Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: darkpolar on January 08, 2025, 04:48:30 pm
-
okay! will post back here whenever that LoC comes, thanks again!
-
Could be a few months, sometimes longer, sometimes never. They have 6 years from the date of the alleged contravention to issue a county court claim.
There really is nothing to fear about this. It is a civil law contract issue. It is nothing to do with criminal law. The NtK is simply a speculative invoice from an unregulated private parking company.
In the 1% of cases that actually make it all the way to a hearing and are not won, as long as the CCJ amount is fully paid within one calendar month of the judgment, there is no record of it on your credit history. I tis completely expunged from the record.
-
Thanks! And how long does it take usually to reach the LoC stage? a couple of months or more?
-
understood regarding ignoring the debt collectors and hold on till the LoC. But any chance that might somehow impact the credit score?
Absolutely not. We would never advise anything that could result in a CCJ.
As I mentioned, they are relying on you being low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree and you have just shown why. You obviously do not understand how the process works and assuming that your credit record could be affected by this is exactly what they hope for.
-
Oh dear. What a pity you hadn't come here for advice before appealing. (not so) Smart Parking are one of the easiest to defeat as they do not rely on PoFA to be able to hold the Keeper liable if the driver is not identified. They have no idea who the driver is and unless the Keeper blabs its inadvertently or otherwise, they have nowhere else to go with this.
However, you are where you are, having blown the 'golden ticket'. The POPLA decision is not binding on you and so, do not pay them.
You are now in a sort of limbo state. You will start to receive debt collector letters which you must ignore. The debt collectors are powerless to do anything, no matter how scary they sound. They are not a party to the contract allegedly breached by the driver. Never, ever, communicate or respond to a debt collector. You can safely ignore them.
Eventually, you will receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) from their bulk litigator of choice, usually DCB Legal. After the LoC you will receive an actual N1SDT Claim Form from the CNBC. This must be responded to.
Once the claim is defended, in due course they will eventually discontinue. Their modus operandi is well known and they will not go as far as a hearing, rather relying on you being low hanging fruit on the gullible tree and more likely to pay up out of ignorance and/or fear. Don't pay a penny, they will discontinue.
We don't need to see any debt collector letters but do show us the LoC and eventually the actual Claim Form when they arrive so that we can advise accordingly.
yes, I am gutted not finding this forum before... understood regarding ignoring the debt collectors and hold on till the LoC. But any chance that might somehow impact the credit score? thanks a lot
-
Doesn't matter. Wait for the claim, defend and they will discontinue. Don't waste your time on anything else and get on with your life in the meantime.
-
shame you didn't cone here for advice first!
I assume you revealed the identity of the driver to (not so) smart parking?
yeah, realised I should have researched more. but yes, I believe so, in my appeal to them I used "I" (paid) a lot...
-
and you paid for 2hrs but stayed for 2 1/2 hrs?
yeah paid 120 min out of the 147 min
-
Oh dear. What a pity you hadn't come here for advice before appealing. (not so) Smart Parking are one of the easiest to defeat as they do not rely on PoFA to be able to hold the Keeper liable if the driver is not identified. They have no idea who the driver is and unless the Keeper blabs its inadvertently or otherwise, they have nowhere else to go with this.
However, you are where you are, having blown the 'golden ticket'. The POPLA decision is not binding on you and so, do not pay them.
You are now in a sort of limbo state. You will start to receive debt collector letters which you must ignore. The debt collectors are powerless to do anything, no matter how scary they sound. They are not a party to the contract allegedly breached by the driver. Never, ever, communicate or respond to a debt collector. You can safely ignore them.
Eventually, you will receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) from their bulk litigator of choice, usually DCB Legal. After the LoC you will receive an actual N1SDT Claim Form from the CNBC. This must be responded to.
Once the claim is defended, in due course they will eventually discontinue. Their modus operandi is well known and they will not go as far as a hearing, rather relying on you being low hanging fruit on the gullible tree and more likely to pay up out of ignorance and/or fear. Don't pay a penny, they will discontinue.
We don't need to see any debt collector letters but do show us the LoC and eventually the actual Claim Form when they arrive so that we can advise accordingly.
-
and you paid for 2hrs but stayed for 2 1/2 hrs?
-
shame you didn't cone here for advice first!
I assume you revealed the identity of the driver to (not so) smart parking?
-
Hi all,
realised after reading a few posts here that I should probably post the case way before I take any actions, but we are where we are and hopefully can still receive some advices.
In August, I parked in the Turner contemporary art gallery car park in Margate, it was Monday and the art gallery was closed and the parking was almost empty, but we went there for a walk on the beach. Upon checking the signage, the parking is still to be paid even on days Art gallery is closed, so I paid using RingGo for 2h, (although I struggle with this as I had to download the app and there were almost no signals). Played with dog and kids on the beach, and when time was up, we did came back to the carpark just a couple of minutes late. But having not seen any traffic warden (and I never experienced those kind of smart parking before), and an even emptier car park, we took our time to dry the dog and get sands off our shoes before leaving the parking. Toping up did cross my mind, but RingGo didn't seem to give me option to pay more once the session has ended.
Anyway, a few weeks later I received the attached PCN saying I overstayed by 27 min. (arrival time 12:35 - departure time 15:02, my Ringgo payment history shows I paid for 12:45-14:45.)
[attach=1][attach=2]
Although I recognise it is a case of overstay, I felt hard done by and disproportionate penalty as I did pay the parking for 120 min out of 147 min, getting a PCN of £100 as if I have not paid at all. So hoping for some common sense, I used their appeal system, which was rejected a couple of weeks later, with the following message
Thank you for your recent communication.
Having considered your appeal in detail we have decided to uphold the Parking Charge as we believe that it was correctly issued in accordance with the terms and conditions advertised within the area concerned. As your appeal was received within the initial discount period we have extended the discount period until 15/10/2024.
We note the comments made within your appeal, however we cannot rescind the PC on this basis. We wish to confirm that the contravention of insufficient paid time occurred as our system confirms that whilst 120 were purchased were purchased against Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM) xxx, your vehicle remained on site for 147 minutes. The signage onsite clearly informs motorist that they are required to purchase a valid ticket for the full duration of their vehicles stay onsite. Furthermore, additional time can be purchased at any point during throughout your vehicles stay, before exiting the car park, allowing for any unexpected overstays due to circumstances such as those outlined in your appeal.
We wish to inform that the car park in question is operated by ANPR cameras system which captures images of your vehicle entering and exiting the site, which subsequently calculates your total stay duration. This information is then paired with the information entered into the payment machine/alternate payment option, to establish whether or not the correct payment has been made against the full and correct vehicle registration for the total duration the vehicle is on site - this is calculated from the time of entrance to the time of exit.
As the vehicle was on site in excess of the parking time purchased and no valid additional payments were made to cover the entire parking duration, we wish to advised that the advertised Terms and Conditions were breached. Subsequently the PC has been issued correctly. The Terms and Conditions of the car park are clearly advertised around the site and must be adhered to by all drivers.
You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and therefore you now have two options, you can pay or appeal - you cannot do both.
If the Parking Charge was issued in England and Wales you also have the right of appeal to an independent appeals service (POPLA). If you wish to make an appeal to POPLA the forms are available on their website at www.popla.co.uk
...
So I did lodge an appeal at Popla, hoping for less profit oriented more balanced people would have better common sense, but after waiting for 2 months, this also get rejected a couple of weeks ago, see case letter attached.
[attach=3]
So at this point, any advice appreciated, I just want to understand if it is still worth fighting the case, and if so, what further actions can I take?
thanks in advance
PS: There some pictures of signages submitted by SmartParking to POPLA but it seems I can't access them anymore on Popla since case is closed (they were not helpful in any sense as it just say you have to pay for the duration). Google map also not useful for signage as it pre-dated the parking completion I suppose.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3914381,1.3818267,3a,75y,40.56h,71.82t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8c_G0TToEK5fd5595JD2pg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D18.184981950631283%26panoid%3D8c_G0TToEK5fd5595JD2pg%26yaw%3D40.563165920133144!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
[attachment deleted by admin]