UKC

I am at a loss to understand why I have received a PCN from Smart Parking when my parking ticket clearly states that I paid £2 which entitles me to stay for up to 3 hours, but their documentation notes that I have stayed for 2& 3/4 hours. I may not be Einstein, but even I can see that this is incorrect. However, the Money Saving Expert site advises that I forward the following in reply ...

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ticket number: TC75220510

Vehicle registration number: Car No. plate details

This is an appeal by the registered keeper - No driver details will be given. Please do NOT try the usual Smart Parking trick of asking for driver details in order to get around the fact your NTK does not comply with POFA. As there is no keeper liability then liability cannot flow from the driver to the keeper and thus is an auto win @ POPLA. Please therefore cancel the notice or issue a POPLA code where you will auto withdraw.

Any thoughts on this one?

I don’t know what any of that letter means but if you’ve got hard evidence you’re right and they’re wrong I’d just fill out their appeal form on their website (assuming they have one). I’ve done this twice and both times they just came back and said it’s been cancelled.

Even more- one of those times it was actually my fault for putting our other car reg in by accident and they let me off.

Might just be an honest mistake. 

Smart Parking increased the parking charge with no forewarning, and no obvious signage on the ticket machine, ( which is what Exerter Council did when their prices increased); which only states when you arrive, not the time when your ticket expires. So I have one PCN and another on the way. That's nearly £200 to pay! 

Does that mean there was no signing, or you missed the signing  because you understandably weren't looking for it?

If the latter I don't think you will have much luck arguing it and may find it cheaper just to pay the fine.

If this is a non POFA compliant PCN then you have your get out of jail free card.  However you only have one, time-limited chance to play it.  So take time getting your response right.  If they've also made mistakes with timing, then by all means throw those in too.  Do it individually for each pCN they send.

Don't rely on me, though. Go to PePiPoo to get expert advice.

montyjohn - it's not a fine.  It's a shoddy invoice from a bunch of illiterate cowboys who can't be bothered to follow the extremely simple legislation.  Paying up is terrible advice.

I have since got this from the Moneysaving Expert site ref parking PCN's. Apparently you just paste this into their appeal box where you state reasons for your appeal.

"This is an appeal by the registered keeper - No driver details will be given. Please do NOT try the usual Group Nexus Trick of asking for driver details in order to get around the fact your NTK does not comply with POFA. As there is no keeper liability then liability cannot flow from the driver to the keeper and thus is an auto win @ POPLA. Please therefore cancel the notice or issue a POPLA code where you will auto withdraw"

Details here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6442582/keep-getting-invali...

Do you understand what that all means - why non-compliance with PoFA2012 means they will fail at POPLA? And are you confident that their PCN is indeed non-compliant?

MSE is ok but to be certain I would run it past the people at pepipoo.