Not notified of PCN appeal electronically. Now facing big overprice

MikeDB

This is the matter: I got a PCN from Wandsworth that I appealed online, following their process, and received notification of the system filing my appeal.

I then had to leave the country because of Coronavirus/furlough etc. I've just come back and I find two letters, one with the appeal rejection and the possibility to still pay half of the fine, the other with the full fine increased by a penalty.

I'm fine with the rejection of the appeal, not interested in fighting it. But my point is, since I submitted the appeal online, shouldn't I get an online reply?

How fair is it to get the answer by mail only with no notification, no signature needed etc?

Anything I can do to challenge this? Thanks

AdrianC

Nope.
You chose to leave the country, and did nothing about forwarding your mail. How is that Wandsworth council's fault?

MikeDB

AdrianC said:

Nope.
You chose to leave the country, and did nothing about forwarding your mail. How is that Wandsworth council's fault?

I've done other challenges with other Councils, when challenge was submitted online it was always answered online.

They notified me online the challenge was received, asked me email and telephone number, and then get to the point when a penalty on top of the PCN is issued without even a notification via email, not even onlne after logging in with the PCN number.

williamgriffin

MikeDB said:

AdrianC said:

Nope.
You chose to leave the country, and did nothing about forwarding your mail. How is that Wandsworth council's fault?

I've done other challenges with other Councils, when challenge was submitted online it was always answered online.

They notified me online the challenge was received, asked me email and telephone number, and then get to the point when a penalty on top of the PCN is issued without even a notification via email, not even onlne after logging in with the PCN number.

They wrote to you so I can't see they've done anything wrong. 

KeithP

Your best bet is to go to pepipoo.com.
There are council tickets experts over there.
Don't try to sign up with a hotmail email address - it won't work.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Given it's a council and not a private company, there's generally room to make an appeal.  You've nothing to lose by ringing the council, explaining what has happened and offering to pay the full face value of the ticket excluding the penalty.  The worst the council can say is 'no'.  

MikeDB

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Given it's a council and not a private company, there's generally room to make an appeal.  You've nothing to lose by ringing the council, explaining what has happened and offering to pay the full face value of the ticket excluding the penalty.  The worst the council can say is 'no'.  

Thanks, I've done exactly this (not easy to get in touch with them but eventually...) and they agreed it was a difficult situation and they removed the penalty surcharge.

Thank you all

Ditzy_Mitzy

MikeDB said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Given it's a council and not a private company, there's generally room to make an appeal.  You've nothing to lose by ringing the council, explaining what has happened and offering to pay the full face value of the ticket excluding the penalty.  The worst the council can say is 'no'.  

Thanks, I've done exactly this (not easy to get in touch with them but eventually...) and they agreed it was a difficult situation and they removed the penalty surcharge.

Thank you all

You're welcome, glad you got an acceptable outcome and thank you for keeping us in the loop  .