Smart Parking issues, advice please

The_miser_2

My wife received an NTK from Smart Parking. The car was being driven by another insured driver, neither my wife nor I, but as she is the registered keeper, the NTK was addressed to her.

We immediately noticed that the NTK was dated 20/03/2026 for an alleged contravention occurring on 21/02/2026. This was a 27-day gap well outside the 14 days required, as I believe, by law, when the parking company uses ANPR and does not issue a windscreen ticket.

The car park in question was for the Wildheart animal sanctuary on the Isle of Wight, so firstly, I called them to get the charge cancelled. However, they do not own the land; the landowner has an arrangement with Wildheart allowing visitors to park, but they have no control over the land, and I am unable to contact the landowner.

So I used Smart Parkings online appeal procedure and sent the following.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: PCN SP******

I am the registered keeper and appeal this charge.

Ground: Late notification – POFA breach

The parking event was 21 February 2026. Your notice is dated 20 March 2026 – 27 days later. No ticket was placed on the vehicle.

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 requires the notice of keeper liability to be given within 14 days. You have failed to comply. Keeper liability does not apply.

I request cancellation and confirmation you will take no further action.

Yours faithfully,"

To me, this seemed cut and dried; If the charge was issued in error, they now know so and that they cannot proceed with this charge against the keeper.

They also know that the keeper has no obligation to name the driver, despite me not emphasising this in the appeal.

They run the business, they know the law.

Yet they still chose to reject the appeal (letter dated 22/04/ 2026 and arrived 01/05/2026)

Unless someone can tell me otherwise, I cannot see any valid reason for the rejection, as they know this charge cannot stand. This rejection and demands for payments of monies seem to me to be entirely vexatious

As advised by posters here, I will not bother with the IAS, in the very slim chance that they uphold the appeal, all well and good, but I fear my wife is in for months of debt collectors' letters etc…, which will worry the hell out of her.

Is it possible to write to them telling them she is not paying and demand we go to court now, and skip the whole tedious process?

Gr1pr

You won't get them to change tactics, regardless, because the intimidation is part of the long process, their modus operandi

Clearly, if they failed to comply with Pofa2012 then the keeper has no legal liability in law, so the future defence will likely be based on non compliance with Pofa2012

Ignore them for now, but come back here if the keeper receives an LoC or Money Claim N1SDT pack within the next 6 years

Coupon-mad

Sit and twiddle your thumbs as long as the keeper updates Smart & their debt crawlers if they move house.

Do not try the farce of the IAS.

Open all letters. Ignore debt demands.

DON'T (please don't) tell us about the £170 threatograms, thanks!

Come back if a small claim arrives.

The_miser_2

I shall most definitely be ignoring debt collectors, threats of increased payments, and all the rest of the meaningless rubbish they send. It's the wife whom I'm worrying about.

I'm just wondering: as they are pursuing this in clear breach of the regulations governing their own industry, maybe after a couple of threatening letters, if I might be able to initiate proceedings against them. After all, they are trying to 'extort' money from me.

Has this ever worked for anyone?

Gr1pr

That Law is not mandatory, so although they failed to comply with Pofa2012, they are still within the KADOE rules in obtaining keeper details and getting the pcn to the keeper within the 7 months timescale

If Parliament wanted to make it a compulsory or mandatory regulation, they would have done so at the time, back in 2012, but didn't

The company are not in unlawful breach, they just aren't in compliance , so are in the fallback position of being unable to legally transfer liability from the unknown driver to the named Registered Keeper

The RK doesn't have any legal grounds to pursue them

Coupon-mad

Yep the POFA isn't mandatory.

Don't underestimate your wife. I'm female too. We aren't lesser mortals and can spot a scam when we see one, every bit as well as the next man/woman/person.

Your wife can cope with some daft letters!

😃

James_Poisson

….as they are pursuing this in clear breach of the regulations governing their own industry….

They aren't in breach of any regulations, their industry isn't regulated and they will pursue the keeper hoping they get weary and fold in, it's up to you to stick it out.

cooldude255220

I'm going to go against the grain and advise that you do appeal to the IAS, for these reasons:

1. According to the latest figures, ~ 25% of appeals are conceded by the operator. May as well see if you're in that lucky quarter.
2. If you're not that lucky, there's teeny tiny chance the IAS might actually allow the appeal.
3. Win or lose, you've still cost the Operator a bit of money because they have to pay for every adjudicated decision.
4. I want to see if there's any reasoning with the IAS, so I've put together a special IAS appeal to try and head off some of their nonsense, but it needs a Guinea Pig to test it. Dropbox link here to the appeal, customised for your circumstances, and appendices. You'd just need to fill in the PCN number.

Provided, of course, that you don't flap if and when they inevitably refuse the appeal!