My wife's PCN was overturned as the notice, certificate and warrant were never delivered. Does this happen often?

My wife had to pay bailiffs £875 to keep her car when they appeared to remove it for an unpaid CCTV issued parking PCN. She never received the PCN, charge certificate, order for recovery or Warrant of Execution. RAC legal gave wrong advice. An "out of time witness statement" was needed to confirm all four communications had not been posted or received by my wife. This she confirmed at the local county court and the money charged was refunded by bailiffs and TfL. She had to pay the original PCN £65 after this. Do you know how often this happens? Should the motoring public be aware that it might happen? A man at TfL signed a witness statement and statement of truth asserting that all four communications were posted first class and were not returned by Royal Mail.

Asked on 2 February 2013 by HG, via email

Answered by Honest John

This seems to be grossly unfair, but at least the legal system righted the wrong. We'll now see if any other readers have suffered similarly. If you get hold of copies of the original PCN, charge certificate, order for recovery or Warrant of Execution that are alleged to have been sent, you might find a slightly wrong address on them. Otherwise, the TfL official who signed the witness statement testifying that all four communications had been sent might be found guilty of perjury and malfeasance. The law needs to be changed to the effect that a PCN or at least a charge certificate relating to a PCN must be legally 'served' in person, or must be sent by special delivery so that receipt has to be signed for.

Tags: legal advice parking parking charges

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