Northern Ireland: debt too old to enforce (6-year limit)

In Northern Ireland, a penalty charge notice (PCN) is a simple debt. If the authority waits more than six years after the original offence before starting court action or obtaining an Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO) certificate — and no such action was started within that time — the debt is legally barred and cannot be enforced. Note: Northern Ireland uses the Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO) to collect unpaid debts, not bailiffs as in England.

Legal basis

Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1339 (NI 11)) Art 4; Judgments Enforcement (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (SI 1981/226 (NI 6))

How to identify this in your case

Calculate >6 years from contravention to last enforcement action. If no court action or EJO certificate within 6 years, statute-barred.

Sample appeal wording

Dear Sir/Madam, Re: PCN [PCN_NUMBER] — purported demand dated [DATE] The alleged contravention occurred on [DATE]. More than six years have elapsed since that date and no proceedings have been issued in the County Court for Northern Ireland nor a Certificate of Judgment lodged with the Enforcement of Judgments Office. The debt is therefore statute-barred under Article 4(a) of the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. I do not acknowledge the debt and require that you cease enforcement action and remove any adverse credit data within 14 days. Yours faithfully, [NAME]

Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.

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Northern Ireland: debt too old to enforce (6-year limit)

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps