Smart Parking charge POPLA deadline missed - need advice what to do next

greyhare

Hi

Husband and I visited four events at a local business centre, whose car park is managed by Smart Parking. The events were run by a third company, who rented an office space at the said business centre for these events. The car is registered in my husband's name, and following one of the events at the end of May 2019, he received a parking charge from Smart Parking.

Long story short, this is what's happened so far.

• In his appeal to Smart Parking, my husband simply statted that he was visiting an event at the business centre, giving the name of the third company who ran the event, and the times of the event. He didn't provide any evidence of our visit.
• He also explained that one of the machine where visitors to the business centre are required to input their VRM was broken on the day, and he tried several times, receiving some error each time. Eventually he had to use another machine. He wasn't sure the process worked, but the receptionist confirmed it did, so we went to attend the event.
• The SP appeal was rejected, presumably because my husband didn't give any evidence of the above.
• SP sent him a POPLA code. He ignored the letter and didn't put in a POPLA appeal.
• Last week, he received a letter from debt collectors DRP. The charge is now up to £170 from the original £100 (or £60 if paid within SP's deadline), and the debt collector's letter says that if the amount is not paid by 7 August, they recommend to their client, Smart Parking, that they take my husband to court.

I would have handled the whole process differently, but alas, this is how the husband handled it and this is the situation we find ourselves in. I only found out about this whole saga last week, and I am at a loss as to what to do. Understandably, I'd like to avoid going to court, so I would like to do everything possible to help him out of this situation.

I was able to contact the company whose event we attended on the date, and they sent me a confirmation of the registration sheet we both signed to say we were at the event. I also have the copies of our tickets, indicating the date, times and the location of the event at the business centre. I drafted a letter to say we were at the event and not trespassing. In the letter, I also stated the following.

• There are two machines for visitors to enter their VRM in at the desk; both look like iPads. The keyboard on one of them is faulty, accepting characters but not numbers. The second machine seems to work okay. I even went to the business centre and made a video of the VRM entry process using the faulty machine. The keyboard on one of the machines is still broken, and the video I filmed proves it.
• When you enter the VRM into the iPad, it simply gives an okay message and does not confirm the VRM on the final screen. Neither does it provide a printed proof of the VRM entered. The lack of printed receipt puts visitors at a disadvantage, leaving us with nothing on which to base our appeals or our defence in court.
• On the day of the parking charge, there seemed to be an additional fault with one of the machines, giving my husband an error message each time he input his number plate. He has a diagnosed disorder, which affects his cognitive ability, focus and concentration, and having had to enter the VRM several times, he could have made an error. But without a printed ticket, it is now impossible to say whether my husband entered an incorrect VRM or the machine simply malfunctioned and didn't accept his entry.

Other things I pointed out wrong / unclear with the SP system:

• The sign at the car parking says to register your vehicle at the reception to obtain a parking permission. The reception desk is often unattended. The sign at the reception desk is the exact replica of the signs around the car park, not instructing visitors to use the iPads to enter the VRM but saying to register the VRM at the reception.
• In addition, the message on the sign at the desk (the same as around car park) begins with 'PERMIT HOLDERS ONLY', misleading the visitors to believe that what follows is for permit holders' attention rather than a message for visitors.
• The message on the iPads simply says 'Validate parking', then a text field (which is just a line rather than a box) labelled 'VRN' (rather than 'VRM'). This presumes that visitors are expected to know what the VRN is and somehow infer that they are expected to enter their car registration into these devices in order to obtain permission. Unless explained by the receptionist, who is not always at the desk, there is no way a visitor would understand how to avoid the parking charge.
• The charge has mysteriously gone up to £170, and nowhere was it indicated that it would go up to this amount.

Now, given the SP appeal had failed, the POPLA deadline was missed, who do I send this to? My view is:


1. Email all this to the regular enquiries address for Smart Parking as well as send them a copy in the mail.

2. Email the event organiser and request that should Smart Parking make further enquiries about our attendance of their event at the business centre on the date, we authorise them to confirm this to them.

3. Send a complaint to the business centre, stating that their machine is broken and the VRM entry system is unclear, not giving visitors clear instructions.

4. Ignore the debt collection letter altogether.

Do you think this is the right course of action? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

Redx

Do 2 and 3 and 4

greyhare

Redx wrote: »

Do 2 and 3 and 4

Thank you for your reply. You recommend not address this with Smart Parking further at all even though I have the evidence of attending this event, which my husband didn't provide them with in the first place?

Quentin

All too late for you to do that now

Hence the advice you were given

You are asked to read up on this in the newbies FAQ thread

Post no #4 there covers the debt collection stage you are now in

Ignore everything except a lbcca or court correspondence

If it comes to that then come back to the FAQ at that time for advice on how to defend a Court claim

They have 6 years to start legal proceedings against you

waamo

Further communication with Smart will be futile. Get either the venue or organiser to cancel it.

fisherjim

Not so smart are in it for the money not to let anyone off their scam charges, and debt collectors are in on the scam.

The_Deep

Read what Pete Wishert, MP said in the House of Commons recently about Smart Parking.

"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."

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams so consider complaining to your MP.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Redx

So as I clearly stated earlier

Do 2 and 3 and 4

greyhare

Thank you so much everybody. I will definitely copy in my MP.