Debt Recovery Plus Letter however no PCN received from Smart Parking

TigerT16

Hi All

Thank you in advance for you help.

I received a debt recovery plus (DRP) letter on 09/08/2024 stating it's time to "decide how you wish to proceed regarding an unpaid parking charge" on 08/06/2024. The reason for issue was insufficient paid time and they are wanting £170 from me. 

However I never received any parking charge notices from Smart Parking prior to this. The letter was the first correspondence I received on the matter of the alleged wrong doing.

I have read in other threads you should not ring DRP which I have not done. 

I have also not changed the V5C address of the alleged car either so Smart Parking will have had the correct address if they ever did try send me a parking charge.

I am wondering what my options are?

Should I try contacting Smart Parking to get them to see if they did issue a PCN?

Is there a GDPR reason why I never received the PCN?

Any advice is much appreciated. 

I have trawled through a lot of threads but could not find a similar case to myself where the first correspondence I received is from DRP! Apologies if there is already a thread on this and I have missed it!

Thanks

T 

LDast

Do not engage in any way, shape or form with debt collectors. They are powerless and are employed to simply try and scare low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into capitulating and paying into the scam. Ignore them.

Contacting (not so) Smart Parking is also not advised. Under no circumstances reveal the identity of the driver as they do not issue PCN which comply with PoFA and so, only the unknown (to them) driver can be liable. You, the known keeper, cannot be liable and there is no legal obligation for the keeper to identify the driver to an unregulated private parking company.

Just weather the useless debt collector letters and come back, if/when you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC), as advised in the Newbies/FAQ thread. Nobody pays a penny to (not so) Smart Parking.

Grizebeck

ignore Debt Recovery Plus

TigerT16

Thank you LDast and Grizebeck for both your responses.

What would your advice be in regards to responding to Smart Parking?
Should I not ask them to prove they sent a PCN?

I am just thinking longer term that they may claim they did send a PCN and thus it's my word against theirs. 

Or do you think if I ignore DRP then Smart Parking will eventually drop this?

Thanks again for your help 

T

Gr1pr

They have 6 years so they are not going to drop it

They will claim to have sent a PCN to the RK address, plus a reminder letter a few weeks later, not receiving it doesn't change anything , but do not contact DRP ltd, ignore the powerless debt collectors letters 

You could complain about the missing NTK PCN letter to Smart Parking using the complaints link on the BPA AOS members list, complaining as a disgruntled keeper 

Under no circumstances reveal or hint at who was driving, its a secret

TigerT16

Thanks for your response Gr1pr.

Looking at the BPA's website it says that I should complain to the member in the first instance.  

Therefore would you recommend me going straight to Smart Parking?

I was thinking something on the lines of...

"
Dear Jo Hiney MD Smart Parking UK

I received a letter from DebtRecoveryPlus on ... This was my first correspondence on the alleged parking infringement on ... where £170 is being asked because of an unpaid parking charge.

This has left me in an utterly distressed state as I have not received any correspondence about the matter except this extortionate letter from DebtRecoveryPlus. The shock of receiving this without prior knowledge of any parking infringement is quite alarming and I see it as an act of bullying. 

In the letter DebtRecoveryPlus claimed that I may not have responded to previous letters due to an oversight. The only oversight I see is yours where there has been no attempt to contact me in any format. 

I have not moved address in over 2 years and I have not changed my car in that time so there is no excuse that letters were sent to a different address, furthermore DebtRecoveryPlus were able to send a letter to my address without any issues. 

According to the British Parking Associations website, in the first instance I need to contact the member to make a complaint. If this is not resolved accordingly I will be escalating to the BPA.

I kindly ask you to stop the intimidation and harassment of myself through DebtRecoveryPlus. 
"

What do you think?
It needs work but I know but any advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks

T

Grizebeck

I wouldn't bother doing anything 

LDast

Don't bother/ Stop referencing the debt collector. You've been advised that they are nothing to do with this. They are powerless and only employed to try and scare gullible victims into paying out of ignorance.

(not so) Smart are not going to do anything except may be try and put more pressure on you because they sense a "mug" pleading or trying to get out of their scam. TO save you a wasted effort, just wait and see if/when they issue an LoC. They may never do so or if they do, they'll use the equally dim-witted, bottom dwelling DCB Legal which is a guaranteed discontinuation if all the advice is followed.

If you insist on trying to complain, then reference the BPA Code of Practice (CoP) failures and then complain to the BPA if they fail to respond properly. Section 23.8 may apply but good luck trying to persuade the dim-wit scammers:

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/NEW%20Redesigned%20Documents/Version91.2.2024Highlight.pdf

Nellymoser

I'd complain. It's important problems with their practice are raised and recorded (complaints must be retained) especially when it's a known repetitive problem which this useless industry has failed to address with corrective measures.

In addition to the BPA code of practice failures LDast suggests I would add that you found it odd and somewhat concerning no letters from Smart parking were received when a DRP letter advising the charge cost had escalated to £170 was received.
Say you will obviously require Smart to provide proof of posting for the correspondence they sent you. 
You will raise it with your MP (please do this) 
I'd rethink your bullying intimidation harassment references and never "kindly ask" in a complaint. Remember you are irate/furious/astounded/concerned by the standards of practice you received from Smart. 

Gr1pr

My thoughts too, I did say to complain to Smart earlier, if that fails you complain to the BPA AOS compliance team

People give opinions, which they are entitled to do, they don't always agree 

I know that other people differ, but that is typical on a forum, its either complain or do nothing, for now, so personally I would spend ten minutes putting in a complaint, like nelly says above, but no fluffy dice or chips, no kindly asking, I would be all those words in that last sentence above 

Coupon-mad

I have trawled through a lot of threads but could not find a similar case to myself where the first correspondence I received is from DRP!

Wow.  I can recall dozens and dozens! Always involving Smart Parking.

Here are just two:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6545433/smart-parking-debt-recovery-plus-170-fine-with-no-notice

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6514685/smart-parking-pcn-not-received-escalated-to-debt-recovery-within-a-month/p1


Smart also have a reputation for not replying to appeals (where people did get the PCN) not giving a POPLA code and instead pushing it straight to DR Plus:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80786880/#Comment_80786880

Make a complaint to Smart.