London RUC — Premature / out-of-sequence Charge Certificate (50% uplift unlawfully applied)
TfL adds an uplift to a Congestion Charge / ULEZ / London LEZ penalty by serving a 'Charge Certificate', but that increase is only lawful once a fixed 28-day 'relevant period' has fully run from a specific trigger date. Reg 17 fixes four start dates: (i) no representations made — 28 days from PCN service; (ii) representations rejected and no appeal — 28 days from service of the Notice of Rejection; (iii) appeal made and lost — 28 days from service of the adjudicator's decision; (iv) appeal withdrawn — 14 days from withdrawal. If TfL serves the Charge Certificate before its correct trigger has expired, while representations are still being considered, while an appeal is live, or before it has served a Notice of Rejection, the Charge Certificate is a nullity and the uplift is unrecoverable. Note: reg 17 itself specifies the increase as 'the sum specified in the charging scheme' — the 50% figure comes from London Tribunals enforcement guidance, not the regulation, so the letter should describe it as 'the increase specified in the scheme'.
Legal basis
Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/2313), reg 17 (charge certificates; the 28-day 'relevant period' and its four trigger dates), read with reg 15 (Notice of Rejection must precede). 50% uplift figure attributed to London Tribunals enforcement guidance, not to reg 17.
How to identify this in your case
On the ticket paperwork, find the Charge Certificate date and the earlier trigger date it should count from (PCN service date if no reps; Notice of Rejection date if reps rejected; adjudicator decision date if appeal lost). Count 28 days (14 if appeal withdrawn). If the Charge Certificate is dated on or before that 28th day, or was issued while representations/appeal were still open, or with no Notice of Rejection on file, the uplift is unlawful. Also flag any Charge Certificate issued while a live appeal reference exists.
Sample appeal wording
formal
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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