Friend built up congestion charge debt as (stupidly) he didn't change the address for his van when he split from his wife - she just threw any correspondence for him in the bin.

Bailiffs called to enforce debt. Only real asset was work van that had finance outstanding. Bailiffs said that they were taking control of van, finance company were called and said they could not. He kept the van. Problem is the van will be paid off in a couple of months and he is worried that the Bailiffs will then return to take control.

What is the situation around this. Don't have any paperwork to hand as friend works away during the week so will not be able to see anything until the weekend.

I am not sure from your post whether the vehicle was taken or not?

If your friend had not received any previous notices from Transport for London, then it really is a simple matter of advising him to submit an Out of Time witness statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

How many unpaid congestion charges does he have ? If one, then the debt to the bailiff company at 'visit' stage would be £513.

They did not take the vehicle.

The problem was he did not change his V5 address when he moved out (still hasn't for some reason). Had a DD for the congestion charge for automatic payment but for some reason it got stopped. All the payment requests and court papers went to his marital home and his wife just threw them away. From what I can gather the total bill is over £4k (not sure how many unpaid charges) and is apparently still going up. He realises he has been an idiot and now has to live with the consequences. The van is his only means of transport and is also his work (builder). Only other asset is the marital home which is in joint names.

I have not seen any of the paperwork so its a bit difficult. hoping to get a look at the weekend.

They did not take the vehicle.

 

The problem was he did not change his V5 address when he moved out (still hasn't for some reason). Had a DD for the congestion charge for automatic payment but for some reason it got stopped. All the payment requests and court papers went to his marital home and his wife just threw them away. From what I can gather the total bill is over £4k (not sure how many unpaid charges) and is apparently still going up. He realises he has been an idiot and now has to live with the consequences. The van is his only means of transport and is also his work (builder). Only other asset is the marital home which is in joint names.

 

I have not seen any of the paperwork so its a bit difficult. hoping to get a look at the weekend.

Do you know how many of the CC charges are at 'bailiff' stage?

If any are at Order for Recovery stage, that is a lot simpler to deal with but he needs to deal with this as a matter of urgency.

Is he able to provide any evidence that he left the marital home (and when)?

From what he tells me I am assuming that all the charges have been combined. Not sure about anything else at the moment.

His marital home is in Manchester but he moved back down to London around 18 months ago. since then he has been renting rooms with friends. As for proof of moving out - he had a dispute with an ex accountant over fees that ended up in court and his wife gave the HCEO the address he was living at. He managed to clear that fee before anything was taken.

I have been telling him for ages to change the addresses on anything official but for some reason he has been reluctant.

I may get more out of him now as I think he is panicking a bit.

It is important that he finds out if any of the CC charges are at Charge Certificate or Order for Recovery stage as these ones need to be stopped from progressing to warrant stage.

There is not a shadow of doubt that Transport for London are by far, the best local authority (not just for London) for using their discretion in cases where there is evidence to show that an individual had not been deliberately trying to evade payment.

You friend really will need to resolve the matter of his Auto Pay account. At the very least, I would hope that 'going forward' that he has opened a new account?