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Parking tickets issued after 31st Match 2008
Tickets
(known as PCNs or Penalty Charge Notices) after 31st March are issued under the
Traffic Management Act 2004 (check the top of the ticket).
This has made several changes to the regulations. Most
noticeably they no longer have to be affixed to the vehicle. If
the attendant has started writing the ticket they can then send
it in the post. Parking attendants are now called ‘Civil
Enforcement Officers’.
There are
two subsequent pieces of legislation which detail all
regulations with regards to the ticket and appeals process.
These are:
The
Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) General
Regulations 2007
and
The Civil Enforcement of Parking
Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations
2007.
Most tickets
do not list all of three pieces of legislation at the top of the
PCN. Some authorities do. In my opinion they should at least
refer to one of the 2007 regulations otherwise a motorists is
not being informed of their rights but this is something that
would need to be decided by an adjudicator.
Tickets issued on street
The Ticket (PCN)
The Notice to Owner
The Notice of Rejection
The Ticket (PCN)
A
ticket issued on street must state the
following:
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1. A penalty
charge notice served under regulation 9 must, in addition to the matters
required to be included in it by regulation 3(2) of the Representations and
Appeals Regulations, state—
(a) the date on
which the notice is served;
(b) the name of
the enforcement authority;
(c) the
registration mark of the vehicle involved in the alleged contravention;
(d) the date and
the time at which the alleged contravention occurred;
(e) the grounds
on which the civil enforcement officer serving the notice believes that a
penalty charge is payable;
(f) the amount
of the penalty charge;
(g) that the
penalty charge must be paid not later than the last day of the period of 28
days beginning with the date on which the penalty charge notice was served;
(h) that if the
penalty charge is paid not later than the last day of the period of 14 days
beginning with the date on which the notice is served, the penalty charge
will be reduced by the amount of any applicable discount;
(i) the manner
in which the penalty charge must be paid; and
(j) that if the
penalty charge is not paid before the end of the period of 28 days referred
to in subparagraph (g), a notice to owner may be served by the enforcement
authority on the owner of the vehicle. |
In
addition as per point 1 above from the
The Civil Enforcement of Parking
Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations
2007:
(2) A penalty charge notice
served under regulation 9 of the General Regulations must, in
addition to the matters required to be included in it under
paragraph 1 of the Schedule to the General Regulations, include
the following information—
(a) that a person on whom a
notice to owner is served will be entitled to make
representations to the enforcement authority against the penalty
charge and may appeal to an adjudicator if those representations
are rejected; and
(b) that, if representations
against the penalty charge are received at such address as may
be specified for the purpose before a notice to owner is served—
(i) those representations will
be considered;
(ii) but that, if a notice to
owner is served notwithstanding those representations,
representations against the penalty charge must be made in the
form and manner and at the time specified in the notice to
owner.
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The
Notice to Owner
For tickets issued by a civil enforcement officer, a ‘Notice to Owner’ is issued by the council after 28
days. The details below stipulate what must be included in this.
Please note as specified in
regulation 20 the council must serve this no later than 6 months
after the date the ticket was served
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PART 5 ENFORCEMENT OF PENALTY CHARGES
The notice to owner
19.—(1) Subject to regulation 20, where—
(a) a penalty charge notice has been served with respect to a vehicle under
regulation 9; and
(b) the period of 28 days specified in the penalty charge notice as the
period within which the penalty charge is to be paid has expired without
that charge being paid,
the enforcement authority concerned may serve a notice (“a notice to owner”)
on the person who appears to them to have been the owner of the vehicle when
the alleged contravention occurred.
(2) A notice to owner served under paragraph (1) must, in addition to the
matters required to be included in it under regulation 3(3) of the
Representations and Appeals Regulations, state—
(a) the date of the notice, which must be the date on which the notice is
posted;
(b) the name of the enforcement authority serving the notice;
(c) the amount of the penalty charge payable;
(d) the date on which the penalty charge notice was served;
(e) the grounds on which the civil enforcement officer who served the
penalty charge notice under regulation 9 believed that a penalty charge was
payable with respect to the vehicle;
(f) that the penalty charge, if not already paid, must be paid within “the
payment period” as defined by regulation 3(3)(a) of the Representations and
Appeals Regulations;
(g) that if, after the payment period has expired, no representations have
been made under regulation 4 of the Representations and Appeals Regulations
and the penalty charge has not been paid, the enforcement authority may
increase the penalty charge by the applicable surcharge; and
(h) the amount of the increased penalty charge.
Time limit for service of a notice to owner
20.—(1) A notice to owner may not be served after the expiry of the period
of 6 months beginning with the relevant date.
(2) The relevant date—
(a) in a case where a notice to owner has been cancelled under regulation
23(5)(c) of these Regulations, is the date on which the district judge
serves notice in accordance with regulation 23(5)(d);
(b) in case where a notice to owner has been cancelled under regulation 5 of
the Representations and Appeals Regulations, is the date of such
cancellation;
(c) in a case where payment of the penalty charge was made, or had
purportedly been made, before the expiry of the period mentioned in
paragraph (1) but the payment or purported payment had been cancelled or
withdrawn, is the date on which the enforcement authority is notified that
the payment or purported payment has been cancelled or withdrawn;
(d) in any other case, is the date on which the relevant penalty charge
notice was served under regulation 9.
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In
addition as per point 2 above from regulation 3(3) of the
The Civil Enforcement of Parking
Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations
2007:
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(3) A notice to owner
served under regulation 19 of the General Regulations must,
in addition to the matters required to be included in it
under that regulation, include the following information—
(a)
that representations on
the basis specified in regulation 4 against payment of the
penalty charge may be made to the enforcement authority, but
that any representations made outside the period of 28 days
beginning with the date on which the notice is served (“the
payment period”) may be disregarded;
(b)
the nature of the
representations which may be made under regulation 4;
(c)
the address (including
if appropriate any email address or
FAX telephone number, as well as the postal address)
to which representations must be sent and the form in which
they must be made;
(d)
that if representations
which have been made—
(i)
within the payment
period; or
(ii)
outside that period but
not disregarded,
are not accepted by the
enforcement authority the recipient of the notice may appeal
against the authority’s decision to an adjudicator; and
(e)
in general terms, the
form and manner in which an appeal may be made |
In
addition point (3)(a) above refers to
regulation 4 which is shown
below.
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Please note as per point (2)(b)(i) below you may tick more than
one box for grounds of appeal. If the notice to owner says you
can only tick one box this is wrong!
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Also
note that as per point (2)(b)(ii) it must specifically refer to
"compelling reasons".
Harrow recently screwed up on
this point rendering their tickets issued by post invalid!
Representations against
notice to owner
4.—(1) The
recipient may make representations against a notice to owner
to the enforcement authority which served the notice on him.
(2) Any representations under
this regulation must—
(a)
be made in such form as
may be specified by the enforcement authority;
(b)
be to either or both of
the following effects—
(i)
that, in relation to
the alleged contravention on account of which the notice to
owner was served, one or more of the grounds specified in
paragraph (4) applies; or
(ii)
that, whether or not
any of those grounds apply, there are compelling reasons
why, in the particular circumstances of the case, the
enforcement authority should cancel the penalty charge and
refund any sum paid to it on account of the penalty charge.
(3) In determining the form
for making representations, an enforcement authority which
is a London authority must act through the joint committee
through which, in accordance with regulation 15 of the
General Regulations, it exercises its functions relating to
adjudicators.
(4) The grounds referred to in
paragraph (2)(b)(i) are—
(a)
that the alleged
contravention did not occur;
(b)
that the recipient—
(i)
never was the owner of
the vehicle in question;
(ii)
had ceased to be its
owner before the date on which the alleged contravention
occurred; or
(iii)
became its owner after
that date;
(c)
that the vehicle had
been permitted to remain at rest in the place in question by
a person who was in control of the vehicle without the
consent of the owner;
(d)
that the recipient is a
vehicle-hire firm and—
(i)
the vehicle in question
was at the material time hired from that firm under a hiring
agreement; and
(ii)
the person hiring it
had signed a statement of liability acknowledging his
liability in respect of any penalty charge notice served in
respect of any parking contravention involving the vehicle
during the currency of the hiring agreement;
(e)
that the penalty charge
exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the
case;
(f)
that there has been a
procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement
authority;
(g)
that the order which is
alleged to have been contravened in relation to the vehicle
concerned, except where it is an order to which Part VI of
Schedule 9 to the 1984 Act()
applies, is invalid;
(h)
in a case where a
penalty charge notice was served by post on the basis that a
civil enforcement officer was prevented by some person from
fixing it to the vehicle concerned or handing it to the
owner or person in charge of the vehicle, that no civil
enforcement officer was so prevented;
(i)
that the notice to
owner should not have been served because—
(i)
the penalty charge had
already been paid in full;
(ii)
the penalty charge had
been paid, reduced by the amount of any discount set in
accordance with Schedule 9 to the 2004 Act, within the
period specified in paragraph 1(h) of the Schedule to the
General Regulations.
(5) In these Regulations
“procedural impropriety” means a failure by the enforcement
authority to observe any requirement imposed on it by the
2004 Act, by the General Regulations or by these Regulations
in relation to the imposition or recovery of a penalty
charge or other sum and includes in particular—
(a)
the taking of any step,
whether or not involving the service of any document,
otherwise than—
(i)
in accordance with the
conditions subject to which; or
(ii)
at the time or during
the period when,
it is authorised or required
by the General Regulations or these Regulations to be taken;
and
(b)
in a
case where an enforcement authority is seeking to recover an
unpaid charge, the purported service of a charge certificate
under regulation 21 of the General Regulations before the
enforcement authority is authorised to serve it by those
Regulations |
The Notice of Rejection
The authority has 56 days to reply
to your appeal. If they reject your
appeal they must serve a notice of rejection in accordance with
the
following:
Rejection of representations against notice
to owner
6.—(1) Where representations are made under
regulation 4 and the enforcement authority
serves a notice of rejection under
regulation 5(2)(b), that notice shall—
(a) state that a charge certificate may be
served unless before the end of the period
of 28 days beginning with the date of
service of the notice of rejection—
(i) the penalty charge is paid; or
(ii) the person on whom the notice is served
appeals to an adjudicator against the
penalty charge;
(b) indicate the nature of an adjudicator’s
power to award costs; and
(c) describe in general terms the form and
manner in which an appeal to an adjudicator
must be made.
(2) A notice of rejection served in
accordance with paragraph (1) may contain
such other information as the enforcement
authority considers appropriate.
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Tickets issued by post
For
tickets issued by post you will not be sent a separate notice to
owner, the PCN acts as the notice to owner. Although the PCN
does not have to state this, it is stipulated in the
representations and appeals regulations
here. These tickets are know as
Regulation 10 PCNs.
The Ticket (PCN)
The Notice of Rejection
The Ticket (PCN)
A
ticket issued by post must state the
following:
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2. A regulation 10 penalty charge notice, in addition to the matters
required to be included in it by regulation 3(4) of the Representations and
Appeals Regulations, must state—
(a) the date of the notice, which must be the date on which it is posted;
(b) the matters specified in paragraphs 1(b), (c), (d), (f) and (i);
(c) the grounds on which the enforcement authority believes that a penalty
charge is payable;
(d) that the penalty charge must be paid not later than the last day of the
period of 28 days beginning with the date on which the penalty charge notice
is served;
(e) that if the penalty charge is paid not later than the applicable date,
the penalty charge will be reduced by the amount of any applicable discount;
(f) that if after the last day of the period referred to in subparagraph
(d)—
(i) no representations have been made in accordance with regulation 4 of the
Representations and Appeals Regulations; and
(ii) the penalty charge has not been paid,
the enforcement authority may increase the penalty charge by the amount of
any applicable surcharge and take steps to enforce payment of the charge as
so increased;
(g) the amount of the increased penalty charge; and
(h) that the penalty charge notice is being served by post for whichever of
the following reasons applies—
(i) that the penalty charge notice is being served by post on the basis of a
record produced by an approved device;
(ii) that it is being so served, because a civil enforcement officer
attempted to serve a penalty charge notice by affixing it to the vehicle or
giving it to the person in charge of the vehicle but was prevented from
doing so by some person; or
(iii) that it is being so served because a civil enforcement officer had
begun to prepare a penalty charge notice for service in accordance with
regulation 9, but the vehicle was driven away from the place in which it was
stationary before the civil enforcement officer had finished preparing the
penalty charge notice or had served it in accordance with regulation 9.
3. In paragraph 2 for the purposes of subparagraph (e) the “applicable
date” is—
(a) in the case of a penalty charge notice served by virtue of regulation
10(1)(a) (on the basis of a record produced by an approved device), the last
day of the period of 21 days beginning with the date on which the notice was
served;
(b) in any other case, the last day of the period of 14 days beginning with
that date.
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In
addition as per point 2 above from the
The Civil Enforcement of Parking
Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations
2007
(4) A penalty
charge notice served under regulation 10 of the
General Regulations must, in addition to the matters
required to be included in it under paragraph 2 of
the Schedule to those Regulations, include the
following information—
(a) that
representations on the basis specified in regulation
4 may be made to the enforcement authority against
the imposition of the penalty charge but that
representations made outside the period of 28 days
beginning with the date on which the penalty charge
notice is served (“the representations period”) may
be disregarded;
(b) the nature of
the representations which may be made under
regulation 4;
(c) the address
(including if appropriate any email address or FAX
telephone number, as well as the postal address) to
which representations must be sent and the form in
which they must be made;
(d) that if
representations which have been made—
(i) within the
representations period; or
(ii) outside that
period but not disregarded,
are not accepted by
the enforcement authority the recipient of the
penalty charge notice may appeal against the
authority’s decision to an adjudicator;
(e) where the
penalty charge notice is served by virtue of
regulation 10(1)(a) of the General Regulations
(evidence produced by an approved device), the
effect of paragraphs (5) and (6).
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As per point (b) the contents of regulation 4 are shown
above
The
Notice of Rejection
The authority has 56 days to reply
to your appeal. If they reject your appeal they must serve a
notice of rejection in accordance with the
following:
Rejection of representations against notice
to owner
6.—(1) Where representations are made under
regulation 4 and the enforcement authority
serves a notice of rejection under
regulation 5(2)(b), that notice shall—
(a) state that a charge certificate may be
served unless before the end of the period
of 28 days beginning with the date of
service of the notice of rejection—
(i) the penalty charge is paid; or
(ii) the person on whom the notice is served
appeals to an adjudicator against the
penalty charge;
(b) indicate the nature of an adjudicator’s
power to award costs; and
(c) describe in general terms the form and
manner in which an appeal to an adjudicator
must be made.
(2) A notice of rejection served in
accordance with paragraph (1) may contain
such other information as the enforcement
authority considers appropriate.
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Parking tickets issued before 31st Match 2008
Issuing the PCN
Tickets before 31st March 2008 are issued under
The Road Traffic Act 1991.
They
must be either placed on your vehicle or handed to you (however
this does not apply to CCTV enforcement where the ticket was
sent in the post, see
below for more
info).
Transport for London took a case to the high court to test this
law - and lost. Click
here for the story. This landmark case confirmed that the
ticket is not valid if you drove off before it is issued.
However, be warned! Some unscrupulous parking attendants may lie
and say they did issue the ticket, so bare this in mind.
The
Information on the PCN
The
ticket must state the 'date of issue' or 'date of notice' as
well as the date of the contravention. If it doesn't then it's
invalid.
In several test cases (including
Bury,
London and
Edinburgh), failure to display the above resulted in
the PCN being cancelled.
In London the case of 'Moses v London Borough of Barnet' was
taken to the high court for a judicial review by Barnet. On the
4th August 2006 Barnet lost this case. A summary can be found
Click here.
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