Local Authority Parking Fine Appeal Letter

This is a letter that can be used to appeal a parking fine which has been imposed by a council or local authority in the United Kingdom. This letter can be sent from a private individual or by a company who has received a parking fine.

It should be noted that this letter should be used to challenge fines which have been issued by a Local Authority only. These fines will either be called a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) or an Excess Charge Notice (ECN). Where the fine has been issued by a private parking company (which will be called a Parking Charge Notice), a different type of letter should be used.

There are numerous grounds on which to challenge such a fine and this letter can be easily adapted to include a number of typical grounds of appeal as well as any other grounds that may be relevant.

Some typical grounds of appeal include the following:

• The penalty exceeded the amount that applied in the circumstances.
• The contravention did not occur.
• The relevant traffic regulation order (TRO) is invalid.
• There has been a procedural impropriety by the council.
• A penalty was sent by post because the council say someone prevented the civil enforcement officer (CEO) from putting it on the vehicle or handing it to the driver. But in fact the CEO was not prevented from doing this.
• You did not own the vehicle when the alleged contravention occurred.
• The owner is a vehicle hire firm.
• The vehicle was taken without the owner's consent.
• The penalty has already been paid.
• Compelling reasons.

Where a person or entity has been issued with a a penalty ticket and the recipient wishes to appeal that penalty, this document can be used to challenge the ticket informally.

How to use this document

Once this document has been completed simply post it to the authority that issued the relevant fine, and wait for the authority to get in contact regarding the appeal.

The letter should be sent as soon as possible and not more than 28 days after the fine has been received. The fine should not be paid before sending any and all relevant representations to the council.

Once a response has been received, if the reply is deemed to be inadequate, the sender may wish to formally appeal the parking ticket to the applicable adjudicator within 28 days.

Applicable Law

Road Traffic Act 1991

Traffic Management Act 2004

The Road Traffic Regulation (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

Help from a lawyer

You can choose to consult a lawyer if you need help.

The lawyer can answer your questions or help you through the process. You will be offered this option when you complete the document.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.