Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: raphui on July 11, 2026, 11:29:51 am
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You don’t tell them of the actual delivery date!
(6)A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered (and so “given” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)) on the second working day after the day on which it is posted; and for this purpose “working day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday in England and Wales.
It is likely they will pursue the registered keeper, unless your wife identifies the driver. They will reject any appeal based on late issue date of the PCN, and force this to a court claim which will ultimately be dropped. Search the forum for countless examples. So you need to balance the pain of the registered keeper being pursued (likely) against your paying up to make this go away.
If the driver is identified, there is no longer any defence on the late service of the PCN preventing the registered keeper from being made liable in the place of the driver.
There is no register of owners, it’s the registered keeper whom they will pursue. Whether or not they are the same person is unimportant.
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Thank you all for your replies!
Just to clarify a couple of points:
Although the PCN was issued on 26/06, it was actually received by the owner of the campervan on 27/06, so it was delivered on the 14th day after the alleged contravention. Does that change anything regarding PoFA compliance?
Both the owner of the campervan and we live in England. My main concern is that I don't want the owner to end up being pursued by Smart Parking.
The rejection letter is addressed to my wife because she submitted the appeal, but the owner has never contacted Smart Parking directly. Does that affect the advice, or is the owner still at risk of being pursued if we simply refuse to pay?
Sorry if these questions have already been answered. There are a lot of nuances to understand, so I may have misunderstood some of the points you've explained.
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Indeed.
If the driver has not been identified, then you can tell them to get lost, however this probably means they will end up pursuing the registered keeper, the person from whom you hired the campervan, who can also tell them to get lost but may not want to do so.
You could tell them that since keeper liability does not apply in Scotland, the registered keeper can not be held liable and the driver has not and will not be identified. You might add that even if keeper liability did apply, the PCN was issued too late anyway. But this would best come from the registered keeper who might not be interested in engaging with these details.
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Looking carefully at the appeal, *at no point* is the driver identified. Also it appears that you seem to think that you are engaging with reasonable people. You aren't. They in all probability don't run or get the money from the car park, their only source of revenue is from people who they can persuade to pay them their "charges" for what they claim are "breaches" of their terms and conditions. They would never accept any appeal regardless; that isn't their business model.
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The PCN from Smart was issued on 26/6 with a presumed delivery date of 30/6. This is more than 14 days after the “Date of Contravention” of 13/6. This, in turn, means that the liability can not be transferred from the driver to the registered keeper. However, in your appeal you seem to have identified the driver.
Normal advice would be to appeal to the IAS, not because they will uphold the appeal but because you can be seen to be following the process. A subsequent court claim will fail, usually because it will be discontinued at the eleventh hour.
However, first of all you should examine what you’ve told them about the driver. If the driver has been identified, then they do not need to use PoFA 2012 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/schedule/4) to transfer liability from the unknown driver to the registered keeper. Your appeal may have ruled out this defence.
Also, if you are resident in Scotland, keeper liability under PoFA 2012 does not apply. But, again, if you’ve told them who the driver was at the time this is irrelevant. This may well be the case for the registered keeper, from whom you rented the van.
Essentially, you could have told them to get lost in the first place without identifying the driver. But we are where we are now.
Just to be clear, the driver entered into a contract by parking acording to the terms displayed on the signs, but the identity of the driver is not known unless you tell them, and the liability can be transferred to the registered keeper if the requirements of the legislation are followed, however the legislation is not applicable in Scotland.
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Hi,
In June, my wife and I rented a campervan for a holiday (we were both registered as drivers). During our trip, we parked in Strothers Lane, Inverness (Google Street View: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5oAzyp4K6QXZjV7YA).
Shortly after the end of our trip, the owner of the campervan (from whom we rented it) told us that Smart Parking had sent them a Notice to Keeper / Parking Charge Notice:
https://ibb.co/fzsGmxPW
https://ibb.co/m53Lrsmv
As we had never dealt with a private parking charge before, my wife submitted an appeal by email:
https://ibb.co/dsHffGK1
Unsurprisingly, Smart Parking rejected the appeal:
https://ibb.co/YBkpwByS
I'm now unsure what the best next step is. Is it worth appealing to the IAS, or should we take a different approach?
Thank you for any advice.