Parking fine doubled. No knowledge of incident.

[hitchy1]

I received a letter from council today giving 28 days to pay a £70 fine for a parking contravention on 30th May.

apparantly had i paid within 14 days the payment would have been halved.

Until today i knew nothing about the incident, nothing on the windscreen and nothing through the post.

I'm not denying that i may have been illegally parked although i cannot recollect it, but how do i appeal against the fine being increased when i clearly have no knowledge.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

I received a letter from council today giving 28 days to pay a £70 fine for a parking contravention on 30th May.

apparantly had i paid within 14 days the payment would have been halved.

Until today i knew nothing about the incident, nothing on the windscreen and nothing through the post.

I'm not denying that i may have been illegally parked although i cannot recollect it, but how do i appeal against the fine being increased when i clearly have no knowledge.

 

You can't. Technically it hasn't been increased, you have lost the discount for early payment. Financially it comes to the same thing but technicalities matter!

 

What you should have received is a Notice to Owner. This is the start of the formal process. It should have the details of the alleged contravention, time, date, location, etc. There are a number of statutory grounds for appeal, you have to decide which (if any) apply in your case.

[hitchy1]

You can't. Technically it hasn't been increased, you have lost the discount for early payment. Financially it comes to the same thing but technicalities matter!

 

What you should have received is a Notice to Owner. This is the start of the formal process. It should have the details of the alleged contravention, time, date, location, etc. There are a number of statutory grounds for appeal, you have to decide which (if any) apply in your case.

 

Thanks, just as i feared its hard to prove. I will try the appeal process and hope they reassess.

[patdavies]

The first ground is procedural impropriety on the part of the Council in that no PCN was issued,

[green_and_mean]

The first ground is procedural impropriety on the part of the Council in that no PCN was issued,

 

A PCN must have been issued of there would be no NTO what I assume you meant was no PCN was served.

[hitchy1]

A PCN must have been issued of there would be no NTO what I assume you meant was no PCN was served.

 

 

There was certainly no PCN issued to me or attached to the car, hence the letter today was first i have heard about it.

How would i prove it? its possible someone took it off the car but god only knows why. To be honest if it had been served i would have paid it, what im trying to achieve now is for them to prove it to me and offer the 50% discount.

[patdavies]

A PCN must have been issued of there would be no NTO what I assume you meant was no PCN was served.

 

Correct, sloppy of me...

[Jamberson]

The absence of a PCN on the vehicle does not mean it was not served. If I were you I wouldn't appeal on this basis before making some verbal enquiries as to whether it was served, and how. If, for example, they have a photo of it on the car, this is not going to be a viable line of appeal. See if you can find out.

 

Be aware that if you put anything in writing, it will likely be processed as your one and only formal representation, so avoid this until you are armed with all the info you can get, and then submit an appeal.

 

If it was served, then you can choose whether to appeal the charge for some other reason, such as the contravention did not occur, or you could write and request that they reinstate the discount since you did not receive the PCN itself. It has been known for local authorities to agree to this.

[patdavies]

Be aware that if you put anything in writing, it will likely be processed as your one and only formal representation, so avoid this until you are armed with all the info you can get, and then submit an appeal.

 

One and only formal representation to the Council

 

However, if the appeal is rejected by the Council, there is always PATAS and you are not limited to appealing only the same grounds to them.

[hitchy1]

One and only formal representation to the Council

 

However, if the appeal is rejected by the Council, there is always PATAS and you are not limited to appealing only the same grounds to them.

 

 

What is PATAS?

[Jamberson]

PATAS is an independent adjudicator who you can refer the case to for review (normally a personal hearing where you and the local authority attend). They will give an impartial judgement.

 

However before things get to that you must have made a formal represetation, and had it turned down - so not an issue at this stage, but something you can look at if you have no luck with the representation.

 

As I said, don't blow the representation by sending a premature letter which doesn't contain your whole appeal case. If you write and query whether the PCN was not served, yet thay have a picture showing it was, you'll almost certainly have lost your representation.