Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all,

I would be very grateful for some help with a Parking Charge Notice I have received. I missed the initial appeal window and have now received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus.

PCN Details:

Date of Contravention: 02/07/2025

Date of Notice to Keeper: 15/08/2025

Notice Type: Notice to Keeper (ANPR Capture)

Parking Company: Smart Parking Ltd

Debt Collector: Debt Recovery Plus

Location: Adam and Eve, Prudhoe - NE42 6NP

Alleged Contravention: The initial Notice to Keeper does not state a specific contravention. The follow-up letter from Debt Recovery Plus states "05A, paid for insufficient time".

Keeper/Driver: I am the Registered Keeper. The identity of the driver has not been revealed.

The Situation:

The driver was a genuine customer of the Adam and Eve pub on the date of the alleged contravention. The pub was the official venue hosting a local 10k road race, which included the post-race presentation. The driver participated in the race and then remained at the pub as a customer for the pie and peas that were served to participants afterwards. This directly explains the length of stay (18:17 to 21:27).

The driver parked at the front of the pub and saw no signage to indicate that parking was chargeable or that registration of the vehicle was required inside. There is a lot of free parking available in the surrounding area, so there would have been no reason for the driver to choose to park in a chargeable car park.

The allegation on the debt recovery letter is for "paid for insufficient time," which is incorrect, as no payment was made because the driver was not aware of any requirement to do so due to the lack of clear signage.

My Questions:

As I have missed the initial appeal window with Smart Parking, what are my next steps?

I can still start an appeal online with Smart Parking.

What are the likely strongest grounds for a future appeal (e.g., inadequate signage, legitimate customer of the establishment)?

I have linked a redacted copy of the Notice to Keeper, a Google Street View image showing the lack of signage in the area where the car was parked and the debt recovery letter.

Images

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Is the car owned or on lease?

First port of call is to go back to the pub and ask them to get it cancelled.

If owned they were too late with the PCN to transfer liability. If the pub don't play ball you could try a complaint along those lines. It will probably be rebuffed, and eventually it will end up in the small claims court, but you have a cast iron defence.

I can’t read your images, the resolution is too bad for the text to be readable.

Nonetheless, if the 15/8 Notice to Keeper is the first such notice, and you say that you’re the registered keeper, so it will be, then it is issued too late to transfer liability from the unknown driver to you, the registered keeper.

You are too late to appeal to Smart now, so you will have to weather (and ignore) letters from debt collectors. Come back when you receive a Letter of Claim, which will be from some bulk litigator such as BW Legal.

Updated the image link to one that shows readable images: https://postimg.cc/gallery/HH5LVts/6af664da

Thanks, so you're saying they have served a notice to keeper as they're unable to identify the driver, but have done so too late to transfer liability from the driver to the keeper?

Do you get reminders about road tax every year? And hold the V5C in your name?
I had a PCP lease for a car for which I was registered keeper in the past, although this seems to be unusual these days.

I do get all of the road tax reminders etc, yeah.

All that matters here is whether that Notice to Keeper (NtK) is addressed to you? Is it your name and details on the V5C?

If so, then you can safely ignore all debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate 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), which will most likely be from DCB Legal (not BW Legal).

All that matters here is whether that Notice to Keeper (NtK) is addressed to you? Is it your name and details on the V5C?

If so, then you can safely ignore all debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate 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), which will most likely be from DCB Legal (not BW Legal).

Thanks  - I'll hang fire until they issue that.

Hi All,

I've received a few reminder letters from debt recovery plus.

What are my next steps? I believe the notice to keeper was issued late, so do I send them a formal appeal or call them to advise of this?

Thanks in advance.

Latest letter
https://postimg.cc/QVqJ45HX

I refer you to the advice that I gave you about debt recovery letters in reply #8.

Debt collectors cannot issue CCJs. Only a court can, after a claim and judgment. DRP letters are intimidation. Keep them on file and ignore them — but do not ignore a Letter of Claim from solicitors or any court claim form.

Here is an article I wrote for people who are worrying unnecessarily about useless debt recovery letters:

These unregulated private parking firms and their pet debt collectors thrive on one thing: the public’s ignorance of how County Court claims and CCJs actually work. They know that if they can make you believe that “a claim” or a “debt recovery” letter somehow wrecks your credit rating, you will panic and pay them. The gullible tree is full of low-hanging fruit, and they make a very good living shaking it.

Here is the reality, which you should read and take a “life lesson” from...

A Parking Charge Notice (PCN) from a private firm is not a fine. It is just a speculative invoice for an alleged breach of contract by the driver. At that stage, nothing touches your credit file.

If you are not successful in appealing the PCN – and appeals are almost never successful at the initial stage and rarely at the secondary, supposedly “independent” (but not) appeal – most low-hanging fruit do not understand that those decisions are not binding on them and they should never just pay. Many do, however, because they are ignorant of the process and fearful of imaginary consequences.

If you then get “debt recovery” letters from so-called debt collectors, those are just more speculative invoices dressed up in scary language designed to prey on your ignorance and fear. Debt collectors have no legal powers whatsoever to come to your door, take goods, or report anything to credit reference agencies. You could receive fifty of those letters and your credit rating would be unchanged.

As part of the modus operandi of these unregulated firms, the next formal step is usually a Letter of Claim (LoC). That is just a threat that they may start a County Court claim. Even then, your credit record is still untouched. It is simply a threat of legal action, not the result of it. Just more attempts to intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear.

Only if they go ahead and issue a County Court claim do you enter the court (judicial) process. A Claim Form comes from the court, not from a useless and powerless debt collector. Getting a claim issued against you does not, by itself, affect your credit rating. A claim is simply an allegation that you owe money. You have the right to defend it. As long as you read your post, acknowledge the claim in time, and either defend it or settle it, your credit file remains untouched.

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) only arises if the court actually makes a judgment against you. That happens either because you defended and were unsuccessful at a hearing, or because you ignored the claim and the parking firm got judgment in default. Even then, you still have a crucial safety net that the low-hanging fruit do not realise exists. If you pay the full judgment sum within 30 days of the date of judgment, the CCJ is not registered on your credit file. It is expunged completely from the record. It is as if it never happened as far as lenders are concerned.

A CCJ only appears on your credit record if you fail to pay within that 30-day window. That is the point at which it gets recorded and can affect your ability to obtain credit. Up to that point, no amount of tickets, no stack of debt recovery letters, no Letter of/Before Claim, and not even the issuing of a County Court claim has any impact on your credit history.

Bailiffs are a separate step again. They cannot simply be sent because you have ignored an unregulated private parking invoice or a useless debt recovery letter. Bailiffs (enforcement agents) only become relevant after there is a CCJ and it has not been paid.

For most smaller PCN CCJs, it is not even worth the creditor’s time and cost to instruct bailiffs, especially when the amount is under £600 and stuck in the slower County Court enforcement system. But the key point is this: no unpaid CCJ, no lawful bailiff.

So when people say things like “I had a debt recovery letter so I might not get a mortgage now” or “if I defend, I will get a CCJ,” they are simply wrong. It is precisely that ignorance and fear that these firms trade on. They rely on ordinary motorists incorrectly assuming that a red-letter demand automatically means ruined credit and bailiffs at the door.

There is nothing in the advice given here that will affect your credit record. On the contrary, proper advice is what keeps you away from CCJs. If you engage with the process, defend where appropriate, and, in the extremely rare instance where you are unsuccessful defending a claim, pay any judgment within 30 days, your credit file will remain completely unaffected and no bailiff will lawfully darken your doorstep over a private parking charge.

These companies rely on being able to intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear.