POPLA comments on the operator evidence with Smart Parking

RubyRed22

I think I've messed up my appeal with POPLA after Smart Parking have added their evidence but am unsure how to proceed. Now that I've reached comments point I don't know if I have a leg to stand on. Is there anything I can do at this stage?

I paid for a ticket at for the time I stayed at a the College Street carpark in Aberdeen. The ticket covered me for the full time I was at the car park and when I returned I saw I'd received a ticket for not having a valid ticket. 

I then realised I'd typed my reg no incorrectly and check out mse and saw that if I was 1 digit out I could dispute this so I went straight to the website to dispute, showing proof of the ticket I'd purchased and my bank statement and they came back at me with an email saying it wasn't a valid ticket and they will be upholding the charge.

It isn't until now that I've realised they based this on the fact that the ticket wasn't displayed. The signs present at the paying machine I used did not mention anything about displaying. Only the two blue signs labelled 'Parking Tariffs Apply' and 'Important terms and conditions' were present and I read over the T&Cs and they didn't state anything about displaying. I even see it mentioned on the back of the ticket but it wasn't clear to me at the time of buying the ticket. Do I have a leg to stand on here or do I take this as a learning lesson? Any advice appreciated!

Full Operator Case Summary below.

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LDast

Too late now but you should have just  ignored them. Now you've admitted to being the driver when there is no Keeper liability in Scotland (for now).

Ignore the POPLA decision. Ignore all the debt collector letters you are going to receive subsequently. (not so) Smart will not litigate in Scotland. It would cost them much more than they could ever hope to recover under the Simple Procedure in the Sheriffs Court.

Ignore, ignore, ignore. If you're still not sure what you should have done and what you must now do... IGNORE. Nothing will come of this. Get on with your life and next time you receive a PCN in Scotland (for now) ignore it.

Grizebeck

If only you had come here first you would have won with one simple sentence.
Never mind..ignore any debt recovery letters when you lose.

LDast

Yes. The simple sentence would have been "There is no Keeper liability in Scotland so, as the Keeper, I remind you of the answer given in Arkell v Pressdram".

RubyRed22

Grizebeck said:

If only you had come here first you would have won with one simple sentence.
Never mind..ignore any debt recovery letters when you lose.

LDast said:

Too late now but you should have just  ignored them. Now you've admitted to being the driver when there is no Keeper liability in Scotland (for now).

Ignore the POPLA decision. Ignore all the debt collector letters you are going to receive subsequently. (not so) Smart will not litigate in Scotland. It would cost them much more than they could ever hope to recover under the Simple Procedure in the Sheriffs Court.

Ignore, ignore, ignore. If you're still not sure what you should have done and what you must now do... IGNORE. Nothing will come of this. Get on with your life and next time you receive a PCN in Scotland (for now) ignore it.

Thanks both for replying! I was so convinced I was safe with it being a keying error but that'll teach me for future.

Am I really safe to ignore and not pay? Will they be able to impact my credit score if I don't pay or will they try to retaliate if I use the car park again in future? Sorry if these are silly questions but I don't want to make any silly mistakes after all this.

Grizebeck

No relevance to your credit file
A credit score is just a made up number for marketing purposes.

RubyRed22

Thanks so much for confirming that. Definitely didn't want to have to deal with it impacting my mortgage application so will ignore from here out. 

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply, you've helped lift a real weight off my chest.

Coupon-mad

As you are in Scotland, you should never have appealed and certainly not tried POPLA, a process which forced you to say who was driving. Aaaarrgh!

Luckily nothing will happen.

Things will change for future private PCNs once you get a single appeals service and potential for keeper liability (but Smart never use that law in England so we don't expect them to change the habit of a lifetime even when Scotland gets that law).

Search the forum for:

Scotland parking keeper new law 2025

...and don't just read the results where I've advised people to do that search!

Come back here each time as things will change. NEVER appeal without our help.

RubyRed22

Coupon-mad said:

As you are in Scotland, you should never have appealed and certainly not tried POPLA, a process which forced you to say who was driving. Aaaarrgh!

Luckily nothing will happen.

Things will change for future private PCNs once you get a single appeals service and potential for keeper liability (but Smart never use that law in England so we don't expect them to change the habit of a lifetime even when Scotland gets that law).

Search the forum for:

Scotland parking keeper new law 2025

...and don't just read the results where I've advised people to do that search!

Come back here each time as things will change. NEVER appeal without our help.

Fingers crossed I'll never end up with a ticket in future but if I do, I know the forum's the first place to check now.

I've tried searching those words but just to check is there a specific post I'm looking for or just a read through the results?

From what I've read the Scotland law regarding keeper liability could be implemented at any time but 2025 is the earliest prediction and cannot be back dated so would this be info to keep track for future rather than relevant to me right now? (I hope I've understood that correctly, apologies if I've misunderstood and thanks for the advice. First 24 hours on the board and still getting used to it.)

Coupon-mad

Yes it's something that will happen in the future: we will be all over it and this forum is the best source of info on this niche subject.

My suggested search was for general reading of other Scotland threads like yours where we've already answered.  Not one specific post.  In some of them we went into more detail but you seem to have understood everything already.

nigelbb

In the T&Cs displayed I cannot see any requirement to display a ticket & of course there isn't a ticket if you use the RingGo app.There are a couple of references to 'Pay & Display' but no detail or explanation e.g. display ticket in windscreen.