Unpaid parking ticket treated similar to a bank debt?

[hollywoodhenderson]

If you cannot pay a parking ticket and offer them a reduced monthly payment, telling them you are dealing with payplan or the CCCS would your Council accept a reduced monthly payment, as a debt collecting agency would?

 

I am trying to find out whether a Council would first issue a court notice for an unpaid ticket or pass it onto a debt collector.

[patdavies]

Depends on whether you are talking about a PCN or an ECN/FPN.

 

In a decriminalised parking regime, where a PCN is issued, there is a statutory process to follow. There is no facility in the process for payment by instalment and move to county court for enforcement is automatic.

 

Where parking has not been decriminalised, then an Excess Charge Notice (ECN) or a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) may be issued. This is enforced via Magistrates' Court and like any criminal fine, there exists the facility for payment by instalment - however, it is rare for this to be allowed for a parking offence.

[hollywoodhenderson]

Thanks, it is a PCN. I am completely unfamiliar with the county court process; can you tell me if the county court enforcement would include payment by instalment if requested; or if you do wish to pay by this method should you just not attend the county court hearing and wait for a letter from a debt collecting agency appointed by the court?

[green_and_mean]

If you offer to pay and can show genuine hardship most Councils will accept payment over a set period. Having said that they are not daft you have to be very hard up and if you are driving about in a car which is expensive to run they are unlikely to offer a payment plan.

[patdavies]

Having said that they are not daft you have to be very hard up and if you are driving about in a car which is expensive to run they are unlikely to offer a payment plan.

 

Bearing in mind that theses days

 

1 parking ticket = 1 tank of petrol approx.