Hello, not sure if this forum is still active but here goes...
I entered this car park on 13/07/25 and couldn't park in the couple spaces available as other vehicles didn't allow enough room. Therefore I waited for a more accessible space to become available. I entered at 14:31 and at 14:41, I left as no space became available. I received a PCN from smartparking saying I hadn't paid. Ok, however they say there is a grace period of 10 minutes. Therefore I appealed to smartparking and they said the PCN stands. I appealed to the Independent body and they also upheld the notice. If I was only there 10 minutes which is equal to their grace period, how can they uphold this?
Thanks in advance
Ok thank you jfollows. Unfortunately, yes I did identify, or rather I didn't say it wasn't me.
If you do nothing, they will probably start court proceedings against you, and you will get assistance here with the process and a defence. In many cases, defended cases are discontinued before the claimant has to pay the court fee. But you need to post all relevant documents here if you want good advice, following the guidelines in the link above. If there was no space to park, they can’t charge you for parking, but you’ll have to follow the course for a few months whilst they try and intimidate you into paying them.
Whilst you screwed up by not coming here first for advice on how to handle a PCN from (not so) Smart Parking, do not pay anything. All you have to do is ignore the useless debt recovery letters and come back once you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) which will be issued by DCB Legal (not DCBL).
Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear. This will be concluded, if you follow the advice, after they issue a county court claim, you defend it with our defence and eventually they will discontinue.