Smart Parking - continue to ignore?

Mia1

Thank you in advance for any advice. I appreciate my situation won't be unique and I have read similar threads, I just need clarification on which piece of advise to follow.

I received a Parking Charge Notice through the post in December 2016 from Smart Parking. At the time I was unaware of this fantastic resource here on MSE.com and attempted to appeal without any decent advice and was of course unsuccessful. I have then gone on to ignore 7 months of letters from Debt Recovery Plus. This week a letter came through from Gladstones Solicitors, still offering me the opportunity to pay the £160 to avoid 'consideration of future court action.' It states that to pay I need to contact DRP, so I am thinking this is just a template that they send out en mass?

Adding to complications, I was then issued another Parking Charge Notice from Smart Parking for the same car park in May this year. However, this time I had actually bought a ticket but by the time the letter arrived, I had disposed of it. All I can assume is that I went over the time I had purchased but all they have provided me with is a picture of my car entering and exiting, they haven't stated that I have over-stayed and I know I definitely had a ticket! I have missed the window period to appeal as I didn't want to start correspondence with them when I have been ignoring the other one! They also bumped the charge up from £60 (if paid in 14 days) to £160 when it stated in their initial letter it would go up to £120. Their second letter seemingly didn't make it to my house, this stage was by-passed and handed straight over to DRP. Both DRP and Gladstones seem to have a habit of issuing 14 days to pay but making sure you only have about 3 days once the letter arrives!

My question is, should I do anything at all about either of these seeing as I have missed the opportunity to appeal? If the first one ends up going to court I don't think I have a defence as I risked it and knowingly didn't buy a ticket (I didn't realise it was CCTV and not patrolled by a warden). Should I just wait and see if I actually receive court papers? BMPA's insight on Smart Parking Ltd records that they haven't taken any one to court so hopefully I will be ok but does this mean putting up with these letters for the next 6 years!

Quentin

You need to read up in the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum.

Everyone is politely asked to do so before starting a new thread

You are in the debt collectors stage which is outlined in the newbies thread

Coupon-mad

You should have appealed the second one and killed it very easily; now they are both 'live'. Ignoring the second one was a mistake, but not terrible. Each PCN is separate and you could have appealed as the keeper and won the appeal in days.

We've seen a few Smart court claims and seen them off with a decent defence, first try (no hearings). No worries!

The letter you describe is just a debt collector letter, to be ignored.