HELP!!! Being charged £230 for my husband using the Dartford Tunnel!!!

[Happyland8]

Please help.

I'm not a driver & have never driven on the dartford tunnel so none of this is making much sense to me.

DH is in the Army and is deployed just now. We moved house at the end of last year but today I accidentally had a parcel delivered to my old address, when I went to collect it, they had some mail for us.

Anyway, there were 2 letters saying that DH must pay £115 immediately as he has been charged for not paying to use the dartford tunnel. The incident happened back in April (just as our mail redirection stopped unfortunately) and now it's 2 fines of £115 which we really can't afford.

I can't believe a £2.50 toll road could escalate to this. It has also been reviewed in court without our knowledge so that's also a black mark against DH's name unless I can appeal this.

Has anyone been through this? I'm feeling so upset and stressed by this. We aren't home owners yet and I don't want this to affect us getting a mortgage and I just don't know what I'll do if they don't let us off with it

[Happyland8]

Bump.

[Kneesbendarmstretchrarara]

Who are the letters actually from?

[SassitudeandSparkle]

Did you change the address on the car registration document? Because surely the letters would have been sent to that address. Did your DH use the tunnel because you haven't said he didn't so I'm assuming that he used it regularly (before his deployment), how did he normally pay?

[insertimaginativeusername]

Who is the letter from? I assume you also didn't update the vehicle details if the letter went to your old address?

[Happyland8]

The letters are from Dart Charge. He's used the tunnel twice, on his way too and from a work course. I've no idea how paying for the toll road is supposed to be done. I can't get a hold of DH so haven't spoken to him about these letters yet. I'm assuming he hasn't realised he has to pay. I'm so clueless, I don't even know what the car registration documents are or where I'd find these. I'm assuming he didn't change the address since it's gone to the old place. The army moved us house at short notice last year due to extensive mould issues in our old house and DH left not long after that to go overseas so I would imagine he may have forgotten to change the address with everything else we had going on

[McNutty]

There would have been a letters sent before that reminding you to pay £2.50 toll for the journeys made with a deadline (5.00 round trip). I got one recently. Its seems all your letters have been going to the old address. Your dh must've known that he was accumulating charges if he travels through the dartford tunnel regularly?

[ILoveMyMonkey]

Failure to change your driving license address can be a huge fine, up to £1000 I think, so it might be worth sucking up the £230 and changing the address asap.

[Happyland8]

Your dh must've known that he was accumulating charges if he travels through the dartford tunnel regularly?

He's travelled through it twice.

[itbemay]

We recently had one thing similar dd went to see a friend and used bridge/tunnel and forgot to pay, we had a letter saying as first offence we could pay the actual charge £5 in 14 days, the lady I spoke to was lovely, I’d ring them and explain your circumstances and see if they can help at all, I presume you can get a letter confirming short notice house move etc

[mpsw]

Pay the fine and tel, your DH to update the car details. It's an offence not to, with a £1k fine. So doing it quietly and unobtrusively, so he can update DVLA without anyone really noticing, could be the lest expensive way ahead.

[prettygreywalls]

A while ago so a bit vague in memory but I was late paying and as it was my first late pay they let me off , did paperwork on line and registered the car with dart charge , not sure if they still let you off but worth finding out ( mine would have been one crossing coming back - very late and we were tired so simply forgot )

[AdoraBell]

Agree, call them and ask politely if they can help in any way. Then tell DH to update the address on his license.

[Happyland8]

Really confused by the whole changing address on the vehicle registration documents. I've looked into it and checked the car but there's nothing in there. We don't own the car, we lease it. Does anyone know if that could be why we don't have these documents?

[makingmiracles]

Presumably whoever owns the vehicle possesses the V5 registration document. You need to change driving license address

[OldJoseph]

I think you're still the 'registered keeper' even if you lease the car.

[Kardashianlove]

I’ve appealed successfully twice by writing to them, explained didn’t live in the area and wasn’t clear on the charges (one was me and one was DH, same car). One was £200 and one less.
I’m not sure on whether if it’s been to court though but you’ve got nothing to lose by putting everything in writing and explaining the situation.

[meadowmeow]

The address on a driving license has nothing to do with the details these companies obtain. These come from the DVLA also it is who the car is registered to, it's obviously registered to your DH because they wrote to him. He hasn't updated the address.

As an aside, make sure he has changed his driving license as well.

[meadowmeow]

We don't own the car, we lease it. Does anyone know if that could be why we don't have these documents?

You will have it. Because you did have it. Because that's how they found out who to send the letter to in the first place.

[Happyland8]

You will have it. Because you did have it. Because that's how they found out who to send the letter to in the first place.

Unless the leasing company have it and update the details of the registered keeper at their end? That would explain why we don't have it. DH keeps all the car related docs in a folder in the car, it's not there.

[DianaT1969]

I'm pretty sure you can change the address on your husband's driving licence online with dvla or at gov.gateway.

[Bombardier25966]

It has also been reviewed in court without our knowledge so that's also a black mark against DH's name unless I can appeal this.

Do you mean a county court judgment has been issued? If so you're well beyond appealing to Dart Charge and you'd need to apply for a set aside. This in itself costs £255, but if successful would mean the judgment would be removed from his credit record.

[Clairetree1]

Ring and explain nicely. I think the fact that your DH is serving oversees should be taken into account unless you get someone really nasty on the end of the phone

[Haquina]

Please don't keep all car related documents in the car itself. If the car was to be stolen, the documents are gone too.