Hi,

I have had a POPLA PCN Smart Parking appeal rejected and would like any advice on what may happen now.

Details

My wife was driving my car, parked at Matalan and paid £1 for the correct amount of time. No overstay. Only thing was she put in the car reg of her own car, not mine. When she realised this she tried to contact them to get it changed, but she couldn't get through on the day and on the Monday she was told she'd have to appeal the PCN. (Yes, she should have bought another ticket at the time but it didn't cross her mind and thought it would be an easy thing to rectify.)

Appeal

We appealed, they said no sorry, it was your responsibility to put in car reg. We went to POPLA, but they rejected appeal with the same conclusion.

Question

Now what?

Will Smart Parking ask for the money again?

Does anyone know how likely Smart Parking will take me to court if we don't pay?

If they notify me of a court case can I pay at that time if I don't want further hassle?

If I go to court and lose, would this be a CCJ against me?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

 

I have had a POPLA PCN Smart Parking appeal rejected and would like any advice on what may happen now.

 

Details

My wife was driving my car, parked at Matalan and paid £1 for the correct amount of time. No overstay. Only thing was she put in the car reg of her own car, not mine. When she realised this she tried to contact them to get it changed, but she couldn't get through on the day and on the Monday she was told she'd have to appeal the PCN. (Yes, she should have bought another ticket at the time but it didn't cross her mind and thought it would be an easy thing to rectify.)

 

Appeal

We appealed, they said no sorry, it was your responsibility to put in car reg. We went to POPLA, but they rejected appeal with the same conclusion.

Silly that POPLA rejected your appeal to them, as if Daft Parking go after you now, it's going to cost them a lot more money.

Question

Now what?

Will Smart Parking ask for the money again? Probably, they're daft & greedy and just in it to line their own pockets.

Does anyone know how likely Smart Parking will take me to court if we don't pay? Not if they've got their brain cell back from the pawn shop.

If they notify me of a court case can I pay at that time if I don't want further hassle? See below.

If I go to court and lose, would this be a CCJ against me? Nope. Although Daft Parking, their pet Debt Recovery company and their pet Solicitors will try to convince you otherwise.

 

Thanks in advance.

Daft Parking will probably start sending you further (and maybe final) demands for the money that they claim that you owe them. You usually end up with more than one "Final" demand, usually with a reduced payment offer thrown in, which just shows their level of desperation to get something out of you. If Daft Parking fail to get any money out of you, they'll 'pass the matter to the Debt Collection Agency',

Daft Parking don't do court very often, but do it now and again just to show people how mean and tough they are. Kind of a "Don't mess with us" message. They (their pet DCA and their pet Solicitor) will claim that all sorts of woes will befall anyone that doesn't pay up. Though (so far at least) they stop just short of threatening to sell your children into slavery. They do say silly things like "you'll get a CCJ", "Difficult to obtain credit in future", "Enforcement Agents", "Charges on your property" etc etc. All of which are empty threats.

You don't need to pay them a single penny, now or before court. Even if they decide that you're going to be this months 'example' it's still a long shot for them that they are going to win. Despite what they'll try to make you believe, they DO NOT WIN the majority of defended cases. Any 'court wins' that they claim on their website are usually "default judgements" where the defendant didn't enter a defence or didn't turn up to court to defend their exorbitant claims.

IF they take you to court (unlikely) and IF you lose (even more unlikely) you do not (despite what they claim) automatically get a CCJ. The court will give you X amount of days to pay the judgement, and only if you do not pay the judgement does a CCJ get registered on your credit file.

Please don't be blinded by their claims or intimidation. These people are quite easy to defeat. There are quite a few persuasive cases similar to your situation (wrong reg no.) that you'll be able to evidence to show how unreasonable they've been if they are daft enough to try court.

there is case law on this subject

so you do nothing until they contact you again,.

we will then dig out the relevant bits of law and you can tell them this and invite them to go jump.

as for taking you to court,

that depends on a lot of things.

Even if they do and you lose a defended claim you dont get a CCJ UNLESS you then fail to pay the judgement order in time.

But you arent going to lose a court claim because the law is on your side.

the parking co has makde no loss,

POPLA doesnt have the authority to decide on many matters because when the London Councils (PATAS) ran it they applied the law and the parking co's got their butts kicked almost every time.

The BPA (clamping club) got Ombudsman Services Ltd to take over the job and told them that they would only like decisions on a very limited number of circumstances as part of that contract. OSL are therefore not an independent adjudicator at this stage.

Thanks both for your replies and guidance - that certainly makes me feel better.

No news from them yet and I certainly won't do anything for the moment. If I hear back I'll post here.

Cheers.

Hi again. So an update...

After losing the POPLA appeal, we didn't hear anything. However, I have recently been forwarded a letter by the DRP (Debt Recovery Plus) "who were working on behalf of the creditor" that was sent to an address of a house I used to live in and still own but one I rent out. It said that as there was no response at my current address that they used a tracking service and found that my rental address was my my most current address (which obviously it isn't).

Anyway, they said I had 2 weeks to pay the £155 charge otherwise "full recovery action will take place and additional costs may be incurred."

I contacted them to change the address back to me current one (so I got all correspondence and my tenant isn't troubled) but I didn't say anything regarding payment.

So...

Do I just sit tight and not pay and wait to see if Smart Parking start court proceedings?

Thanks in advance for any advice/experiences.

Yep sit tight, DRP are a powerless puerile DCA, did you record that call you made?

Does your credit file have your correct address on?

You should never ring a powerless dca

They are not bailiffs

this shows that you havent read any thread on dca's nor any of the other million parking thread here and on other forums.

What you have done has caused no harm but as they cant actually do anything anyway all you have done is provide them with a phone number to harass you on.

Was your vehicle registered at that address at the time of the incident?

If not you can go after them for a breach of the DPA regarding processing your personal data but that requires either getting paid help or a better understanding of the workings of this field..

No, I didn't record the call. I purposefully didn't say anything about the debt itself or the payment.

I assume my credit file has the correct address - although I've never seen it.

this shows that you havent read any thread on dca's nor any of the other million parking thread here and on other forums.

 

What you have done has caused no harm but as they cant actually do anything anyway all you have done is provide them with a phone number to harass you on.

 

Was your vehicle registered at that address at the time of the incident?

 

If not you can go after them for a breach of the DPA regarding processing your personal data but that requires either getting paid help or a better understanding of the workings of this field..

I have read various parking forums but didn't get into debt collection as this was the first time they got involved.

I wanted to contact them to ensure I got any letters and to not get my tenant involved.

My car was registered at the correct (my current home) address as the time of the incident, not the one they subsequently wrote to.

They have sent another letter today asking for £155, extending the deadline for another 2 weeks and saying if I don't pay they'll recommend to their client that they take court action against me.

As you say, looks like they have no power and are just hoping they'll scare me into paying.

Ignore them and then if you have a change of mind, just ignore that thought.

Ignore them and then if you have a change of mind, just ignore that thought.

But you can always come back here and we'll give you pep talk.

HB

Thanks folks. I won't take any further action and see what happens next.

Hi again.

After months of nothing,

we've had another letter,

this time from SCS Law saying

"We act for Smart Parking and are instructed to recover the charges shown below incurred by you in relation to the parking of your vehicle."

Total Outstanding: £170.

Includes another reference to the Beavis case.

"Unless a response to this letter is received within 30 days, we are instructed to issue court proceedings to recover the above sum and any of our client's legals costs, without further recourse to you."

They then include a form in which to reply where you can agree I owed the debt, agree I owe some of it, say I didn't know whether I owe it, or that I dispute the debt.

I can also call Debt Recovery Plus Ltd to pay it off.

What would be your advice?

If I don't reply within 30 days will I get a court order?

Or should I reply and just say I dispute the debt?

Many thanks for your continued help.

what is the title of the letter?

letter of claim etc etc

under pre action protocol...

Re: Debt owed to Smart Parking Ltd

so it does not say letter before claim

or mention pre action protocol...

just sounds like a PAP letter to me which should be replied too

scan it up to PDF please

read UPLOAD

one multipage pdf ONLY please

Last page does say

“Please note that this letter is to be considered a letter before claim for the purpose of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims.

Please read this Pre-Action Protocol and the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct which outlines the Court’s powers to impose sanctions for failing to comply with its provisions.

Out client does not consider that this matter is suitable for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

File attached of letter.

Smart Parking SCS Letter 31-10-2017.pdf

its a bit misleading...

as a letter before claim

must under PAP be titled as a letter before claim.

them saying it is to be considered as is their view ...

if it IS is another totally differing matter..

however, if it IS you don't ignore it and should reply.

lets see what eric says and we'll deal

you've plenty of time.

dx

I would respond to this.

Start wth dear sirs, I am in receipt of your letter dated the 31st October 2017 and have noted its contents.

You state that I should consider this to be a letter before action or letter before claim.

Unfortunately for you I cannot accept this shoddily thrown together piece of tripe to be a LBA as it fails miserably to come anywhere near a lba as required under the revised Civil Procedure Regulations and so would expect a court to summarily dismiss any claim later made by you or your client on that basis.

However as you are the parking world third worst firm of solicitors I am not surprised you failed to put any effort into this taradiddle

so to make sure that there is no misunderstanding

I deny that any monies are owed to your client by myself as there is precedent case law that your clients greed has blindeed them to.

The same applies to the inflated amount of the claim, the POFA and contract law are very clear on this point and again plenty of examples of dismissed claims are in the public domain.

Your fondness for misquoting the decision of PE v Beavis makes it look like you have never read the full judgement but like the other rent a threats see it as a panacea for justifying any old coddswallop you care to trot out

It would be wise if you took your obligations you signed up to when being entered onto the SRA roll and advised your clients it is not in their interests to continue with this matter as they have no cause for action and I shall seek a full costs recover order for any civil claim made under the unreasonableness criteria.

Do not be polite to these bandits.

Dont forget, you can use the letter you send as evidence should they then continue

Thanks for the replies. It’s encouraging to know that I can push back, although I still want to remain professional. I will dispute we owe any monies to them and will question the lba statement.

Really? I'd write exactly what EB has said above, perfect response as it lets them know you are not going to be intimidated by their empty threats.

It’s just that I thought you always had to reply in legal terms, fight them with their own language. Not had any experience in this before. Happy to be forceful and show I’m not a pushover but wasn’t planning to antagonise them.

Has anyone had any experience when you do respond forcibly like EB?

I haven't had experience, but I understand EB's letters both legally & tactically.

A lot of these PPCs and their solicitors send out demands for money and even threats of court action - either without bothering to check the facts of the "debt", or in many cases knowing full well the money is not owed! They know that in most cases the motorist will dirty their pants due to fear of court and cough up. They're conmen. Conmen with a nice tie, but conmen.

Therefore giving them both barrels like EB suggests makes them aware you're onto their sordid scheme and they MAY give up (no guarantee of course). Certainly if you try to be polite and reasonable (with conmen), well the conmen will continue to think they can con money out of you.

EB is spot on.

it is not an LBA either

do as EB states verbatim

Gmoney71

if you had the kind of knowledge about the disgraceful actions of most of the parking companies as EB has,

you would realise that he was being quite measured in his example of how they should be dealt with.

These are not professionally run companies so a professional response to them only encourages them to think you will be a pushover and will pay up when hey apply more pressure.

These are companies that know from past experience in various Courts that their implied contracts are poor and even though they are consistently thrown out in Court,

they still issue the same worded charge notices every day hoping that most people will pay up through ignorance and fear of maybe having to pay more later.

Their final letters demanding sums like £160 are in breach of the OFT guidelines and have been also endorsed by the FCA.

The other advantage of EB's letter is that should Smart unwisely try to take you to Court,

the Judge would instantly be aware of the type of company they are dealing with assuming that they don't already know.

Many judges are now tired with poor paperwork, lies and misdirection from these companies.

One Judge recently accused another parking company that their Witness Statement was "tantamount to perjury".

If you read some of the Parking Prankster's blogs you will see that many of these companies are quite blase about being economical with the truth even in Court.

There is a good chance that Smart may well not continue dealing with you as there are much easier pickings out there for them.

And at least you have laid out your position-you have their number and will not pay them a penny.