Free Traffic Legal Advice

My permit expired whilst I was abroad and I have received 13 PCNs for code 12 & 16 (parking in a resident bay without a valid permit). After appealing, I have now received 4 Notice to Owner forms (with more coming in the post I assume).

I was abroad for a few months for work, and my permit expired while I was away. My resident permit was valid before I left. I did not receive any email notification to remind me of the upcoming renewal required. During my time away, I had asked my sister to periodically switch on the car (every few weeks) so that the battery would not die.

One day, upon arrival, she noticed the car was not there and later discovered after speaking to a neighbour that it had been taken to an impound. She spoke to the impound on my behalf and was told that the car was taken away after receiving 13 consecutive PCNs. I find it quite abhorrent that each one was applied more or less one day after another (Appendix 1.1). There was no empathy or attempt to reach me about this.

I asked her to liaise with the impound to get the car. They had misinformed her about what documentation to bring (given I was on holiday) in order to collect the car. As a result, she called me several times and we had to go back and forth to get the right documents. They highlighted that there were 13 PCNs issued on the car before it was taken away. She paid the release fee and was able to take the car away.

While abroad, I individually appealed each PCN. Haringey did not honour the 30-day response time and took approximately 40 days to get back to me. They rejected each one (Appendix 1.2) with the same reason that the car did not have a valid permit, despite my clear explanation that I did not receive a permit expiry notification email. Also, it seems as though not all the PCNs are on the car. Either they have been blown away or removed..

I have a good track record of renewing my permits and prior to this have had three successful valid permits over the years. I am not sure what to do here. Quite honestly, if this were one or two tickets, I'd be happy to pay. But the amount of 13 PCNs is just too expensive, especially in this cost of living crisis. I was going to appeal these collectively online to the Tribunal and then, if required, attend court and represent myself.

---

My questions are:

• I am confused about the challenge process. On the back of one of the Notice to Owner letters, it says I can make a representation against this Notice to Owner. They provided an additional form for this (Appendix 1.3). Does this mean I have another opportunity to challenge this with the council before making an appeal via the London Tribunals?
• Is this the right move? While I understand that there is an omission on my part, I did not receive any expiry notification email, no letter in the post, and there is little clarification about their process. Why did they wait until 13 PCNs before deciding to take away the car, and not any less or more?
• In the rejection letters, it's clear that some physical PCNs are missing. I am assuming they were blown away or potentially removed. Not sure if this counts for anything?

---

Appendix:

1. List of PCNs & Dates for each

ZN12411827
ZN12411612
ZN12413039
ZN12355191
ZN12354734
ZN12354552
ZN12354417
ZN12354326
ZN12354086
ZN1235398A
ZN12266976
ZN12212900
ZN1212851A

---

1.2. Appeal rejection (there are 13, but all have the same text and similar image) - Page 1 & 2

---

1.3. Notice to Owner letter & included appeal form (received 4 so far, later than 30 days, more I guess on the way) - Page 1, 2, 3, 4

Thank you for the response

My permit expired on 25/04/2024. It seems as though the first PCN was applied on May 7th.

Do you have a link for where they mention 7 to tow? I looked up what you said about Code 19 and guessing it was from here. It says: "Code 19 - Parked in a residents’ or shared use parking place or zone with an invalid virtual permit or displaying an invalid physical permit or voucher or pay and display ticket, or after the expiry of paid for time".

Is my permit classed as 'out of date'? It's unclear as to what that refers to exactly.

Hmm, I'm not sure which PCN is the pound one. I would've assumed it's the last one but that has the same code as the earlier ones. I can enquire about this?

They typically send me an email reminder but I did not receive one. On the website here it says that I should receive one 5 weeks before expiry.

Okay that's good to know. I will appeal the NTOs and include some bits you mentioned about the towing happening much later, the lack of conformity to London Councils guidance and also the harshness of this given I am a resident.

Thanks for your response.

I've had a look back through the documents and it was an additional PCN that was issued on 31/05. That was the pound PCN.

This was given along with the release document (single-sided) which I've attached below.

The PCN number is ZN12536367 and the amount paid to release the vehicle was £200. They required this PCN to be paid too which was £65, so in total £265 was paid.

Pound PCN



Release Document

Nope, just this and the PCN copy. My sister was told that I would need to either pay or appeal the rest of the PCNs.

Thank you for the response. This is quite interesting.

I did not know about this 'Persistent evaders' guideline. With this in mind, do you think I should build my case (representation against the Notice to Owner) on this premise?

At the impound, they mentioned to my sister that I would need to appeal the PCNs, but did not provide any additional documents. If they should have provided documents related to representations info, then I can also challenge the pound PCN as you've mentioned too.

EDIT: So I've given the guidance a read and it doesn't seem like this negates or voids the previous PCNs. Rather, it seems to stipulate that to release the vehicle, I am only obliged to pay the PCN that triggered the removal.

In that case, I'm not sure if I have any grounds here?

Thanks for the response

I have checked my email and nothing is there.

I checked with her and she said nothing else was given paperwork wise. She was verbally told that I would need to appeal the PCNs, and the print out for the list of them (in the original post) was given. So as a recap, she was given the document that lists out all of the PCNs, the PCN receipt itself that triggered the removal and the vehicle removal receipt. Does this count?

Do you have a link for that policy excerpt?

I have been a resident here for ~five years but got my car in 2022. Since then, I have had 3 permits (13/05/2022 - 1 year, 02/05/2023 - 6 months, 25/10/2023 - 6 months).

Did your sister ever move and repark the car? I assume not.

If the car wasn't moved then surely this is one continuous contravention? The first PCN is valid and the remaining should be cancelled. Or does that not apply here for some reason? The Council had the power to, and should have removed the car much earlier if it continued to be in contravention, not just issue more PCNs.

It's been the situation for a long time that the Council can't just issue new PCNs for the same contravention where one has already been served and the car has not moved.

Below is an example. Hopefully our administrator cp8759 will arrive shortly and will be able to pull out more examples from his chest of cases. I had also thought there was a key case, but I can't find it.

ETA Register of Appeals

Register Kept Under Regulation 20 of the Road Traffic (Parking Adjudicators)(London) Regulations
1993, as amended or Paragraph 21 of the Schedule to the Civil Enforcement of Parking
Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations 2007, as applicable

Case Details
Case
reference

2110189461

Appellant James George Gibson
Authority London Borough of Haringey
VRM P844KKU

PCN Details
PCN HY64567480
Contravention
date

06 Jan 2011

Contravention
time

09:12:00

Contravention
location

Lausanne Road

Penalty
amount

GBP 80.00

Contravention In resident shared use place with invalid perm
Referral date
Decision Date 18 May 2011
Adjudicator Carl Teper
Appeal
decision

Appeal allowed

Direction cancel the Penalty Charge Notice and the Notice to Owner.

Reasons The authority's case is that the Appellant's vehicle was parked in a residents'
parking place or zone displaying an invalid permit when in Lausanne Road on 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19 and 21 January 2011 at 09.00.

The Appellant's case is that the permit had not been renewed because they had
not received a renewal notice from the authority. The Appellant and his wife were
on holiday from 31 December 2010 until 23 January 2011 during which period the
Penalty Charge Notices were incurred.

I have considered the evidence and I find that the Appellant's vehicle was parked
in a residents parking place displaying an invalid permit when in Lausanne Road
on 4 January 2011. It is the Appellant's responsibility to renew their permit and they
are not entitled to rely on the courtesy renewal letter, which may not have been
received.

However, I find that the Appellant's vehicle committed one contravention of parking
in a residents' permit bay without clearly displaying a valid permit when in
Lausanne Road on 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19 and 21 January 2011.

I find that one continuous contravention has occurred; the vehicle remains at the
same location throughout the period these Penalty Charge Notices were issued.
Further, I have taken into account that the residents' bay is operational from 8am to
6.30pm Monday to Saturday and I find that the situation would be the same if the
residents' bay was operational 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

There is no rule of law or regulation that entitles an authority to issue a penalty
charge notice every 24 hours or as in some of these Penalty Charge Notices less
than 24 hours. An enforcement authority has other powers at its disposal for a
continuous contravention, such as removal.

For the reasons given this appeal is allowed.

I certify this to be a true copy of an entry in the register