Westminster PCN for hired car - must pay today for reduced rate!

maa299

Hi - just a quick question.

I received a PCN from Westminster City Council on 11 December for blocking a footway. My car was a hired one and it was parked on a single yellow line (on a Sunday, when de-restricted), but part of the car was blocking the dropped part of the kerb.

To be honest, I was a bit annoyed with the signage, as I think they should just use double yellow lines (rather than single ones) at footways. It may be Highway Code (I profess my ignorance on this point!), but it certainly wasn't clear to me.

Anyway, I wrote to challenge informally. I had actually parked there in a rush, as my mother was with me and she was very ill. I had to find a pharmacy to pick up some prescribed medicine for her. I challenged on this point only.

I just called the Council now to ask if they additionally wanted a copy of my hire agreement (as I wasn't the vehicle's registered keeper), but they said it didn't matter and that they'd already written to me on the 15th (I haven't received that yet), rejecting my appeal. They also say that they extended 50% payment for 14 days from the date of their letter, making today (28th) the last one for reduced rate.

Shall I just pay up and get this over and done with?

taffy056

No go here and make a new thread in relation to this, they are the experts with council tickets, provide a scan of your PCN and what you wrote on appeal, and their reply etc, just remove personal details from the scan..

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

dacouch

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16339474

maa299

Thanks dacouch - what a coincidence for that to go on the BBC website today. It does make me wonder - are the Council doing this to clarify signage or to restrict parking further? The article makes it sound like the latter. Now I'm rather confused.

Coupon-mad

As it's a hire car I hate to say it but I would seriously consider paying the discounted amount - particularly if your car was significantly overhanging the dropped kerb. And I advise people on forums about PCNs a lot and I never normally say that!

Did they provide photos on their website (when you put in your PCN number into the webpage possibly mentioned on the back of the PCN, you may be able to view photos)? Were you significantly over the dropped kerb, or just boot/bonnet partly overhanging a tiny bit?

Thing is, are your Hire Co likely to charge you a hefty admin fee for handling the paperwork on this PCN? Or are they just going to pay the full penalty when they get the Notice to Owner (NTO) in January anyway and then debit the full amount plus admin fee straight from your card?

I would scrutinise your car hire t&cs straight away this afternoon to find out what you are in for once the Council write to the Hire co., which is the next stage after the informal appeal by the driver. Ring the Hire co. if it's unclear, if they are not on holiday.

Only if the Hire co. say they don't charge the driver anything to handle NTOs and pass on driver details, would I say it's worth you possibly appealing this further. Even then there's not a lot to go on as Westminster PCNs are not known to be flawed and parking in front of a dropped kerb doesn't even need signs and lines. You could still end up losing this even if the Hire Co. do not take the formal appeal decision out of your hands.

Pains me to say that as I also go on pepipoo daily as SchoolRunMum and almost never suggest anything but appealing Council PCNs all the way!

maa299

Thanks - was just a tiny bit overhanging, which is annoying!

The hire company is Hertz and they charge GBP 42 per fine!

Guess I'd better pay up....

Coupon-mad

Yep...oooo that was hard to type.

I also just read your pepipoo thread and they have told you the same thing. If it had not been a hire car things may have been different but that admin fee knocks any choice out from under your feet.

Get it paid online now so the hire co. are not involved.