Smart Parking - Appeal Rejected

m0nkey_2

Hi All,

Wanted to get advise on having recieved a parking charge notice from Smart Parking.

The place I park at is charged at £2 for upto 1 Hour and £9 all day until midnight through Ringo App.

I park there for work often without any issues paying as soon as I park through the Ringo app however on some occasions the Ringo app does not work and I have paid a few hours later when the app does seem to work. I park around 9am and leave just after 5 pm.

On this occasion the App was not working when I drove in the morning and took a screen shot of it. I then went on with my day and forgot to pay until I had returned to the car park. I paid few minutes just after I exited the car park and paid the full £9 for the day.

I received the PCN after a few days advising I did not pay for my parking, to which I appealed and went back with a screenshot of having paid. They have refused to say that 'This is due to the fact that our payment system confirms that 405 minutes were purchased against Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM) however the vehicle was on site for 484 minutes'

As the charge of £9 is for the full day I paid it as soon as I realised, after I had exited the car park and had no way of paying any more than what is for the day. 

I want to know whether I stand any chance of taking it to POPLA to appeal, as I would rather pay £60 now then to wait for POPLA to respond which may mean that I will have to pay £100 then. 

Fruitcake

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner and your MP.

Did you give away the driver's identity when you appealed? If so, then you threw away a winning PoPLA appeal point. Never mind, there are other points to use that may win, all of which you will find in the third post of the sticky Announcement for NEWBIES.
This should include,

Not the landowner
No standing to issue charges in their own name
BPA CoP breaches
Inadequate signage
Frustration of contract (unable to pay at the time)
Non PoFA compliant NTK, which Smart NTKs always are, meaning the keeper cannot be held liable. (This won't work if you gave away the driver's identity though).
Anything else relevant.


Post your draft PoPLA appeal here before submitting. 

I believe that to date, Smart have never taken a motorist to court, so there is no need to even think about paying, even if you lose at PoPLA.

m0nkey_2

Unfortunately i did disclose that I was the driver as I sent them the screenshot of payment.

How can i find out who the landowner is to make a complaint to them ? 

The parking is in scotland, payment taken by ringo on behalf of Smart Parking Ltd. 

I believe if i say not the landowner, they will have some contract with the landowner to enforce this. 

Coupon-mad

Oh, Scotland!  You should have ignored it,.  DO NOT TRY POPLA.  Ignore.

Fruitcake

Do you also live in Scotland? That's another reason to keep the driver's identity a secret. The keeper can't be held liable (yet) under any circumstances if they live north of the border.

If you decide to make a PoPLA appeal, use ALL the appeal points available to you. The operator has to win on every point whereas you only have to win on one. It will also make the operator prove they have a contract with of flowing from the landowner. We have seen a case recently where there was a difference with the hours of operation on the contract compared with those displayed at the site, and an issue with the contract end date. The motorist won as a result.
We give the advice we do because of things like this. You might or might not win on that point, but if you don't include it, I guarantee you will not win on that point.

However, since it is Smart, you can ignore everything from now on, especially if the keeper lives in Scotland.