Bus Lane PCN (Wrong Address)

Bells_and_whistles_56274

Hi all,

Last year, the council has sent me a PCN to my old address.
I received it but only several months afterwards.
I had updated my address with the DVLA as soon as I moved house but only for my driving license. I thought that since I am also the keeper of the vehicle, DVLA would update both automatically.
The result is that now the council says that it has obtained a warrant of control and the issue is with their Enforcement Agents.
I asked them to reset the PCN to a state that I can either pay or appeal and they refused.

What do you advise?

Thank you.

Car_54

Others may disagree, but I think the best course is to pay up ASAP. I can't see any grounds for an appeal.

Ebe_Scrooge

I think basically it's "your fault" for not updating the V5 details ( although I can sympathise, one would hope that DVLA would update both if you updated your license ).


But since this is a "real" fine from the council, rather than from a mickey mouse private outfit, your best bet is to head over to Pepipoo, they're the experts in this sort of thing : http://www.pepipoo.com/

boliston

Not sure why licence and v5 would be linked as some people could keep a vehicle at a different address if they owned more than one property

George_Michael

boliston wrote: »

Not sure why licence and v5 would be linked as some people could keep a vehicle at a different address if they owned more than one property

Which is exactly what I used to do.
I had a car and house in the south of England and I had a flat in Aberdeen which was let out.
As I spent approximately 5 months of the year working in Aberdeen, I kept a small runaround car there (the flat came with a garage which the tenant didn't use) and even with insurance and other associated costs, this worked out far cheaper than renting a car whilst I was there.

Tilt

As others have said, there is nor logical reason why the DVLA would automatically update a V5 registered to someone who has just updated his licence. The two can have 2 different addresses.

If this is your only grounds of appeal, then my advice is to pay the fine asap.

Car_54

Tilt wrote: »

As others have said, there is nor logical reason why the DVLA would automatically update a V5 registered to someone who has just updated his licence. The two can have 2 different addresses.

Indeed. Further, the DVLA have the driver number and a load of other data to identify uniquely the John Smith who wants to change the address on his licence. But they have no way of differentiating between the thousands of John Smiths who are registered keepers.

dannyrst

I'm pretty sure you're already in a world of bother.

The council probably have added costs for obtaining the warrant, and the enforcement agents will have added costs for the admin of receiving the case (although they haven't been out yet).

Ring the council, ask if you can pay them directly over the phone and what the full and final amount is. It could be that because it's with the enforcement agents, you actually have to call them to pay them instead, in which case do it.

Bells_and_whistles_56274

I thought I should follow up, in order to inform others about my experiences.

I managed to successfully revoke the enforcement notice, and the PCN was eventually cancelled.
Granted, it took a long time and some effort. However, as a matter of principle, I believe that when a PCN is taken to court, you have the right to defend yourself.
The mistake for not updating my DVLA address was mine, but this does not mean that I lose my statutory rights. If there were a fine for not updating my DVLA address I should pay it. This mistake cannot escalate to unreasonable costs just because I am not informed about actions upon me.
Luckily, the law acknowledges this right. The council doesn't because they are just interested in taking your money.
I am writing there because some people here discouraged me from taking any further action (other than paying the fine+the charges which amounted to 5x the original PCN), but I believe they had good intentions.
I know, however, that some councils have trolls in such forums in order to encourage people to pay up. I am not referring to anyone specifically in this thread, so no one should take offense.

For people that face the same problem: the path that I followed was an Out of Time (OOT) Statutory Declaration. The documents to be filed are named PE2 and PE3. Attach all the proof that you think indicate that you have not received the notice to owner. Please note that you should only file this if you truthfully have not received the notice to owner. The site that helped me a lot was pepipoo.com. Read all the info that you can find there on OOT. Thanks a lot to Ebe Scrooge for pointing me to this.

HO87

Could you provide a link to your pepipoo thread?

Bells_and_whistles_56274

This is the page that helped me (among others)


forums(dot)pepipoo.com(slash)index.php?showtopic=90359