Smart Parking PCN Query

wr1801

Hi,

I've received a PCN from Smart Parking asking for £54 payment for remaining in the car park longer than permitted. All they have provided me with is 2 photos of the car arriving and leaving without any evidence of the time period I paid for to demonstrate that I have breached the contract. This was a few weeks back so I don't have the ticket I purchased and can't prove to them that I paid for this time period.

Shouldn't Smart Parking be required to display evidence to me that I have breached the contract before issuing a PCN and beginning the 14 day period for payment? I fear that by the time I receive this evidence the 14 day period would have expired and I will then have to pay £90 if I have actually outstayed my parking permit.

Thanks.

Coupon-mad

Does any of this matter, given that reading any Smart Parking thread on this forum would tell you that they fold, within weeks of seeing the forum template appeal, as they can't win at POPLA as long as you don't blab about who the driver was?

Off to the NEWBIES thread, no more questions needed!

Redx

no they dont have to send proof , its an unregulated industry

they can wait until the popla or court stage before proving anything

what you have received is an invoice demanding payment, and under POFA2012 they need to send this demand within 14 days, so what you have received is their standard invoice

read this from 2017 too

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2017/05/throwing-pay-display-ticket-away-use-cost-100/


now go to the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread , read it , and appeal as keeper

The_Deep

Read what one MP Said recently in the House of Commons about Smart.


Pete Wishart (SNP, Perth):

"I am sick and tired of receiving emails from people complaining about the behaviour of parking companies, telling me that they will never again visit Perth city centre because of the negative experience they had when they had the misfortune to end up in a car park operated by one of these companies. I have received more complaints about one car park in the city of Perth than about any other issue. That car park is operated by the lone ranger of the parking cowboys: the hated and appalling Smart Parking—I see that many other Members are unfortunate enough to have Smart Parking operating in their constituencies. It has reached the stage where one member of my staff now spends a good part of each day just helping my constituents and visitors to my constituency to navigate the appeals process.
…
The BPA does not have the ability to regulate these companies and has shown no sign whatsoever that it is trying to get on top of some of the sharper practices. The BPA gives a veneer of legitimacy to some of the more outlandish rogue operators by including them in their membership, allowing them to continue to operate. The Bill will oblige operators such as Smart Parking to amend their practices."

and complain to your own MP as it is the will of Parliament that these scammers, (very often former clampers), be put out of business.

Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers. .