Free Traffic Legal Advice

Please post up all of the remaining pages of the postal PCN and also for the Charge Cert. At the moment we only have pg1 of each. Please only redact your name and address where present. Please leave everything else visible.

The alleged contravention was on 27th March 2025. The postal PCN is dated 11th July 2025.

That's an extended delay and maybe out of time.
So is this your own vehicle?
Is the V5c in your name?
Is the address on the V5c correct and current?
Is the car leased, rented or a company car or similar?

The PCN does say the penalty is £0.00, at least that's what it says on page 1 of the PCN. A PCN has to correctly state the penalty so I would say this PCN is a defective notice.

I'm aware that some London authorities, eg TFL, have sent out £0.00 PCNs as warning notices when new arrangements have been made, such as ULEZ expansion. But they usually say it's a warning and they don't follow up with a Charge Cert.

I assume your references to £250 being due are typos. A Charge Cert in your case would be for £240. An Order for Recovery would be for £250. So do you have an OfR? I guess not but please let's be certain.

There is no "ground" on a statutory declaration that applies to a defective notice. It's really for missing notices.

So I suggest that you submit a late representation/challenge to the Council pointing out that their PCN is served out of time (assuming it is confirmed) and is defective because the amount of the charge is not accurately stated. Ask them to cancel the PCN and Charge Cert.

You are late with your representation, I calculate that the deadline was the 11th August. Strictly speaking they are no longer obliged to consider your representations, so you're relying on common sense prevailing. Common sense is rare within Local Authorities as that implies work.

Please answer the questions before you try and submit anything.

The CC is for £240 not £250.

Why do you continue to refer to £250?

IMO, you could submit an Statutory Declaration on the grounds:

You did not receive the Penalty Charge Notice in question.

IMO, this applies because the CC states:

'The above Penalty Charge has not been paid ..and..as a result has now increased to £240.'

You did NOT receive a PCN which demanded a penalty of £160(which is the implicit penalty which gives rise to a surcharged value of £240).

It's not your burden to check PCN numbers and to explain the authority's c**k-up.

But before this I would go with stamfordman's suggestion to write to the authority - after all, so far they've NOT been made aware of any of this and their system has churned out this nonsense.

But I would draft along the following lines:

Sir,
Please find enclosed a copy of a Penalty Charge Notice for £0.00 issued by yourselves approx. 4 months after an alleged contravention, namely 23 March and 11 July 2025 respectively.

I also invite you to see the enclosed Charge Certificate in which you've calculated that a penalty of £0.00 when surcharged by 50% achieves a value of £240.

Until now I've not responded to your invalid documents in the (mistaken) belief that your internal procedures applied correctly would pick up your mistakes, however, I've been advised that I should write to you as I cannot be confident that you would rectify your mistakes unaided.

For the purposes of regulatory correctness, I require confirmation from you that the PCN for £0.00 has been cancelled.