Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi
I've just been informed by my lease hire company that they received *today* (8 May) a representation for a parking penalty charge for failing to comply with a restriction on vehicles entering a pedestrian and cycle zone on 20 February 2024. I've not seen the PCN yet, but they've let the council know I was the driver.

Is there a time limit for the council to serve such a PCN? This seems to be over 2 months since the alleged offence.

It's annoying. I didn't see/take on board the signs, and it was 10 mins before the end of the restricted period (it's one of the school ones and I don't normally go that way, so didn't realise). But I'm bang to rights unless there's a time limit to serve the PCN, I guess.

Thanks for reading

[Edit: getting the "P" right in PCN!]

Not sure what you mean by this: -

Quote

"they received *today* (8 May) a representation for a parking penalty charge"

Surely they just received a PCN which they responded to.

Thank you for responding @Incandescent. It was the wording used by the leasing company. Here it is in full:

Dear XXXX

For your information we have today received and processed a representation for a parking charge involving your lease vehicle.

To avoid any risk of the cost escalating we recommend that you review the PCN details and evidence via the London Borough of Sutton website with the details below:

PCN Number: XXXX
Vehicle Registration Number: XXXX

Should you be satisfied with the details of the charge, please settle this directly with the issuer via their website.

In line with your contract we have provided your name and postal address to London Borough of Sutton who will write to you directly. If you would like to appeal the charge, please wait until you receive the notice through the post in your name before submitting your appeal. If you have not received this notice within 3 weeks of this email, please contact us via email at XXXX.

If the address below is incorrect, please let us know as soon as possible.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

Please be advised [we] do not hold these PCN details on file and will be unable to provide further information on the specific offence details at this time.

I, too, guess they've just responded to a PCN by providing my details (as the leasee), for the council to pursue.

[EDIT: though it isn't a "parking charge" as set out in the email, it's a penalty charge, but that makes little difference. Looking it up, the penalty code is likely to be 53 "Failing to comply with a restriction on vehicles entering a pedestrian and cycle zone." but the website doesn't give that detail, so I will only know once the council contact me]

Thank you @Incandescent

I've emailed my lease company back explaining the PCN was out of time and therefore not a lawful PCN. I've asked them to put that challenge to the council.  I've asked to be copied into or forwarded the follow up email to the council.

Hopefully, the lease company will do that. But they may not.

I'll update this thread on whether they do or don't contact the council about it being an out of time PCN.

@duncedunce you don't need to get into any slanging match with the lease company, if the PCN to the lease company was unlawful then the PCN to you is also unlawful.

Therefore when you get your own PCN, you can challenge it on the ground that the PCN served on the registered keeper was out of time. Frankly it's much better to do this yourself and keep the lease company out of the picture, as lease companies have a propensity to mess things up.

If you look up the PCN on the council website it might give you a clue of whether it's been reissued to you.

Once you have the PCN, let us know and we'll draft a representation for you.

@duncedunce please don't make additional threads, we have a one-case-one-thread rule to ensure we can be as efficient as possible when giving advice.

The representation for this is very simple:


This will get the discount reoffered and will buy you a few weeks, but there's no rush so I wouldn't send this until the end of next week. As long as the representation is made within the discount period, the discount is almost invariably reoffered when the council issues a rejection. Make sure to submit it online and keep a screenshot of the confirmation page.

In the meantime I think we need to establish exactly what's gone on, so please contact the lease company as follows:


Or if you can call them up and get them to email it to you that works too. My main concern is that we've not actually had sight of the PCN served on the lease company, also it might be that the lease company is not the registered keeper. It's possible the car is registered to a finance company that got the first PCN and then transferred liability to your lease company.

The good thing is the longer the chain back to the registered keeper, the greater the chances of the council having messed things up.

Also, please post up the terms and conditions of your lease agreement, depending on the wording there might be an additional ground of appeal.

I have a copy of the V5C and it has the name and address of the lease company in the Registered Keeper section.

That's excellent, once we have the PCN served on the registered keeper we should be able to confirm this will be open and shut on appeal.

That's not a PCN, that's a Charge Certificate, received by the Lease Company on 4th.April.. Before issuing a CC, the Council have to issue the PCN, 

If you read the CC, you'll see the dates of the contravention and the date of the PCN sent to the lease company.  The CC states that no response was received from the lease company within the 28 day period, and the Charge Certificate was issued. By not responding to the PCN, the lease company lost any option to submit representations, yet somehow they have passed on your name and address to the council who have then issued a PCN to you. 

Something seems not right here at all, and much more explanation is needed from the lease company about what they did when the PCN was received by them, and why a Charge Certificate was served to them as it states no representations or payment was received within the 28 days allowed on the PCN.