PCN - THE PLOT THICKENS .. Smart Parking didn’t enter my address correctly on NTK

r3b3ccaaaa

Update - Smart Parking rejected my appeal BUT I obtained a copy of my PCN from Smart Parking as I never received a NTK only a letter from Debt Recovery!! 

On the copy of the letter they sent me my first line of my address is missing so that will be why I’ve never received it. On the rejection email they have said 

“ As per the British Parking Association Code of Practice (paragraph 23.7), all appeals must be submitted to us within 28 days of the Notice to Keeper being issued.  Due to the length of time your PCN has been open, we have now referred this to a debt recovery company (Debt Recovery Plus) who are handling the matter on our behalf.  Please contact them directly if you wish to discuss this further. ”

I have replied to explain that Smart Parking didn’t put my address down correctly so I couldn’t appeal in 28 days but I have had to send it to info@smartparking.com as obviously their rejection was a no reply email. I am awaiting a response but surely this is some crazy data breach? 

*** just to confirm my V5C / the DVLA 💯 has my correct address it is DEFINITELY Smart Parkings error & I now have evidence as to why I didn’t get the letter!! ***

My question is - 

What is my legal standpoint in all this? Have they misused my data by putting my address down as incorrect? & then passing it on to Debt Recovery? Any advice would be really appreciated! Do I contact Debt Recovery as I feel like everything on the newbies thread says don’t but Smart Parking are seemingly washing their hands of it?

Also they never gave me a reference number so I can appeal to POPLA.

I feel so stressed about it it’s awful that they can do this to people. 


——-

SO long story short, the driver of my car parked on a private car park with ANPR camera on 29th August - The driver entered the full car reg into the machine to pay however the receipt missed off the last two digits of the reg! I have pictures of the receipt (with the first 5 digits of my reg) and proof of payment. As registered keeper I was waiting for a fine to come through ready and raring to appeal. ... 
nothing came......
....
Then on 27th November I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus for £175 fine!!! 

I read through the newbies threads on here which was amazing and I submitted my appeal as the registered keeper, I didn’t admit to  who was driving, but quoted as registered keeper that they have breached the POFA and BPA code of Practice. I did enclose the car parking receipt and payment and mentioned the point on the BPA Code of Practice which mentions about keying errors so the ticket should be void second to the fact I hadn’t received a NTK. 

Thanks guys

D_P_Dance

Have you read the newbies?  Have you complained to the landowner and your MP?

beamerguy

r3b3ccaaaa said:

Motorists have 28 days to pay or appeal a parking charge notice from the date of issue. The first 14 days motorists can pay or appeal at the discounted amount of £60.00, the latter 14 days can be paid or appealed at the full amount of £100.00.  

  

In this instance, as no payment or correspondence was received, the parking charge notice was automatically referred to a Debt Recovery company on 03/11/2020. 

   

Please confirm via return email if you have made any payments to Debt Recovery regarding this charge so we can consider our position accordingly. “

Smart actually were asking if you paid DRP .......  DON'T THEY KNOW..

Of course you do not pay DRP, they are just a nonsense money scammer.
Smart know this already and are just hoping you are a mug

Choices for you, just ignore Smart or tell them of course you have not paid DRP as they have added a fake amount and you now expect Smart to explain why they instructed DRP to add an unlawful £75 ?   
A perfect letter to show a court.  Their answer will be even better

To confirm ... you never deal or contact DRP, powerless clowns from the local circus

All seen when you read the NEWBIES thread

Le_Kirk

First thing I would do is to check the name and address on my V5C (well your V5C of course) and then that might explain why you did not receive the original PCN.

Coupon-mad

If the NTK copy shows your correct address but it never arrived, email Steve Clark at the BPA and tell him that this seems to be happening again:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6208365/smart-parking-issued-drplus-letters-before-ntks-by-mistake-bpa-dvla-know-blind-eye-turned/p1

Tell him that you are aware that it happened earlier in August and that Smart Parking told the BPA they had addressed the issue by adding a level of clerical checks, to reconcile that NTKs were actually posted by their third party mail provider, so why are Smart now saying that they can't check:

We can confirm that the original parking charge notice was issued on 01/10/2020 to the address as provided by the DVLA as the registered keeper of the vehicle. Please see attached a copy of the original parking charge notice for your reference. We are unable to comment on why this may not have been received as we have no hold over Royal Mail postal services. 

steve.c@britishparking.co.uk

If this is another pattern, the BPA and/or Smart and/or DRP will have heard from other people, like last time.  So be heard - be one of those people!

r3b3ccaaaa

Coupon-mad said:

If the NTK copy shows your correct address but it never arrived, email Steve Clark at the BPA and tell him that this seems to be happening again:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6208365/smart-parking-issued-drplus-letters-before-ntks-by-mistake-bpa-dvla-know-blind-eye-turned/p1

Tell him that you are aware that it happened earlier in August and that Smart Parking told the BPA they had addressed the issue by adding a level of clerical checks, to reconcile that NTKs were actually posted by their third party mail provider, so why are Smart now saying that they can't check:

We can confirm that the original parking charge notice was issued on 01/10/2020 to the address as provided by the DVLA as the registered keeper of the vehicle. Please see attached a copy of the original parking charge notice for your reference. We are unable to comment on why this may not have been received as we have no hold over Royal Mail postal services. 

steve.c@britishparking.co.uk

If this is another pattern, the BPA and/or Smart and/or DRP will have heard from other people, like last time.  So be heard - be one of those people!

I will absolute contact him! I think it’s abhorrent that they don’t have a better system in place for contacting people. I have been at the same address for 30 years with no other linked addresses so the fact their letters never came but debt recovery’s did I think is very telling!  Do you think I should tell smart parking I am going to contact BPA? 

D_P_Dance

Read what Pete Wishart MP said recently in the House of commons 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.

r3b3ccaaaa

D_P_Dance said:

Have you read the newbies?  Have you complained to the landowner and your MP?

Yes I read newbies it was fab for writing my appeal I am just not sure what to say in my response. In my appeal I asked Smart Parking for the land owners details so I could copy them in to my correspondence but they didn't divulge and I am not sure how to find the information online. (It wasn't a car park on a hospital or retail site it was a car park in Snowdon) I will complain to the local MP though as it has definitely put me off ever going there again!

Redx

Name the car park as it's probably come up before on here , people on here have found all sorts of details without paying the Land Registry a small fee

SMR perhaps ?

It's always worth checking your V5C , we have mentioned it numerous times on here and then people have found typos , errors , incorrect names or addresses on it , all kinds of errors , you are supposed to rigorously check documents when they arrive , be they flight tickets , driving licences and your V5C

r3b3ccaaaa

Redx said:

Name the car park as it's probably come up before on here , people on here have found all sorts of details without paying the Land Registry a small fee

SMR perhaps ?

It's always worth checking your V5C , we have mentioned it numerous times on here and then people have found typos , errors , incorrect names or addresses on it , all kinds of errors , you are supposed to rigorously check documents when they arrive , be they flight tickets , driving licences and your V5C

it was LLanberris car park? My V5C is correct so no reason why I shouldn't have received the letters I genuinely do not think they have sent them 

r3b3ccaaaa

1. I didn't receive the NTK in 28 days to make an appeal I stated on my appeal I am treated the debt recovery letter as the first NTK so am well within 28 days
2. BPA have a section around keying errors and the receipt of payment I have is clearly the start of the reg the PCN is for on that day in that car park - although the reg was entered correctly but I wont go down that road..
3. If they appeal my decision they should provide me with a rejection number which they havent. 

I don't know whether to reply to the first email that asked if I had paid anything to debt recovery or this second email with a rejection or both!? What a bunch of cowboys!