Recently emigrated | No notice from PPC | Only rental co. email

FeedThemCake

Hello everyone,

First off I just wanna say that I've read a number of the threads on this forum, including the stickied thread for newbies, and am quite confident in a successful sorting out of this parking fine situation I'm in, so thanks to all those who have provided such an abundance of useful info and tips.

My situation is that I've just been informed by a rental company (Enterprise) that I incurred and am responsible for a parking violation from about 2 months ago (late July), just days before I emigrated (no longer live in the UK). Their email included the citation number and license plate of the car, and said it was issued by Smart Parking Ltd. The email uses language such as "once the fine is reissued to you" and "Enterprise will not pay the charge. You will be able to respond, pay or appeal directly to the authority when you receive the notice", clearly indicating that the actual notice of parking charge is yet to be issued to me. I suppose it's taken this long to contact Enterprise, who in turn now have to hand over my details to the issuing authority "so that they can in turn re-issue the fine to you".

Well, I used the details given to check the SmartParking website and yes the fine is there, with two photos as evidence (90 min max stay, stayed 130 mins). The 'contravention date' and the 'issue date' listed on the website are 18 days apart, nevermind the fact that I haven't actually received a postal notice and am finding this all out via Enterprise almost 2 months after the fact.
On the website, If I select the "payment" option, it says
> "Your Parking Charge Notice is currently in a state at which we are unable to accept payment. Please contact the Parking Office."

Additional details: 
-No physical windscreen ticket issued on the day
-Location: small parking lot in a posh village, sign does read "90 minutes max" etc, doesn't mention a charge/penalty fee.
-Overstayed by about 40 mins.
-I was renting the car, my brother was travelling with me.
-An admin fee has been billed to the credit card used for the car rental by Enterprise, so I'm keen to sort this out and successfully appeal the parking fine to get that admin fee reversed.


I eventually intend to submit the following appeal through their website:

-----
Dear Sirs,

I have just been made aware of your Notice to Keeper No. XXXXXXX for vehicle VRN XXXXXX.

You have failed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not limited to, failing to deliver the notice within the relevant period of 14 days as prescribed by section 9 (4) of the Act.

Specifically, the alleged incident is recorded as having occurred on the 28/07/2023 while the corresponding Parking Charge Notice is purported to have been issued on 14/08/2023 according to the smartparking website. To remove any doubt of the invalidity of this notice, I as the keeper of the vehicle during the timeframe in question have to this date (28/09/2023) yet to be directly issued with a formal Notice to Keeper of any kind except for an indirect email notification from the car rental agency almost two months (26/09/2023) after the alleged parking contravention. As the issuer of this notice you cannot, therefore, transfer legal liability for the alleged charge from the driver at the time to me, the keeper.

There is no legal requirement to name the driver at the time and I will not be doing so.

Any further communication with me on this matter, apart from confirmation of no further action and my details being removed from your records, will be considered vexatious and harassment. This includes communication from any Debt Collection companies you care to instruct.

Kind Regards.
-----

But before that, I basically just want to check that it's a good idea to proceed with the appeal to SmartParking despite the fact that I haven't actually been issued a notice from them as the issuing authority themselves?
The email from the rental co says "Once you have received [the fine from the issuing authority] you will be able to respond, pay or appeal directly to the authority."
So should I wait? Is SmartParking likely to email me? I guess I'll remind my family back home to keep an eye out for any mail addressed to me...

Thanks

 

KeithP

When a hire vehicle is involved then clearly they only have to notify the registered keeper, i.e. the hire company, within that fourteen days.
They obviously cannot contact you until the hire company tells them who hired the vehicle.

You need to read more of the NEWBIES thread.
Towards the bottom of the second post of the NEWBIES thread there are three near template appeals for hire situations and one of them will match your situation.

Fruitcake

It is not a fine, no violation has occurred, and there is no issuing authority.

Don't send the above.

If you have received a notice to hirer then respond to that using the relevant edna basher template letter in the sticky Announcement for NEWBIES. Your comments about the NTK being late are irrelevant because they only apply to the hire company.
You need to check the hire company's Ts and Cs to see what it says about parking charge notices since this is not a fine nor a penalty nor has it been issued by an authority. 

You need to send a rectification notice to the DPO of Smart Parking telling them to erase your old personal data and replace it with your new address for service. Make sure you use the word I have highlighted.
You will need to include non-photo proof of ID and proof of overseas residency.

If you haven't received a NTH, appeal the NTK as hirer as if it was a NTH.

Coupon-mad

Thing is, has Enterprise given them your old UK address or your address abroad?

B789

You need to put a hold on the payment to Enterprise from your credit card and dispute it. You have not received any "fine" from any "authority". They received a speculative invoice from an unregulated private parking company. Check the small print of your hire agreement for anything that relates to being charged an admin fee for speculative invoices from private companies.

Secondly, you are dealing with the utterly incompetent (not so) Smart Parking. Whilst you may have been "informed" by Enterprise that they received an NtK (PCN) from (not so) Smart Parking, you have to wait until you receive the NtH from them in order to appeal in your name. However, they will reject your appeal anyway.

As you no longer reside in the UK, there is nothing they can do about it. When you receive the NtH, you can appeal using the Edna Basher template in the Newbies/FAQ thread but you must also write to their DPO with a data rectification email instructing them to "erase" your old address and to update their records with your new, foreign address. They are probably too thick to figure out that they have nowhere to go with this but you will have done what is required to deflect anyone there trying to file a claim against you in the UK.

So, you should wait for the NtH if you're going to bother with appealing. If they follow their usual, intellectually malnourished ways, they will reject the appeal and you can appeal at POPLA where they will quash it.

The data rectification can be done once you receive the NtH.

Coupon-mad

When you receive the NtH, 

But the point is, they won't, if the post goes to the UK address.

B789

Coupon-mad said:

When you receive the NtH, 

But the point is, they won't, if the post goes to the UK address.

Sorry. I'm assuming the OP has a redirect on post from their old address or someone else has access to their old address and is sending post, such as the letter from Enterprise informing them of the PCN.

If they don't, then it is worth just contacting the (not so) Smart Parking DPO with the data rectification notice anyway, assuming they will agree to it from an unrelated (for now) source.

FeedThemCake

Coupon-mad said:

Thing is, has Enterprise given them your old UK address or your address abroad?

Enterprise don't have my new address abroad. They should have my home address in the UK where my family should pick up any UK mail addressed to me.

B789 said:

Coupon-mad said:

When you receive the NtH, 

But the point is, they won't, if the post goes to the UK address.

Sorry. I'm assuming the OP has a redirect on post from their old address or someone else has access to their old address and is sending post, such as the letter from Enterprise informing them of the PCN.

If they don't, then it is worth just contacting the (not so) Smart Parking DPO with the data rectification notice anyway, assuming they will agree to it from an unrelated (for now) source.

Yes, see above. My family will let me know of any mail addressed to me. The email from Enterprise did say that they are obligated to pass on my details to the "relevant authority" i.e. the PPC, and that a notice from them would follow in due course.

So, am I correct in understanding that, for now, I ought to wait until I've received a NtH from SmartParking, as suggested above by B789?

When the time comes to send an appeal, I will go ahead and use the Edna Basher template instead of my drafted response. And I'll also write to their DPO telling them to erase my data and update with the foreign address. A SAR isn't necessary in my case?

cheers

FeedThemCake

B789 said:

You need to put a hold on the payment to Enterprise from your credit card and dispute it. You have not received any "fine" from any "authority". They received a speculative invoice from an unregulated private parking company. Check the small print of your hire agreement for anything that relates to being charged an admin fee for speculative invoices from private companies.

Secondly, you are dealing with the utterly incompetent (not so) Smart Parking. Whilst you may have been "informed" by Enterprise that they received an NtK (PCN) from (not so) Smart Parking, you have to wait until you receive the NtH from them in order to appeal in your name. However, they will reject your appeal anyway.

As you no longer reside in the UK, there is nothing they can do about it. When you receive the NtH, you can appeal using the Edna Basher template in the Newbies/FAQ thread but you must also write to their DPO with a data rectification email instructing them to "erase" your old address and to update their records with your new, foreign address. They are probably too thick to figure out that they have nowhere to go with this but you will have done what is required to deflect anyone there trying to file a claim against you in the UK.

So, you should wait for the NtH if you're going to bother with appealing. If they follow their usual, intellectually malnourished ways, they will reject the appeal and you can appeal at POPLA where they will quash it.

The data rectification can be done once you receive the NtH.

This is very helpful, much appreciated. Some of the points you brought up I mentioned in the reply above.

So I can't put a hold on the credit card as it's actually my nan's! My brother and I don't own one so at the last minute we had to resort to using hers for the rental, with her permission of course. I plan to get the parking charge cancelled myself and then have the rental co. reverse the admin-associated charges.

EDIT: Silly me for not noticing this yesterday but I just realised that the letter emailed to me by Enterprise is actually addressed to my gran, whose credit card was (consentingly!) used for the car rental as I don't have one. I paid the rental bill itself on my debit card but her credit card was used for liability and insurance purposed as insisted by the rental co. So I need to first make sure that I, the vehicle's hirer, am addressed by the PCC and issued with a NtH rather than my gran

FeedThemCake

UPDATE: So unfortunately the situation is this: I didn't notice/realise this before but the car rental agreement lists the name of and was signed by my grandma, who dropped us off and agreed to use her credit card for the apparently required liability and insurance purposes at Enterprise. And the parking charge notice is actually addressed to her, I just glanced at the top and saw the right last name & assumed it was to me. This is because she agreed to use her credit card for the rental as neither my brother or I have credit cards, though I myself booked and paid for the rental and was the only driver. It was a couple of months ago so it almost slipped my mind about the credit card.

Yeah I'm a total peanut-brain and it was late last night when I was looking at this stuff so pardon this huge oversight, but I hope these extra details don't make the situation unsolvable - I'd hate to get my gran involved in this ugly process. Is there any reason why I can't submit the appeal to SmartParking on her behalf, once the NtH arrives?
Since she was hundreds of miles away down South (Hampshire vs. Cheshire) when the parking offence took place, and could probably easily prove this with a bank statement, might it be an easy win if she is regarded as the hirer?

She resides at the same UK address that I have listed as my most recent residence before I emigrated (I've actually barely been in the UK for the last 6-7 years)

cheers

Fruitcake

Your nan needs to give your name and contact details to Smart and to Enterprise stating that you were the driver. You need to state the same thing to Smart and Enterprise. 
This "should" reset the clock and Smart "should" issue a NTD to you. Alas, since the parking industry is unregulated, they may decide to ignore the law and go after your nan.

It might be easier to do this in two stages. Nan names you as the driver and gives your UK address for service. Hopefully Smart will issue a NTD to you at that address. Once you have that, your nan and Enterprise will be out of the loop and cannot be held liable. You should then send the rectification notice to Smart's DPA instructing them to erase your old data and replace it with your new overseas address for service. Don't forget to include non-photo proof of overseas residency.