Council Parking Ticket - can I still appeal??

MS_Bex

Hi everyone,

I'd really like your advice on this please! I'll try and explain as best I can...
My OH got a PCN when he parked on the road outside the doctors surgery in Feb this year. The road has 1 long 'bay' all the way along. The bay is split into 2 half way down, with signs on one half saying 'parking 9-5 max stay 1 hour, no return within 1 hour' etc, the other half the signs say 'permit J only' (or something like that).

The thing is, there was a car parked over the line that divides the public parking and the residents parking, so my OH couldn't see it, and to be fair the signs were obscured by the bushes along the road so it was hard to see them, and we both thought it was OK to park all the way along anyway (we didn't know half of the road was permit parking only).

When OH came out of the docs, the traffic warden was still there, and she said he should definitely appeal because she agreed it wasn't clear. She said he could appeal online but he'd have to wait 3 days (or something like that) for it to be online.

I wasn't with him at the time, but when he told me about it I nagged him to appeal asap!! Of course, he put it off and put it off until he had a 'Notice to Owner'. I read the letter and filled in the appeal form for him, got him to sign it and asked him to post it. Of course he put that off as well until the day before they had to have it, so he FINALLY went out and posted it directly through the office's letterbox.

A couple of days later he got a reminder that he needs to pay the fine (it wasn't a rejection of representations, just a reminder), which we ignored because I assumed that came out to him automatically and they were looking into his appeal.

Anyway, yesterday he got a very scary looking letter saying that they are going to register the debt with the county court, and that they will approve bailiffs to come round and recover the debt. Obviously this has put the s**ts up me and I don't know what to do!!

Is it too late to appeal now? We never did get a rejection of representations letter (OH assures me he definitely did post the first appeal letter... but from what you've heard do you believe him?!?!)

Oh, the letter he got yesterday says he has got 7 days to pay the full amount or they will register the debt with the county court and there will be a warrant of execution, bailiffs, etc.
The PCN is definitely from the council, I have checked.

Can we still appeal or is he better off just paying up?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

sgtbush

couple of things, just cos the other car was in the wrong does not mean you can park in the wrong and not expect a ticket, the other car may of driven off and the person issuing the ticket just saw your car in the wrong
you may have an argument with bushes obscuring the signs but you knew you parked wrongly by the markings on the road.
you had a reminder, your OH, you say u nagged and nagged, prob fell outside the time limit to appeal, you also had a reminder to pay the fine. im assuming you fell outside the time limit set in the TMA act 2004 to appeal such tickets.
sadly my advise would be to pay up before bailiff charges get applyed

vax2002

You would need to appeal to the Parking appeals adjudicate citing they have refused to acknowledge the NTO appeal .
You will need to obtain pictures of this bay and its signs for the parking experts on here to advise you further or a google maps link ?

sgtbush

When you get a parking ticket, formally known as a Penalty Charge Notice, you have the choice of paying within 14 days, in which case the fine is halved, or appeal the ticket.
The size of the fine depends on the offence committed. The typical fine for parking in the wrong place is £120 but this is halved to £60 if paid within 14 days.
To appeal the ticket you need to send a letter to the council explaining that you are challenging the ticket, and why.

*IMPORTANT ' This is likely to be the last chance for you to pay the ticket at half-price. If you write to the council to appeal, the process may take you over the 14 days and the fine will be the higher amount. You can ask for the fine to be frozen at the lower amount until a resolution of the appeal, but there are no guarantees the council will grant you this. If you are not confident of your appeal, it will cost less to pay now.
The council will either accept the challenge, and withdraw the fine, or will reject the challenge. If they reject the challenge they will send you a Notice to Owner form for you to make formal representations. You will then have 14 days to make these formal representations. This is where you set out why the ticket should be rescinded.


The council can accept your representations, and drop the fine, or can reject them. In which case, you will be sent a Notice of Rejection of Representation and Appeal Notice form.
You will then have 28 days to lodge your appeal with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (Parking and Traffic Appeals Service, in London). This is independent from the council and will decide on your case. You need to be aware that the fine will increase by 50 per cent if you fail in your appeal.



it would seem to me, the OP has not lodged the appeal within the time scale, as she was nagging the OH a lot to do it, maybe im wrong but i think thats whats gone on

Coupon-mad

Agree they may have been outside the 28 days but we don't know for sure. We don't know the dates of these documents or when the appeal was actually lodged.

To the OP you may as well fill in the Order for Recovery saying that you never received a rejection to your appeal - as you have nowhere else to go with this one apart from paying (and thanks to your OH the fine is now multiplied by 3 unless they agree to consider that appeal!). But if you have a few days try this:

Take action. Post pics of these letters on pepipoo forums tonight - firstly read their FAQs 'how to post pictures'. Start a new topic here with photos on close up of ALL pages of the letter and a photo of the lines & signs where he parked:

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

If you do this quickly they should reply quickly and in any case DO NOT miss the OFR deadline or miss doing anything pepipoo advise you to do. This is close to bailiff stage when frankly, if you'd posted on pepipoo earlier it could have been fairly easy to win and pay nothing.

MS_Bex

Thanks for the replies - I appealed again to the council, saying that we didn't get a notification of rejection of representations, which is a breach of procedure, and also re-stated my original appeal reasons. Got a letter in the post a couple of days ago saying they're withdrawing the ticket!
sgtbush - I didn't say he wasn't in the wrong, that wasn't my point or my question. Did you read my post? Your advice (not 'advise') to pay the fine before bailiff charges were applied? I'm so glad I didn't listen.

dt3887

glad you finally got it sorted OP. another success