Dart charge appeals and useless TEC!

pilliepop

Hi Everyone,

I wondered if anyone has any experience in appealing a Dart Charge penalty (through 'out of time') via the TEC? Originally posted under the Parking Fines forum, but hoping someone here can help?

I registered my vehicle with Dart charge last year and proceeded with four crossings. The first crossing was recorded through my account and charged, but subsequent crossings, for some technical reason, were not attributed to my account and penalty notices were given. Unfortunately these were sent to a previous address so the first notification I had of a problem was a baliff seizing my car!! (For the avoidance of doubt my address has now been updated..).

I had to pay said baliff £500 to release my car but when I investigated, I found that I wasn't at fault at all! I've sent through the required appeals to the TEC and after chasing multiple times, they replied to say they had 19 working days to respond. It has now long since passed the 19 days so I emailed them again on Monday requesting a reply - absolutely nothing has come through apart from their standard receipt acknowledgement.

I would be very grateful for any hints or tips about how to progress this matter because I am livid for a start that Dart charge has issued this penalty when I've acted corrected and registered my car with them; I'm even more annoyed that they've sent a baliff to seize my car and I've had to pay out £500 for something that was totally not my fault!

I've thought to instruct a local solicitor, but obviously this will cost me money so if there are avenues I can pursue myself I'd rather explore all of these first.

Many thanks in advance,

Mary