Congestion Charge Penalty
Discussion
Don't you just love it? Here's the deal -
Went to London for two days in June with two cars. Went online a few days before and bought (or thought I did) CC for both cars both days. Now facing three penalty charges (they must have missed one!) and my initial appeal has been turned down.
My appeal is as follows - added the right information on the website, clicked through to pay my basket, entered debit card details, clicked submit and was taken back to my basket. As it says 'charges purchased' at the top, thought this was my confirmation of payment. Turns out this was not so and my charges were never processed.
CC bods say I should have clicked from my basket to enter my payment details and would have then been given a receipt. They assume I didn't do this, I did everything but get the receipt.
I now have to appeal again to an 'independant body'. I also sent them a cheque for £20 which I stated in a letter was in full payment for the original charge as I had no intention of wanting to delay paying futher; they cashed this and deducted it from the penalty charge outstanding.
Any suggestions on how to go - it's not over yet, still one appeal process to go, but would be grateful for advice.
Went to London for two days in June with two cars. Went online a few days before and bought (or thought I did) CC for both cars both days. Now facing three penalty charges (they must have missed one!) and my initial appeal has been turned down.
My appeal is as follows - added the right information on the website, clicked through to pay my basket, entered debit card details, clicked submit and was taken back to my basket. As it says 'charges purchased' at the top, thought this was my confirmation of payment. Turns out this was not so and my charges were never processed.
CC bods say I should have clicked from my basket to enter my payment details and would have then been given a receipt. They assume I didn't do this, I did everything but get the receipt.
I now have to appeal again to an 'independant body'. I also sent them a cheque for £20 which I stated in a letter was in full payment for the original charge as I had no intention of wanting to delay paying futher; they cashed this and deducted it from the penalty charge outstanding.
Any suggestions on how to go - it's not over yet, still one appeal process to go, but would be grateful for advice.
I guess it would depend on how you worded the letter, but I'd have thought a well worded letter stating that "acceptance / cashing this cheque will be regarded as full and final settlement of the dispute in this matter" would make it difficult for them to pursue you much further...
but I'm not a lawyer
but I'm not a lawyer
stumartin said:
I guess it would depend on how you worded the letter, but I'd have thought a well worded letter stating that "acceptance / cashing this cheque will be regarded as full and final settlement of the dispute in this matter" would make it difficult for them to pursue you much further...
but I'm not a lawyer
Not the case, I'm afraid.
I used to think that, but discovered that if you own a sum of money and don't dispute the actual sum owed (the 'Quantum'), any payment made can be used to reduce the debt, even though you may have stated that it's only to be credited as 'full & final' settlement.
Typically, if a garage bodge up a job on your car and still send you a bil which you think is too high, you can't just say I'm not happy and here is half of what I owe, but only cash the cheque if you agree to it being 'full & final'.
What you must do is to challenge the amount of the bill, in writing, by saying 'I don't owe you, say, £500, I believe I owe you £250 for the work done. Here is a cheque for £250 which you are entitled to cash only if you agree with my figure of £250, at which time it is 'full & final'. To say, I'm not prepared to pay the £500, but here is £250 in full & final doesn't work.
Alternatively, you must first write to say you don't agree with the bill and would they compromise at 50% as 'full & final' to avoid legal action. If they confirm, in writing, that this is acceptable as 'full & final' (they must confirm the words) then you are OK.
It may sound picky, but it's the law.
Cooperman said:
stuff..
Not the case, I'm afraid.
I used to think that, but discovered that if you own a sum of money and don't dispute the actual sum owed (the 'Quantum'), any payment made can be used to reduce the debt, even though you may have stated that it's only to be credited as 'full & final' settlement.
Of course, I should have made clear that I didn't mean that you shouldn't dispute / challenge the amount in question first (with good reason) and then make a settlement offer, acceptance of which would be binding.
Essentially what you're saying, if I understand correctly, is that, by putting your "I don't owe you, £x, I believe I owe you £y... Here is a cheque for £y which you are entitled to cash only if you agree with my figure of £y"
...in front of the words I used...
""acceptance / cashing this cheque will be regarded as full and final settlement of the dispute in this matter"
...then you'd get an enforceable acceptance upon their cashing the cheque?
wanty1974 said:
I figured that. I was rather hoping for someone to believe that their website didn't work as quite a smoothly as they think it does!
Well, they should do, it's f**king shit. Every time I pay the charge it's another numpty nightmare, why is it when you have to pay for something you lose the right to decent customer service?
wanty
Follow the appeal procedure to the bitter end.
All explained at
www.parkingandtrafficappeals.gov.uk.
DVD
Follow the appeal procedure to the bitter end.
All explained at
www.parkingandtrafficappeals.gov.uk.
DVD
Seeing as it's only the fines that are keeping this system afloat I'd rate your chances pretty low. They will pursue you ruthlessly for this money.
It's a little known fact - if everyone paid the congestion charge and wasn't therefore in a postion to be fined they'd go out of business pretty damn quick.
Grim news I know.
Fight it and good luck!
best
Ex
It's a little known fact - if everyone paid the congestion charge and wasn't therefore in a postion to be fined they'd go out of business pretty damn quick.
Grim news I know.
Fight it and good luck!
best
Ex
Now here's an interesting development...
Had two recorded delivery letters today from TfL showing us the evidence they have sent to the Appeals Service about two out of the three penalties we are contesting.
Also in the post where two letters, one each from the Appeals Service & TfL... they are withdrawing the proscution for the third penalty as when gathering submitting theirs and our evidence, they discovered an administrative error which meant the prosecution couldn't continue.
Now we've submitted our evidence as one, as we purchased (or thought we did) all the charges as one. In that case, how can they cancel one and not the other two?
Had two recorded delivery letters today from TfL showing us the evidence they have sent to the Appeals Service about two out of the three penalties we are contesting.
Also in the post where two letters, one each from the Appeals Service & TfL... they are withdrawing the proscution for the third penalty as when gathering submitting theirs and our evidence, they discovered an administrative error which meant the prosecution couldn't continue.
Now we've submitted our evidence as one, as we purchased (or thought we did) all the charges as one. In that case, how can they cancel one and not the other two?
Piccy Mate said:I don't keep my cache for longer than a month, but I did dig out the list of cookies and sent that to them. I even offered them my hard drive for analysis, but they can't accpet anything that isn't on paper!
Just out of interest - have you looked through your Internet cache to see if you've still got the pages in there or in your Internet History at the the pages you visited at that site - you might be able to recover the pages and s print them out if they back up your story.
David.
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