Hello. I received a parking charge from Smart Parking today after the driver entered one of their car parks and failed to notice the signage re: payment for parking. In any case, they didn't leave the vehicle and simply collected children from a family member and left (approx 20 minutes). An honest mistake having not used the location before. No reply or response has been made to the notice yet as I was looking for some advice first. £100 for an innocent mistake by the driver seems somewhat disproportionate!! Thanks in advance for any advice. I've tried to add a photo of the notice but can't seem to do it on my phone at the moment.
Hello. I received a parking charge from Smart Parking today after the driver entered one of their car parks and failed to notice the signage re: payment for parking. In any case, they didn't leave the vehicle and simply collected children from a family member and left (approx 20 minutes). An honest mistake having not used the location before. No reply or response has been made to the notice yet as I was looking for some advice first. £100 for an innocent mistake by the driver seems somewhat disproportionate!! Thanks in advance for any advice. I've tried to add a photo of the notice but can't seem to do it on my phone at the moment.
Links for the images of the notice:
https://ibb.co/XZVpJvg3https://ibb.co/TBdbC0y7
Somewhat unusually for Smart (these days), they have issued this PCN too late to be able to rely on the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA - there's a link in my signature below this post). Accordingly, they cannot recover the charge from you as the registered keeper of the vehicle. You can therefore appeal along the lines of the below:
Dear Sirs,
I have received your Parking Charge Notice (Ref: ________) for vehicle registration mark ____ ___, in which you allege that the driver has incurred a parking charge. I note from your correspondence that you are not seeking to hold me liable as the registered keeper, under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ("The Act"). You have chosen not to issue a Notice to Keeper in accordance with The Act, and it is now too late for you to do so.
There is no obligation for me to name the driver and I will not be doing so. I am therefore unable to help you further with this matter, and look forward to your confirmation that the charge has been cancelled.
Yours,
If appealing online, be careful there are no drop down/tick boxes that cause you to identify who was driving, and keep a close eye on your spam folder for their response. If they do not respond within 28 days, chase them.
They don't appear to be relying on PoFA in this notice.
Sorry - X post - had reply open when the phone went!
That's perfect thank you. Presumably they should have issued the notice within 14 days of the alleged offence then?
The notice would need to have been delivered within 14 days.
Smart has form for lying and claiming that the notice only has to be issued within 14 days, but this time they didn’t even manage that anyway.
Hopefully all should be well then! I've sent the appeal as per the above so fingers crossed. Thanks for the advice!