Received a parking ticket?
This is our step by step guide on what to do if you have received a parking ticket now known as a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for a parking contravention. If you have received a penalty charge notice for a moving traffic contravention such as a prohibited turn or a yellow box contravention then please see our section on moving traffic contraventions. If you have received a pcn for a a Bus Lane contravention please see our comprehensive section on bus lanes.
If you have received a parking ticket please see specific grounds of appeal for the contravention as stated on your ticket by clicking on the contravention or entering the contravention code into the box at the top of the page once you have viewed the information below. You must look at the specific grounds of appeal if you want to appeal as there are many specific ways to have a penalty charge notice cancelled for each contravention (offence) that you are alleged to have committed.
If you have received a parking ticket (Penalty Charge Notice) you have two options - either:
1. Accept that you knowingly committed a contravention (offence) and pay the PCN within 14 days in order to receive a 50% discount. If you pay the ticket you will lose your right to appeal and the case will be closed.
OR
2. Make informal or formal representations. For full details on how to appeal and the process of appeal and enforcement, please click here to see our comprehensive section on the appeal process.
When debating whether to appeal please consider the following.
Tip! Did you know that up to 20% of all parking tickets are cancelled by the authority upon receipt of a representation? That’s over one million tickets a year cancelled in London alone!
Tip! Although some PCN’s state that you cannot make a representation until you receive what is called a “Notice to Owner” (NTO), we have yet to find a local authority who will not both accept a representation and maintain the discounted rate for a further 14 days if they do not accept your representation, so long as it is received within 14 days of the date of issue. So you have nothing to lose by writing into he enforcing authority. If you are in doubt due to the wording on the penalty charge notice then contact the authority for clarification.
Tip! Tickets can be cancelled by local authorities on compassionate grounds.
Tip! If the authority reject your representations and you believe they have done so unfairly then you can still appeal to the parking adjudicator. The parking adjudicator is a free service but if he rejects your appeal you will have to pay your ticket at the full rate
Tip! The odds are still in your favour because on average the parking adjudicator allows 60% of appeals made to him. Against some local authorities he has allowed over 90% of appeals! In fact, many local authorities don’t even contest a great number of the appeals made against them! Please note the parking adjudicator cannot cancel a PCN on compassionate grounds but can refer a matter back to the local authority if he doesn't think they have exercised their discretion properly.
When you make a formal appeal you will need to check Statutory grounds for appeal to see what applies to you and then return to this page as you will need to tick the correct box on the appeal form.If you are going to appeal please follow the simple stages below but remember to check the specific grounds for appeal for your alleged contravention as this is where you will find specific grounds.
In April 2008 the government issued statutory guidance to all local authorities in England setting out the way in which local authorities should carry out parking enforcement. Some local authorities carry out their parking enforcement against this guidance and therefore their penalty charge notices may well be cancelled on an appeal either to the council or to a parking adjudicator. The statutory guidance covers many aspects of parking enforcement including the use of CCTV parking enforcement signage and controlled parking zones. Click here to check what the guidance says about the contravention you are alleged to have committed and the way in which it was enforced. Then return to this page. You can use the guidance as part of an appeal. It is set out in simple sections so you can chose what, if any, applies to you.
In addition to the information contained in the above links, there is further information and assistance below.
Please remember that despite the fact that most parking tickets or Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) state that you cannot appeal until a “Notice to owner” (NTO) is sent to you after 28 days, every local authority who we have contacted do accept informal representations if made to them within 14 days. They also preserve the 50% discount for a further 14 days if they reject your representations. So you have nothing to lose by writing in. This does not apply to PCNs issued by post although all councils that we have spoken to will accept formal representations within the discount period and re offer the discount if they do not accept what you say.
If you have made an informal representation and the council have rejected it and re-offered the discount, you should not let this dissuade you from making a formal appeal if you think that you have a case. Some councils reject informal representations and hope that you will pay up. However, when you go to the next stage of a formal appeal to the council, they cancel your ticket. Transport for London rejected almost all informal representations but when motorists went to the next stage they accepted over 70%! Of course, if they reject your formal appeal you will lose the discount but then it will cost you nothing to go to the parking adjudicator and the odds really are in your favour, although there are no guarantees.
If you are going to appeal do not make payment until you have heard back from the local authority or the parking adjudicator.
If you are going to appeal you can usually do so by post, email and in some cases by phone. In 2012 a system of appealing over the internet will be launched. (If you cannot persuade the person you speak to, to cancel your ticket you can still write in.)
Your letter to the enforcing authority
Firstly, you should state the facts and your letter should be no longer than absolutely necessary. You should remember that the person who reads your letter may well have discretion to cancel your PCN. It may not be helpful therefore to vent your anger or make threats. You should place yourself in the position of the person who will be reading your letter. Photographs, diagrams, witness statements, delivery notes, pay and display tickets etc. can be extremely helpful. Many motorists have camera phones. Always send copies and keep the originals of any attachments. You should also keep a copy of your letter to the council. Also remember to include the date and the number of the PCN in any correspondence.
General checklist
Please note that we offer no guarantee that any appeal you make using information on this website will be successful. Please see the disclaimer at the bottom of each page.
The Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)
1. This is the document that is issued to you for an alleged contravention. It was previously known as a parking ticket. This is the legal document that the enforcing authority must issue and there is very specific wording which must be included by law.(under Section 66(3) of the Road Traffic Act 1991) If the penalty charge notice is defective (and hundreds of thousands have been found to be) then the authority can not legally enforce a against you. Does the PCN comply?
So please check the following.
2. If the PCN has been issued by a CCTV camera there must be included on it full details of where you can view a videotape of it. See Harrow decision in adjudicator’s decisions section. In a case in Harrow in 2009 an appeal was allowed as details of where to view video evidence in respect of a yellow box contravention had been omitted. We believe that this also applies to parking contraventions.
3. Was the ticket placed on your windscreen? For a PCN to be legally issued by a parking attendant it must either be placed on your windscreen or handed to the person in charge of the vehicle otherwise it cannot be enforced. However new rules that came in in 2008 state that the PCN does not need to be placed on your windscreen and can be sent by post if the civil enforcement officer has started the process of issuing the penalty charge notice! This is called a section 10 VDA (driver driven away! However these type of tickets have been very difficult to enforce and many cases have been lost at adjudication as the local authority were unable to prove that a contravention had occured. In fact in Enfield only around 50% of the tickets issued were paid. It seems to us that a civil enforcement officer could just tap any registration into his computer and we suspect that this is the reason why they are so difficult to enforce. Without pictures and other information such as that taken from a cars tax disc it is difficult to prove. Obviously it depends on what stage the issuing process is at. If pictures have been taken and the CEO is standing by your car and the tax disc details have been taken but you quickly drive off just before the PCN is placed on your windscreen then your chances are much reduced.
4. In the case of Section 10 penalty charge notices and those issued via CCTV It must, under normal circimstances be received by you within 28 days of the alleged contravention. One exception would be if the DVLA delayed in providing your name and address to the local authority in which case the authoritty would have up to 6 months.
4(a) All penalty charge notices, notice to owners or charge certificates must be sent by first class post. In Wandsworth we have been told in May 2011 that they are using second class post to send out their penalty charge notices. One motorist has appealed as the statutory guidance is clear and the council chose not to contest it.
5. There are various statutory grounds of appeal that must clearly be set out on the PCN. These include the words “compelling reasons” Compelling reasons include mitigating circumstances or compassionate grounds that a motorist can use in his defence. In a yellow box junction case in Harrow the words “compelling reasons” were not included on the PCN so the adjudicator found against the council.
6. One of the statutory grounds for appeal is “that the penalty exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case.” Now there has been an interesting case in Camden in 2009. Camden (and some other local authorities) have decided to charge a percentage fee for payments by credit card. Now by demanding this charge Camden have invalidated their PCNs according to a recent decision by an adjudicator as the penalty exceeded the amount that can legally be charged. In another decision in July 2009, we assisted a motorist who had been ticketed and towed away in Camden, the council were ordered to refund the tow away charge and the PCN amount which had already been paid. See decisions in the adjudicators sectiion.
There are 15 other ways to have your penalty charge notice cancelled listed below which is for members only. Plus all the specific grounds. We ask for a small contribution to help us recoup costs and to fund our relentless campaign to have this unfair and revenue orientated system changed. Thank you
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