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PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 8:56 am
by 20mt
Hi,
I have received a Notice of Enforcement from an enforcement agency against an unpaid penalty charge (PCN) for parking in a bus lane. The PCN is dated September 2016. I have no recollection of having received the PCN, but as there is proof of evidence on the relevant Council website, I can safely assume this to be legitimate.
In the nearly two years since then, I have not received any reminders of non-payment from the Council or enforcement agencies. The matter was referred to County Court which has issued a warrant if the amount remains unpaid till XX date.

Could I please be advised on the following:
1. I will be eligible to apply for naturalisation in January 2019. How does this notice of enforcement impact the ‘good character requirement.’ Would I be considered ineligible on account of this?
2. If the advice is that I can apply, what can I do to bolster my case? Would it be worthwhile putting in a Subject Access Request to ascertain whether the Council ever attempted to contact me in the 2 years regarding non-payment? Would it be possible to make a case that I was not given sufficient opportunity to make the payment?

Background: I currently have ILR based on 6 years’ continuous residence and an otherwise impeccable record and unremarkable case history.

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 10:32 am
by 20mt
UPDATE: I have now been able to ascertain that the original fine was not for parking in a bus lane but, in fact, for driving in a bus lane. I can safely recall that I did not receive any letter/documentation in the post from the Council/Traffic Police regarding this PCN/fine which is why it was not paid.

Could anybody advise (alongwith the above) on whether it is possible to uncover the Court's orders in this regard, and how I could go about doing that?

Thanks in advance!

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 12:30 pm
by englishrose198
If you pay the fine to the enforcement agents, you should not be worried at all.(telling from my own experience which is very similar to yours, not just one 2 after I have submitted my application !!)

This condition holds true as long as you meet all other requirements for BC and that you don't have many PCSs against you in the last one year.

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 12:34 pm
by englishrose198
Council sending PCNs by mistake is rare. Have you changed addresses? Could the letter have been lost?
Yes enforcement agent do visit without notices(again from my own experince)

I filed a complaint that i have not received any notice prior and they had apologized and refunded my enforcement fee. but i had to still pay the fine which was for the mistake I had done.

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 12:57 pm
by 20mt
Hi englishrose,
Thank you for your hopeful message. Could I ask whether you declared the PCN on your AN form? If so, what explanation (if any) did you provide?

Many thanks in advance

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 2:11 pm
by englishrose198
Page 22 where we have a blank space to fill additional details. I couldn't even declare the numbers for few as I don't have info and hence and wrote in plain text recalling the month and year/reason

As for the ones I received after submitting my application, I wrote a covering letter and provided the receipts of payment and PCN number details and posted as additional information to the case worker.

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 2:56 pm
by 20mt
Thank you, will do the same.

This is perhaps a moot point, but could I ask whether your application was successful?

Re: PCN -Court Notice

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 3:16 pm
by englishrose198
20mt wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 2:56 pm
Thank you, will do the same.

This is perhaps a moot point, but could I ask whether your application was successful?
Yes and is the reason for giving my suggestion.