Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: PC_MANC on August 22, 2025, 01:01:07 pm
-
Oh dear... admitting liability by unwittingly offering to pay the "fine". I will give you £100 for every occurrence of the word "fine" you can show us anywhere on all the correspondence you have about this speculative invoice form an unregulated private parking firm for an alleged breach of contract by the driver.
Never, offer to pay anything to an ex-clamper firm. Admitting liability is the equivalent to blowing both feet off with a single shot. Especially with an incompetent from like (not so) Smart Parking where they almost never comply with PoFA which means that as long as the driver is not identified, there can be no Keeper liability.
You can stupidly offer to pay the "fine" if that salves your conscience or you can follow the advice we give here and you will not be paying a penny to (not so) Smart Parking. Ignore all useless debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and persuade the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear.
Come back when you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) and we will advise on the next steps. This will lead to the issue of a county court claim but it is easily defended with our templates and will eventually be struck out or discontinued. That is a greater than 99% certainly.
-
Have you received any letters from 'Debt collectors', or even a letter of claim?
Not much you can do except wait for the LOC and then court claim, if they decide to issue it. You will be able to defend it with help from here - and pay nothing. Parking co will not accept a reduced payment ( at the moment, they may later to avoid court - but see above, that is not advocated here!)
Is the address that was on the V5C at the time of the event correct and still you current address?
-
On 02/08/2021, the driver entered a busy car park while on holiday with family. Due to long queues at the payment machines, the driver experienced delays but successfully purchased a parking ticket. However, the machine did not allow entry of the full vehicle registration number, resulting in a ticket displaying only a partial registration.
The driver attempted to locate a parking warden or on-site staff to report the issue but was unable to find anyone at the time.
Around late November 2021, the registered keeper received a parking charge notice through the post. Contact was made with the parking company to explain the situation and provide evidence of payment. The company confirmed that the debt had already been passed to a third-party collection agency and advised that further communication should be directed to them.
The registered keeper responded to clarify that no agreement had been made with the third-party agency and requested to resolve the matter directly with the original company, offering to pay £40.00 administration costs. This request was declined as they stated it has now been referred to a debt recovery company.
The registered keeper is now seeking advice. While willing to pay the fine if necessary, they maintain that payment was made on the day and wish to avoid escalation to a County Court Judgment (CCJ).
Evidence of the purchased ticket is available.
Any guidance on next steps would be greatly appreciated.