Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all,

I’m looking for advice after receiving what appears to be a County Court claim relating to a private parking charge (smart parking)from February 2023.
The vechile was parked at a retail park while quickly returning an item to one of the shops. The car park was almost completely empty at the time.

The driver genuinely believed there would be a short grace period allowed to enter, park, read any signs, and briefly use the shops. I now understand the car park tariff was around 40p for an hour and, in hindsight, the driver should probably have paid it. However, I was only there very briefly and the alleged stay was around 20 minutes in total.

A Parking Charge Notice was later issued for around Ł80. I ignored the later debt letters and no longer have most of them.

I have now received HMCTS / County Court paperwork and I’m unsure whether this is worth defending or whether I should settle it.

My main concerns are:

the stay was very short,

the car park was/ is always largely empty,

I do not recall seeing clear signage,

and the charge feels disproportionate given the parking tariff was only around 40p.


Any advice on next steps would be appreciated.






https://ibb.co/yTFFdgX
https://ibb.co/dsQd0b6c

I have just emailed smart parking for this.

I’m unsure about signage now. It’s been a while since I’ve parked there and I would have have guessed after 3 years it would be updated/ changed

You have to file a defence or Acknowledgment of Service by 1 June
If you do the latter, your deadline for filing a defence becomes 15 June
As @InterCity125 has observed, if the driver has not been identified then the registered keeper can not be held liable because Smart has failed to meet the requirements of PoFA 2012, specifically by not sending the Notice to Keeper to arrive within 14 days.

If you’ve not already done so, file the AoS now, defend in full, no counterclaim.