£20 Admin Charge for Late Payment of a Penalty Train Fare

[TimBushell]

Having lost an appeal against a penalty fare incurred on London and South Eastern Railways (this posting is not about the penalty fare) I forgot to send the requested payment. My fault.

1 day after the original deadline I received this letter:

FINAL NOTICE

Amount : £15.90 + £20.00 Administration Charge.
Date of Issue: 23 Jul 2006

Since you have ignored our request for payment we are obliged to refer your account back to our clients with a recommendation that a summons be issued so that CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS can be taken against you under section 5.3a of the Regulation of the Railways Act 1889, or other current legislation as appropriate.

Your failure to pay the outstanding debt or to appeal against it can be considered as fare evasion. The maximum penalty for this offence is a fine of £1000.00 and/or three months imprisonment.

Whilst we hope you will satisfactorily conclude this matter, if payment is not received within ten days from the date shown on this lettter, legal proceedings will commence without further notice.

"Cheques and Postal orders payable to" ... "The amount to include Admin to be forward to" ... [etc]

Yours sincerely

A Collins [computer printed signature]
Debt Manager

Aside from the heavy-handedness and sudden escalation from original notice to Final Notice 1 day after due date - although it does gall - I would love peoples opinion as to whether I should pay the administration charge of £20, or whether this is also illegal.

I have crafted a letter, cobbled from examples in the Templates Section on this site. Would I be in my rights to send this? Could I potential be opening myself up to further charges for refusing to pay the requested amount? I'd be grateful for anybody's input.

Revenue Protection Support Services
POBOX 89
PO1 1EG

16 September 2006


Dear A Collins,


Ref: ###############/########


The speed which you have escalated this matter shocks me. The Final Notice, with threat of criminal proceedings, has been sent to me a mere 1 day after the original deadline. I can see no reason for such a heavy handed approach. You may consider the outstanding payment as “fare evasion” but actually it was a simple oversight on my part, which I am glad to rectify.

Furthermore how you managed to incur costs of £20 to produce a standardised, & impersonal, notice of outstanding payment I am at a loss to imagine. I believe that the Administration Charge which you are applying in this matter is unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say it is not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my oversight, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your administration costs and are not an attempt to generate profits.

Please find enclosed a cheque for £20.90 to cover the Penalty Fare plus £5 which I believe to be a more than reasonable charge covering printing, postage & packaging costs for handling this matter. If you can assure me satisfactorily that the administration charge of £20 is fully warranted I will consider paying the other £15. If I do not hear from I will consider the matter closed.


Yours faithfully,
[etc]

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

[RichardM]

My own personal opinion is, that you are trying to use contracts law in a situation where no contract existed so you won't win. Had you bought a ticket in the first place, then a contract would have existed.

From what you have said, it would appear that you have failed to purchase a ticket for a rail journey and got caught, then failed to pay the demand for payment on time. They have every right, under railway by-laws to prosecute you, but have given you an extra ten days to pay up, plus an additional charge for having to chase you again for payment. That seems fair, since all they had to do was have the court summons for fare evasion issued at that point instead.

Ask yourself this. Is it preferable to pay £20 and avoid court, or face the likelyhood of being found guilty in court (as you most likely would be) of fare evasion.

[JonCris]

You could of course pay it then try reclaiming it later. They could then not try & prosecute you for fare evasion

[TimBushell]

Thanks Guys... I think paying the full amount IS the sensible thing (whether I decide to claim it back later or not)... Like you say: why risk £n on £20. The letter was also a result of being peed off: your comments and 24hours have cautioned me.

I will pay the full amount, but reword the letter to make my point about their hard-line policies.