Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: m6sqvna5j on July 11, 2025, 05:12:05 pm
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This letter is not a court claim. It is justa solicitor debt-chasing letter saying they may recommend passing the matters to Scottish litigation partners if you do not respond.
In Scotland there is currently no statutory keeper liability for private parking charges. That means Smart Parking would need to pursue the driver, and the Keeper should not do anything that identifies the driver.
Best course of action now:
1. Do not phone DCB Legal. Do not engage by telephone at all.
2. Keep everything. Watch only for an actual Sheriff Court Simple Procedure claim form. Letters from DCB Legal are not that.
3. If you want to be proactive, write once to Smart Parking (not DCB Legal) as registered keeper:
deny keeper liability
state liability rests with the driver
state you will not name the driver
require them to cancel the charges or provide full copies of every PCN/NtK, photographs, ANPR logs, payment machine records, and the legal basis on which they claim the keeper is liable in Scotland
4. Submit a Subject Access Request to Smart Parking for all data held about you and the vehicle registration, including every PCN, every notice, all photographs, ANPR timestamps, payment records, and all correspondence history. This is useful if you genuinely did not receive the original notices.
Do not admit who was driving and do not add any narrative about what happened on the day. Keep it strictly to keeper position and evidence requests.
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After 5 months I have now been contacted by DCB Legal in regards to the above parking charges in Scotland. What is the best course of action at this point? Any help is appreicated.
https://ibb.co/p6bJP5JG
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Just ignore everything from DCBL or any other powerless debt collector. All they can do is try and persuade the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear.
Too late to appeal, but you must ask yourself why you never received the original Notice to Keeper (NtK). Have you moved at any point before the dates of the alleged contravention and failed to update your address with the DVLA on the V5C? Updating your address on your drivers licence does not update your V5C data and must be dome separately.
Anyway, you've been told that there is no Keeper liability in Scotland, for now. This means the you can ignore any PCNs you receive as the Keeper. Only the driver can be liable and they have no idea who that is unless the Keeper blabs it, inadvertently or otherwise. As the Keeper, you only need to refer to the driver in the third person, irrespective of who was driving.
You can just continue to ignore this until it goes away. If (not so) Smart Parking, using one of the incompetent bulk litigators sends you a Letter of Claim (LoC), come back and we will tell you how to deal with it. No one will take you to court in Scotland under the Simple Procedure for a few hundred £ as it would cost them more to even think about trying to recover that, especially as it will be out of their England/Wales jurisdiction.
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Dont contact or otherwise engage with DCBL in any way, I suggest, but if DCB Legal contact you, at least reply to them. If you write to anyone now, it needs to be the organ grinder, Smart Parking.
The suggested appeal, from the registered keeper, is
"I appeal as registered keeper.
Liability for the parking charge rests with the driver of the vehicle. I have no requirement to name the driver, and I will not be doing so. For the avoidance of doubt, I was not the driver.
You will be aware that under Scots law there is no mechanism via which liability for the charge can be transferred from the driver to the keeper.
I look forward to your confirmation that this charge has been cancelled"
Obviously dont say the keeper wasnt the driver if this isnt true, just leave this bit out.
Or just do nothing, then ignore everything from DCBL.
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As it's with DCBL probably just have to ignore their letters - they will give up eventually. But you could try sending them the note Dr Satan detailed here: https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/fined-for-being-in-a-completely-empty-car-park-at-night/
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I have read about no keeper liability in Scotland but wondered what action to take next? or is ignoring the letters the best course?
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Scotland = no keeper liability.
Look it up.
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Hi All, this took place is Scotland, I am looking for some help contesting a parking PCN from Smart Parking. I Received this letter today 11th July - the contraventions are dated to have taken place on 29th of August 2022 & the 17th of June 2023, and this is the first letter I have received. They are stating that the driver overstayed in both cases.
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I was previously the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but sold it last year so no longer have it.
As these charges were so long ago my memory is limited when it comes to the idenity of the driver, but from memory, and what I can gather, the charge from the 29th of August 2022 the driver entering the car park, the driver found a space, parked up, and went for their appointment. The appointment ran over, and when they got back to the car park they realised they had overstayed their original time. They checked the car park signage and read "You can purchase additional time (if required) at the payment macines before leaving." They then paid for another hour (they overstayed by 30 mins or less), which gave a ticket timed from then to an hour later, which they assumed was enough if they then left right then, and then left the car park. I do not have the second ticket or a photo of it as proof, unfortunately but assume it would be on the parking companies system?
As for the second charge dated the 17th of June 2023, I have less recollection on it but believe that upon entering the car park, the driver found a space, parked up, and went for their meeting. The meeting ran over, and when they left the car park they had exceeded the maximum parking period, without realising.
Any help would be greatly appreicated!
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