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OK so I need to update this case.

The PCN has been cancelled by the land manager ( Savills.co.uk ) the soliticors firms tasked by the land owner to employ the parking companies.

Didn't take me long to research who actually owns the land and who manages it.  Savills didn't take kindly to a) formal complaints b) public humiliation , all done legally.

I spoke with the manager within Savills who deals with many retail parks that they are responsible for and made my feelings perfectly clear and he was very apologetic and cancelled the PCN.

So anyone who gets a retail park PCN, find out who owns or manages the parking, often its a private company, and use the likes of trustpilot and their own formal complaints procedures to make sure they are aware of their responsibility in the death of the high street shopping industry by employing such corrupt parking companies. They won't like it at all.

Incidentally, Smart Parking eventually came back to me and reissued the initial PCN, which still never turned up, and then due to the formal complaint as a "gesture of goodwill" dropped the initial charge to 45 from 60 , which I found hysterical, as I still hadn't been given the right of appeal.

You simply have to laugh at these companies , especially debt recovery plus, who are just hysterical to speak to and easily poked fun at.

I CC'd in my local MP, a futile act but at least it's logged that they are allowing such corruption to go ahead and blatant bullying, as was shown by Debt Recovery Plus, as they repeatedly attempted to "bully" me into paying. Older people may crumble at that , and that bothers me more than anything.

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2 attempts to communicate and being ignored is reason enough to get the fine thrown out

If it gets to court, you'll need more than that (especially when the attempts to communicate were made by a third party and not the defendant). It's evidence of potential unreasonable behaviour on their part, but doesn't on its own relate to the alleged contractual charges Smart claim are due.

This I would disagree with. Third party or not, they do not know who the driver was, what the PCN was, and they should reply asking for these details. Their own procedures are to issue initial fine, offer opportunity to pay lesser fine in 28 days or appeal. This was not given by SP, therefore breach of their own contract. Obviously it's their word against ours , they can say the letter was sent, but we both would deny this. But it wouldn't explain why they completely ignored repeated emails to their highlighted addresses were ignored. Companies have a duty to answer official complaints within a certain timeframe, and in this case with the details , re-issue the original letter and allow for the 28 day appeal or pay the reduced fine. They simply cannot ignore that and just send out final reminders stating we ignored a non existent letter. Also, again, doesn't explain ignoring the emails requesting the initial letter.

There will be no appeal or fight, the £60 will be paid as there is another issue regarding mental health here. If this goes on, it will have an extreme effect on someones mental health (They are ill anyway) and that can be catastrophic long term. But the £145 and any further demands will not be paid.

Oh yeah 100% anything Official I will use her name. Just so far it's been in mine as they don't know who they are talking about yet.

Plus I want to see if they actually reply or not. So far, nothing

Hi all,

So my wife has received a Final Reminder from Smart Parking Ltd, demanding £145 and stating we ignored the initial letter. Well the fact is we never received the initial letter, it never arrived at the same address the Final Reminder did.

So far i've done two things, one requested the formal complaints procedure for the shopping retail park, and i've tried to contact Smart Parking for their formal complaints procedure.

No names other than my own have been given to SP.

Now surely they've removed the right to appeal and the right to pay the initial lower fine, that must be a breach of their own procedure, and obviously I am not paying the elevated fine because this is a tactic, from what I am reading on other sites, Smart Parking use.

Also, there is a caveat, the car that would have been caught, we no longer have. lol but I am sure they would trace it via the DVLA. We part ex'd it a few weeks back.

They are threatening court action if we ignore the letter etc, which I was expecting etc, but any guidance to how their lack of care can be used against them would be appreciated.

I find it absolutely disgusting that in a big shopping area, where there are god knows how many shops, my wife went there to do all the Christmas shopping , and went over the "free" allowance, which I also find disgusting as that centre always used to be free, we don't go there from year to year, now has this vile smart parking system in place, and she gets this treatment. Can't enjoy anything at your own pace anymore.

Anyway, thanks in advance.