Should I Ignore Smart Parking Ticket?

VAmbrosia

Hi there,

A few weeks ago, the Driver received a Parking Charge Notice from Smart Parking.

Smart Parking price is £3.20 for up to 3 hours and £4.10 up to 4 hours. The Driver's maths is awful, but the Driver tried their hardest and thought they were correct with their timings and believed they stayed up to 3 hours. So the Driver paid £4.00 because they thought they stayed within the 3-4hrs slot. The driver also didn't have 10p. The driver thought this was fine (new driver, less than a year experience and first time in one of these car parks).

Anyway, 2 weeks later, the Driver received a letter saying they were being charged £60 due to overstaying. The driver appealed and mentioned the above saying it was an honest mistake and they should not be penalised for it. Smart Parking rejected the appeal and stated, although the Driver paid £4, the Driver overstayed by 39 minutes, which was classed in the higher band (even though it was between 3-4 hours, the Driver's leaving time was closer to the "up to 4 hours" so the Driver failed to pay the correct amount for the parking ticket).

The question now: seeing as the Driver has about 1-2 days to pay the £60 otherwise, Smart Parking will charge the Driver £100.

Smart Parking did give the Driver a POPLA code. But should the Driver use it, or should the Driver just ignore it? Will they take the Driver to court if the Driver ignores the fine?

The_Deep

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Read what Pete Wishart MP said recently in the House of commons about Smart Parking [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]"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." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, sans-serif] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten of these tickets are scams so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra work.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, 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.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

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






[/FONT]

Ralph-y

"Smart Parking did give the Driver a POPLA code. But should the Driver use it,"


Yes





"should the Driver just ignore it?



No




"Will they take the Driver to court if the Driver ignores the fine?"


Probably



you need to read the newbies thread



https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou


to start putting together a POPLA appeal ... post it up here before submission.



Where did this dastardly deed take place?


Ralph:cool:

Fruitcake

The advice to ignore PCNs has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

If the scammers know the identity of the driver then they could take them to court.
If the driver's identity is not known or doesn't admit to being the driver then the keeper may be liable and the scammers may take them to court.

If you have a PoPLA code you should use it. Create a draft appeal using all the relevant points available from post 3 of the NEWBIES. Post it here for checking before submitting it.

Get pics of the site and signage to support the appeal.

What happened when you complained to the landowner?

Don't forget to complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

nosferatu1001

Appealing to POPLA will need to be dnoe carefully. There is nothign saying they must accept £4 as being a proportion of the time for 4 hours parking and so its fine, and POPLA will also side with the PPC on that point. If you need to park over 3 hours then you pay £4.10. Less than that and above £3 you get to park for three hours. Simple. Sadly, they are also right on this

So it would need to be the usual - how clear are teh signs about the parking charge? Are they close to the P&D machines? Obvious? Was it at night and the signs unlit so couldnt be seen?

SMART are luckily poodles so dont really do court.
Tell the driver they cant just make up their own conditions in a pay and display car park!

VAmbrosia

Driver is also no longer the registered keeper of the vehicle. Done this have any bearings as to whether the Driver should pay the fine?

It just also be stated, during the first appeal, the Driver did use first person pronouns....

The_Deep

None whatsoever. Such question are answered in the stickies/FAQs or by using a search engine.

Coupon-mad

Just copy/adapt any other Smart POPLA appeal you find when searching. Simple.

[Deleted User]

For over an hour now I have read posts from as far back as 2012 and am more confused than ever. If it is so simple, the please can someone repost/reiterate what to do / what the wording is in response to a Smart Parking large Notice in the current year 2019?
My husband has been sent a PCN, and I am so angry. He told me he may have entered his reg wrong but definitely paid but of course does not have the ticket two weeks later. He is a blue badge holder and has dementia so I am dealing with it for him. Do i appeal in his name or mine?

Coupon-mad

A search does NOT show posts from 2012 so you are searching wrong if you didn't get a result like this that only shows 300 'Smart POPLA' posts since the past 10 months:

Showing results 1 to 25 of 300
Search took 0.21 seconds.

HOW TO USE THE FORUM SEARCH FUNCTION:

Use the Forum Jump button (one near the top and one near the bottom of this page) to get back to the forum thread list. Just above the threads, on the right, is a heading along a line, next to forum tools, called 'Search this Forum'. Put your key word(s) in and change the default search from 'Show Threads' to 'Show Posts'.

The POPLA appeal goes in the name of the keeper, like you see in the search results.