help needed

[give me my money back]

I have earlier posted on the parking forum, but been moved to bailiffs forum, as the bailiffs are now involved, however I do need advice on the procedure and timeline of parking tickets.

Last year i recieved a pcn on my vehicle, I had just pulled up into a residents only parking bay to drop my brother of at my mothers house, as he had just been released from hospital after a suspected heart attack. My mother has 3 residents parking passes, and my intention was to put one on my vehicle as soon as I had got my brother into the house. A small walk of around 20 yards as I had managed to park right in front of her gate. I was gone only 2 to 3 mins when I was returning from the house to see a parking attendant putting a ticket on my vehicle. I have a witness who can verify that the attendant just walked straight up to the vehicle and put the ticket on.....no waiting 5 mins, as stipulated on the ticket. No ammount of dialogue would persuade him from his action.

Straight away I actioned my right as per pcn ticket and wrote to the council. Since then I have received nothing from them ....no notice to owner etc untill the bailiffs turned up today. Surely I have a course of action. Can somebody please advise.

[Jamberson]

Yes you do.

 

First of all, forget the circumstances which led to the pcn being served. At the moment it is of no consequence.

 

The first thing you need to do is formally challenge the warrant the bailiffs are acting on. You do this by filing an out of time statutory declaration. Go to Northampton County Court's website and download the forms or phone them up and get them to post them to you. Make sure you get "out of time" forms.

 

Complete them and send them back to Northampton. File them by ticking the box which says "did not receive notice to owner".

 

I advise that you call the council ASAP and tell them you are doing this. They may agree to instruct the bailiff to hold fire for the moment - there is a chance they will clamp the car otherwise, before the forms are filed.

 

Once you've done that, the Council will look at your application and either cancel the bailiff warrant or refuse to - their decision will rest largely (though not solely) on whether they believe that you have not received prior documentation - so if you have moved, for example, make sure you state this on the forms.

 

If you succeed, you are back with the original PCN which you can pay or contest. At that point you can bring up the circumstances on the day - but not now.

 

Hope this makes sense.