Free Traffic Legal Advice

Firstly forget about paying the PCN at the £65 rate, we want to explore all possible avenues for getting it cancelled first.

However before we get to that, you need to deal with the Charge Certificate. A Charge Certificate cannot be challenged, but the next document in the process (the Order for Recovery) can be, under the statutory ground that you never received the Penalty Charge Notice.

Have a read of the process on this page https://www.londontribunals.gov.uk/eat/understanding-enforcement-process/moving-traffic-pcn-enforcement-process from the "Charge Certificate" paragraph down to the end of the page.

Obviously the PCN didn't turn up so it's possible this might happen to the Order for Recovery, so you don't want to rely on the post. Instead, keep an eye on the amount due on the council website, once the debt has been registered with the Traffic Enforcement Centre, the amount owed will go up by a further £9. At that point you are able to make a statutory declaration, even if you haven't received any further paperwork.

You just need to print off form PE3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-pe3-challenge-an-unpaid-penalty-charge-notice and note that, counterintuitively, the box under "My reasons are (give full reasons)" should be left blank.

You will need to make an appointment at your local county court to get it sworn, or most high street solicitors will do it for £5 - £10. Note that you must not sign the form until the person witnessing it tells you to.

Once that's done, you can scan or photograph the form and email it to tec@justice.gov.uk with the PCN number in the subject line.

If anything isn't clear, please ask.

When the Traffic Enforcement Centre issues a revoking order, the council will issue a new PCN by post, and you'll be able to then either challenge it or pay it at the discount.

However at that stage you should post the PCN on here and we can look at whether it can be challenged on its merits.

The declaration will need to be signed each time by a solicitor, so I am going to rack up a fortune in solicitors fees as I doubt they will do it for free.

Free at mags or county court - see CP's post at reply#1

This is going to be difficult to keep track of all the dates

You should be able to phone Council and ask for details of outstanding PCNs against your reg.mark. and the stage they've reached.

This is going to be difficult to keep track of all the dates when these go to enforcement and I need to so a Statuary Decleration.

Call the council and get a list of all the outstanding PCNs listed against your car. Then set up a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

I guess I can't do just one to cover them all? The declaration will need to be signed each time by a solicitor, so I am going to rack up a fortune in solicitors fees as I doubt they will do it for free.

Free at any magistrates' court or county court (note: the magistrates' court won't know anything about this and you'll have to show them the bit of the form where it says it can be witnessed by a justice of the peace).

What's the timescale from when the two week period for the Charge Certificate expires to when I get an enforcement order and how long do I get to submit Statuary Declarations? I will be on holiday for a couple of weeks from end of next week, so won't be able to deal with it while abroad.

You can check the outstanding penalty amount from anywhere in the world. Once it goes up to £204 you know a Order for Recovery has been issued. At that point you have 21 days to email the statutory declaration to the traffic enforcement centre, so one or two weeks abroad are not an issue as long as you deal with it promptly when you get back.

Also, what I have received is as Notice of Enforcement, rather than an Order of Recovery, are these not the same thing? The PE3 form for the statuary declaration mentions OfR.

Looking at the PE3 form, I cannot see why it was necessary to wait for the enforcement notice before submitting a statuary declaration, could I have not done this when I first received the Charge Certificate?

As this is now an enforcement order, presumably made by a court, would that have an impact on my credit rating i.r. CCJ?

It does indeed mention a £75 charge. Looks like this has gone to the next step without me receiving the OfR and they have made an enforcement order for bayliff.

See attached.

Now what can I do?

Well, this one has been really strange.

First of all we received two PCN for the same contravention in May, which we immediately paid.

The after several weeks we received these 4 Charge Certificates, relating to PCNs that we never received dating back to March / April

Our argument is that we would have paid the PCN if we received them, as we had paid the ones that we did receive. My wife only became aware that there was this LTN once we did receive the PCN.

Now I only have until 09 Feb to pay before they start sending round bailiffs.