Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: Updownleftright1 on June 09, 2025, 10:50:30 am
-
As long as (not so) Smart have acknowledged your address change, you do not need to inform any of the useless debt collectors. DRP and CST are simply debt collectors. Do not give them the time of day. They are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate you into paying out of ignorance and fear.
DRP cannot issue a claim. Only (Not so) Smart Parking or a solicitor (bulk litigator) contracted by them can issue a claim. DRP cannot instruct anyone to issue a claim on behalf of any third party.
Only (not so) Smart Parking can issue a claim. Only (not so) Smart can instruct CST to issue a claim. They won't, because CST have not been contracted by (not so) Smart. The scammers use DCbB Legal to issue their claims.
When you receive a Letter of Claim (loC), come back and we will advise on the next steps.
-
Sorry I have worked it out. Here is the letter I recieved from CST law with redactions
https://ibb.co/Q7dH30k9
Any advice on what to do, and just double checking i shouldn't contact Debt recovery plus to inform form them of my change of address
-
Apologies im not sure what those links are meant to show me? Do I still need to attatch the redacted letter if ive copied and pasted it?
-
See https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/read-this-first-private-parking-charges-forum-guide/ and https://www.ftla.uk/announcements/posting-images/#new which it refers to.
-
An update
So smart parking, after I sent the above message about change of address, replied to say they had updated the address details.
I have since had a letter from CST law on behalf of debt recovery plus (who were contacting us on behalf of smart). I cant seem to attatch it so habe copy and pasted:
"We have been instructed by Debt Recovery Plus Limited ("DRP"), as the agent of Smart Parking Ltd in relation to the above debt. The unpaid debt relates to one or more parking charges that you are liable for as the owner/hirer/driver of the vehicle.Our Client has the right to commence court proceeding against you to recover the debt for a period of 6 years from the date of the parking charge.
The Supreme Court case of Beavis v Parking Eye [2015] confirmed the lawfulness of private parking charges under Civil Law. However, our client would like to resolve this matter amicably without court action, as a claim would resultin an increase in the amount sought from you in terms of any Statutory Costs and Court Fees.
Our client would like to provide you with this opportunity to make full payment of the sum of £170.00 thereby avoiding court action being taken and any increase in the amount claimed.
Please contact Debt Recovery Plus Ltd in order to discuss a payment proposal or make payment online at www.debtrecoveryplus.co.uk/pay, or by calling their payment line on 0208 016 4342.
If you are unable to make payment in fun it may be possible for DRP to agree a payment plan with you. If you do not pay by 27th November 2025, please ensure you keep Debt Recovery Plus Lid updated as to your current address so that any court documents are correctly directed to you. This is vital as a County Court Judgment (CCJ) can have'a serious effect on a person's credit rating.
Debt Advice
Should you require independent advice regarding this matter, we would like to remind you of your ability to seek this from one of the organisations listed below: (give a load of organisations and CAB)
Please do not make proposals to CST Law or Smart Parking Ltd as they may not be considered"
So my question is what's my next move?
And also they sent this letter to my old address (it got forwarded). It mentions contacting debt recovery plus to inform them of any changes of address, however advice on here was to never contact or reply to them and to only deal with smart directly.
Just to confirm I should still do that as the forwarded mail we paid for is expiring soon so I would miss any letters to the old address and I am concerned about a CCJ
Thanks as always
-
Hey guys
So sorry for the bump. I see there were replies but I hadn't realised the thread had gone to a 2nd page so missed them. My fault completely.
Yes the email was to the DPO address. Thanks so much for the new draft email I will send that and then see what they come back with.
As always thanks for the advice and apologies for the confusion from myself
-
Did you send the DRN to the DPO at dpo@smartparking.com? Was that reply from the DPO? Reply to the email with the following and make sure it is also addressed to dpo@smartparking.com and CC yourself:
Subject: Data Rectification Failure – ICO and DVLA Referral
Dear Smart Parking DPO,
Your company’s response to a lawful data rectification request is a clear example of procedural failure and legal incompetence.
Attempting to deflect responsibility to Debt Recovery Plus is not only legally incoherent—it’s a direct breach of your obligations under UK GDPR Article 16 and Article 5(1)(d). As the data controller, you remain fully responsible for ensuring data accuracy across all downstream processing. This includes instructing agents to update and rectify records. That obligation is yours alone, and outsourcing does not absolve you.
The individual responsible for issuing the reply demonstrated a troubling lack of comprehension regarding both legal duty and basic accountability. Their refusal to take corrective action will be formally preserved and highlighted in all regulatory submissions and any future litigation.
Let me be clear, any further correspondence sent to the outdated address will be discarded and cited as continued non-compliance. The role of your debt collection agent is immaterial to me—but it should concern you, as their unlawful use of outdated data is a direct consequence of your negligence.
This matter is now being referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office for investigation. Additionally, the DVLA will be notified that Smart Parking’s handling of personal data disclosed under the terms of the KADOE contract has led to a refusal to rectify inaccurate information and an ongoing breach of the contract’s data accuracy and handling provisions. That breach will be substantiated with full correspondence history.
Your obligations are not optional. Update the records, erase the old address, and confirm compliance without delay.
Yours faithfully,
[Your Name / The Keeper]
-
The previous three posts told you “no”, that informing useless debt collectors has no bearing on a Letter of Claim.
If you’re worried about missing post then you should set up mail redirection, but telling debt collectors of your new address won’t make a jot of difference.
-
Hello
Sorry just bumping this as have followed the excellent advice so far but dont know what to do now.
Am waiting for the LoC from smart parking. However have moved house and followed the above advice to notify them of the new address. They just replied with the following.
"Good afternoon,
Thank you for your email.
Due to the length of time the PC has been open, this has now been referred to Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, who are now handling this on our behalf.
Please contact them directly if you wish to discuss this further"
Just abit concerned their LoC will go to the old address and we will miss it and end up with a CCJ. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Do i message Debt recovery plus to inform them of a change of address?
Thank you
-
You have evidence of sending your date rectification notice to the (not so) Smart DPO. Keep that. Also, report them to the ICO.
A debt collector is not a party to anything and cannot issue a claim. It has to be the operator or their legal representative that issues a claim. You have notified the operator. It will not be their responsibility to make sure that your correct address is used for any LoC.
-
PS You should never contact useless debt collectors appointed by companies such as Smart Parking, it will only encourage them if you do. They have no powers anyway, so even if they keep on sending rubbish to your old address it doesn’t really matter.
-
Tell them to get knotted and they need to inform their minions of your address change, it’s not your responsibility to communicate with their lackeys, essentially.
And that you’ll hold them responsible if they don’t do this.
-
Hey guys
So sent the change of address to the smart parking dpo email address and received this in return
"Good afternoon,
Thank you for your email.
Due to the length of time the PC has been open, this has now been referred to Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, who are now handling this on our behalf.
Please contact them directly if you wish to discuss this further"
So no acknowledgement of the change of address to send correspondence too? What do I do now? Just abit concerned their LoC will go to the old address and we will miss it.
Thanks again for all the great advice thus far
-
A Data Rectification Notice to (not so) Smart Parking's DPO instructing them to update their records with your new address for service and to erase your old address, is all that is needed. The highlighted words are there for a reason, so use them.
-
As they will shortly hold an incorrect address for you, you MUST send a data rectification notice (DRN) to Smart’s DPO, instructing them to update your details with your new address for service and to erase your old address. The highlighted words are there for a reason, so use them.
dpo@smartparking.com
-
Apologies an update here. We are actually moving house next week so given we are waiting on the LoC im worried we will miss it.
I planned to pay for our mail to be forwarded to the new address, but given it can take years for the LoC to arrive i don't want to have to pay for forwarded mail for several years. It £90 a year for forwarded mail so after 2 years it would exceed the fine.
Is there a way to check if a letter of complaint has been sent via any other way other than post or a way around this. The only thing I can think of is asking the new resident to keep an eye out for it but then would hate him to miss it and end up with a CCJ
Thanks again
-
You will receive an LoC long before the 6 year statute of limitation. You are dealing with (not so) Smart and no one who follows our advice pays a penny to these idiot scammers.
We already know that they don't issue their NtKs within the relevant period.
-
No, we can’t see it, but if you posted it here we would be able to!
The notice to keeper has to sent so that it arrives within 14 days if the liability is to be transferred from the driver to the registered keeper.
If the driver is not identified, the liability can not be transferred.
If the driver is identified, the driver can be pursued for six years.
It’s too late to appeal, the IPC/IAS would not uphold your appeal anyway (it only upholds 4% of appeals, which are the egregiously obvious ones), so you need to wait, ignoring everything from Debt Recovery Plus until you receive a formal Letter of Claim, for which we can advise in due course. See Reply #3 above.
-
Hey guys
In the process of waiting on the letter of claim from smart. In the meantime had lodged a complaint saying nothing was recieved in the post so would appreciate the appeal time to be restarted as was unaware of charge. (Obviously were very carefully to put any details or any info regarding who was driving)
Unsurprisingly they have refused to do this and are blaming postal service. However they did attatch a copy of the original letter they claimed to have posted and in it you can now see the date of contravention and date the charge was issued.
The contravention was the 19/03/2025 but it was not issued until the 15/04/2025. I think i have read elsewhere that the charge should be issued within 14 days under the regulations? Is this correct and could this be an avenue to get this dropped rather than waiting up to 6 years for the letter of claim?
They also mention in the reply email that if we aren't satisfied we can escalate it to the IPC? Could any of these work?
Thanks once again for the very usefull advice, really appreciated
-
They have up to 6 years from the date of the parking event to raise a claim, but they rarely take all of that time (and realistically have no decent reason to take so long). If I were to guess, I'd say within the next year would be fairly likely.
-
Yes we actually had one of these before and the set menu reply for not identifying the driver worked and the charge was dropped. Unfortunately we didn't get the notice this time, reading on some other posts that this is not the first time smart seem to have failed to successfully post the notice out and the first the defendant has hear on it has been the letter from DRP.
Last thing, any idea how long the Letter of Claim will take to arrive/the usual time frame before it gets mailed out? I'm expecting there will be a few more from DRP in the meantime.
Thanks again
-
The only relevant dates are the date of the alleged contravention and the date the Notice to Keeper was issued. No other date has any relevance as far as we are concerned. As you have never seen the NtK, you do not know the date it was issued.
In most, but not necessarily all, (not so) Smart Parking PCNs, they fail to comply with the deadlines for serving the notice within the "relevant period". In those cases, they cannot hold the Keeper liable, only the unknown (to them) driver. As long as the Keeper does not blab the drivers identity, they could never succeed in holding the Keeper liable should it ever get as far as an actual hearing (about a 0.1% chance of that happening).
-
Wow, thank you so much for your detailed reply. Really appreciate the effort. Yes the V5C form was correct at the time of issue.
You mention that we don't have contravention date, I have found that and it was the 19/03/2025. The debt recovery plus notice is listed as 16/05/2025 and the appeal to smart parking was sent on the same day when we received the letter. Does this change anything?
If not I will follow your advice and wait for the LoC. Any idea on how long that should take to come through?
Thanks again for your help
-
Was the address correct on the V5C at the time of the alleged contravention?
Either way, you are dealing with (not so) Smart Parking who recently jumped ship for the BPA to the IPC, so no amount of appealing would work.
Any appeal must received by the operator within 28 days from the date of "receipt" of the Notice, not the date of "issue". Even though they say that it is supposed to be within 28 days of "issue", their Code of Practice says "receipt". Not that this would help you much at this stage anyway.
If you follow the advice, you won't be paying a penny to (not so) Smart. Without knowing the date of the alleged contravention and the date they issued the Notice to Keeper (NtK), it is now advised that you do the following...
Ignore all useless debt recovery letters. Never, ever, EVER enter into communication with a powerless debt collector. All they can do is try to persuade the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear. You can safely ignore anything from a debt collector.
When you eventually receive a Letter of Claim (LoC), which is the case of (not so) Smart is likely to be from their preferred bulk litigator of choice, DCB Legal, let us know an we will provide a suitable response. IN due course you will receive an N1SDT Claim Form from the CNBC. Show it to us only redacting your personal info, the claim number and the MCOL password. Leave ALL dates showing, especially the issue date.
We will provide advice on how to respond and what deadlines you have ti submit a defence. We will provide a template defence and then you go through the process until eventually the claim is either struck out or discontinued.
-
The address is correct on the V5C form, but we defintely did not get a letter through. The first we heard was the letter from debt recovery plus. So we then logged the appeal, but Smart parking are saying our appeal was too late, passed the 28 day period and can't be accepted
With this in mind what should our next move be?
-
Whenever someone comes to us mentioning multiple letters not arriving the first thing I strongly recommend doing is getting out your car's physical V5C document, and checking the address is correct.
Debt collectors can and should be ignored - they have no interest in any conversation that does not involve you making payment. You should keep your eye out for a Letter of Claim - if you receive such a letter, return here for advice.
-
Hello
Recieved a letter from debt recovery plus saying we had an unpaid parking charge from smart parking for over staying the 30 min allowance in a private car park. We had had nothing through the post from smart parking prior to this despite them saying they had sent letters. Upon doing research on this forum we contacted to smart parking to appeal, with the standard notice to Keeper act response.
However we then get a reply from smart parking saying that our appeal was recieved too late and the 28 day appeal deadline has passed. And that we need to take up the case with Debt recovery plus. Obviously though given we didn't recieve anything in the post the 28 day appeal cut off point feels unfair as we were unaware of the charge.
Is there anything we can do and what should the next move be? Any help would be greatly appreciated. The debt recovery plus letter had already escalated it to a £160 charge so very keen to not pay that!