhaps even more stupidly, I rang them on behalf of my wife as I had not received any form of acknowledgement and at that time also pointed out that my error was mine as I had entered the incorrect registration in the Ringo App.
3. During the online appeal and the telephone call, I cannot remember if I indicated who the driver was.
I accept that these were errors that could be measured on the Richter Scale in terms of stupidity, but in my defence I genuinely believed that this was a council car park, that Smart Parking were operating it on their behalf and that as a council scheme, I’d get a fair hearing and sense would prevail. Foolish, I now know...
My question is: Given the above, does the advice to completely ignore from here on still apply, and if in the unlikely event of a summons from the Sheriff Court appearing, what do I do?

pappa_golf

please clarify


where do you live , England or Scotland , and have smart given you a POOPLa code?

System

My question is: Given the above, does the advice to completely ignore from here on still apply, and if in the unlikely event of a summons from the Sheriff Court appearing, what do I do?

There is only one PPC doing court in Scotland at the moment and that is VCS. And it's only happening because he has a conditional fee arrangement. Burned through 3 firms of solicitors and now on their 4th called Oracle (You would have thought with a name like that, they would have known).

Never seen Smart try it north or south of the border but if they do try, there are a couple of solicitors in Scotland that have been defending the VCS cases successfully. File and forget is your most likely option.

Herzlos

Naming the driver gives them a reason to start court proceedings, but it'd still unlikely and uphill. Scottish Courts don't seem to be as PPC friendly as even the few named driver cases to happen haven't gone well for the parking companies. The only single "win" I can think of for them was a case of a persistant parker, with CCTV evidence, settled out of court, and it was so clean cut for the parking company (including post court interview) that I'm pretty sure it was a PR stunt rather than a genuine case. You've really not got much to worry about.

I'd stick with my original advice, have a pop at POPLA if they let you (it has no weight up here anyway but it might kill it off) or ignore them until you see anything from a court.

Thunderbird6

Many thanks to all those who took the time to reply. It is much appreciated.
Pappa Golf - in answer to your question, we live in England and the so called "offence" took place in the now infamous Kinnoull Street CP, Perth in Scotland.
My instinct now is to simply ignore the death threats from here on and see what happens.
Lastly, apologies for any breaches of etiquette on this forum. It’s the first time I have ever used one in my rather too long life.

Iceweasel

Thunderbird6 wrote: »

Many thanks to all those who took the time to reply. It is much appreciated.
Pappa Golf - in answer to your question, we live in England and the so called "offence" took place in the now infamous Kinnoull Street CP, Perth in Scotland.
My instinct now is to simply ignore the death threats from here on and see what happens.
Lastly, apologies for any breaches of etiquette on this forum. It’s the first time I have ever used one in my rather too long life.

No need to apologize, Thunderbird6 - we all have to start somewhere / sometime.

You know what to do now - ignore them and the debt collector letters that will follow.

You'll get about 6 letters in total (unless you contact them again) at approx monthly intervals.

Redx

if you live in england and the vehicle is registered in england , then I would obtain and use the popla code (because I believe the location of the infraction may have no bearing - others may say differently)

but I say if you have a popla code , use it , because it would be an english MCOL that would arrive to an english address from an english private parking company