Challenging your Penalty Charge Notice

If you want, you can contact LCC Notice Processing Centre immediately after you receive the Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). You should aim to do this within 14 days of receiving the PCN if you want to preserve the right to pay at the discount rate. You will normally be asked to put your point in writing.

State your case clearly and simply. If you have evidence to support your claims such as receipts or witness statements, send these in. (We recommend that you always send copies only and hold on to the originals). The LCC Notice Processing Centre will write back, either accepting or rejecting your challenge. If you have written within 14 days of receiving the PCN and the council reject your challenge, you should be offered the chance to pay at the discounted rate.

If the LCC Notice Processing Centre rejects your informal challenge and you don’t pay the charge, LCC Notice Processing Centre will send a Notice to Owner to the person or company they believe to be the owner of the vehicle. By now, the full penalty charge will be payable.

This notice goes to the person believed to be the owner of the car, because under the Traffic Management Act 2004, s78, The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) General Regulations 2007and The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations 2007, it is the owner of the vehicle who is liable for any Penalty Charge Notices issued to it, irrespective of who the driver was. This is known as owner liability.

If you receive a Notice to Owner, you can use the form to make formal representations to the LCC Notice Processing Centre. The Notice to Owner form itself details the legal grounds on which a formal representation may be made. You must make your representations within 28 days of receiving the form. Again, state your case clearly and simply. If you have evidence to support your claims, such as receipts or witness statements, send them in. (We recommend that you always send copies only and hold on to the originals).

If you don’t think you meet one of the legal grounds for making a representation, you may still state your case, since the LCC Notice Processing Centre may exercise its discretion and cancel the PCN.

If the LCC Notice Processing Centre waives the Penalty Charge Notice, you will receive a letter informing you of this. If they decide that the PCN should not be waived, you will be sent a letter explaining why. This is called a Notice of Rejection of Representations. With this letter, you should receive a form called a Notice of Appeal, allowing you to appeal to the independent Parking Adjudicator.