if the Penalty Charge Notice was issued at the scene you should pay within 28 days beginning with the date of the notice. If the authority RECEIVES payment within the first 14 days, you only have to pay half the penalty.

if the Penalty Charge Notice was issued by post, you should pay within 28 days beginning with the date of the notice. If the authority RECEIVES payment within the first 14 days beginning with the date of service of that notice, you only have to pay half the penalty.

if you do not pay within 14 days, as outlined above, your right to pay the reduced penalty charge ends.

if the authority do not receive payment of the reduced penalty within 14 days, as outlined above, or the full penalty within 28 days, the next stage in the formal process is for the authority to send a Notice to Owner.

or:

Make an informal challenge against the Penalty Charge Notice

Some people write to the authority challenging the Penalty Charge Notice before the Notice to Owner is issued. Many authorities, but not all, will consider an informal challenge and will notify you whether they accept or reject it.

However,

this is not a part of the formal enforcement process; and

the 14 day limit for paying the reduced penalty still applies.

If you write within 14 days, some authorities will extend the 14 days for paying the reduced penalty whilst considering your letter. But you should check with them whether they will do this as not all authorities do.

Click here for a list of local authorities and a link to their parking enforcement web pages.

Notice to Owner

If the penalty is not paid within 28 days as outlined above, the local authority may issue a Notice to Owner to the person appearing to them to be the owner of the vehicle. The owner is usually, but not always, liable for the penalty, whoever was driving. This is known as Owner Liability.

The owner is usually the person registered as the keeper at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

The Notice to Owner will usually be served by post.

Your next steps

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

pay the penalty charge; or

make representations to the local authority explaining why they think they should not have to pay the penalty. If you wish to do this you should still write back to the local authority at this stage, even if you have made an informal challenge to a Penalty Charge Notice as outlined under 'Make an informal challenge against the Penalty Charge Notice' above.

Click here for a list of local authorities and a link to their parking enforcement web pages.

Making representations

The grounds on which you may make representations are:

you were not the owner at the material time;

the alleged contravention did not occur;

the vehicle was parked by a person who was in control of the vehicle without the owner's consent;

the relevant traffic order is invalid;

the recipient is a hire firm and the vehicle in question was, at the material time, hired under a qualifying hire agreement and the person hiring it has signed a statement of liability in respect of any Penalty Charge Notice issued to the vehicle during the term of the hire agreement;

that the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case; or

the parking attendant was not prevented from serving the Penalty Charge Notice.

Examples of the circumstances in which each ground might apply can be found by clicking here.

Even if one of these grounds does not apply, you may also ask the local authority to consider other reasons for cancelling the penalty, such as mitigation. However, the local authority is only bound to cancel the Notice to Owner if they accept that one of the grounds above applies.

When making representations you should:

explain your reasons fully and clearly;

send clear copies of any relevant documents, keeping the originals;

make sure the local authority RECEIVES your representations within 28 days. They may disregard representations received later. They may consider late representations, but do not have to.

The local authority considers your representations

The local authority must:

consider representations received in time;

decide whether to accept or reject them;

send to the person who made the representations:

a Notice of Acceptance, if it accepts them; or

a Notice of Rejection and a Notice of Appeal form, if it does not accept them

if it has accepted the representations, cancel the Notice to Owner.

The Parking Adjudicators have decided that a local authority should normally respond to representations within 3 months.

Notice of Acceptance

If you receive a Notice of Acceptance, you will not have to pay the penalty and you need take no further action.

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 penalty charge; or

appeal to the Adjudicator. A Notice of Appeal form should be sent by the local authority with the 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 may still send your appeal, but you MUST say on the Notice of Appeal why it is late. The Adjudicator will then decide whether to allow you to appeal late.

For more information on how to appeal to the Adjudicator, click here.

If the penalty charge is not paid or an appeal is not made within the 28 days allowed, the local authority may issue a charge certificate.

Notice of Appeal

This is the form which the local authority should send with their Notice of Rejection.

The grounds of appeal are the same as for making representations:

the alleged contravention did not occur;

the vehicle was parked by someone in control of it without the consent of the owner;

the recipient was not the owner at the material time;

the recipient is a vehicle hire firm and the vehicle in question was, at the material time hired under a qualifying hire agreement and the person hiring it had signed a statement of liability for such charges during the term of the hire agreement;

the penalty exceeded the relevant amount applicable in the circumstances of the case; or

the relevant traffic order was invalid; or

the parking attendant was not prevented from serving the Penalty Charge Notice.

The Adjudicator can ONLY allow an appeal if one of these grounds applies. Adjudicators CANNOT allow appeals for other reasons, e.g. mitigating circumstances.

Examples of the circumstances in which each ground might apply can be found by clicking here.

For more information on how to appeal to the Adjudicator, click here.

Charge Certificate

This is a notice issued by the local authority increasing the penalty charge by 50%.

The local authority may issue a charge certificate where the penalty charge has not been paid and after:

a Notice to Owner has been served and they did not receive representations within 28 days, beginning with the date of service of that notice;

a Notice of Rejection has been served and within 28 days, beginning with the date of service of that notice, no appeal to the Adjudicator has been made;

an appeal has been refused by the Adjudicator and no payment has been received by the local authority within 28 days of the date the decision was served; or

the appellant has withdrawn their appeal and has not paid the penalty charge to the local authority within 14 days of the date on which the appeal is withdrawn.

Registration of Debt and Order for Recovery

If after 14 days of a charge certificate being served the penalty charge is still not paid, the local authority may register it as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

The local authority may then recover the penalty through the county court:

the county court, on application from the local authority, will authorise the authority to draw up an Order for Recovery. The local authority will serve this order on you, with a Statutory Declaration form.

if the penalty is not then paid, the authority may apply to the court for a Warrant of Execution.

Your next steps

Pay the outstanding charge or lodge a Statutory Declaration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Statutory Declaration

Where an Order for Recovery has been made, liability for the penalty can then ONLY be challenged in the following circumstances:

you did not receive the Notice to Owner in question; or

you made representations to the local authority concerned but did not receive a Notice of Rejection from that authority; or

you appealed to the parking adjudicator against the rejection by the local authority of your representations but had no response to the appeal.

If, and ONLY if, one of these applies, you may make a Statutory Declaration.

The completed Statutory Declaration should be returned to the Traffic Enforcement Centre within 21 days beginning with the date of service of the Order for Recovery, although there are provisions for the court to allow longer.

A Statutory Declaration may only be made by the person against whom an Order for Recovery has been made.

It is a criminal offence to make a false Statutory Declaration.

For information available from the Traffic Enforcement Centre on the Statutory Declaration procedure and downloadable forms, click here. (Please note that PATAS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information on third party web sites)

Next steps

What happens next depends on the grounds for making the Statutory Declaration.

if the ground is that the Notice to Owner was not received, the Order for Recovery, Charge Certificate and Notice to Owner are cancelled. The local authority may then issue a new Notice to Owner;

if the ground is that the Notice of Rejection or a decision from the Adjudicator was not received, the local authority must refer the Statutory Declaration to the Adjudicator who will decide what will happen next.

NOTE: the original Penalty Charge Notice is NOT cancelled.