I received a penalty charge notice from TFL (Transport for London) yesterday - yes Friday 13th.
The car was NOT in London on the day in question (it's been there about twice this year).
I 'phoned them, and they said the car booked was a Vauxhall, mine is a Nissan. They confirmed this very quickly, and agreed there was a conflict between registration number and manufacturer of car booked. Do they have a direct line to DVLA?
I asked for photographic confirmation of the offence, they said ther was none available.
They told me to ignore the charge.
Oh cynic that I am. Why do I think this is likely to go pear-shaped, and involve me in an awful lot of time and expense?
I eventually got a four-digit reference number, and first name of the person I spoke to. I have a note of the date and time of my call. I asked for written confirmation of the withdrawal of the penalty, and told "it would be sent in the post".
What else can I do, or should I have done?
Has anyone out there got experience of this sort of thing?
A couple of weeks ago in London, a passenger got out of my car, and took a photo' of three parking attendants parked in an ambulance bay, while a fourth booked a car that was parked across a dropped kerb that led to a brick wall. Yes it was parked illegally, but the parking restrictions were obviously applicable before the property was demolished and a new place built. Am I being paranoid?
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Another reason to record your call, perfectly legal if you inform the other party.
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Another reason to record your call, perfectly legal if you inform the other party.
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I understood it was legal as long as one of the parties involved was aware that the call was being recorded.
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I would love to know what would happen if YOU sued the council for harassment. They are trying to get you to pay a fine which is clearly not applicable to you.
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Make a claim for your time via
www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp
for the time and phone bill, claim for £20 + £50 costs.
This what I do with big corporations with poor customer service, councils etc... these days, just as they do to us.
I have never lost a case yet (as they say) and never had to go to court.
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I would strongly advise a brief letter to TfL summarising the problem and formally requesting that the penalty be cancelled, you should certainly do that, or follow the procedure outlined with the letter, if the notice you have received is phrased in terms of being a notice to owner.
Next step should be the adjudicator. The ones that are ignored are exactly the ones that get nasty with charges being increased and then bailiffs instructed.
Looks like a cock up so unless you're pursued further and unreasonably the MCOL/County Court route is overkill (though it keeps my colleagues at the bulk issue centre in work!). If, and I think she does, the road charging adjudicator has the same powers as a parking adjudicator costs can be awarded if the Council has acted unreasonably or vexatiously.
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I endorse the idea of making a claim for your own costs when caused by others' mistakes. It's perfectly reasonable to do so.
When I had the very well known coil-pack problem with my Audi a couple of years ago, I billed the dealer for my time and costs caused by the hassles: Phone calls, time off work, stamps, time and cost of travelling back and forth to the dealer.
They paid without a wimper.
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harassment? Claim for costs? courts?
My giddy aunt.
The bloke got a letter throught the post, one phone call has fixed it as its an obvious error.
Get a grip people.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Agree with TVM - it part of life's rich pattern.
However, when a few years ago a bank cashed a cheque to an account other than the one I'd made it out to, it took some sorting out, I sent the bank, (not mine) a bill for two hours of my time (I'm self-employed), pointing out they they had enabled a fraud by their sloppy actions. They paid the bill in 24 hours.
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