Can you sell a car with outstanding parking tickets? Consumer expert DEAN DUNHAM answers…
My sister is selling her car, but she has outstanding parking tickets.
She says the tickets will be traced back to her, not the vehicle, and will not affect sales.
Is this correct? NC, Southampton.
A parking ticket, also known as a Penalty Charge Notice or PCN for parking violations on public roads, is linked to the vehicle and not the driver. The situation with parking tickets issued on private property differs depending on the place where the card is issued.
Consumer rights attorney Dean Dunham responds: The legal situation varies depending on whether the ticket is issued on a public road/property or on private property; and whether it was within England/Wales; or Northern Ireland/Scotland.
When you receive a parking ticket, also known as a Penalty Charge Notice or PCN for parking offenses on public roads, it is linked to the vehicle and not the driver.
This means that the registered keeper of the vehicle (usually the owner) is primarily liable for the ticket. Many people think this means the owner at the time the ticket is enforced.
This is not the case.
The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022 (section 20) states that all notices must be enforced against the vehicle owner ‘at the time of the offence’, so this means your sister.
The situation with parking tickets issued on private property differs depending on the place where the card is issued. In England and Wales, the registered holder is liable under the Protection of Freedoms Act for any parking charges the vehicle may incur unless he provides details of the person driving the vehicle at the time the parking ticket was obtained.
However, in Northern Ireland and Scotland the law is different. It is the driver – and not the registered keeper – who is liable.
If you receive a parking ticket that should have been sent to the previous owner of your vehicle, write a short statement explaining that you were not the owner at the time of the violation.
Send it to whoever contacted you about the ticket and provide as much information and evidence as possible, including: the date you purchased the car, the full name and address of the previous owner (or the company that sold you the car sold), a copy of the DVLA registration certificate (V5C) and a copy of the receipt or invoice from when you bought the car.
As long as you have sent this proof, the charges against you should be dropped. It is then issued to the person who was driving – known as a ‘transfer of liability’.
The airline is not paying any compensation due to the strikes in Frankfurt, but we didn’t even fly there
I flew to Argentina for a two-week vacation, but on the day of our return the flight was canceled.
The airline gave us an alternative flight home and paid our costs, but refused to pay compensation.
It says our flight was canceled due to strikes at Frankfurt airport, but we didn’t fly to Frankfurt! M.M., Durham.
Dean Dunham replies: Here, the relevant law, known as UK261, says that if a flight is canceled less than 14 days before the departure date, the airline must pay passengers compensation unless the cause of the cancellation falls within the definition of ‘extraordinary circumstances’.
To fall within this definition, the event causing the cancellation must have been beyond the control of the airline and it must be shown that it took all reasonable steps to avoid the cancellation, or that no steps could have been taken.
I’ve had a lot of lawsuits over this, so I have a pretty definitive list of events that fall within this definition.
One of these is airport strikes, where the striking staff are not employed or controlled by the airline, so on the face of it your airline could be right.
But airlines don’t always mention the real reason for a delay or cancellation, so you should always investigate further.
Here it is difficult to understand why a strike at an airport that is not part of your trip could be the legitimate reason for the cancellation.
If you are not satisfied with the response, request an impasse letter: a letter setting out the airline’s final position on your complaint.
Armed with this, you file a complaint with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Scheme (ADR) to which it is affiliated (CEDR or Aviation ADR).
If the airline is not a member of one of these schemes, you can submit your complaint to the Civil Aviation Authority’s PACT scheme, but only if the airline is not a member of one of the two ADR schemes mentioned above. arrangements.