Work paying fine without permission - Parsons Mead Croydon

DC1878

Hi, hope you can help.
I along with thousands of drivers had a PCN back in April for Parsons Mead in Croydon and immediately appealed it based on no signage, no escape routes, no designated zone, no explanation of what the restricted zone - the width of a lamp post with signs back to back - was for.
The original £130 PCN (£65 if paid in 14 days) was sent to my company as it is a company car. They said they would pay it and deduct from my salary so I asked them not to as the charge is just a honey trap. I made my appeal on the same day Head Office received it 6/5/21 direct to Croydon Council with mine and my companies contact details, and had an email response saying we will review your appeal and 'this could take up to 21 days'. All written in bold.
On the 14/5/21 they sent an NTO to Head Office saying they had to pay within 28 days or appeal, no mention of the appeal I'd already made was mentioned so we waited for the response to the first appeal as with the lockdown we assumed there are some delays in the department, especially as no one had answered a phone there for the previous week I had been calling various numbers supplied on the documents.
On 25/6/21 Head Office received a Charge Certificate for £195 and threat of CCJ yet still no response from the original appeal???
Today head office have contacted me to say they have paid the fine and are deducting £215 from my salary this month for the charge and admin costs!
They want me to email them to say I authorise this deduction but I'm fuming with them?
With no initial response to my appeal, hasn't the rest of the fear mongering just been a sham, and can my company just take the cash without consent?

Kind regards

DC

Fruitcake

As we specialise in private parking charges here you would be better taking this over to pepipoo.com.

You will need to register there with a non-hotmail email address before reading the FAQs, then posting your query there. Other posters may want to see both sides of your redacted PCN.

If you are a member of a trade union then you should get your rep involved.

You should also look at your employment contract and vehicle lease contract to see what the fine print says.

Good luck.

Coupon-mad

If this is a Council PCN then at NTO stage it became the liability of the owner.

At Charge Cert stage they could have just waited for the Order for Recovery and made an Out of Time application (TEC7 and TEC9 forms) saying that there was no reply to the first appeal, and it would have been rewound to appeal stage again.

Thing is, it was their decision at that time, their liability.  It never stays with the driver at the later stages, with a LA penalty.

They should NEVER EVER have ignored the NTO.  You don't do that!  

You may have to pay it if your employment and car use T&Cs say you are liable.

But you could try a formal complaint after that, to the LA that they failed to respond to your appeal so caused you loss as a result of that procedural impropriety.  Ask for a final response and then take it (free of charge) to the Local Govt Ombudsman to decide if the LA was at fault.  Costs you nothing.

DC1878

Hi, so got a bit more clarity today.
The PCN received on the 6/5/21 WAS the NTO and that was what I challenged.
Head office contacted the car lease company and had the liability signed over to our company and they received the reissued NTO on the 14/5/21 - but I had already appealed this one so surely the PCN number (which was the same) should register this?
On the 26/5/21 The company received the first Charge Notice stating no response to NTO but then a week later, Head Office also received an Acknowledgement Of Correspondence for the same PCN Number stating the case was now on hold with the usual blurb about responding within statutory 56 days for formal representation or 90 for informal.
No further communication from Croydon Council until this weeks CCJ letter received 1/11/21.
Is this a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing and understaffing during lockdown?
Surely a letter stating they acknowledge the correspondence a week after saying no appeal was made to the NTO is completely contradictory?

Coupon-mad

Yes but your company paid it at Charge Cert stage, instead of waiting for the Order for Recovery, when they could have rewound it back to have the appeal heard.

My advice is unchanged.

tacpot12

Just on the point about your employer wanting you to authorise the deduction, I would write back to them and confirm that you are not authorising the deduction and confirm the reason why no. 

They may deduct it anyway, and they may have the right to do so, but you don't need to agree to them doing this, and it may help if you don't do so. 

DC1878

Coupon-mad said:

If this is a Council PCN then at NTO stage it became the liability of the owner.

At Charge Cert stage they could have just waited for the Order for Recovery and made an Out of Time application (TEC7 and TEC9 forms) saying that there was no reply to the first appeal, and it would have been rewound to appeal stage again.

Thing is, it was their decision at that time, their liability.  It never stays with the driver at the later stages, with a LA penalty.

They should NEVER EVER have ignored the NTO.  You don't do that!  

You may have to pay it if your employment and car use T&Cs say you are liable.

But you could try a formal complaint after that, to the LA that they failed to respond to your appeal so caused you loss as a result of that procedural impropriety.  Ask for a final response and then take it (free of charge) to the Local Govt Ombudsman to decide if the LA was at fault.  Costs you nothing.

Hi Coupon Mad

Can I use the TE7 and TE9 for this PCN, its not a parking fine but a Traffic contravention?
I've been informed it's not been paid yet but scheduled to be paid on Friday so there is still time.

DC1878

tacpot12 said:

Just on the point about your employer wanting you to authorise the deduction, I would write back to them and confirm that you are not authorising the deduction and confirm the reason why no. 

They may deduct it anyway, and they may have the right to do so, but you don't need to agree to them doing this, and it may help if you don't do so. 

Thanks, I will do this as well.

Coupon-mad

Can I use the TE7 and TE9 for this PCN

You can't - but the liable company can.  This is not your PCN, not a driver's liability so you are lucky if they agree to do this.