How To Appeal A Notice To Owner
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In This Section
Should you pay or Appeal?
You should always appeal a Notice to Owner because you have nothing to lose at this stage. The amount will remain the same even if you lose the appeal.
To appeal a Notice to owner, you must write an appeal letter that is based on legal reasons and build a strong case to convince the council to accept the appeal and cancel the penalty charge notice.
Write Your Notice To Owner Appeal
- Check if the council have issued the PCN correctly
- See if the council have made any errors in issuing the PCN
- Check if you can use any legal exemptions such as loading and unloading
- Gather some evidence to support your appeal
We highly recommend sending an appeal because even if your case is weak, your appeal can still be won due to council mistakes listed here. You can see examples of people winning tribunal cases here based on errors made by the council.
5 Reasons To Appeal A NTO
- We recommend challenging your Notice to Onwer even if you think you have no chance because often, councils make mistakes and this results in your PCN being cancelled. See some examples here
- Furthermore, if you submit an appeal, your case will be on hold and the amount will not increase until they respond.
- When challenging a penalty charge notice, you have to remember that it is the council who have to prove that the penalty charge notice was issued correctly.
- You do not have to prove that you parked correctly unless there is a serious problem with the restriction, but the council must prove the case based on legal requirements (See our council checklist).
- Failing to issue a penalty charge correctly means the penalty charge notice should be cancelled.
Evidence To Support A NTO
- The council need to issue the penalty charge notice correctly, if not, it must be cancelled
- The council need to have a valid TMO to enforce the restriction (legal requirement)
- The council must prove that they have obtained your details from the DVLA legally
- The council must prove that the correct signage was installed where the restriction is
If the council fail to prove all four requirements, the penalty charge notice should be cancelled. Once you realise that they have made a mistake or if they break rules, then you will be confident and take your case to the tribunal.
Legal Exemptions You Can Use
Our app is already setup to help you use the legal exemptions in your appeal. Simply select the options which apply to you and it will include the correct wording.
Some common exemptions are:
- Loading and loading when dropping goods or packages
- If a vehicle is broken down, then the penalty charge must be cancelled
- Blue badge holders are allowed to stop and park in certain places
- A grace period of 10 minutes is allowed on pay and display
- Settling down or picking up passengers is allowed in some spaces
- A vehicle being used to move furniture to or from a building
- If a vehicle is stopped or a police officer asked the driver to stop
- Parking on dropped footways is sometimes allowed by the property owner
- Medical emergencies where you can prove that the driver needed to stop
Sending your appeal To The Council
Once you have written your appeal letter, our website will either send it by email or it will provide instructions on how to submit your appeal to the council.
We will also provide you with instructions on what to do if your appeal is rejected.
Being guided with your appeal means you will feel confident about winning your case.
What If Your Appeal Is Rejected
If the council reject your appeal, then they will issue a notice of rejection.
Please read our guide on responding to a notice of rejection and see how to use the additional guidance to see if the council have responded correctly.
Remember, any mistake by the council should result in the penalty charge being cancelled.
Submit Your Appeal To The Tribunal
- London Tribunals for councils based in London
- Traffic Penalty Tribunal for councils outside London
You would expect councils to be good at winning cases at the tribunal, but this is not the case. Due to the increasing number of appeals being submitted, councils are making more and more mistakes at the tribunal resulting in appeals being allowed.
Many appeals are also won at the tribunal because the council make mistakes during the appeal process, for example:
- The council fail to respond to appeals within 56 days
- If the council issue a charge certificate, then they have made an illegal demand for payment
- If the council don’t provide evidence at the tribunal, their case falls flat
- Finally, if the council don’t respond to your appeal points, this can work against them
These examples below prove that councils make mistakes and don’t usually win, so you can still win on a technicality.
What happens at the hearing?
According to London Councils, this is what happens at a hearing:
- The adjudicator will explain the procedure before your hearing begins.
- The council will not normally attend the hearing but will have sent in their written evidence.
- You should receive a copy of this evidence at least 3 days before the hearing.
- The adjudicator will ask you questions about your appeal in order to establish the facts.
- You may be asked to explain the evidence you have submitted.
- The evidence both you and the council have sent will be available online during your hearing.
- Although the appeals proceedings are formal, the appeal hearing is not.
- You will not be required to swear an oath but you will be expected to tell the truth.
- A decision will be made right away and you will also be sent confirmation by post or email
Example Successes At London Tribunal
No PCN Provided: In the Case Reference 2220563186, Barking and Dagenham failed to provide a copy of the penalty charge notice and the appeal was allowed.
The adjudicator said: The Enforcement Authority have produced some evidence in this case but have failed to produce a copy of the Penalty Charge Notice.
Lack of Evidence: In the Case Reference 2220599412 Transport for London did not provide any evidence to prove that the contravention happened.
The adjudicator said: The EA has not produced any CCTV evidence and against this the Appellant has made a positive case that this will support his representations. Furthermore, the photographs provided do not fully show in front of the vehicle. In light of all the circumstances, I accept the Appellant’s account and this appeal is allowed.
No Signage Provided: In the Case Reference 2220600908 London Borough of Waltham Forest failed to provide photos of the signage and the appeal was allowed.
The adjudicator said: The Enforcement Authority have produced images of signage, but it is unclear to ascertain from the footage where these signs are positioned in relation to where the contravention is said to have occurred. Considering carefully all the evidence before me I cannot find as a fact that the contravention occurred in the circumstances of this case.
Council Didn’t Contest Appeal: In the Case Reference 2220663941 Haringey Council did not even contest the appeal and the adjudicator said: The Enforcement Authority has informed me that they will not contest your appeal against the Penalty Charge Notice(s) mentioned above.
The Chief Adjudicator has therefore allowed your appeal without considering your evidence or any details of the case.
Notice To Owner Legislation
- Parking Mate UK
- Updated 08 October 2022
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