Smart parking

plasticpunk

Hi smart parking sent me a parking charge notice in october.
I Searched through my car rubble and found the ticket. The registration has 9 digits mine has 7 it has 2 additional numbers prior to my Reg. 
I appealed it online 10/10/23  had no reply since then but today a debt recovery plus letter for £170.
Do i need to message smart parking or just ignore them all and go to court if need be? 

Fruitcake

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner and your MP and it is never too late to do so.

Ignore debt collectors.

Complain to Smart that your appeal was ignored and you were denied a PoPLA code. I hope you didn't reveal the driver's identity in the initial appeal.

If/when your complaint is ignore/dismissed, then complain to the BPA.

If/when that is ignore/dismissed, ignore everything from then on unless you get a letter of/before claim or a court claim. Smart don't normally do court, but never say never.

Ignore debt collectors.

plasticpunk

Do i appeal via smart parkings appeal again? I already sent them images of the parking ticket 

Fruitcake

You have already appealed. You cannot appeal again. I suggest you re-read my advice and act upon it.

pedrovansank

I'm in a similar situation. 

PCN back in September, appealed within time. Got acknowledgment saying that the would deal with in 35 days.

Nothing since, until today - a letter from DRPlus.

Do I contact smart and ask them where their appeal decision is?

Please help, I'm new to this

plasticpunk

i have emailed them lets see if they reply. I still have the original parking ticket with wrong digit i thought there suposed to charge £20 admin for wrong digits?

Fruitcake

pedrovansank said:

I'm in a similar situation. 

PCN back in September, appealed within time. Got acknowledgment saying that the would deal with in 35 days.

Nothing since, until today - a letter from DRPlus.

Do I contact smart and ask them where their appeal decision is?

Please help, I'm new to this

My advice to you is exactly the same as I gave to the original poster at 11.18 today.
If you need further help then you need to start your own thread. We cannot deal with different PCNs from different posters on the same thread as it will get messy.

Coupon-mad

@plasticpunk

and 

pedrovansank 

You both need to COMPLAIN (... not appeal this time) to Smart (using their complaints email, of course) then complain about them to the BPA. Easy to kill off.

Bringsty22

Hello, I'm one of those people who got intimidated by the Debt Recovery Plus letter that threatened to ramp up the charges if I didn't pay - so I paid £160. Having come to my senses and looked for advice, I now realise how many people have suffered the same fate and fallen for this completely fraudulent process. The practices of Smart Parking and Debt Recovery Plus are surely illegal and, what's even worse, they are supported in their fraud by Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA) which is supposed to protect consumers against unfair practices.

So the fraud process goes like this:

• You get a ticket (Parking Charge Notice - PCN) and you appeal it online
• You get an email acknowledement saying that you will hear the outcome within 28 days and, if rejected, you can still pay at the reduced amount (£54) within an extended period
• Well beyond the 28 days, you get a letter from Debt Recovery Plus for £160 with threats about legal action and escallating charges
• You complain to Smart Parking and they tell you that they sent you the outcome of appeal by email although cannot provide evidence of that. They also send you a copy of the outcome of appeal which has a verification code to enable you to appeal through POPLA
• You try to appeal through POPLA although the verification code doesn't work as it is only valid for 28 days and of course your letter from Debt Recovery Plus is deliberately not sent until that code expires

These organisations should be prosecuted and ordered to pay compensation to everyone who has been affected. With so many people having been defrauded in this way, the weight of evidence to prove criminality must be immense.

This is fruad on a very large scale and no one seems interested in tackling it.

Coupon-mad

This sort of conduct will be tackled under the new Parking Code of Practice being set up by the Government but it's not in place yet.

In the meantime no-one should be paying a private parking firm or their debt collectors.

Its people paying extortionate 3-figure sums (not knowing that they'd win in court and in most cases it's easier than a POPLA appeal and involves no CCJ risk & no hearing) that has allowed the industry to become a monster.

fisherjim

Bringsty22 said:

Hello, I'm one of those people who got intimidated by the Debt Recovery Plus letter that threatened to ramp up the charges if I didn't pay - so I paid £160. Having come to my senses and looked for advice, I now realise how many people have suffered the same fate and fallen for this completely fraudulent process. The practices of Smart Parking and Debt Recovery Plus are surely illegal and, what's even worse, they are supported in their fraud by Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA) which is supposed to protect consumers against unfair practices.

So the fraud process goes like this:

• You get a ticket (Parking Charge Notice - PCN) and you appeal it online
• You get an email acknowledement saying that you will hear the outcome within 28 days and, if rejected, you can still pay at the reduced amount (£54) within an extended period
• Well beyond the 28 days, you get a letter from Debt Recovery Plus for £160 with threats about legal action and escallating charges
• You complain to Smart Parking and they tell you that they sent you the outcome of appeal by email although cannot provide evidence of that. They also send you a copy of the outcome of appeal which has a verification code to enable you to appeal through POPLA
• You try to appeal through POPLA although the verification code doesn't work as it is only valid for 28 days and of course your letter from Debt Recovery Plus is deliberately not sent until that code expires

These organisations should be prosecuted and ordered to pay compensation to everyone who has been affected. With so many people having been defrauded in this way, the weight of evidence to prove criminality must be immense.

This is fruad on a very large scale and no one seems interested in tackling it.

These scammers work in an unregulated industry, but fraud and criminality are strong words to band about, as CM has stated the problem is they work on the fringes of the law, though against common decency and with general support of their trade associations which government agencies originally trusted to be fair and impartial, big mistake.

The way to kick these demands in to touch at the is through the small claims court if the Muppets want to go down that route where an impartial judge can decide.