If the penalty charge is not successfully challenged or paid on or before the end of the 28 day period as specified on the front of the PCN, the Enforcement Authority may serve a Notice to Owner (NtO) on the person who appears to them to be the owner of the vehicle requiring payment of the penalty charge.
The owner can then make representations to the Enforcement Authority and may appeal to an independent adjudicator (The Traffic Penalty Tribunal) if those representations are rejected. If a NtO is served notwithstanding those initial challenges to the PCN, further representation against the PCN must be made in the form and manner and at the time specified in the NtO.
Late Notice to Owner response
Representations should be made not later than the last day of the period of 28 days beginning with the date on which the NtO is served and any representations which are made outside that period may be disregarded. If you submit your representations late, you should explain why. We will not generally accept representations made beyond this time period; rare exceptions could include those instances where we are satisfied that circumstances beyond the recipient's control may have prevented them from knowing earlier about the existence of the Notice to Owner/and or being able to respond within the permitted time period.
In any event we may disregard any notice received 84 days or more from the date of service of the notice, regardless of the stated circumstances.
The statutory or specified grounds on which representations may be made are set out below together with an indication of the information which you should supply in support of your representations. It is important to provide all relevant information. The Notice will be cancelled if one or more of the specified grounds is accepted. The Notice may be cancelled for other compelling reasons even if none of the specified grounds apply. If the Notice is cancelled any sums already paid will be refunded.
If your representations are received in time or are received late but are taken into account, the Parking Enforcement Services Team will let you know its decision in writing not later than the last day of the period of 56 days beginning with the date on which your representation was served on it. If it fails to do so, the Notice will be cancelled and any sums already paid will be refunded. If your representations are rejected, you have the right to appeal against that decision to an independent Adjudicator. An appeal form will be sent with the letter rejecting your representations. The form will explain how and when to appeal to the adjudicator.
The Parking Enforcement Services policies about enforcement, challenges and appeals, late representations and/or representations not covered by the statutory grounds can be found on our parking homepage.
Further information about Civil Parking Enforcement (including PCNs and NtOs) is also available online at www.patrol-uk.info
Consequences of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices
If the penalty charge is not successfully challenged or paid on or before the end of the 28 day period as specified on the NtO, the enforcement authority may increase the original penalty charge by 50% and take steps to enforce payment. All right to appeal is normally lost and a Charge Certificate will be sent.
14 days after this the charge will be registered as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre County Court at an additional cost of £5.00 and documents confirming this will be sent.
After a further 21 days without payment a warrant may be issued to Certificated Bailiffs for the recovery of the whole amount, in addition to their own fees, which may be significant.
Bailiff's visits and payments
Once the debt has been passed to Bailiffs, the enforcement authority (Cambridgeshire County Council) do not usually enter into further correspondence. All communications should normally be addressed to the Bailiff company or, in the case of serious complaints or statements of truth, the County Court.