Advice needed over congestion charge!

carloblanco_2

Hi,

At a critical stage now with a hand delivered letter from Martson Baliffs who now are wanting £467.04 for this £10 Congestion charge.

Thing is i live in Cornwall and was rushed up to St Tommys hospital in London for an emergency precedure that my local hospital didnt want to do. My Partner drove myself up in my car as i was not in any fit state to do so. TFL spotted my car on westminster bridge and proceeded to send me a bill for £60 (i think, partner dealt with it). Before this bill came through i was completely unaware of how/why where etc you pay for the charge or indeed where the congestion charges applied, i wrote to them about this and explained my situation and felt it fair that i pay the the £12 for the next day fee for the CC. This was not good enough and they then proceeded to send another bill for £180 because i had gone over the 28 days. I wrote to appeal which was unsuccessful (why i dont really Know) Anyway with a stressful pregnancy i have left my partner to deal with this (reason i was at Tommys).
My partner has told TFL & has maintained through all of this that it should be his bill as he was the driver, they do not acknowledge this and say as the owner it is mine, my partner and has refused to pay TFL £180 which i somewhat agree with. Now obviously the baliffs are knocking and I get the feeling with the way my partner feels so adamant about this that it will get nasty etc. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction as to what to do next and get this sorted. Its silly i have to pay a £467.04 for something had i known about would have gladly paid the £10 fee:mad:

Thanks in advance

PS...Am i right in thinking that a charge is not forceable by law unless you entered into an agreement for the service to be chargable? If the congestion charge were a tax then it is forceable by law upon the people? Therefore as i didnt agree to pay the charge am i now not obliged to pay it??
i.e a mate comes round without you knowing cuts the grass and sends you a bill for £20.. obviously you never asked for the service therefore are not contractually obliged to pay it?? (just thinking aloud)

Gilbert2

From my own experience of the CC, it shows no leniency regardless of what excuse you may have.

They will not drop this and you will pay for it, one way or another.

Sorry.

ps And no, you are incorrect in what you put in your footnote.

forgotmyname

You agreed to pay by driving into the area. The signs are big enough.

Whose name is on the paperwork? Setup a payment schedule before its gets to silly amounts or they put a charge on the car.

Your mate didnt come round and ignore signs saying cutting the grass on this properly means you agree to work for free or pay the owner £20.

Its not going to go away.

Oli.s

I believe tfl is different to the fake parking companies in that it does actually have a proper legal power to enforce the charges, much like the councils do.

And no offence but having driven around London for the first time last week I have to say that the cc zone is very well marked out, sign posted in advanced and also with countdown signs, and road markings, it was even on my sat nav!

I don't think the argument of not realising where the zone was will hold water, neither will flat out refusing payment.

dacouch

You would have been better paying it when it was £180, as others have said it will not go away and you won't overturn it.

Try posting on this section as you might be able to reduce some of the Bailiffs charges.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

redux

The scheme is coming up for its 10th anniversary.

I don't think they'll be inclined to much leniency as they will believe they've made adequate provision to notify people with signs and markings and help them pay, including pay actually after the visit, either later on the same day or the next day.

Yes, you say you weren't in a fit state to worry about it, but surely your partner should have noticed the signs and found out what to do.

The only time I've been involved with the congestion charge I phoned them up to ask about it the day beforehand, then paid on the phone

This was not long after it launched and slightly before I started using internet.

As it would turn out I drove along the edge of it without entering. I didn't look at the map and discover this until years later.

You might be able to discuss this with their collections department rather than the actual bailiffs, seeing if they can accept less than this amount as you think it unreasonable, but as you've already refused a couple times while talking with them I wouldn't be that hopeful you can persuade them of a reason why you overlooked this.

UsernameAlreadyExists

carloblanco wrote: »

Hi,

My partner has told TFL & has maintained through all of this that it should be his bill as he was the driver, they do not acknowledge this and say as the owner it is mine, my partner and has refused to pay TFL £180 which i somewhat agree with.

My partner has told TFL that it should be his bill
my partner (and) has refused to pay TFL £180

Sorry, but this doesn't make sense to me.
Why did he refuse to pay?

I fully empathise that this shouldn't be your problem, but clearly it is ... or, more to the point, your partners.

Get him to cough up as others have pointed out, this isn't going to go away.

Hope everything went well btw

madjay

it the owner of the car that pays not the Driver. It is clearly marked that there is a Congestion charge and where the zone starts. I suggest you pay up before it gets ang bigger

maninthestreet

Rather than looking for ways to wriggle out of paying this demand, or have it reduced to a much smaller figure, you should pay up. As others have indicated, the figure will just keep going up.....

carloblanco_2

We can honestly say we never noticed any signs nor knew how to go about where to pay for the CC. We live in Cornwall which is 300+ miles away from the capital, Driving around london was stressful enough and trying to read road signs for directions was our aim. What little we knew of the CC was that if driving in the zone a picture would be taken and a £5 bill would have been forwarded.. How wrong were we! I cant see how common sense cannot prevail here and we be allowed to pay the £12 day late fee here for our circumstances!
And yes baby & I are fine now, probably another reason why we have not dealt with this issue..its been a tough year!

Splott

carloblanco wrote: »

We can honestly say we never noticed any signs nor knew how to go about where to pay for the CC. We live in Cornwall which is 300+ miles away from the capital, Driving around london was stressful enough and trying to read road signs for directions was our aim. What little we knew of the CC was that if driving in the zone a picture would be taken and a £5 bill would have been forwarded.. How wrong were we! I cant see how common sense cannot prevail here and we be allowed to pay the £12 day late fee here for our circumstances!

I live 250 miles away from London. I know you can pay with a phone and in some shops but I never have done as I've never been into the CC zone. I've been into central London a couple times and you have to be completely blind to miss the signs. There are massive and I mean massive big red circles painted on the road as well as signs on poles.

You had the opportunity to pay the £12 the next day after you travelled through the CC zone but that expires at 24:00hrs that day so that has been and gone.

You would have had at least one letter before it got to £180 and chose to refuse to pay it. So it has gone up to £467.04 and it will go up again another £100 or more the next time they visit to try and get payment and continue to go up until it ends in county court at which point a possession order will be issued to come round your house and seize goods if you don't pay. Once it gets to £750 and you don't pay they legally have the ability to have you declared bankrupt. That is how serious this can get.