Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hey,

I have a vehicle registered to my name which is driven by a hirer. Yesterday I received a Single Justice Procedure notice for an offence (speeding 58mph in 50mph zone) and then also not passing details of the driver. I have had family issues and not been staying at my home address but been living at my partners for the past 6-8 months. During this time I had no idea that I had received the NIPs during the post as when I went home to collect post once or twice a month, I never saw these letters (I had other letters that had been going missing too).

Anyway what do I do? Can I please get some pro-bono advice on how to proceed? I assume I plead not guilty, however how do I argue my side? What has been others experience with similar situations.

Also - my hirer who was the driver at the time of the initial speeding offence has already admitted it was him and is ready for me to pass his details however it seems now the police aren't interested in delivering justice to the actual criminal but trying to criminalise me for his crime and because I never replied to a letter.

Thank you in advance.

All this legal jargon is a bit overwhelming for me. Can anyone help clarify whether it’s worth challenging this TFL Bus Lane PCN, or whether that’s not an option as the law will hold me responsible despite hire agreement etc? Also, TFL mentioned in their response that the hire agreement needs to be 6 months or more to transfer liability in bus lane violations, which is confusing because usually transfer of liability is done only for agreements under 6 months. Any advice would be appreciated as I'm still as confused as I was when I first started this post.

Hey good day folks,

I could use a bit of help wrapping my head around something. I rent out my vehicle to a driver, and for a parking PCN from TFL, I managed to successfully transfer liability to the driver—easy enough. But when I tried the same trick for a bus lane PCN, TFL shot me down. A little digging online tells me this might be some sort of sneaky legal loophole that maintains registered keepers be liable for bus lane contraventions regardless of hire agreements.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting because TFL’s reasoning has left me in a bit of a head-scratch. I know that, typically, for liability transfer to work, the hire agreement has to be under 6 months. But in the notice of rejection I received from TFL, they stated this:

“You have stated that you are a hire company, and the contravening vehicle was on hire at the time of the contravention. Please be advised that The London Local Authorities Act 1996 does not make provision for the transfer of liability to the hirer for bus lane contraventions, unless the hire agreement has a start and end date which covers the date of contravention and must be for a period of 6 months or longer. Therefore, we are unable to transfer liability for this charge.”

Wait, what?! For regular liability transfer, it needs to be under 6 months, but for bus lane contraventions, it has to be 6 months or more? This is some next level type of contradictory orca sh*t I've not encountered before!

Should I try drafting a new hire agreement that’s over 6 months with my driver, backdate it, and give it another shot with TFL? Or is there something else I’m missing here? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance, legends.

Apologies, I attached it however my upload folder is full apparently so It wasn't uploaded and still isn't being uploaded.
Please find the Notice of rejection on my google drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hUpSmmhG2d6qZV5AYY272n5JLErwXHBV/view?usp=sharing

Thank you, my partner really appreciates your help with this.

This is just a preliminary post, I will elaborate further as required.

Yesterday my appeal was heard at London Tribunals and I explained that the PCN should be transferred because I have a legal transfer of liability with hire length of under 6 months, all fully legal and compliant. However the adjudicator refused the appeal because he a) thought I was lying and seemingly didn't trust my character, and b) he requested evidence that I am a hire firm.

I own and hire out two vehicles and earn a living from that aswell as a few other business ventures. The councils accept my hire agreement and transfer the PCN to the Hirer however the adjudicator wants evidence which I had never prepared for or had no way of knowing it would be required, I was to assume the hire agreement is enough like it is for the other councils. Anyway I can have a solicitor or accountant go over my accounts and confirm that I earn a living from hiring out my vehicles and have him create a letter that confirms that I do operate a hire firm. However how do I overturn or challenge/appeal the adjudicator decision?

Any advice would be very helpful.

Jono

Ok thank you. I'm sorry you can understand this is probably very stressful for me which is why I was urgently requiring free traffic legal advice, like it says on the tin. I will wait for the evidence pack from TFL and be back in contact. Thank you.