DCBL letter from a parking fine on a courtesy hire car from 2020 received in 2025 - no appeal option

Devongal12345

Hi everyone.  Whilst I have scoured through the newbies post I am still somewhat confused and am looking for guidance in my scenario.  

In 2020 it appears I got a parking charge using Smartparking (UK) ltd for insufficient paid time.  I have only just received a debt collection letter for this charge in 2025 from DCBL.  The car in question was a hire car as my personal car had been involved in a road traffic collision.  

I am unable to appeal as I did not receive the original notice, it would have gone to the hire car company in 2020.

I have followed the instruction to ensure that both DCBL and Smartparking have only my current address as my address using the data protection officer route as per the guidance in newbies.  Other than that I have made no contact with either company at this stage.

What would my next step be? 

Gr1pr

You wait for a Letter of Claim giving you 30 days notice,  probably from DCB Legal,  or a court claim 

Devongal12345

Gr1pr said:

You wait for a Letter of Claim giving you 30 days notice,  probably from DCB Legal,  or a court claim 

Thank you.  Once this arrives, what would I do then?  I can't believe this is happening TBH.  And 5 years after the fact.

Gr1pr

You follow the bespoke advice by coupon mad in that newbies thread you read earlier 

( it's extremely common, nothing new  )

Devongal12345

Hi all. Just an update. I had an LoC and responded as per the advice on here. In the interim
i I also did a subject access request to both smart parking and dcb for any data they held on me. All I have been provided with is the anpr images and the original parking notice which was apparently sent to me approx one month after violation. There is nothing else to link me to this ticket. Not even any evidence of how they asserted I was the driver. 

I have today received the below email. Do I now just await the claim
 Forms and then put in my defense which will be I was not the registered keeper nor can I ascertain that I was the driver? 

Johnersh

Milk the correspondence and see if you can get it to the 6 year anniversary without court proceedings being started 

Devongal12345

I mean the six year anniversary is another year away so I’m not sure how I can milk and postpone it for that long. What advice would you give in terms of correspondence. I’ve had a look on here at the replies they’ve sent to other people and this response differs to their usual response. They’ve not even acknowledged the vat or charges question. 

Coupon-mad

Ah if it's a year off you will get a claim soon. But you want that! They'll discontinue in 2026.

Devongal12345

Thank you. I’ll await the claim forms and then post with a response once received. 🙂

kryten3000

This letter from DCB Legal is their new template response and makes no attempt to deal with the issues raised.

Your defence will be that there is no hirer liability - Smart will not have sent the requisite documents specified in the POFA nor is there any keeper liability because they didn't issue compliant notices in 2020.

You'll get the usual DCB Legal claim followed by a discontinuance shortly after the mediation call.

All part of the (outrageous) scam.

Devongal12345

Thank you so much for clarifying. This is really helpful. I’ll await the court papers and go from there.