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#Post#: 124501--------------------------------------------------
Smart Parking PCN - No ticket - Glen Lyn Car Park (North Devon)
DIR By: L11VYK
Date: July 13, 2026, 8:12 am
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Received a parking charge notice mid June 2024 by Smart Parking
as the registered keeper. Ignored it, and now as the registered
keeper I have had a county court judgment come through which I
have sent in a defence:
How much of the claim do you dispute?
I dispute the full amount claimed as shown on the claim form.
Do you dispute this claim because you have already paid it?
No, for other reasons.
Defence
As the defendant, I deny the claim in its entirety. The Claimant
seeks £280.56 arising from a purported parking charge. The
Defendant has been contacted throughout solely as the registered
keeper of the vehicle. The identity of the driver at the
material
time has not been established and is not admitted. The Claimant
has no cause of action against the Defendant as keeper absent
strict compliance with PoFA 2012, Schedule 4, which the
Defendant
puts in issue.
In the absence of a contractual relationship between the
Defendant
personally and the Claimant, the Defendant owes no obligation
under contract law to pay any parking charge. Any contract for
parking — whether formed by entry onto the land, use of a car
park, or compliance with signage — could only have been formed
with the driver of the vehicle at the material time.
The Defendant was not the driver. The Defendant has not at any
point admitted to being the driver. The Claimant has never
established or identified who the driver was. It is therefore
the
Claimant's burden to either: (a) identify and pursue the actual
driver; or (b) establish keeper liability under the strict
statutory regime of PoFA 2012, Schedule 4. The Claimant cannot
do
both, and has thus far done neither.
Here's a link to the original letter they sent:
HTML https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hdjBMMdmOwF3xgPyQ4EmSetnFIZ8KnuS/view?usp=sharing<br
/>
I’ve now received a Notice of Proposed Allocation to the Small
Claims Track.
I realise I should have sought advice upon receipt of the first
letter, and instead took bad advice to ignore it.
What are my next steps?
#Post#: 124502--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smart Parking PCN - No ticket - Glen Lyn Car Park (North
Devon)
DIR By: jfollows
Date: July 13, 2026, 8:19 am
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The notice was issued too late to transfer liability from the
unknown driver to the registered keeper, because under PoFA 2012
it has to be issued to arrive within 14 days.
By 14 June, but it was not issued until 19 June.
There are lots of similar Smart cases documented on the forum,
so search for them.
You will be sent a N180 Directions Questionnaire to complete,
search the forum for “N180” for advice on its completion. You
will attend a mediation session, search the forum for
“mediation” at which you will offer to settle for £0. Eventually
it’s likely that the case will be discontinued, especially if
it’s handled by DCB Legal, after being allocated to your local
court with a payment deadline for the claimant.
--- Quote ---
> 9(1)A notice which is to be relied on as a notice to keeper
for the purposes of paragraph 6(1)(b) is given in accordance
with this paragraph if the following requirements are met.
>
> (2)The notice must—
>
> (a)specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was
parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates;
>
> (b)inform the keeper that the driver is required to pay
parking charges in respect of the specified period of parking
and that the parking charges have not been paid in full;
>
> (c)describe the parking charges due from the driver as at the
end of that period, the circumstances in which the requirement
to pay them arose (including the means by which the requirement
was brought to the attention of drivers) and the other facts
that made them payable;
>
> (d)specify the total amount of those parking charges that are
unpaid, as at a time which is—
>
> (i)specified in the notice; and
>
> (ii)no later than the end of the day before the day on which
the notice is either sent by post or, as the case may be, handed
to or left at a current address for service for the keeper (see
sub-paragraph (4));
>
> (e)state that the creditor does not know both the name of the
driver and a current address for service for the driver and
invite the keeper—
>
> (i)to pay the unpaid parking charges; or
>
> (ii)if the keeper was not the driver of the vehicle, to notify
the creditor of the name of the driver and a current address for
service for the driver and to pass the notice on to the driver;
>
> (f)warn the keeper that if, after the period of 28 days
beginning with the day after that on which the notice is given—
>
> (i)the amount of the unpaid parking charges specified under
paragraph (d) has not been paid in full, and
>
> (ii)the creditor does not know both the name of the driver and
a current address for service for the driver,
>
> the creditor will (if all the applicable conditions under this
Schedule are met) have the right to recover from the keeper so
much of that amount as remains unpaid;
> (g)inform the keeper of any discount offered for prompt
payment and the arrangements for the resolution of disputes or
complaints that are available;
>
> (h)identify the creditor and specify how and to whom payment
or notification to the creditor may be made;
>
> (i)specify the date on which the notice is sent (where it is
sent by post) or given (in any other case).
>
> (3)The notice must relate only to a single period of parking
specified under sub-paragraph (2)(a) (but this does not prevent
the giving of separate notices which each specify different
parts of a single period of parking).
>
> (4)The notice must be given by—
>
> (a)handing it to the keeper, or leaving it at a current
address for service for the keeper, within the relevant period;
or
>
> (b)sending it by post to a current address for service for the
keeper so that it is delivered to that address within the
relevant period.
>
> (5)The relevant period for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)
is the period of 14 days beginning with the day after that on
which the specified period of parking ended.
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 124707--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smart Parking PCN - No ticket - Glen Lyn Car Park (North
Devon)
DIR By: L11VYK
Date: July 14, 2026, 3:55 pm
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Thank you so much!! Will look into this now.
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