Congestion charge nightmare £800 fines for 3 charges!!

[loboil]

will try to make this short.

moved house just when CC was coming into effect. Failed to pay a couple of charges - received PCNs - had moved house to within the charge a couple of days later and paid for the annual charge. wrote to that effect and asked them to reconsider the pcns since it was only coz i was moving that i hadn't registered first (old house in charge zone too). in my letter put details of my new address plus had changed the address on dvla for the car plus had paid the annual charge with and they sent receipt to new address.

this was six months ago. this morning my car gets clamped. upon investigation it was from these charges - they had rejected my plea - but sent this to my old address. all subsequent correspondence (charge certificate and debt reg) also sent to last address. i had no idea any of this was going on.

now they want £800 for three days unpaid charges....

car remains clamped - balif will not come to release till monday..

have sent through statutory declaration out of time forms to northampton traffic court and the baliffs. apparently i have to pay and they "may" refund.... ffs!! this is outrageous - tfl said they couldn't update their records on these cases because of data protection... quite how they found my car at my new address is a good question if this is the case.

[loboil]

and is it a crim charge to remove the clamp by removing the steering arm that it's wrapped around - ie not damaging it?

[tomtubby]

Very interested on this question.

Have just read the following letter to Transport for London on the Local Governement Ombudsmans website.

..........."where for various reasons their change of address had not been registered with the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority and where the complainants new addreess was not discovered until AFTER bailiff had been instructed........

TfL has decided that where it established that a motorist/vehicle keeper has not received the original PCN or following notices, it will repay the bailiffs charges even though the Authority was not at fault in appointing the bailiffs who acted under a court authorised order. Clearly this is an enlightenend approach to customer service by TfL"

[loboil]

wow - you are a saint - that's excellent news.

i had updated the dvla and told tfl of my new address so they doubly should refund the bailiffs charges.

[loboil]

btw do you have the link for that directive?

[tomtubby]

Have pm'd you as very complicated on where the link is to this.