RUC 56-day deemed acceptance (authority silence auto-cancels)
For Dart Charge and Mersey Gateway (Merseyflow) penalty charge notices, if you send a written challenge (a 'representation') and the charging authority does NOT post you a formal rejection within 56 days, the law treats them as having ACCEPTED your challenge. The penalty must then be cancelled and any money paid refunded automatically. This is an outright auto-win driven purely by the authority missing its own deadline, not by the merits of the case. Because these free-flow crossings are run by high-volume outsourced operators, the 56-day slip is common.
Legal basis
The Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1783), regulation 8(10): where no notice of rejection is served within 56 days of representations, the authority 'is deemed to have accepted the representations ... and must as soon as reasonably practicable refund any sum paid'.
How to identify this in your case
User challenged the PCN in writing (email/portal/post), can show the date sent, and either got no formal Notice of Rejection at all or got one dated more than 56 days after they challenged. Look for a challenge acknowledgement then silence, or a rejection letter dated more than 56 days after the challenge date.
Sample appeal wording
formal
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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