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80+ bus lane fines - did not receive any letters

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  • 80+ bus lane fines - did not receive any letters

    Good afternoon,

    I'm in dire need of some advice here regarding 80+ bus lane fines that I have acquired over the past year, of which I had not received a single letter to my address.

    I am a 22-year-old student studying in Manchester at the moment, using my father's VW Polo to commute. Since September 2017, I have stupidly been caught driving on bus lanes over 80 times.

    Because the vehicle was registered to my father, I did not receive a single letter regarding my recurring mistakes. My father did not receive any letters either, because he had relocated to Pakistan and left the car in my hands. He failed to update the DVLA or any councils that he had made the move, and that his previous address was no longer occupied by him.

    Over the past few months, my mother and I have had to pay around £3500 for around 20 of these fines that had gone to the late and debt collection stage. We did not receive any letters regarding any of this because my father's previous property is now being rented by tenants, with whom I have never had any contact. I have no idea who they are.

    As unfortunate as this situation was, I thought everything was in the clear after having paid £3500 and being forced to move out of Manchester and move back in with my mother due to these fines.

    However, I inquired with Manchester City Council again to double check whether everything was sorted. They replied saying that there was an additional 60+ fines still on the system registered to this vehicle.

    I have phoned them up and the fines have been put on hold for now. They are asking for the registered keeper to contact them (they think this is still my father), however I have changed the V5C registration over to my name. Besides, it was me who committed these offences in the first place. My father has not been in the UK for 3+ years.

    I have given Manchester City Council all of my savings and have had to borrow £1500+ from my mother to pay off the initial fines. I cannot afford to have to pay off another 60+ fines, I simply have no money left and do not earn much as I am a student.

    I'm in a bit of a desperate situation now I'm afraid. Any advice at all would be incredibly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Dan
    Last edited by danzzz; 8th November 2018, 13:38:PM.
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Why did you continue to drive in the bus lane - this must have gone on over a period of time?

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by ploddertom View Post
      Why did you continue to drive in the bus lane - this must have gone on over a period of time?
      The fines are from like September 2017 to March 2018. I hadn't received any letters to alert me that I had been doing anything wrong. The bus lane signage in Manchester on Oxford Road is bizarre. It does not explicitly say 'BUS LANE' on the road itself. There are some signs along the road, and you are able to drive only on some parts of the road and not others, only in certain directions at certain times. I had only just started driving so I did not fully understand this.

      Comment


      • #4
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...ester-43168921 ? There?
        #staysafestayhome

        Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

        Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Amethyst View Post
          Yes that's the one.

          Comment


          • #6
            Seems you're not alone then There seems to have been some hiatus on fines while they sorted out signage so you should be able to appeal some of the earlier ones particularly …. there's some bits in the MEN ( but the website drives me batty with the adverts so not copy pasting it ) ostell

            Are all the tickets at the same location or in different sections of the road? ( map on here https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/4...20/bus_gates/2 )

            Have the council provided you with copies of all of the notices ?

            What have the council said regarding everything ? Do they understand the effect it's having on you and your Mum and potentially on your ability to continue your studies etc ?
            #staysafestayhome

            Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

            Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Amethyst View Post
              Seems you're not alone then There seems to have been some hiatus on fines while they sorted out signage so you should be able to appeal some of the earlier ones particularly …. there's some bits in the MEN ( but the website drives me batty with the adverts so not copy pasting it ) ostell

              Are all the tickets at the same location or in different sections of the road? ( map on here https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/4...20/bus_gates/2 )

              Have the council provided you with copies of all of the notices ?

              What have the council said regarding everything ? Do they understand the effect it's having on you and your Mum and potentially on your ability to continue your studies etc ?
              Thank you for your reply!

              I haven't a clue whether the tickets are in the same or different locations, as I have not received a single letter from the council regarding any of these fines because they didn't have my address on the system.

              I first rang up the council and a lovely member of staff told me to send an email to 'representations@manchester.gov.uk explaining my situation. Having done that, the only reply I have received is:

              "Thank you for your recent correspondence.
              Unfortunately, we cannot deal with your enquiry as you are not the legal keepr of the vehicle.
              Please ask Mr (my father's name) to make contact, or send in a formal letter of authority so we can
              discuss your enquiry."

              I changed the vehicle registration over to my name last month. Should I inform them of this in order to proceed?

              Thank you!

              Comment


              • #8
                It won't make any difference that you have now changed the registered keeper as that just means you are the registered keeper from the date you changed. As your father was the registered keeper at the time which the PCNs were issued, it is your father who is liable for the debts.

                He will have to contact Manchester city council himself and dispute the PCNs. He could also be fined by the DVLA for not informing them of a change of address.

                Comment


                • #9
                  How did you come to pay the amounts you have paid ? Was court action threatened/taken?

                  You'll need to get a letter of authority from your father to enable you to discuss the case with the council on his behalf. He'd have had to respond to the tickets to say he wasn't the driver.
                  #staysafestayhome

                  Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

                  Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Amethyst View Post
                    How did you come to pay the amounts you have paid ? Was court action threatened/taken?

                    You'll need to get a letter of authority from your father to enable you to discuss the case with the council on his behalf. He'd have had to respond to the tickets to say he wasn't the driver.
                    Basically, a debt collector showed up to his old property multiple times threatening to take goods. He then received a call from the estate agents informing him that he would be liable for arrest by the police if he does not pay off the debt collectors. I then received the same call from the estate agents, as my father gave them my number. I then paid off the amounts through Marstons debt collection agency.

                    Okay, I will get him to send off a letter of authority as soon as possible. Do you know if I should do this by email or by post? Thanks so much

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Amethyst View Post
                      He'd have had to respond to the tickets to say he wasn't the driver.
                      It won't make any difference if the father wasn't driving, as the owner of the vehicle, the father is responsible for the PCNs.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Seems like the dad is well out of it in Pakistan. Why not leave it at that?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Why not point the council to the address in Pakistan?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by ostell View Post
                            Why not point the council to the address in Pakistan?
                            Or don't! Just say he's in Pakistan, and it's their problem to try to track him down.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by danzzz View Post

                              Okay, I will get him to send off a letter of authority as soon as possible. Do you know if I should do this by email or by post? Thanks so much
                              The letter of authority will probably not be of much use but you will have to wait and see. There are a number of potential problems.
                              Firstly, each of these PCN's is addressed to your father and it is his responsibility to pay. The normal route to dispute this would be for YOUR FATHER to submit a staggering 80 Out of Time Statutory Declarations to the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

                              The grounds for submitting the applications would be simply that he had been living in Pakistan for the past 3 years and accordingly, had not received any of the correspondence. Whether or not he should even bother undertaking such a task is depending on the vehicle itself. The enforcement company would be seeking to take control of the vehicle involved in each of the contraventions. With this is mind, how much roughly is the vehicle worth?

                              Comment

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