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Original poster

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

190 replies

Happyland8 · 20/08/2018 19:18

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 Sad

OP posts:
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6
MrsSteptoe · 20/08/2018 21:16

OP Your letter didn't upload, by the way, so you will keep being asked about it...!!

MrsSteptoe · 20/08/2018 21:16

Oops x post

Dilemmacentral · 20/08/2018 21:17

Not read the thread so sorry if covered

I’d be careful perusing this. Your husband is liable to a £1000 fine for having wrong address on his license

Interested in this thread?

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Driving & parking
Dilemmacentral · 20/08/2018 21:17

Persuing

ResistanceIsNecessary · 20/08/2018 21:18

There will be a V5 (the car registration and keeper document) as that comes to you regardless of whether your car is leased or not.

As PP have said, there is a fine for not changing your address with the DVLA and it's for reasons like this - because firms will contact them to get your address details to notify you of fines.

Ring the firm, explain the situation - moved at short notice, husband deployed shortly afterwards and re-direction ended just prior to the letters being sent. See what the situation is; is the money still outstanding or has it gone to court? If it's a CCJ then it's worth speaking to Citizens Advice and also letting your DH know before you speak to the Welfare Officer.

Bombardier25966 · 20/08/2018 21:19

I think at this stage you just need to accept it, pay the fine and deal with the CCJ. The courts will argue you had plenty of chances to pay up and that it was your DH's fault for not updating his address (which also incurs a penalty of upto £1000).

Given the potential impact on his job, he may need to apply for a set aside. There are plenty of cases where a set aside has been granted where someone has not received paperwork because they failed to update their address. It doesn't make the issue go away, it rolls the case back to pre hearing, giving the respondent a chance to pay up before a judgment is entered, or to defend the claim.

You need more specialist advice on this OP. The first thing you need to do is establish whether a CCJ has been issued, and what effect this may have on your partner's security clearance. Hopefully you have authority to deal with his affairs whilst he is away?

Fireworks91 · 20/08/2018 21:21

That looks like it is still with Dart and not at court?

As an aside, can you not pay cash any more? There were always cash/pay now lanes and Dart card lanes back in the day.

meadowmeow · 20/08/2018 21:21

There will be a V5 (the car registration and keeper document) as that comes to you regardless of whether your car is leased or not.

It's a VC5, and it doesn't always go to the person who leases the car.

BloodyBosch · 20/08/2018 21:21

email the company that issued the charge, tell them your dh did not get the letters because he is posted overseas and see what they say. You still have time to submit a statement to the court if that fails.

Iwantaunicorn · 20/08/2018 21:21

They’re open until midnight 🙂

meadowmeow · 20/08/2018 21:22

Your husband is liable to a £1000 fine for having wrong address on his license

This has nothing to do with his license.

WhentheDealGoesDown · 20/08/2018 21:22

thenightsky - No there is no bucket thing now, DH had his change ready and then rang me in a panic when he arrived at his campsite, if you aren’t online you can ring up and pay but the time limit for paying is quite short, they should really allow a couple of weeks

Dilemmacentral · 20/08/2018 21:23

meadowmeow

Agreed

But if you stay going down the route of challenging a fine you do open yourself up to scrutiny and in this scenario the OP could be liable to a £1000 fine

Etino · 20/08/2018 21:23

Please call them Happyland
I’m getting stressed reading the conflicting and hysterical advice. They’re open until midnight.
03003000120

meadowmeow · 20/08/2018 21:24

I know that. What I'm saying is his old license details will be registered with the lease company, so the Dart Charge people possibly got his address that way?

Changing his license with the DVLA would have made no difference. The OPDH had a responsibility to change is address with the lease company

TheVeryHungryDieter · 20/08/2018 21:24

I can see the letter.

Good news OP, it's not a CCJ - not yet anyway. It's notification of a claim. And in my experience these things take months to come up.

Bad news is that the company won't usually withdraw it at this stage (at least, lewisham council wouldn't for me, even though I genuinely hadn't received the PCN), because it's been passed to the next stage of collections. But if you pay the charge on the letter the threat of a CCJ goes away. Otherwise you have to wait for notice of a hearing and then deal directly with the court. Ring the traffic court and they'll tell you what to expect - the number should be on the HMCTS website.

WhentheDealGoesDown · 20/08/2018 21:25

I would emphasise about your DH being in the forces and on a posting overseas and ring them

Laiste · 20/08/2018 21:25

Your letter says you can make a statement if you feel you have grounds for not paying the fine. It mentions 6 limited grounds, but they are not visible on that pic. Says you can do it by email ...

Could you suggest that being called away suddenly on service was grounds? Would you normally open all your DHs post addressed to him? (even if the letters had come to the right address originally). Perhaps you could attempt a statement around that?

Got to be done by the 24th. Doesn't give you long ...

Zillcat · 20/08/2018 21:27

Register him with Clear score, they will generate a report with his credit rating telling you what debt he has and if indeed he has a CCJ. The letter you have uploaded doesn't make it clear that he has one.

Also, I have a lease car. The V5 document is with the leasing company so you may not have it after all.

CressidaEgg · 20/08/2018 21:27

You've had some crap advice on here, OP.

You can't appeal the fine because you would have to admit you hadn't informed the DVLA of change of address. The original fine would stand plus a further huge one from DVLA.

You need to pay it now otherwise, as previous poster said, the bailiffs are going to arrive, block your car in your drive and call for a tow truck if you can't pay the fine plus a few hundred extra for them. And it's all legal because it's gone through the Court.

Don't mean to alarm you but I speak from bitter experience 😦

Laiste · 20/08/2018 21:28

Yes, better still ring them and tell them he's been posted oversees at short notice and that's why he hasn't responded to previous letters. You've opened this one and want to clear this up for him.

This isn't a CCJ.

leapingtorand · 20/08/2018 21:31

Not a CCJ - jeez some people on here are crazy ! You have a couple of days. ring them ... so sorry husband called away military service, moved address. We would like to sort this out now so sorry we didnt get back to you. How can we resolve this now ?

I bet they will waive the charge.

Dilemmacentral · 20/08/2018 21:31

meadowmeow

I’m talking about a complete separate fine that the op is liable for.

The fact that the op’s Husband had not informed the Dvla of a change of address.

BlueJava · 20/08/2018 21:32

it's really clear you have to pay when you go through the Dartford Crossing. However, if he's not a regular user maybe he thought he still had money in his Dart Charge account (you used to pay via a stick on the windscreen) - but the system has changed and now you pay online or via phone. Have a look here www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge explain and contact them.

However you need to update your vehicle registration docs as it seems like you haven't as the info went to your old address.

Laiste · 20/08/2018 21:32

You can't appeal the fine because you would have to admit you hadn't informed the DVLA of change of address.

If the company are going to alert the DVLA about the lack of change of address they'll do it weather or not OP appeals. These people are just recovering fines for the tunnel company. If OP rings, says she's only just opened his post and stresses the DH in Forces element they might let him off.

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