The Appeals Process Explained

This page is designed to help you understand when you may appeal to the Adjudicator and what steps you need to take to do so.

When can I appeal?

Other pages you might find useful

You may only appeal to the Adjudicator if:

you have received a Penalty Charge Notice from a London local authority; and

you have made formal representations to the authority challenging the Penalty Charge Notice; and

you have received a Notice of Rejection from the authority.

If you have received a notice or letter and cannot identify what it is, please see Understanding the Enforcement Process.

If you have not made formal representations to the authority, you will need to contact them directly: see council finder and links.

The appeals process stage by stage

Stage 1 – You have received a Notice of Rejection

The person to whom a Notice of Rejection has been issued has 28 days, beginning with the date of service of that notice, to:

pay the charge; or

appeal to the Adjudicator. A Notice of Appeal form should be sent by the local authority with their Notice of Rejection. If this form is not enclosed, the local authority should be contacted to obtain one.

If you wish to appeal to the Adjudicator later than the 28 days, you should still send your appeal but you MUST say on the Notice of Appeal form why it is late. The Adjudicator will then decide whether to allow you to appeal late.

For:

help in preparing your appeal, see Preparing Your Appeal

information on the legal grounds of appeal, see Grounds of Appeal

Send in your appeal to the address shown on the Notice of Appeal form.

Stage 2 – What happens when your form is received at PATAS?

When your Notice of Appeal form is received at PATAS:

staff will check your form to make sure that everything is in order and if it is, register your appeal;

if you have requested a personal hearing, send you a letter advising you of the date and time when your hearing will be heard;

if you have chosen to have a postal decision, send you a letter advising you of the date your appeal is likely to come into the list to be decided. Please note that this does not mean that your postal appeal will necessarily be decided on that day. How soon it is decided will depend on the number of other postal appeals;

the authority will also be notified of the appropriate date and will be asked to send their evidence. They will also send a copy of their evidence to you.

If your appeal is not in order, we will contact you.

Stage 3 - Your appeal is decided

If you have chosen a personal hearing this will take place at the Hearing Centre in central London - click here for a map.

The Adjudicator will normally make a decision at the hearing and you will be able:

to take a written copy of it away with you; or

it can be posted to you if you wish.

More detailed information on what happens at a personal hearing can be found here.

In a postal appeal the Adjudicator will make a decision on the papers only. The written decision will be sent to both parties.

The decision will state:

whether the appeal is ALLOWED or REFUSED;

the Adjudicator's reasons for the decision;

any directions the Adjudicator has made;

if you are liable to pay any sum to the authority, payment details will also be included.

The Adjudicator’s decision is binding on both parties.

After the decision has been made

There is no automatic right of appeal against the Adjudicator's decision. However, in limited circumstances a decision can be reviewed.

The grounds for review are:

the decision was wrongly made because of an error by our administrative staff;

you failed to appear or be represented at a hearing for some good reason;

there is new evidence, the existence of which could not have been reasonably known of or foreseen before the decision; or

the interests of justice require a review. You should note that an Adjudicator's findings of fact are normally regarded as final and will only be overturned if they are plainly incompatible with the evidence that was before the Adjudicator. The mere fact that you disagree with these findings is not a ground for review.

Please note that a review will only be granted if an Adjudicator is satisfied that one or more of these applies. A review is NOT simply an opportunity for you to appeal again. You cannot ask for a review just because you disagree with the Adjudicator's decision.

More information on this procedure can be found here.