Already paid your ticket?
Get your money back.
Paying a parking ticket does not close the case. UK councils — and most authorities elsewhere — retain a discretion to cancel and refund a Penalty Charge Notice even after it has been paid, where it ought not to have been issued or where the payment was made under pressure of the council's own delay. Beat It writes the letter that asks them to.
I paid it myself
You received the PCN months after the alleged offence, and the 14-day discount window forced your hand.
You paid the discounted amount to avoid the doubling, before you had a chance to investigate. The council's own delay in sending the notice compressed your decision time — that itself is a recognised ground for cancellation at adjudication.
My hire company paid it
You hired a car, got the ticket weeks later as a charge on your card — the hire company paid first and recharged you.
The hire company is the registered keeper, so they get the PCN. They typically auto-pay within the discount window and bill it back to you, plus an admin fee. You never had a chance to appeal — that gives you statutory grounds in the UK (TMA 2004 s.73 / PoFA 2012) and discretionary grounds elsewhere.
My lease company paid it
You drive a business / novated lease vehicle and the lease company auto-paid the PCN and recharged you.
Same legal position as the hire-car case. We write to the council demanding a discretionary refund AND a separate letter to the lease company demanding they return what they recharged you.
How it works
- 1. Scan or type the ticket. A photo of the PCN or the reference + plate is enough. For ~146 UK councils we cross-check the ticket against the council's own portal to verify every detail before drafting a thing.
- 2. Confirm the facts. You see every field side-by-side with your photo and tick to confirm. If we couldn't read something, you type it in. The system can't move on until you have signed off.
- 3. We write the letter. A discretionary-refund letter addressed to the council's Director of Parking, citing the relevant grounds (delay in service, paid under discount-window pressure, the council's retained discretion, the LGSCO escalation route).
- 4. You sign and send. By email to the council. We tell you exactly where it goes.
- 5. If they refuse, we escalate. We help you prepare the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman complaint.
Honest about the odds
Discretionary refunds are not guaranteed. Most councils refuse around 60–70% of first-instance requests. The route after a refusal is the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, which we'll guide you through if it comes to that. The argument is strongest when the council served the PCN months after the alleged offence, or when a lease/hire company paid without giving you any opportunity to contest it — both common scenarios.
Pricing
£3.60 base entry charge (inc VAT). If the council refunds you, the success fee depends on which tier you're on:
- One-off: £3.60 + £8.40 success fee on a win (inc VAT).
- General public quarterly: £3.60 per quarter per vehicle (£1.20/vehicle/month) + £3.60 success fee on a win (inc VAT).
- Fleet (per vehicle): £3 per vehicle per quarter + £2 success fee on a win — designed for hire / lease / company-car operators with multiple PCNs.
No win, no success fee. You only pay the £3.60 entry to scan and generate; if the council doesn't refund you, that is where it ends.