Smart Parking Fine

Rmck18

Hi,

I received a parking charge from Smart Parking. Here's a bit of background:

I pulled into the car park and realised I forgot my bank card. I downloaded the app specified on their payment information boards in the car park and tried to pay to park on numerous occasions and it kept giving me error messages and failing. I was there for around 17 minutes trying to pay, when I eventually realised my credit card was in the car glovebox. I then phoned the pay line and paid for 2 hours parking.

I returned to the car 5 minutes after the expiry time of my ticket and then left. I have now received a notice to keeper through the post stating the arrival and departure time was 2hrs and 24 minutes, it doesn't state that I purchased a ticket or any other details. I did forget to screenshot the errors on the app on the day, which is unfortunate, and when appealing.I did describe what I have said today so I'm assuming I shot myself in the foot with liability there. I can however prove with my bank statements that I paid for 2hrs parking on the day.

Where do I stand with this, I know I should have came here before appealing, but I did it reactively without thinking.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Gr1pr

If its rejected,  ignore them 

Rmck18

Okay, thank you. Do you think it would be sufficient in a court case if they did take me? I only ask because a friend of mine just got a county court through from Parking Eye, so I assume they do take people to court nowadays at times.

James_Poisson

Smart Parking do not issue "Fines" they issued a charge alleging you entered in to a contract to pay them a fee based on terms and condition you agreed to.

However you could not comply with those T&C's due to circumstances beyond your control.

There was no appeal though it's all a sham nothing you say would get them to cancel they are just greedy bottom feeders after your cash.

No one that comes here pays in to their scams.

Coupon-mad

Gr1pr said:

If its rejected,  ignore them 

Why? We tested IAS only last week - challenging landowner authority - and as expected, Smart folded.

Gr1pr

My reply was based on the anecdote that they revealed who was driving , binning POFA2012  , but if you think that the one liner no landowner contract would work, then it's worth a try ( like popla )

Coupon-mad

Yes. Exact same. 

Rmck18

As expected the appeal was rejected. I received a notice, received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus saying this is my 4th letter from them (I haven't received any others). What would you recommend next course of action please?

Gr1pr

Read post 4 in the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum,  and ignore them 

Come back to this thread if or when you receive a Letter of Claim giving you 30 days notice to respond,  or a court claim 

surreyman_2

I once managed to avoid the stress of receiving increasingly threatening letters from a debt recovery company which might have culminated in legal action being started. Fortunately, it didn’t get that far…
I told the debt recovery co. that I had given the PPC a totally sound reason why I’d exceeded the free parking time and why I was not liable for any charge (which I definitely had done). I repeated my reason to the debt co. and told them that if they didn’t stop chasing me, I would invoice them for £100 each time they communicated with me. I added that I was prepared to take them to court, if necessary, to secure payment of my invoices and that, if they thought this was a mere bluff, they had severely underestimated me. I also mentioned that, should the need arise, I would take legal advice about whether their continued chasing constituted harassment and what legal remedies I could pursue.
I never heard anything more from the debt recovery company.
Obviously, I can’t give you a cast-iron guarantee that this tactic would work for you. All I can say is that it worked for me.
Good luck!

Coupon-mad

Rmck18 said:

As expected the appeal was rejected. I received a notice, received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus saying this is my 4th letter from them (I haven't received any others). What would you recommend next course of action please?

Please post the IAS appeal 'decision' in this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6627117/ias-decisions-2025-onwards-until-we-hope-they-are-banned

And we recommend you now join us with this:

FIGHTBACK ALERT:

Please do the government's Public Consultation. We need every poster to complete this vital survey before the deadline.

See this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6617396/parking-code-of-practice-consultation-now-extended-closes-friday-26th-september/p1

We understand that you may need some pointers. It looks laborious, we get that. It doesn't matter; no knowledge is needed except re your own experiences so you can call out a scam industry and you'll protect millions of motorists and help change the law. 

I've written some guidance to help focus new posters on the issues. I've covered almost every question, providing ideas if you agree with our stance on things like DRFs, which we say must be banned.

Ordinary people like you are falling victim to this scam 15 million times per annum. Motorists need your voice added please.

CLOSES ON FRIDAY 26th SEPTEMBER.