No PCN received

mmsefatihnf

Hi all,

I'm acutely aware that my scenario has likely been covered but after reading the NEWBIES sticker and many other threads, my elderly grandfather still needs concrete advice. I'm determined not to let these companies extort any money from him.

On 06/10/23 a letter was received from Debt Recovery Plus (shocker) requesting payment of £120 for non-payment of a parking charge from Smart Parking Ltd dated 06/08/23. No window sticker was left and NO subsequent letters were received until this one. My grandfather has not moved house, the V5c is up to date, and the DRP letter addresses him by name.

There is ANPR evidence and my grandfather accepts he made no attempt to make payment, as he missed all signage. Payment of the original fine would have been made had any PCN been received but this was not the case.

I WILL NOT make contact with DRP. My questions are:

What else do we need to include with the appeal on Smart Parking Ltd's website.
Do I need to establish who the landowner is and make an appeal to them too.
What other action needs to be taken and by what date. 

Thank you all for your hard work. It's much appreciated.

Grizebeck

To late to appeal to smart ..don't bother. Nothing else needs doing here but you can try the land owner. It isn't an appea 

Coupon-mad

Just ignore them, or:

If this was my elderly relative I'd send an email as him (NOT AS YOU) to the DPO of both Smart and the debt crawler, telling them that he is elderly and vulnerable and has decided his address for service of letters is to be YOUR ADDRESS.  This is a family address where he can reasonably be reached but where other relatives can assist him.  The old address must be erased and MUST NOT be used for pre-action or litigation.

mmsefatihnf

Thank you both,

I'll request all future correspondence be redirected to a family address due to his age and vulnerability, and old addresses erased.

Just to clarify, how likely is legal action going to be pursued if no payment is made? And what correspondence is likely to follow a lack of payment? In short, what should we expect from the PPC/ DRP when we miss the upcoming payment deadline?

As long as I am aware of all our options and can reassure my grandfather that he will not have to attend court/ pay fees/ receive further harassment or financial penalties then I am willing to fight it.

 Thanks again.

Coupon-mad

You can reassure him of all of that.  There's no risk.  Smart rarely try court claims and we win.

I think you should also get HIS OWN constituency MP to help and lean on Smart and complain to the BPA, that Smart Parking:

- went straight to DRA letter at £170, without sending a PCN, and

- at the car park, failed to allow more time for a person who meets the definition of disability. This breaches the Equality Act 2010.


(I'm assuming he was accused of overstay at a free retail park, which is illegal if a person has protected characteristics that mean they need more time):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488737.stm#:~:text=The%20UK's%20big%20supermarkets%20are,face%20penalty%20charges%20for%20overstaying.

NB: that article is about the old law.  The DDA doesn't exist any more. Don't quote that.

Clare_1022

Hi there, 

I come across this thread last week when I was looking for some advice on a similar issue. I have managed to resolve it now so just thought I'd share with you all in case it helps anyone!

I received a letter around 2 weeks ago from a Debt Recovery company saying that I owed £170 due to an unpaid parking fine. The letter basically said that I may have ignored previous letters and not paid the fine due to an oversight, however, to avoid legal action and my credit being affected I would need to now make the payment to them by x date.

This was the first letter I have received about any parking fine so admittedly I was worried and a bit confused. The letter had the name of the company who originally issued the fine as 'Smart Parking' and it had the date and name of the car park. When I looked the name of the car park up I realised I had in fact been there around 4 weeks prior, I had stopped for around 10 minutes as I had answered a phone call and needed to write something down. There was no parking meter there and it was only from driving past again the following day that I noticed there was a sign saying to go on the app to pay for parking. At the time of me stopping there It was dark so I had completely missed the sign and with me being on a call I didn't think to look as I was only pulling in briefly. This is is no way me justifying it, It was completely my fault and I was more than happy to pay the initial fine had I known about it which is what my issue was. 

Similar to this post, I had not received anything through the post until this debt letter. From having a previous parking fine in the past many years ago, I seem to remember getting maybe 2/3 reminders before it gets passed to a debt company so I found it strange that not one letter had been sent to me. I looked up Smart Parking but there is no phone number, only an address. Strangely, when I went onto the website and put the PCN number in it was showing the balance of £60 and was letting me pay it, but I wasn't sure if by doing this I would lose £60 and still have to pay the £170 as it was now with a debt company so I held off. 
I then contacted the number on the letter for the debt company and to no surprise they wasn't any help. The gentleman just said that It was too late to appeal it with Smart Parking as it was now with them, and I tried to explain that I have had no previous letters and could this be looked into but he said no as it is no longer with Smart Parking - very helpful.

Luckily a family friend is a solicitor so I asked him for some advice and after taking a look at the letter, he reassured me that it was more of a threat and not to worry at this stage. He drafted me something brief up saying that this is the first I have heard about this fine and I would like evidence of the previous letters that have been sent to me. Nothing complex and not arguing my case, just asking for evidence of what has previously been sent to me as a starting point.

I sent it in the post on Thursday as next day recorded delivery and on Saturday I received a letter from Smart Parking. There was no cover note or anything with it, just a standard 'fine'. It seemed to be what they would have sent initially saying £60 was owed for not paying for parking. I was confused whether this was them sending evidence of what was previously sent to me, but with there being no cover letter I assumed not. All I could think of was this was maybe them letting me pay the original fine without wanting to say that?! That sounds strange I know, I just couldn't understand what else it could be as it was dated 2 weeks prior and I found it too convenient to be the original letter just arriving after me asking for proof! Either way, I went online and it was still letting me pay £60 as it was previously so I paid it as technically, I had received a letter that day saying to do so!

Then conveniently on Tuesday I received a letter from the Debt company apologising for an oversight on their part in sending that letter and if the fine had been paid (presuming they meant the £170) then it would be refunded to me immediately. 

I'm sorry for the long winded message, I just wanted to share my experience and hope it may help someone else who has this issue. I have read a lot about this being a scam in that prior letters are not being sent and we are then hit with this massive fine. Maybe me asking for evidence of these letters was something they knew they couldn't provide and that's why I was able to pay the initial fine, but hopefully this may help others. 

Thanks
Clare

Coupon-mad

It wasn't a fine. You should never have paid £60 and should now send your evidence in a complaint online to Smart Parking saying you will report them to the BPA if they do not apologise for going straight to a debt letter first, and cancel the PCN and refund the £60.

I doubt you will get it back. Sadly you were scammed.

These are not to be paid.

I know this isn't your thread but could you help the OP, by please showing a picture of the letter apologising for the oversight?  That's a useful letter for others to see.

Please cover your data but leave all dates visible, as it might help others.

UncleThomasCobley

@Clare_1022, unfortunately, it wasn't "smart" paying a penny to (not so) Smart Parking. Funding scammers makes you a part of the problem and they mark you as a "mug" for future reference. It's a pity you hadn't come to this forum before making a few basic mistakes. Learning from ones mistakes is the only silver lining.