Claim form received from two alleged contraventions 3 years ago - SMART PARKING

[JoeBloggs90]

This case concerns a Parking Charge Notice (private parking firm) issued by Smart Parking Ltd, relating to an alleged contravention on Sunday, 08 January 2023 and 23/04/2023. The notice itself is dated an unspecified date, and I first became aware of it via received initial notice.

The notice appears to have been issued as By post (ANPR/camera). Driver identified status: NO. Equality Act considerations: No. The location is stated as Collingham House, Wimbledon, London.

A preliminary Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) assessment indicates PENDING: Enter the notice issue date to calculate deemed delivery and timing. Route applied: Not specified. The notice is treated as given on Not available.

Current stage:
- Notice responded to: Yes
- Debt recovery letters: No
- Letter of Claim: Yes
- County Court claim: Yes
- Letter of Claim responded to: Yes
- Letter of Claim source: Unsure

Response/appeal already sent (verbatim where possible):

A response was sent to BW Legal following receipt of a Letter of Claim in March 2025.

The alleged debt was disputed. The Defendant confirmed the correct address for service and requested the matter be placed on hold for 30 days pursuant to the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims.

No admission was made as to the identity of the driver.

The response also challenged the additional £60 debt recovery/admin sum and requested clarification as to the legal basis of the additional charges.

Subsequent correspondence from BW Legal continued to assert liability and justify the £60 add-on as debt recovery costs.

Letter of Claim response already sent (verbatim where possible):

Dear Sirs,

Your Ref. XXX
Proposed Legal Proceedings
Claimant: Smart Parking Ltd

I refer to your letter of claim.

I confirm that my address for service for the time being is as follows, and any older address must be erased from your records:

XXX

The alleged debt is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

I am sourcing and seeking independent debt advice and as such, I formally request that this matter be put on hold for an additional 30 days, in accordance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims 2017.

I note that the amount being claimed has increased by a hugely exaggerated amount.

I also requested clarification regarding the legal basis of the additional £60 debt recovery/admin charges being claimed.

No admission was made as to the identity of the driver.

Yours faithfully,
XXX

County Court claim deadlines: issue date Wednesday, 06 May 2026, deemed service Monday, 11 May 2026, AoS deadline 4pm Tuesday, 26 May 2026, defence deadline without AoS 4pm Tuesday, 26 May 2026, and defence deadline with AoS 4pm Monday, 08 June 2026.

Additional notes provided:
The claim form appears to relate to two separate alleged contraventions dated 08/01/2023 and 23/04/2023 at Collingham House, Wimbledon.

The original PCNs and earlier correspondence were not received at the time due to an old V5C address being held.

The Defendant later updated BW Legal with the correct address during pre-action correspondence in March 2025.

Smart Parking are understood not to rely on PoFA keeper liability wording in their notices, and throughout all correspondence no admission has been made as to the identity of the driver.

Coincidentally, I am personally familiar with Collingham House. It is a vaguely signposted rooftop parking level above an Evans Cycles store. Some bays appear to be allocated to Evans Cycles customers whilst others appear to belong to private businesses/offices within the building. From memory, the layout and signage could easily cause confusion between customer bays and privately allocated bays.

I note there are two separate alleged contraventions. Given the location and layout, it appears entirely plausible that a visitor to Evans Cycles may have mistakenly parked in an incorrect bay due to unclear differentiation between the spaces.

I am unclear why after contesting this now several years later I have received a claim form out of nowhere.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/dis...mbledon/p1

Please can I have advice on the strongest next steps and defence points for this case.

[b789]

@JoeBloggs90, in order to progress this case, you need to show the N1SDT Claim Form. I only need to see the page with the Particulars of Claim (PoC). You only need to redact your personal details, the Claim Number and the MCOL password. Please leave everything else visible.

You have the deadlines for submitting the defence, so there is no rush. If you want to submit an Acknowledgement of Service (AoS) to extend the defence deadline to Monday 8 June, then follow this instruction:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xvqu3bask5m0zi...e.pdf?dl=0

Do you have a copy of the Notice to Keeper (NtK) they are claiming for. You mention that the claim is for 2 separate PCNs but the Letter of Claim (LoC) you responded to was for only a single PCN.



Once you have shown me the Claim Form with the PoC, I can start to look at the defence. If you can get any photos of the location of the alleged contravention, they would be useful too.

[JoeBloggs90]

Thanks for your ongoing efforts to help me on multiple fronts. It is greatly appreciated.

I attach the claim details you asked for. I have virtually no correspondence left as this was years ago but I did find one old letter for the 8th Jan TC73585508 claim. I just went to smart parking now to view the evidence and the attached images are what they denote as evidence. Utterly ridiculous, a pitch black image with a zoom in of my plate. Completely pathetic.

Want to get these guys off my back pronto as they are harassing me over multiple years now.

Please let me know if anything else you need.

[b789]

It's another dubious claim issued by the incompetents at DCB Legal. As I have said in other cases involving them, I will eat my hat if this ever gets as far as a hearing. In the overwhelming majority of claims issued by DCB Legal, they are discontinued just before they have to pay the Trial fee. However, we have to go through the motions.

In the meantime, get the AoS submitted. Also, you need to send a Subject Access Request (SAR) to the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of (not so) Smart Parking. The claim is for two PCNs and you have only shown their evidence of a single alleged contravention.

Send the following email to dpo@smartparking.com and CC yourself. Attach a copy of your V5C front pageant also include a copy of the N1SDT Claim Form page with the PoC.

Subject: Subject Access Request – Smart Parking Ltd / DCB Legal claim / two PCNs

Dear Smart Parking Ltd Data Protection Officer,

I am writing to make a formal subject access request under Article 15 UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Your company has issued a County Court claim against me through DCB Legal in respect of two alleged Parking Charge Notices. I do not have copies of the original notices and I have no proper knowledge of the basis of the claim. I require full disclosure of all personal data you hold about me in relation to these matters.

For identification and search purposes, my details are as follows:

Name: [DEFENDANT FULL NAME]

Current address: [CURRENT ADDRESS]

Previous address used by Smart Parking Ltd: [OLD ADDRESS]

Vehicle registration: X15RAK

Claimant: Smart Parking Ltd

Legal representative: DCB Legal Ltd

County Court claim number: [CLAIM NUMBER]

Claim issue date: 6 May 2026

Alleged PCN contravention dates stated in the Particulars of Claim: 8 January 2023 and 23 April 2023

Location stated in the Particulars of Claim: Callingham House, London

Please provide copies of all personal data relating to me, the above vehicle, the above claim, and the two alleged PCNs, including but not limited to:

1. Copies of both original Parking Charge Notices/Notices to Keeper.

2. Copies of all letters, notices, reminders, debt recovery letters, pre-action letters, or other correspondence sent by Smart Parking Ltd, its agents, debt collectors, or legal representatives.

3. The full case history/PCN history logs for both PCNs, including all internal notes, status changes, timestamps, audit trail entries and system records.

4. All photographs, ANPR images, handheld-device images, CCTV images or other images relied upon.

5. The alleged entry and exit times, observation times, ANPR records, payment-machine records, permit records, whitelist records, exemption records, and any other data said to support the alleged contraventions.

6. All data obtained from the DVLA, including the date of each DVLA request, the address returned, the reason code used, the KADOE enquiry record and any associated audit trail.

7. All records showing when and how my data was passed to any third party, including DCB Legal, any debt recovery agent, tracing agent, mailing house, print provider, litigation service provider or other processor.

8. Copies of any correspondence, instructions, data files or case referrals sent to or received from DCB Legal.

9. Any data relating to address tracing, address verification, returned mail, address updates or decisions to continue writing to a previous address.

10. Any appeal records, portal records, payment records, notes of telephone calls, emails, webform submissions or online account records connected with either PCN.

11. A copy of any contract, authority, site record, sign record, map, or evidence pack document if it contains my personal data, my vehicle registration, images of my vehicle, or is otherwise held against my case file.

12. The categories of personal data processed, the purposes of processing, the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the data has been disclosed, the envisaged retention period, and the source of the data where it was not obtained directly from me.

For the avoidance of doubt, this request is not limited to documents you currently intend to rely upon in the claim. It covers all personal data held by Smart Parking Ltd and by any processor, agent, contractor, debt collector or legal representative acting on your behalf in relation to these two PCNs and the County Court claim.

I enclose/attach a copy of my current V5C showing my current address. I can also provide a copy of the Claim Form if required. These documents, together with the details above, are sufficient to identify me and locate the relevant records.

Please do not delay this request by asking for unnecessary additional identification or asking me to provide PCN reference numbers that are already within your possession. You have already identified me sufficiently to issue a County Court claim through DCB Legal, and the claim itself identifies the two PCNs by date and location. If you consider that any further information is genuinely necessary before you can comply, please explain precisely what information is required, why it is necessary, and why the information already provided is insufficient.

The statutory one-month period for compliance begins upon receipt of this request. Please provide the data electronically by return email.

Yours faithfully,

[DEFENDANT FULL NAME]

If we get a response before the defence deadline, then good, otherwise I will have to draft a more generic defence as the PoC are woefully inadequate.

[JoeBloggs90]

Thank you B789. AOS has been submitted (although I note no email confirmation of the fact) - however I do see it there in the MCOL portal.

Images were taken of V5C + POC from form and sent this morning with me in cc to the address above using your template verbatim. 

So what are my timelines now? Nothing urgent I assume anymore but is there anything I should keep an eye out for? I am on holiday from weds for 2 weeks so definitely wont see anything in the post for that time.

[b789]

Did you take a pdf copy of your AoS? As you have submitted your AoS and it is definitely showing on your MCOL history, nothing else is going to be sent to you until after your defence has been submitted (before 4pm Monday 08 June).

As DCB Legal, almost always discontinue, this case is highly unlikely to ever get as far as a hearing. Ideally, you will receive the SAR before the 08 June deadline. If not, then the generic defence will do the job.

If you receive the SAR while you are away on holiday, will you be able to let me know and host it on (only redact your personal details) Google Drive or an equivalent platform? Don’t worry if you can’t as you will still have a few days after your return to do it.

Once the defence is submitted, you will eventually receive an acknowledgement that the defence has been reviewed and that the Claimant intends to continue. You will receive a copy of their N180 Directions Questionnaire (DQ), which I will cover at the time and an appointment for a “mediation” phone call. The call is nothing to do with the judicial process and, is for all intents and purposes a complete waste of time. However, the only requirement is to “attend” the call. You will offer £0 and it will be over in minutes.

After that, the case will be transferred to your local county court where a judge will review it and order some dates by which the claimant must pay the Hearing fee, the deadlines for submitting Witness Statements and a hearing date.

However, all that is some way off. DCB Legal will usually discontinue just before the Hearing fee deadline as long as the claimant has been defended. They rely on the fact that the vast majority of defendants are low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree and will have paid up by then, out of ignorance and fear of the process. If you continue to follow the advice received here, you will see why they do not want this to go in front of a judge.

So, I suggest you enjoy your holiday and only let me know if you receive the SAR, otherwise remind me when you get back and I will advise on the defence then. As with the AoS, the defence will be submitted through MCOL.

[JoeBloggs90]

I did not have a PDF version of my AOS but good news is that in logging into MCOL I can see the AOS is there and submitted and it does give you an option to download the PDF from there.

I return from holidays June 3rd. Of course if anything arrives regarding SAR before hand then I will find a way to upload it.

Failing any reply from them I will look to complete defence as you suggest.

For now I will do nothing more and put a reminder in my diary to log back in to this forum on June 4th (unless anything happens prior)

Thank you.