Time lapse before receiving PCN

Ducky25

I was wondering if there was a period after which a pcn becomes invalid. Got home late last night to find a letter to husband from Enfield Council with photographic 'evidence' he parked in a loading bay on 1st FEBRUARY!!! I know the advice is to pay nothing but our problem was that he left at 4.30am to work abroad for at least 3 weeks. As the reduced fine was £50 he paid it but emailed them at the same time to suggest they were too late in sending the letter out to him (6 months plus) and if he was correct in his assumption that they were actually too late then he wanted a refund. He also explained why he had paid in the first place.
We don't live anywhere near the area (doing a favour for a sick relation) so can't go and check the signage etc.
Guess we'll just have to accept he shouldn't have paid up, but the thought of having to pay up £100 or worse £150 if he was away for longer didn't appeal.
For those who are thinking 'you could have done it all for him' we have had SO many occasions when I am unable to resolve issues when he is away as things are in his name (gradually working our way through them and getting permissions registered for me) that we didn't want to risk it.
Thanks for your help. May be too late now, but at least we will know should it ever happen again

Coupon-mad

To buy some time, with a real PCN, always bung in an informal appeal just before the first 14 days is up, based on whatever you think (assuming you don't have time to spend over the informal appeal).

He could have informally appealed that they were late in sending the PCN, plus anything else he could think of. Having paid though, he has accepted liability = a wrong move IMHO.

Generally, you don't lose the discount opportunity(!) if you get an informal appeal in by the 14th day counting from the day you got the PCN. The £50 would normally have been re-offered when they rejected the informal appeal, in fact the PCN and/or the Council website would have explained this.

Then you could have researched the chances of making a sound formal appeal when your OH got back next month (the owner can make formal reps once the Notice to Owner is issued).

If in doubt, always post on pepipoo.com forums for advice first:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

HTH for next time (hope there never is a next time though!).