Fly tipping fine

Freya36

Thank you! That's really helpful. My council did not follow that process at all.

lookstraightahead

How about the dustbin who empty the rubbish then chuck the containers anywhere in the street, to blow around in the wind? 

Section62

Freya36 said:

Thank you! That's really helpful. My council did not follow that process at all.

Are you in London?  If so there are different enforcement powers available.

Also, some councils issue a collection date calendar (or similar) which incorporates a warning that they might deem to cover stage 1. Or there might be something in the bundle of flyers sent out with Council Tax bills.  Stage 1 doesn't have to go to a named person.

Stage 2 notices could easily be thrown out as junk mail by anyone who routinely throws out junk mail without opening it. The requirement is for a notice to be sent, not that it has been received and understood, and it would satisfy a court that a notice had been sent if it was put into the mail and 'X' days had passed since.


When you say 'collected', was that the time the council were due to collect your rubbish, or the time by which you should have collected your bins and returned them to your property?

Normally the council will state a time by when your bins should be back on your property, and that would be several hours after the latest time their collection could take place (e.g. end of the working day of collection).  E.g. if they say normal collection is between 6am and 9am then you should have until at least 7pm to return your bin to your property.

If you've already paid the FPN and you are sure the household wasn't sent a stage 2 notice, then you might want to write to the council saying you're now aware of the government guidance and would like to know the date on which the stage 2 notice was sent.

The council should have a record of this, and retain that information until there is no prospect of the FPN being challenged or otherwise found to be invalid. I'd be more cautious about making that request in cases where a FPN hasn't been paid as there is a risk of the council abandoning the FPN and taking action using alternative powers. Likewise, I wouldn't explicitly ask for the FPN to be cancelled until you know more about the situation.