3. Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
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Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
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Hi everyone - looking for some advice on whether I can claim back costs for a review of a decision by TEC. Pretty confident that judge will agree I can file my statutory declaration our of time.

Here's the relevant timeline

- The Order for Recovery arrives 21 August with a date of 11 September by which I need to pay or appeal
- I fill in the TE9 form sent by the council to TEC by post.
- Post version returned - date stamped 8 Sept - saying it has been received out of time
- Call TEC who tell me that the form BCC sent has wrong date on it but not to worry, can apply out of time with TE7 and TE9
- Refile a TE7 and a TE9 by email. TE9 form from this address: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094491/Parking_TE9.pdf
- Hear nothing
- Get Marstons after me
- Call TEC who say there was an issue which they tried to contact me about using completely different email - TE9 form is wrong version
- Fill in ANOTHER TE7 and TE9 explaining wrong form wrong email issue
- Application refused "Applicant hasn't provided an accepted proof or explanation why the statutory declaration was served late"
- Decide to bite bullet and get a review
- Call TEC for clarity on what review application should focus on
- TEC guy points out that his system says BCC registered order for recovery on 31 July. And that they have 14 days to get the Order for Recovery to me (they posted it on 21 August - I have them confirming that in their evidence) And that I then have 21 days from that 14th day to pay. Which is Sep 5th. So fact that date on form was wrong is bomb proof reason as to why statutory declaration was served late (my words, not his)
- Email BCC to see if in light of this they won't just use their discretion rather than have me pay money to have the application reviewed. Ask for them to confirm the date that they registered the debt with TEC
- No response and I need to get the N244 form in before the deadline of 21 May

So the question is: given that the cost of the review is £313 to get this heard at my nearest county court, is there a way that I can claim the costs back from the council if they are at fault? Or TEC if it turns out BCC did everything right and the date on their system is wrong? Even if it means going down the small claims route?

(And for colour: initial fine didn't arrive. when reminder did i looked online and images shown were not my car! obvs very keen to appeal so have been checking in with BCC on how and when I can do this - that have records of all the calls I made. For them to mess up with the date on the letter is super annoying...!)

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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #1 on: »
YOur best bet on this one is input from 'Tincombe' who has a courts background as I understand it. Costs would be recoverable from Bristol if you can prove it is their fault.
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #2 on: »
If they posted it on the 21st August, how did it arrive to you on the 21st August?

The court officer is correct - the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 75.3(5) requires service within 15 days from the date of registration, so as long as they posted it on or before the 13th August they appear to be in the clear.

The CPRs do not specify any consequence of late service, however at best you could get the OfR set aside and they would be free to reapply and reserve it, so it's not really a get out clause here
« Last Edit: May 13, 2026, 11:41:55 am by mdann52 »
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #3 on: »
OP, what do you have in writing?

I think you're mixing issues here i.e. the duties which fall to the council and those which fall to you. What counts as far as you're concerned is the submission date on the OfR..which we haven't seen.

If this stated 21 Sept. then you're entitled to rely upon this and providing your initial TE was in the correct form then IMO TEC should have accepted it as being in-time. You don't know, neither are you presumed to know, about 14 days etc..., your obligation is to comply with the OfR which on its face stated 21 Sept. Given the overriding objectives of fairness and disposing of matters efficiently, then irrespective of the council's failure and TEC's inability to override whatever automatic processes they might have, they were obliged to register your TE because any error is fair and squarely the council's, not yours.

Yes, you could have recovered the situation by submitting a TE within whatever additional time allowed by TEC(which in itself proves that flexibility does exist within the system) but this shouldn't have fallen to you.

All subject to you having evidence in support of your account, of course.
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #4 on: »
In similar vein, can we just SEE some documents please
« Last Edit: May 13, 2026, 06:54:22 pm by Neil B »
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #5 on: »
Quote from: Faye G on May 12, 2026, 05:11:08 pm
Hi everyone - looking for some advice on whether I can claim back costs for a review of a decision by TEC.

So the question is: given that the cost of the review is £313

The fee of £313 is for a hearing 'in person' in court. TEC are looking at removing this right so unsure whether it has taken effect yet. Almost certainly you should be considering an N244 Application to review WITHOUT a hearing. The court fee is £123.

From many years of knowledge of Out of Time and N244 Applications, I don't know of even ONE case where a claim for costs has been granted.

Bailiff Advice Online
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #6 on: »
Quote from: Faye G on May 12, 2026, 05:11:08 pm
Hi everyone - looking for some advice on whether I can claim back costs for a review of a decision by TEC.

Here's the relevant timeline

The Order for Recovery arrives 21 August with a date of 11 September by which I need to pay or appeal

I fill in the TE9 form sent by the council to TEC by post.


Refile a TE7 and a TE9 by email.

TE9 form from this address: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094491/Parking_TE9.pdf

First mistake was in sending your Witness Statement (Form TE9)to TEC by POST. This is a 'time sensitive' document and should ALWAYS be sent to the Traffic Enforcement Centre by email. It would then have arrives at TEC 'within time'.

As difficult as it is to believe, the Traffic Enforcement Centre have TWO different forms TE9. One is referred to by TEC as being the 'short form' (in that it has 4 boxes), with the other TE9 (referred to a the long form) having 6 boxes.

For a Bristol CAZ, you should have used the TE9 with 6 boxes.

I receive many hundreds of enquiries about the wrong forms being used. ChatGPT, Claude etc, do not help as they continue to give out the wrong information on these forms.

Bailiff Advice Online
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #7 on: »
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has responded. Here's the order for recovery showing the date of Sep 11, the letter from TEC saying it was received out of time with the date stamp on the second page of 8 Sep, and BCCs evidence in their response to TEC which shows how I called them three times to make sure I got the right of appeal and on the second page, them saying tyhat they posted the letter on the 21st August. And apologies a)for not uploading docs as part of my original post and b)for the carpet!














« Last Edit: May 15, 2026, 09:48:41 pm by Faye G »
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #8 on: »
Quote from: Bailiff Advice on May 13, 2026, 07:10:35 pm
Quote from: Faye G on May 12, 2026, 05:11:08 pm
Hi everyone - looking for some advice on whether I can claim back costs for a review of a decision by TEC.

Here's the relevant timeline

The Order for Recovery arrives 21 August with a date of 11 September by which I need to pay or appeal

I fill in the TE9 form sent by the council to TEC by post.


Refile a TE7 and a TE9 by email.

TE9 form from this address: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094491/Parking_TE9.pdf

First mistake was in sending your Witness Statement (Form TE9)to TEC by POST. This is a 'time sensitive' document and should ALWAYS be sent to the Traffic Enforcement Centre by email. It would then have arrives at TEC 'within time'.

As difficult as it is to believe, the Traffic Enforcement Centre have TWO different forms TE9. One is referred to by TEC as being the 'short form' (in that it has 4 boxes), with the other TE9 (referred to a the long form) having 6 boxes.

For a Bristol CAZ, you should have used the TE9 with 6 boxes.

I receive many hundreds of enquiries about the wrong forms being used. ChatGPT, Claude etc, do not help as they continue to give out the wrong information on these forms.

Bailiff Advice Online

it did arrive in time! The date on the order for recovery was September 11. It arrived at TEc on September 8!
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #9 on: »
I don't think you can ignore Bailiff Advice's i.e. they are not aware of the award of costs. And, if I understand their position, do not bother with a personal hearing because the evidence clearly proves your case:

You received an OfR which offered you the opportunity to submit a TE and INSTRUCTED you to do so no later than 11 Sept in order to be considered as 'in time';

You received a response from TEC which IN SUBSTANCE was that your application had been refused by virtue of being Out of Time. It took no issue regarding its format.

How could this happen?

Seems simple to me.

The OfR is in 2 parts: a covering letter titled OfR... with all the legal details about what happens and offering the recipient the opportunity to submit the enclosed TE by the specified date. If I remember correctly, this date is stated ONLY on the OfR, NOT the TE.

The TE is blank other than for the authority's details.

Therefore, when received by TEC they PRESUMED that the OfR carried the correct date and acted accordingly.

But they were wrong.

IMO, you would succeed on an application on the papers alone. But not the long story, the short one which relates to mandated docs and their letter to you dated 11 Sept. I don't even think you need your submission because NO ISSUE was raised by TEC on this, it's simply them acting upon a presumption which was incorrect because of the authority's failure.

See what others think. 
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #10 on: »
Spoken to TEC again today who have confirmed again that it was registered by BCC on 31st July so deadline on their system is 5 September NOT 11 September as shown on Order for Recovery.

This also means the Order for Recovery which was pisted on 21 August - was sent outside the 15 days allowed for service.

Applied for a review and am then going to make an order to recover costs against the council through small claims because this is a ridiculous eff up on their part.
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #11 on: »
So far we don't know what's happened since Sept. 2025, 8 months ago.

Why has this arisen so long after the events, I would have expected the authority to have instructed bailiffs by now. There's also the issue of the time limit for applying for a review after TEC's decision. How have you cleared this hurdle?
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #12 on: »
They did appoint bailfs in Feb. Thats when I called TEC and they told me my TE9 I'd filed with a TE7 (by email this time to make sure it was received asap) was the wrong form and they'd used the wrong email address to let me know. I refilled correct TE9 and TE7 and here we are.

N244 form for a review going in today
« Last Edit: May 18, 2026, 12:15:27 pm by Faye G »
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #13 on: »
UPDATE

Filed an N244 outlining BCC's mistake. It arrived at TEC at the deadline.
This morning at 7:30, baillifs arrived to take my car. No notification letter or anything - although apparently, there was a message in the app (there isn't, nothing except the original enforcement notice from Feb 2026)

Have put a sticker on it but not a clamp. I've tried to explain that there is a live appeal ongoing but not joy

I am in a panic and dont know what to do.

Can I move the car so they can't tow it? TEC nor BCC parking services dont open till 8:30 and I think there is a 2 hour grace period from 'clamp' to tow

MODIFIED
Just spoke to TEC. It takes up to 5 weeks from the form being received by them for BCC to be notified. Which means that there is no way I can prove to BCC that there is an appeal in to get them to put a stay on the enforcement action.

In that time  have no car and it could end up being sold

This is a nightmare
« Last Edit: June 03, 2026, 08:45:14 am by Faye G »
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Re: Bristol CAZ - order for recovery appeal deadline incorrect on letter OR on TEC system.
« Reply #14 on: »
You can pay the bailiffs. Payment does not affect the processing of your OOT WS at all. If it is accepted, you get the money back except for the PCN amount which remains valid.
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