£2.50 Dart Charge Toll became a £616 fine!

pitintheuk

Hello,


Last year I went to France and used the Dart Bridge with my car, which got a £2.50 Toll each way. I did pay once back from Holiday and then never heard again from them.


I just received today a letter from an enforcement agency called jbw saying I am owing £616 for not paying or paying late...


It feels disproportionate to me. And especially I was not trying not to pay or cheat or anything. My understanding is that I paid few days too late.



Is there really anything I can do that is not about paying the £616 ? It is quite an amount for a 2 quids toll...

Aylesbury_Duck

pitintheuk wrote: »

Hello,


Last year I went to France and used the Dart Bridge with my car, which got a £2.50 Toll each way. I did pay once back from Holiday and then never heard again from them.


I just received today a letter from an enforcement agency called jbw saying I am owing £616 for not paying or paying late...


It feels disproportionate to me. And especially I was not trying not to pay or cheat or anything. My understanding is that I paid few days too late.



Is there really anything I can do that is not about paying the £616 ? It is quite an amount for a 2 quids toll...

There's much more to this story. You don't go from a £5 late toll payment to £616 in one step.

Tell us exactly what happened, when it happened and what correspondence you've had in the entire period. I'm guessing you've not updated an address at some point and have missed all the intervening correspondence. Or you've ignored it and haven't filled us in on that point.

AdrianC

pitintheuk wrote: »

Last year I went to France and used the Dart Bridge with my car, which got a £2.50 Toll each way. I did pay once back from Holiday and then never heard again from them.

https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge
Very first line of text...

You must pay the Dartford Crossing charge by midnight the day after you cross.

Then there's the signage as you approach the crossing...
https://goo.gl/maps/oTHmsCLFtcF63RKQ8
https://goo.gl/maps/3SmXmW5p4oPvXW2a9

I just received today a letter from an enforcement agency called jbw saying I am owing £616 for not paying or paying late...

And that was the first you heard...?

https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge/charges-fines

Fines
You can get a £70 fine if you do not pay the charge. You must pay it within 28 days.

The fine will be:

reduced to £35 if you pay within 14 days
increased to £105 if you do not pay it - you’ll also have to pay the crossing charge
You can pay or challenge the fine online or call the Dart Charge contact centre.

So what happened to that? What address is on the V5C for your car?

It feels disproportionate to me. And especially I was not trying not to pay or cheat or anything. My understanding is that I paid few days too late.

Is there really anything I can do that is not about paying the £616 ? It is quite an amount for a 2 quids toll...

If you'd paid within a fortnight of getting the first penalty notice, it would have been £35. It's the delay since then that took it to £70, then £105, then court fees and other costs of getting you to pay...

You need to find out exactly what happened between the £35-in-28-day letter and the £616-court-enforcement letter. If there's a CCJ, you need to try and get that set aside IF you really, genuinely didn't hear a sausage for a genuine reason.

pitintheuk

Hello,

While I still don't fully understand what happened, I just received a letter saying I will be reimbursed the fine entirely. I guess this is a happy end for me. You can only take my word for it, but I did genuinly never received any notice. I leave this note here so if someone else ever experience the same unpleasant moment and find my story, will know it can happen.

I feel I will avoid that bridge next time unless it becomes free as they promised since 2003.

pit

Aylesbury_Duck

pitintheuk said:

Hello,

While I still don't fully understand what happened, I just received a letter saying I will be reimbursed the fine entirely. I guess this is a happy end for me. You can only take my word for it, but I did genuinly never received any notice. I leave this note here so if someone else ever experience the same unpleasant moment and find my story, will know it can happen.

I feel I will avoid that bridge next time unless it becomes free as they promised since 2003.

pit

It's not going to be much help to people.
"I paid the £5 toll late, months later I got an invoice for £616, then a week later I got another letter saying I owed nothing."

AdrianC

What address was on the V5C for your car, at the time of the crossing...?