Belfast pay machine or app was broken when ticketed
In Belfast, on-street pay-and-display parking is run by Mi Permit and RingGo. If the pay machine was out of order, or the app failed to complete your payment because of an outage, you should have been given a fair chance to pay or to drive away. A ticket issued when every payment option was unavailable is considered unfair and unenforceable.
Legal basis
DfI Roads — Pay and Display Operational Procedure; Consumer Rights Act 2015 (applies to NI commercial contracts) ss.49–52; DfI Streetscape Information Booklet
How to identify this in your case
Photograph the broken machine. Save app crash screenshots, network records, or the app provider's status page. Report the outage to DfI within 24 hours.
Sample appeal wording
Dear Sir/Madam, Re: PCN [PCN_NUMBER] On [DATE] at [TIME] I attempted to pay for parking at [LOCATION]. The pay-and-display machine was [out of service / displayed an error] (photo attached). The Mi Permit / RingGo app failed to process payment due to [reason — provider status link attached]. There were no other functioning payment methods available. DfI's own published procedure and the implied terms of the parking contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 require that a motorist be given a reasonable opportunity to pay; where no method is available, no PCN should issue. Please cancel. Yours faithfully, [NAME]
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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Scan my ticketSources
- infrastructure-ni.gov.uk
- legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15