Human Rights Act - Article 6

When it comes to Penalty Charge Notices the council are required to get on with the processing in a businesslike manner (a vulgar person might call it the piss or get off the pot principle).

Barnet Council have not done so.

There isn't a strict time limit laid down in the Human Rights Act but PCN sent by post have to be issued within, usually, 28 days.

Notices to Owner have to be issued within 6 months with 56 days being best practice.

Replies to formal representations have to be within 56 days.

The Code of Practice of London Councils states that there shouldn't be a delay at any stage of more than 6 months and if there is a council should cancel a PCN. Barnet Council don't like doing that as it costs them money (is the way they see it).

So if we follow the Code of Practice there should be no more than 168 days between the Notice to Owner and the Charge Certificate or more than 365 days between the PCN and the Charge Certificate.

Here are 30 or so cases which ended up in front of the Adjudicator at PATAS. As soon as a motorist mentions delay and Human Rights the PCN gets binned. Do make sure you mention it.

PATAS	Hearing	PCN	NtO	C.C.	Delay - days
2130290209	03/08/13	23/04/11	28/07/11	09/01/13	531
2120323727	05/08/13	07/07/11	08/09/11	26/03/13	565
213026715A	06/08/13	15/04/11	21/07/11	29/01/13	558
2130267138	06/08/13	18/04/11	18/08/11	05/02/13	537
2130332444	06/08/13	25/06/11	23/08/11	05/02/13	532
2130314737	06/08/13	11/05/11	25/07/11	30/01/13	555
2130299597	06/08/13	24/04/11	03/08/11	09/01/13	525
2130296850	06/08/13	08/07/11	06/09/11	06/02/13	519
2130290934	06/08/13	03/06/11	16/08/11	05/02/13	539
2130267841	06/08/13	06/07/11	06/09/11	06/02/13	519
2130267386	06/08/13	24/06/11	23/08/11	05/02/13	532
213038799A	20/09/13	31/05/11	11/08/11	19/03/13	586
2130408943	24/09/13	22/09/11		05/04/13	561
2304453008	08/10/13	24/06/11	24/08/11	22/03/13	576
2130422172	13/10/13	15/09/11	25/10/11	04/04/13	527
2130443525	14/10/13	21/05/11		16/01/13	606
2130433667	16/10/13	03/06/11	16/08/11	05/02/13	539
2130504517	21/10/13	10/08/11	26/10/11	05/04/13	527
2130465073	24/10/13	26/09/11	03/11/11	08/04/13	522
2130473468	28/10/13	13/09/11	24/10/11	04/04/13	528
213044810A	28/10/13	02/06/11	16/08/11	20/03/13	582
2130473468	28/10/13	13/09/11		04/04/13	569
213044810A	28/10/13	02/06/11	16/08/11	20/03/13	582
2130473821	29/10/13	09/07/11		27/03/13	627
2130478310	29/10/13	13/07/11		27/03/13	623
2130512548	30/10/13	25/07/11	04/10/11	28/03/13	541
2130450837	30/10/13	12/05/11	26/07/11	12/03/13	595
2130522530	04/11/13	20/07/11		28/03/13	617
2130517621	04/11/13	26/07/11		28/03/13	611
2130491867	04/11/13	19/07/11		27/03/13	617
2130433496	04/11/13	13/07/11		27/03/13	623
2130450939	05/11/13	03/06/11		20/03/13	656
2130487870	08/11/13	19/04/11	11/07/11	09/01/13	548
2130434626	08/11/13	21/06/11	22/08/11	21/03/13	577
2130435844	19/11/13	06/06/11		15/03/13	648
2130504528	20/11/13	18/10/11	18/10/11	02/04/13	532
2130517177	26/11/13	24/09/11	01/11/11	08/04/13	524

So the number of days from PCN to Charge Certificate should not exceed 365 and the number of days from Notice to Owner to charge Certificate should not exceed 183. You will see that it frequently does. 656 days is the winner so far although Mr Mustard did have a case heading for 1,000 days but he fixed it without recourse to the Adjudicator.

Mr Mustard remains hopeful that if he continues to highlight the ways in which parking goes wrong, they will start to do it right.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Bailiff alert - the hidden problem.

If you have a garage put your car in it. Why? The bailiff cannot clamp a car inside a locked garage. The reason to be cautious is that Barnet Council have, quite improperly, awoken a number of parking tickets from 2010 and 2011 which should have been abandoned due to the passage of time and one of them could be your's. The Code of Practice on Civil Parking and Traffic Enforcement issued by London Councils says, at para 170e, that a PCN should be cancelled "where there has been an undue delay at any stage in processing of the PCN".

Ergo, PCN from 2010 and 2011 which have not proceeded past the Notice to Owner stage should be cancelled.

The stages of a PCN if you don't respond in any way are

1. Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).

2. Notice to Owner (within 6 months). (NtO)

3. Charge Certificate.

4. Order for Recovery.

5. Bailiff.

Mr Mustard is dealing with a case from July 2011 which first came to the attention of the motorist when his car was clamped on his drive in June 2013.

He did not see the PCN (sometimes the traffic warden plays a game and removes the PCN after taking the photographs or a member of the public may do so or if it is raining when you get in and the wipers remove it)

He did not get the NtO perhaps because the council had recorded his address wrongly

He did not get a charge certificate, probably due to the address error

He did not get an Order for Recovery.

The bailiff charged £11.20 for an initial letter which did not arrive.

The first notification of a 2 year old PCN was a wheel clamp attached to his car by a bailiff when the motorist was out at work. The bailiff then left so this is an abandoned levy in the opinion of Mr Mustard and made illegal the removal of the car the following day. The vehicle was a luxury motor worth much more than the PCN value of £172 (£110 + 50% + £7) and so was also an over levy. A warrant issued to the wrong address is not valid either! A complaint is with the bailiff's firm and another will follow later to the County Court which issued the bailiff's licence.

Mr Mustard has clearly told the council of their wrong-doing but they don't seem to be treating the stealing of a car as an urgent matter even though Mr Mustard has bent the ear of the Leader of the Council, who said he would get it sorted, and a Parking Manager four days later who hadn't heard anything from the Leader (Mr Mustard taking time out from his French motorcycling trip to make the phone call). Mr Mustard feels sure Richard Cornelius would be unhappy if Mr Mustard popped down to Totteridge and clamped Richard's car until his client's car is returned. 3am is a popular time for clamping.

If you don't get the Notice to Owner, or for similar specified procedural errors, there is a procedure in which you file forms TE7 & TE9 by email with the Northampton Traffic Enforcement Centre and then the council get 19 days to decide what to do about your parking ticket. This is a long time during which the life of an innocent motorist is totally messed up without his wheels.

Mr Mustard has heard of another case involving a 75 year old man who appealed against his parking ticket in the proper way and the next thing he heard was the bailiff turning up. Fuller details are awaited.

Mr Mustard knows that there were 6,000 cases older than December 2011 which the council were wrongly looking to bring back to life. 500 of those were being progressed first in October 2012 to "see what type of response received" and Mr Mustard is concerned that more of you are going to receive a surprising and unwelcome visit from a bailiff. Don't open the door to anyone you don't know; you do not have to let the bailiff in whatever the bailiff might tell you to the contrary. Do send an email to mrmustard@zoho.com if this happens to you. Do not pay £800 to a bailiff if you have done nothing wrong; together we can fight injustice.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard