Thread: unpaid PCN - appealed but never heard back - equita threatening to take car

Originally Posted by vlota

OK - long story short[ish]:

i received a pcn in sept last year for a bus lane violation, which i decided to appeal as the lane in question wasn't properly marked and i didn't drive in it anyway [even the photo attached to the PCN shows this!]

anyway, i appealed the PCN at the time on the grounds that 'the offence didn't take place' but never heard anything back, so assumed it had been dropped. then a few months later i got the letter telling me an 'order for recovery of unpaid penalty charge' had been filed against me at northampton CC - along with the accompanying 'statutory declaration', which i intended to send back on the '...have had no response to my appeal' grounds, however, what with one thing and another, i never got around to submitting that form. [OK - i'll admit it. i forgot. i have the memory of a goldfish!]

now, another few months later, our lovely friends equita are sending me letters, threatening to take my car. i've pretty much ignored these up to now as i had this silly naive notion that stealing someone's car was actually a crime in this country. however, after perusing several threads on here, i see that this isn't the case. so i'm wondering what to do next.

i've heard that there may be some process for making a late statutory declaration. this seems to be the logical way to go, since the council never informed me they had rejected my original appeal - but i'm not sure how i'd backtrack things to that stage again.

i'd love to post the photo from my original PCN notice, which clearly shows that my car is not in the bus lane, but unfortunately i'm not allowed to post images til i've made five posts. but, on that score, is there any way to - admittedly very belatedly - to backtrack even further and make an appeal against the offence having taken place in the first place, since [to me and everyone i've shown it to] even the council's own photographic evidence shows that my car wasn't in the bus lane?

What stage did you appeal, ie was it at notice to owner stage, or informal reppy stage

Originally Posted by vlota

i appealed at the first stage - where you get the pcn notice and are given 28 days to pay up, or lodge an appeal. i didn't hear anything back, so assumed they had dropped it, until i later got the letter saying that the unpaid notice had been lodged at the TEC northampton and giving me 21 days to appeal that. it was this 2nd appeal that i failed to lodge.

so you made represenatation but the LA failed to respond and you didnt get the notice to owner, AFAIK you have a challenge there are people on here more knowledgable than me on this, hopefully they will help.

Originally Posted by vlota

sorry. i'm not sure whatyou mean by 'notice to owner' as none of the documents i received are so headed:

* i originally received the pcn on 12 sept 2007
* i submitted an online appeal against this on 25 sept 2007
* i then heard nothing til 31st mar 2008 when i received a letter entitled 'order for recovery of unpaid penalty charge' that letter [is that the 'notice to owner'?] included a form called 'statutory declaration - unpaid penalty charge' which i could send to the TEC, after getting it witnessed by a solicitor. that form was the one i meant to return, - ticking the box 'i made representations about the penalty charge to the council concerned .... but did not receive a rejection notice' - but i forgot to send the form back.

hope that makes it clearer.

actually, looking at that form again, one of the other grounds for appeal says 'i did not receive the notice to owner / bus lane penalty charge notice' so i take it from that, that the 'notice to owner' = PCN, in which case 'yes' i did receive it and appeal it but got no reply.

phew! - got there eventually [i think!]

Ok, me not absolutley sure about this subject that being that a postal pcn doubles as a notice to owner.However if you have appealed to it and didnt get a reply I think after 56 days it is taken that the LA accept by default thyat the contravention did not occur.

I think you need to fill out a statutary out of time declaration stating that you didnt recieve a reply to your representation. This should take you back to original pcn/nto stage. You can then challenge the ticket , obtain photographic evidence which the LA should keep on file then challenge that the contravention did not occur.
I think

Reading this post it is clear that since the beginning of July you should have filed an Out of Time late StatutoryDeclaration.

You have GROUNDS to do so. Your case is VERY SIMPLE INDEED.

There is very little point in asking the LA to call off the bailiffs as they have a valid Warrant of Execution.

The ONLY way to resolve this is to file an Out of Time.

If you call the bailiff to tell him that you are doing this this morning, most bailiffs that our office deal with will remove the clamp later today.

If you want help in completing the Out of Time, then please PM.

You MUST act quickly as the bailiff will remove the car to the pound.

Of course you can.

Even if you have previously PAID a bailiff....even 2 or 3 years ago !! you can still file and Out of Time, which, if succcesfuly will revok the warrant and allow you to claim a refund from the local authority/bailiff company.

PS: I have NOT received a PM.

I have tried to send you a message but you are unable to receive messages.

If you want to send me another message with your number I will help you complete the Out of Time.