Collection agency want +£500 for a London congestion charge that I paid over a year ago....!

peanutismint

peanutismint

peanutismint

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Cardiff Geordie
I travelled to London on business last April (2017). Had to park in a congestion charge zone but I arrived on a Sunday night so there was no charge on the way in. On the way out I had to drive back through it so I paid on the TFL website and have a PDF receipt on email stating as much.

Fast forward to May 2018, some 13 months later, and I just got a letter from 'JBW Enforcement Agents' saying I owe them +£500 because I didn't pay the charge and they've been sending penalty notices to my old house address ever since. Lucky for them they managed to find my new address, not sure why they couldn't have done that when I moved last July and updated my details with the DVLA....

Anyway....I'm like 95% sure I'm in the right and can obviously show TFL that they've received my payment and authorised it back in April 2017, but I'm maybe 5% concerned that they'll tell me I'm somehow still in the wrong and now have to pay the fine and the late fees to the tune of about £500. I'm also half tempted to just not reply and hope that it goes away (as these things often do with collection agencies) because would it really be worth them taking me to court over £500?

What do you guys think? Either way I can't get in touch with TFL til their offices reopen on Tuesday....
 
Just as an update to this - they said it was apparently because drivers only have until midnight to pay the charge and I paid about 2 days later....?! Which is fair enough, I didn't know the rules, but then to try and charge me £500 because they couldn't get in touch with me for THIRTEEN MONTHS....?! So now I'm kinda tempted to just ignore it and hope it goes away, but a bit more concerned now as I've called them so they might have put it on my record that I'm aware of the charge now......!! :mad:
 
Thanks all for the info, just wanted to update:

I was feeling increasingly threatened by the thought of the bailiffs coming around, so when the debt collection agency offered to let me pay a reduced fee (around £270) I decided to just pay it and then try to appeal (in which case they said I could be refunded the payment).

Anyway, I filed a statutory declaration (like a sworn oath witnessed by a lawyer) to say that I had only just received the PCN some 15 months later, and along with that I filed an 'Out Of Time' declaration to explain why I was challenging it so late. These went through the due process and were ultimately rejected and the fine was upheld. It seems like, although I updated my driving license address with the DVLA, I didn't update my vehicle registration log book or something (?! I have no idea about cars) and so that's the address they kept sending the notices to.

I realise ignorance of the law is no excuse, and will take my lumps for not having updated this secondary document that I didn't even know about, BUT it's super annoying (and feels like a scam by TfL) to have only been contacted at this one address rather than also my license address or even my EMAIL address (which they had on file from when I paid the charge!!) and so although I'm 95% not going to appeal this ruling through the small claims courts (at a cost to myself of probably around £300-400) there is a tiny shred of me that feels like I've been shaken down for my lunch money by the big London transport bully.....

If anybody has any further opinions or comments please feel free to share.
 
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