Challenging a Penalty Charge Notice

What are your client's next steps when the bailiffs visit to enforce a Penalty Charge Notice?

Shelter's Specialist Debt Advice Service explores options to challenge a parking or road traffic charge when the deadline has passed.

Why Penalty Charge Notices are issued

Local and public authorities issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for road traffic and parking contraventions.

A PCN could be issued for:

parking contraventions
driving in a bus or cycle lane
stopping a vehicle in a box junction
driving in a pedestrian zone
failing to pay a Clean Air Zone or Low Emission Zone charge
failing to pay a road usage charge, such as the Dartford Crossing or Merseyflow Charge

A Penalty Charge Notice has a confusingly similar name to a Parking Charge Notice, which is issued for parking on private land, for example, a supermarket car park.

Private parking charges are enforced in the same way as any other money debt. They are not processed in the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Options to challenge the debt out of time

When enforcement agents visit, they are acting under a warrant of control issued by the Traffic Enforcement Centre, part of HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Once a warrant of control has been issued, the chance to dispute the debt with the local authority or appeal to a Traffic Penalty Tribunal has passed. Your client needs permission to challenge the debt out of time.

The debt is not technically a County Court judgment. This means your client cannot apply to suspend the warrant or vary payment terms because the court only has these powers for orders made by the County Court.

Instead, your client can apply out of time to challenge the debt in the Traffic Enforcement Centre. There is no time limit to submit an out-of-time challenge.

Your client's vehicle is at risk of being clamped by the enforcement agents, so they must act quickly.

Your client needs to send two completed forms to the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Form 1: Grounds to challenge the PCN
Form 2: Request permission to challenge the debt out of time

If your client received the court order, they should have received the relevant challenge form enclosed. If not, they can find it on Gov.UK Traffic Enforcement Centre forms.

Traffic Enforcement Centre forms

PCN type	Challenge form	Out of time request form	Grounds for challenge
Parking (outside London)	TE9	TE7	1 to 4
Parking (in London)	PE3	PE2	1 to 3
Moving traffic contravention outside London after 1.6.22	TE9	TE7	1 to 4
Moving traffic contravention ouside London before 1.6.22	PE3	PE2	1 to 3
Moving traffic contravention in London	PE3	PE2	1 to 3
Dart Charge	TE9	TE7	1 to 4
Merseyflow Charge	TE9	TE7	1 to 4
Clean Air Zone (CAZ)	TE9	TE7	1 to 4
Low and Ultra Low Emission Zones (LEZ and ULEZ)	TE9	TE7	1 to 3

Forms that must be witnessed

Forms PE2 and PE3 must be witnessed and sworn before your client sends them to the Traffic Enforcement Centre. The forms can be witnessed by a solicitor, an officer of the County Court, or a justice of the peace.

Your client can make an appointment at their local County Court for the form to be sworn and witnessed free of charge. A solicitor will charge a small fee.

Reasons for out of time applications

When completing form TE7 or PE2 your client must explain why their application is out of time. They can include mitigating circumstances, such as hospital stays or periods of homelessness.

Ground 1: Notice to owner, PCN, or enforcement notice not received

This ground applies if your client did not receive the notice to owner, Penalty Charge Notice, or enforcement notice.

The owner of the vehicle is normally liable to pay a PCN. This is assumed to be the registered keeper.

Issuing authorities send PCNs to the registered keeper recorded at the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and on the V5C logbook.

Updated registered keeper details

If your client did not update their logbook with a change of address, a challenge is likely to fail. Updating the address on a driver's licence does not automatically update the logbook.

If the DVLA failed to update the registered keeper's address when notified, your client must supply proof of how and when they notified the DVLA.

A new owner might incur a PCN after a sale before the DVLA was notified of the change of keeper. Your client could supply evidence of the sale as proof they were no longer the owner.

Penalty incurred by someone using client's vehicle

Your client is liable for the PCN if it was incurred by a third party using your client's car with their permission.

Ground 2: No response to representations from issuing authority

This ground applies if your client disputed liability with the issuing authority within the permitted time and did not receive a rejection notice.

Your client must supply proof that they made representations to the issuing authority within the time limit. This could include copies of letters, emails, or acknowledgements received from the issuing authority.

The time limit is usually 28 days after your client receives the PCN. For parking contraventions, the 28 days runs from the client receiving the notice to owner in the post.

Ground 3: No response from relevant tribunal

This ground applies if your client appealed to the relevant tribunal within the permitted time but received no response.

Your client must supply proof that they submitted an appeal to the tribunal within the time limit. This could include copies of letters, emails, or acknowledgments received from the tribunal.

Your client can also rely on this ground if the issuing authority registered the charge with the Traffic Enforcement Centre before the appeal was decided, or the appeal was decided in your client's favour, for the:

Dart Charge
Merseyflow Charge
Clean Air Zone charge

The time limit is 28 days from the date of service of the rejection notice letter from the issuing authority.

Ground 4: PCN paid in full

Your client can use this ground if they have paid certain PCNs in full.

Your client can only use ground 4 if they have received:

parking charge outside London
Dart Charge
Merseyflow Charge
Clean Air Zones
moving traffic contravention outside London after 1 June 2022

Your client must supply details of how and when the PCN was paid. They should attach any evidence of payment, such as a receipt or bank statement.

When the TEC receives the forms

The Traffic Enforcement Centre informs the issuing authority of the challenge.

The issuing authority has 19 days to accept or reject the challenge. It must suspend enforcement action pending its decision.

Issuing authority decision

The authority issues its decision to accept or reject the challenge.

Issuing authority decision	What the decision means	What happens to enforcement
Authority accepts challenge	Authority can reissue the PCN or notice to owner	Action withdrawn
Authority rejects challenge	TEC decides whether to accept challenge	Suspended pending decision
No response after 19 days	TEC cancels order for recovery	Action withdrawn

Authority steps when it accepts the challenge

The order of recovery is withdrawn and enforcement action must stop.

The issuing authority can:

cancel the PCN if the client paid in full
issue a new notice to owner, so the client will have 28 days to pay
refer the case to an independent tribunal

The London Tribunals decide appeals of PCNs issued by London boroughs and Transport for London.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal decides appeals of PCNs issued outside London.

Court officer decision if the authority rejects the challenge

A court officer decides challenges that have been rejected by the issuing authority.

Court officer decision	What the decision means	What happens to enforcement action
Court officer accepts appeal	TEC cancels order for recovery and informs issuing authority	Action withdrawn
Court officer rejects appeal	Issuing authority and client informed, no reasons are required to be given	Action continues

Review of court officer decision

Your client or the issuing authority can apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to review the court officer's decision. The application must be made within 14 days of the date of service of the decision on form N244.

The application fee to review a decision is:

£303 if the case is decided at a hearing
£119 if your client does not require a hearing
free if your client qualifies for a fee remission

Complaints about issuing authorities

Your client can complain to the issuing authority about how it has dealt with their case.

If the authority does not uphold the complaint your client could escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) in limited circumstances.

The LGSCO cannot consider the complaint if your client has a statutory right of appeal. It will consider complaints about an issuing authority's failure to act reasonably and fairly, for example by ignoring mitigating or exceptional circumstances.

Where to find more information

For how to challenge a PCN before a warrant of control is issued, see the National Debtine factsheet Penalty Charge Notices

Find Traffic Enforcement Centre forms on Gov.UK

Find N244 Application notice on Gov.UK

Find EX160 Apply for help with court and tribunal feeson Gov.UK

A database of key cases decided by the traffic tribunals is available at Traff-iCase