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Northampton Charge Certificate, Don’t Pay, Challenge It.

In this guide we will learn how to challenge a Northampton Charge certificate and get it cancelled.

It is not bad news to receive a charge certificate and using our guidance you understand that you actually NEVER have to pay Northampton  for a charge certificate under any circumstance.

Charge certificates, are often misunderstood because they mention bailiffs, but once you read our guide you will see how we have made it very easy to get them cancelled.

How To Challenge Northampton Charge Certificate

You never have to pay a Charge Certificate because if you challenge it correctly, it will be cancelled, saving you £100’s. It’s easy to prepare a letter to challenge a Charge Certificate, simply send the letter we prepare and thats it.

Prepare Your Letter

Answer a few simple questions about your case and receive a legally worded charge certificate letter for only £9.99.

Submit Your letter

We provide instructions on how to submit your letter to Northampton online. 

Wait for Result

If Northampton reject your appeal, don’t worry, you can wait for Order for Recovery and challenge it.

Challenge your Charge Certificate in 3 simple steps:


By checking if your charge certificate was issued correctly, Northampton will take your appeal seriously.

Why Challenge A Northampton Charge certificate?

According to the London Councils website:

The local authority (Northampton ) may issue a Charge Certificate 28 days after:

  • A ‘Notice to Owner’ has been served and the council receives no payment or representation
  • Representations have been made and rejected and no payment has been received and no appeal has been made
  • An appeal to the adjudicator has been refused and no payment has been made.

The local authority (Northampton ) may also issue a Charge Certificate after 14 days where an appeal to the adjudicator has been withdrawn.

The Charge Certificate tells the vehicle owner that the penalty charge has increased by 50 per cent and that action will be taken to recover the amount due through the County Court if it is not paid within 14 days.

How to respond during Northampton appeal

If you have an ongoing appeal on a penalty charge notice and Northampton send a charge certificate, this will invalidate the Northampton penalty charity notice because a charge certificate issued out of time is unlawful demand for payment.

Simply complete the Parking Mate UK charge certificate appeal form select the option that says that you have an ongoing appeal and it will generate the letter you need to submit to Northampton or to the tribunal to get your case dismissed.

You have to submit a representation to Northampton or the tribunal with the correct wording about the charge certificate being issued incorrectly which should then result in the penalty charge itself being cancelled.

Remember if you do not highlight the correct legal points, Northampton can simply say they will cancel the charge certificate and the case will progress as normal.

Therefore, if you are at the appeal stage, you should use the parking mate UK charge certificate service to generate a charge certificate that will be correctly worded with the right legal terminologies to get the case dismissed.

How to respond if Northampton never sent a penalty charge

If Northampton  never sent a penalty charge or you never received a penalty charge notice or had no opportunity to appeal you can still respond to Northampton and do two things:

  • The first option is to allow you to challenge the penalty charge notice
  • The second option is to negotiate settling the charge certificate at a lower amount.

In both options provided you are not obliged to pay the charge certificate and we will explain what happens if you ignore it or if it goes to the next stage in the next section.

negotiate a 50% discount on a charge certificate?

Yes, the Parking Mate UK Charge Certificate forms will help you negotiate a lower payment if you want to get it reduced. We have successfully reduced penalty charge notices from £240 to £80.

However, Northampton will only accept the lower settlement if you present a strong case, this is why the Parking Mate UK app is the smart way to challenge a Charge Certificate because it covers 90% of scenarios for the council to accept a lower rate.

It is very important that you understand that if a penalty charge notice has never been issued, enforcement cannot start with the charge certificate. Issuing a charge certificate incorrectly is illegal and should only result in the penalty charge itself being cancelled.

If you believe that you have very strong grounds of appeal you can add some comments to your charge certificate explaining why you believe the penalty charge should be cancelled and that you shouldn’t have to pay.

However, because this is not a formal appeal process the local authority may simply refuse to consider your representation and state that it is too late to appeal.

Don’t get frustrated, because remember as we have explained, you do not have to pay a charge certificate at all.

Can I ignore Northampton charge certificate

If you ignore a Northampton charge certificate, Northampton will have to refer the case to the traffic enforcement centre where they will request an order for recovery to be issued.

Therefore although you might be tempted to challenge the Northampton penalty charge at this stage it is much better to simply wait for the case to progress to order for recovery. Then you can make it clear to the court that you never received a penalty charge notice, and therefore the charge certificate will be cancelled whether they local authority like it or not.

In legal proceedings it is not wise to enter into correspondence with the Northampton alone without having someone who is impartial like an adjudicator at tribunals or a judge in local court, because Northampton will often try to make you worry, and stress about things like bailiffs, in order to make you pay.

bailiff photo

Why wait for Northampton order for recovery?

  1. When Northampton issue an order for recovery, you have 21 days to respond to the order for recovery and if you respond in the correct manner then Northampton will cancel the order for recovery and charge certificate automatically.

    Two birds, one stone analogy applies here.

    This is the primary reason why we recommend that you do not pay a child certificate although you might feel tempted to do so, the reason is simply that you have a much better legal Process at order for recovery stage to get the charge certificate cancelled.

    Even if the traffic enforcement centre rejects your application to make a statutory declaration you can refer the case to your local court where a judge can make the decision for you.

    Don’t worry too much about what the local authority say at this stage they have an objective to make you pay, while it is in your best interest to not feel frustrated but to understand but you simply need to respond to the order for recovery to get the charge certificate cancelled.

Negotiating a settlement for the charge certificate

Although you do not have to pay a charge certificate sometimes people want to have peace of mind and therefore paying the penalty charge notice at £65 might be better than dealing with the procedure for challenging the charge certificate.

Parking made the UK will make an offer to the Local authority to accept the reduced fee for your penalty charge notice as a way of getting the matter settled early rather than letting it drag on.

Simply complete our form and explain that you never received a pundit charge notice, and it will automatically prepare an early settlement offer for your charged certificate which can save you up to £160.

If you pay a charge certificate at a lower amount it will save you time and potentially stress by settling it and closing the case.

Our No Win No Fee Guarantee

  1. We understand that dealing with parking tickets can be stressful.
  2. So we provide an assurance that if your appeal is rejected at the tribunal or your court case is not successful at the hearing, we will refund the fee you paid.
  3. Our condition is that you must follow the full appeal procedure to qualify for a refund.
  4. If this is the case for you, simply log into our website and send us a request for a refund. 
  5. We want to be successful when our clients succeed.
  6. Read our full terms and conditions here

Last Updated: 02 November 2023

Challenge your Northampton Charge Certificate ...