Author Topic: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.  (Read 182 times)

0 Members and 8 Guests are viewing this topic.

PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« on: »
Hi

I’ve received this PCN from Italy when I rented out a vehicle about a year ago. I have no recollection of the incident and not sure if this is legitimate or not. If someone could advise me what to do, should I pay out the fine? Thanks

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Egi30m8VEXnxE8TyYE0jbm90hrAwQ4x4/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQPRsOukNqhH_9CSYw1w0-LT7QNhUkmw/view?usp=drivesdk

Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook


Re: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« Reply #1 on: »
They can't enforce it.

Have you had an admin fee from the rental company?

Re: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« Reply #2 on: »
I would not worry too much.

Even Councils in England cannot enforce PCN for vehicle registered in Scotland.

Re: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« Reply #3 on: »
I'm not familiar with Italian law, but it's maybe possible the hire company will pay the fine and off-charge you. Italy parking and traffic offences are all still under criminal law, I think.

In the UK, the Penalty Charge Notice regime makes the owner of the vehicle responsible, so with hire and lease companies, a lot of them just pay the the PCN and off-charge the hirer/lessee, plus an 'admin' charge, needless to say !
« Last Edit: January 16, 2026, 01:49:36 am by Incandescent »

Re: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« Reply #4 on: »
Hello from Italy :-)

I'm sorry that you received this bad gift after your trip. Shortly answer I suggest you to ignore this, as can't be enforced in UK, and will not be enforced. They will only try to stress you/scare you with reminders / credit collectors letters for a while (credit collectors not bailiffs).

Italian Traffic Fines (both parking and moving ones) are only civil matters and you will have no consequences even in the case you will come back to Italy (there are only few exceptions to this for very serious matters like driving under alcohol/drugs or running away from a car accident or other few very serious matters: these are criminal offences and are registered in your records).

Rental company never directly pay traffic tickets in Italy: they simply have to send to the police/municipality the renter's name and address and then is up to the police / council to chase you. For doing this rental companies always charge you an admin fee (and surely they have already charged your credit card, normally something around 50 Euros, sometimes more. It's written in the rental agreement).

Why I'm telling you this? Not because I'm an Italian that likes foreigners coming to Italy doing what they want, but because you probably made an honest error, entering in a city center zone closed to traffic and got caught by a camera, maybe bad signposted like often happens. This zones are very common in Italy but unusual for many foreigners.

And for this honest error they are trying to charge you in an indecent way. For that violation the fine is 58 Euros if paid in 5 days from when you receive it or 83 Euro if paid from 5 to 60 days from when you receive.
Italian law says that they can add on the top of the fine the expenses that they have to notify you the report. But guys, here they are trying to charge you around 60 Euros!!! For what? For sending you a letter at the address received from the rental company? The fact is that there are a lot of municipality that are "outsourcing" fine management to be sent abroad to external companies, like the one that wrote to you, that work for free (for the municipality) but they are "allowed" to charge whatever they want on the top. There have been different scandals about this kind of companies in Italy and I simply find that this is a shame.

Plus I'm not a native English speaker but I have never seen a translation bad as that. There are also a lot of technical errors like, for example, its the owner or the renter that is responsible for payment not the driver, they are not detailing the amount of the fine and the amount of the expenses as the law requires (guess why...), they declare that they have sent the letter from a Vatican Post Office (not joking read among the lines, never seen this but Vatican is not Italy and they have to send the letter from Italy according to the law. Never seen this, maybe Vatican Post Service is less expensive than the Italian one). Never seen a **** like that. Do you what to gain 60 Euros of expenses? At least do a decent job...

As said I'm a very law obeying citizen, in Italy and abroad but I don't like to see a tourist "scammed" in this way for a simply honest mistake.

Hope you liked my country as I liked your during my different trips :-)
« Last Edit: January 16, 2026, 12:24:34 pm by stemi »

Re: PCN from Italy - Entered a limited traffic zone.
« Reply #5 on: »
Hi All,

Thank you for your kind help and responses.

I have not been charged from my rental company as far as I’m aware. This incident was almost a year ago.

The ask is honestly ridiculous as well, almost 140 euros for a traffic fine??

Thanks Stemi for your detailed reply with this. It really was an honest mistake and I don’t even have any recollection of it! It does seem like a scam considering the amount they’re asking for!

I visit Italy very often so I was scared this might flag up for my next visit. Or if they would send any bailiffs making the issue even worse. Thank you for your advise and I will ignore the letter for now!

Grazie :)
Like Like x 1 View List