Dart charge nightmare

[EcceInPictura]

Fairly new to Mumsnet- please be kind. I’m desperately looking for any advice- or a hand hold- as I’ve gotten myself massively upset re: Dart charge.

To summarise- I’ve had an account open to pay Dart charge for ages, and when prompted that I had a low balance I would go on and top it up. I use the crossing several times a year to visit my sister.

I unfortunately missed an email in March saying they were closing my account due to low funds. Since then I unknowingly made crossings, but logged onto my account and topped up in September- I think it had gone negligibly into a negative balance- something like -£0.50, but thought this was following a very recent journey.

The Dart charge account was originally set up at my previous address and hadn’t been updated, but I had updated the DVLA of my new address.

So... yesterday someone (postman?) popped a letter from Dart charge that was addressed and had been sent to my old home. It’s a penalty notice- £105- and then I’ve logged on to find a total of £575 of fines plus two that have ‘gone out to enforcement’. FUCK. I phoned and the only advice is to open an appeal.

Are they really likely to be lenient if I appeal? By my own admission I’ve made a big mistake. Will Citizens' Advice be able to help?

For context- I’ve just had a baby (in August) so a) have had baby brain and b) am now massively tearful at the prospect of an over £575 bill that I can’t afford.

Right step 1: don't panic. Step 2: fill out TE7 and TE9 forms for each and every one of the PCN notices that are out of the period to appeal. Step 3: appeal those that you still can. Once you fill out and file those forms the enforcement action ought to cease pending the outcome. Be careful though because they will (illegally) still try and collect. If you're successful then the original penalty notices will be re-issued. So you'll pay £35 plus the original charge of £2.50 for each crossing. Depending on how many are out of time, you'll still be quite a bit out of pocket. But less than what you're faced with now. Being pro-active will be the way to go. Most of the TE7 and TE9s will fail due to completing the forms incorrectly so take your time on them and there are forums that can help with this. It would appear though that the original PCN were issued to your old address so attach confirmation of when you moved to a new address to your application as supporting docs such as your tenancy agreement. From the limited info you've given your DVLA form most likely was not updated in a prompt fashion otherwise the PCNs would have made it to you before the enforcement agency got involved. Good luck and remember don't panic...take action.

Weird! This exact same dilemma was posted about 3 months ago.

Write you DART, you might get lucky.

@Radazzle that is so helpful- thank you, I will get onto that. I would totally accept the penalties being reduced to the original amount as it was my mistake, like you say it will be a fair bit but a lot less.

@TSSDNCOP is there? I'll have a look and see if there was any more advice or an outcome. It makes me feel a little bit less rubbish if I'm not the only one to have fallen foul of this

It was a massive thread. The OP had a successful outcome.

In summary, contact DART or wherever they’re called.

It's happened to me but the first thing I heard about it was when I got letters from the enforcement agency demanding almost £400 for 2 crossings. The PCNs were sent to an old address because I didn't update DVLA in time. I filled out the forms and 2 agonising weeks later these were successful and the original PCNs were re-issued. This happens so incredibly often and of all agencies to deal with the dart charge folk are the most reasonable so you should be ok.

Thank you, you have given me hope!

...aaaaand breathe...