Dealing with County Court Parking Fines

Starting a Parking Ticket Appeal

Nov 30, 2008 Asa Ghaffar

The Traffic Act 2004 gives local authorities civil powers to enforce parking fines for a parking offence in public areas. This article explains how to commence an appeal.

The introduction of the Traffic Act 2004 means that parking fines no longer constitute a criminal offence. A parking penalty is enforced through a County Court procedure. Parking fines are issued for parking on double yellow lines, zigzag lines or in a permit only or meter zone.

Who is Responsible For Parking Fines?

No matter who was driving the vehicle and committed the parking offence, it is the car owner who is liable to pay any parking charges. The exceptions to this rule are:

The car has been stolen;
Hire cars. These are handled by a separate contractual agreement. The person hiring the car will be financially responsible for any fines.

New Parking Charges Procedure

Since the 31st March 2008, parking fines can be issued by the following methods:

A parking fine can be handed to someone by being fixed to the car or handed over in person;
In instances where a transgression was identified by CCTV, it can be sent via post;
Parking charges can be issued at the same time that the car was clamped.

What Happens If the Fine Is Not Paid In Time?

The person issued with the parking penalty needs to make payment within 28 days. Failure to pay parking charges within this time frame will result in the issue of a 'charge certificate' and an additional 50% added to the parking fine. After a further 14 days, an application can be made to the County Court for a court order.

Grounds For Appealing Against a Parking Fine

It is argued that the parking offence never took place. This may have been because a valid ticket was displayed, the signs were wrong or the owner was loading at the time;
The parking ticket has been issued for the wrong amount;
A parking penalty has been issued by the wrong method or procedure. That includes missing out key information on the notice;
The person who received the parking fine wasn't the owner of the vehicle or became the owner after the parking fine was issued.
The vehicle was stolen so the illegal parking was beyond the control of the legitimate owner;
The parking fine has already been fully paid;
The parking penalty was received via post and the receiver wishes to claim that there was nothing to stop the Civil Enforcement Officer from issuing the notice at the time.

The local authority does have the power to lift a charge, but there would have to be compelling reasons for this to happen. Possible instances would include an emergency situation, compassionate grounds or if the owner is part of the 'blue badge' scheme.

If a fine is issued, don't delay in commencing a parking appeal as time is of the essence. It is possible to get a parking fine lifted, but there will need to be 'compelling reasons' or defined legal reasoning for this to happen.

Failure to do anything will simply result in further fines which won't help if debt problems are already an issue. There are a number of ways to save money if finding the cash to settle parking fines do present a problem.

The copyright of the article Dealing with County Court Parking Fines in Personal Budgeting/Finance is owned by Asa Ghaffar. Permission to republish Dealing with County Court Parking Fines in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.