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Vehicle-hire firm — transfer liability to the hirer (council tickets: hires under six months)

This is a narrow route and it is worth checking whether it applies to you before relying on it. For a COUNCIL penalty charge, liability can move from the registered keeper to the hirer only where all of the following are true: the person making the representations IS a vehicle-hire firm, meaning a business engaged in hiring vehicles; the vehicle was hired from that firm at the material time; the hire was for a fixed period of LESS THAN SIX MONTHS, which is the limit section 66(7) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 places on this machinery (a period capable of extension still counts, so long as the fixed period itself is under six months); the agreement contains the particulars prescribed by the Road Traffic (Owner Liability) Regulations 2000, and is not a hire-purchase agreement; the hirer signed a statement of liability accepting responsibility for penalty charges during the hire; the representations give the hirer's name and address; and the enforcement authority accepts them. A typical multi-year fleet or lease arrangement does not qualify. It is NOT a general "name the driver" route: identifying whoever was driving does not transfer liability for a council PCN, because the owner is liable regardless of who drove. For a PRIVATE parking charge the route is Schedule 4 paragraph 13 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, and that one is WIDER — its definition covers a hire "for a period of any duration" and excludes only hire-purchase, so a long hire is not shut out on the private side.

Legal basis

Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/576) reg.4 — Chapter 2 applies where a person is served with a notice to owner; reg.5(4)(d) — the ground, available where the recipient is a vehicle-hire firm, the vehicle was at the material time hired from that firm under a hiring agreement, and the person hiring it had signed a statement of liability acknowledging liability for any penalty charge notice served during the currency of the agreement; reg.5(7) — the representations must state the name and address of the person to whom the vehicle was hired at the material time; reg.5(8) — "hiring agreement" and "vehicle-hire firm" take their meanings from section 66 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988. RTOA 1988 s.66(7) — section 66 applies to a hiring agreement letting the vehicle "for a fixed period of less than six months (whether or not that period is capable of extension)"; s.66(8) — a hiring agreement must contain the particulars prescribed by the Road Traffic (Owner Liability) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/2546) Schedule 2 and excludes a hire-purchase agreement within the meaning of the Consumer Credit Act 1974; a vehicle-hire firm is any person engaged in hiring vehicles in the course of a business. PRIVATE parking charges run on a different and wider provision: Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 paragraph 13, whose own definition in paragraph 13(6)(a)(i) covers a letting "for a period of any duration" and excludes only hire-purchase.

How to identify this in your case

Ask yourself three questions before using this. Are you a vehicle-hire firm — a business that hires vehicles out in the course of its business — rather than a company that owns or leases its own vans for its own use? Was this particular hire for a fixed period of under six months? A period that can be extended still counts, and so does the hirer keeping the vehicle past the end date with your agreement, but the fixed period itself has to start under six months. Did the hirer sign a statement of liability accepting responsibility for any penalty charges during the hire? If the answer to any of those is no, this route is not open to you for a council ticket, and a hire-purchase agreement never qualifies. If all three are yes, send the hirer's name and address together with a copy of the hiring agreement and of the signed statement of liability. One thing worth knowing: the six-month cut-off comes from section 66(7) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 and applies to COUNCIL tickets. The private-parking equivalent in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 has no duration limit at all, so a longer hire may still be answerable there.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be rejected without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

I make these representations as a vehicle-hire firm in respect of Penalty Charge Notice [NUMBER]. At the material time the vehicle registration [REGISTRATION] was hired from this firm to [HIRER NAME] of [HIRER ADDRESS] under a hiring agreement letting the vehicle for a fixed period of less than six months. The hirer signed a statement of liability accepting liability in respect of any penalty charge notice served in respect of any relevant road traffic contravention involving the vehicle during the currency of the hiring agreement. I therefore rely on the ground at regulation 5(4)(d) of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022, and I give the hirer's name and address as required by regulation 5(7). A copy of the hiring agreement and of the signed statement of liability [are enclosed / are available to be produced on request]. On the authority accepting these representations, regulation 6(2) of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022 makes the penalty charge payable by the hirer, who is then treated as the owner of the vehicle by regulation 6(3). I ask the authority to accept these representations, to cancel the Notice to Owner as against this firm, and to proceed against the hirer named above.

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Sources

Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/576) reg.5(4)(d), 5(7), 5(8)
Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/71) reg.6(2)-(3)
Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 s.66(7) — fixed period of less than six months; s.66(8) — hire-purchase excluded
SI 2022/71 reg.1(5)(a) — Greater London bus lanes are outside these Regulations

Related appeal grounds

You were not the registered keeper of the vehicle (sold, bought, or on hire) — Oxford ZEZ