HELP - Missed appeal deadline on Smart Parking PCN and now have a Debt Recovery Plus letter

Norman6819

Hi everyone,

A Newbie here wanting some advice please. I received a Smart Parking PCN addressed to the company that leases my company car issued on 04/10/2023 (no name just the company name). The PCN related to a purported unpaid parking charge at Tower Road, Newquay on 01/09/203. Photo's show the car entering at 14:46 and exiting at 14:59 (13 minutes). Essentially, we entered the car park and waited for a space to become free but gave up and parked the car in a car park next door (which I can prove through bank statements if need be). I intended to follow there appeals process.

Unfortunately, this PCN has been sat on my desk and due to this month being extremely busy, I completely forgot about it. Today, I received a letter dated 06/12/2023 from Debt Recovery Plus chasing me for a debt of £170 with the statement:-

"The time has come to decide how you wish to proceed regarding an unpaid parking charge you received in "TOWER ROAD, NEWQUAY" on 01/09/2023. You may not have responded to previous letters due to an oversight. Now, if you don't respond, you are making an active choice. Our client reserves the right to take this as evidence of your intent not to pay".

As I previously stated, I had every intention of appealing but completely forgot. What is the best way for me to manage and deal with this? Do I have any recourse? I'm guessing that due to missing the appeal deadline, I will be referred to DRP by Smart Parking and vice versa if I contacted DRP.

Any advice on actions that need to be taken in order to avoid this erroneous charge would be most welcome. In the meantime, I will read through the various threads to determine if there are any similar circumstances similar to mine with appropriate advice. If anyone could help swiftly point me in the right direction, that would be very helpful.

Thanking you all in advance.

Newbie

Coupon-mad

NO PAYING.

They always demand £170. Please read the Newbies thread SECOND and FOURTH posts.

The advice is standard in all Smart Parking and DR Plus threads, e.g.:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80354775/#Comment_80354775

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6470808/smartparking-bury-and-debt-recovery-plus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80199113/#Comment_80199113

Ignore the £170 debt demands.

Tell them if you move house and get the old address ERASED. That is all. 

Apart from landowner/retailer complaint.  Gets most PCNs cancelled.

chocolatekimmy

It looks as though the PCN date was more than 14 days after the contravention, if so......

The registered keeper of the vehicle can raise an appeal to a Parking Charge Notice based on the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4.  The following contains further information regarding this.

Under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, if the driver of the vehicle cannot be identified and no notice of contravention was attached to the vehicle at the relevant time, then the registered keeper of the vehicle must be served with notice of the alleged contravention within 14 days of the day following the alleged contravention. If a notice of alleged contravention was attached to the vehicle which was not responded to by the driver then the notice to keeper of the vehicle must be served within 28 days of the expiry of the notice affixed to the vehicle.

If these notice times have not been adhered to, then the parking charge should be unenforceable against the registered keeper of the vehicle. However, the Act does not expressly state that the parking charge is not still enforceable against the driver. Accordingly, it is very important not to tell the company who the driver of the vehicle was and simply to state that the matter is being dealt with as registered keeper of the vehicle having received a notice to registered keeper.

"I am responding to the notice of alleged contravention number [number] as registered keep of the vehicle. [X number] of people are registered and insured to drive the vehicle, and as such I do not know who was driving the vehicle at the time of the alleged contravention.

Under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (the "Act"), if the driver of the vehicle cannot be identified and no notice of contravention was attached to the vehicle at the relevant time, then the registered keeper of the vehicle must be served with notice of the alleged contravention within 14 days of the day following the alleged contravention. 

Accordingly, under the requirements of the Act that notice needed to be served by [date], but was in fact not served until [date]. Your failure to serve the notice to registered keeper of the vehicle within 14 of the alleged contravention means the notice cannot be relied upon and must be withdrawn.

Coupon-mad

The date of NTK isn't the point. It is incorrect to fixate on the irrelevant 14 day issue that doesn't apply.  I can see the above is intended to be helpful and we welcome lots of input here, but just so the OP knows, an 'appeal' is not a way forward at debt recovery stage.

The registered keeper of the vehicle can raise an appeal

They can't. Not now.  And the PCN is not void and doesn't have to be withdrawn. That quote reads like simplistic stuff from the CAB or some other website that doesn't know that non-POFA NTKs exist.  Sadly, they are wrong; this doesn't help and is not relevant to a Smart PCN at debt stage.

Smart cases are always non-POFA anyway.  So the 14 days is neither here nor there.

And the OP is too late to appeal so will be cheerfully IGNORING IT if the landowner won't cancel the PCN.