Free Traffic Legal Advice

I am born and raised in Wales where ULEZ is unheard of for the majority.
I have never driven to London City but in December’23 I drove to T3 Heathrow to drop off my kids and returned a week later to collect them.
I paid the drop off zone fee when I got home (because my son noticed the sign) and paid a 2nd one at the same time in readiness for collection only to find it wasn’t needed.
My husband and I used Heathrow T5 to travel in March ‘24. We used the Meet and Greet parking facility and returned a week later.
A few days after we arrived home I received a PCN for the day we got to the airport. It was an immediate £90 fine. A week later I got a second one for the day we got home (it is actually timed and dated when we were still flying).
I have completed the representations but from the reading I have done since I have no chance of success.
My issues are:
1. Why is it an immediate £90 fine? If they only allow 3 days to pay the £12.50 and you have no idea about ULEZ how can you pay it in 3 days when the PCN doesn’t arrive until 10 days later?
2. Does this 3 day rule only apply to ULEZ or are all TfL fines based on 3 days? Usually if a fine is £90 you get a reduction if paid within 14 days.
3. There is no payment plan discussion until you get to the £240 level which is ridiculous.
I have £180 to pay them which is going to be difficult to find in one go as we’ve had a run of financial problems in the past few weeks so the tank is empty!
4. Why didn’t I get any penalty notices in December? Same vehicle, same trip.

All the road user charging schemes are similar, CAZs, London ULEZ, DART crossing, Mersey Gateway. If a charge is due, you can pay it in advance or within a few days after using the road. Each scheme sets its own arrears period.  The lwa is that as a motorist you must know all about these things and ignorance of them is no excuse. Of course the law is, as the Beadle said, in Dicken's book Oliver Twist, "the law is a ass, sir".

If it were me, I'd submit reps for the two PCNs pointing out that you live in (rural ?) Wales and had never travelled to London in your whole life, but on two trips to London Heathrow Airport was shocked to receive the PCNs for non-payment of the London ULEZ scheme, something you had never heard of at all, so made no payment. Request that they cancel the PCNs and ensure that the existence of this scheme is made more widely known.

ALso check your car reg number against the Transport for London compliance checker: -

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/check-your-vehicle/

Thank you for your reply. I really hadn’t heard of it until the notices arrived.
I’ve done two representations and once I get a response I will pay both fines as this is causing me too much stress.

@Susaq when you get the rejections please show us rather than just paying. At present Transport for London has a flaw in their notice of rejection, if the incorrect wording is present in your rejection as well then it's a virtually guaranteed win if you appeal to the tribunal.

If there's a way out of this, paying £180 seems like a complete waste of money.

Hi,
I have received one of the rejection letters.
I have attached it (3 pages). There is also a notice of appeal form enclosed.
Thanks you

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If this were a parking or moving traffic contravention case dealt with by the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators then you'd still have a fair shot on appeal based on the wording in the notice of rejection, this would be done by bringing a collateral challenge against the notice of rejection. However with the Road User Charging Adjudicators it would be a battle just to establish that a collateral challenge can be brought, and I suspect it would be rejected anyway, as the main flaw in the wording appears to have been fixed and the remaining issues are not so clear-cut.

If the penalty amount on the TFL website increases to £180 at any time prior to midnight on 21 April, then you have an open-and-shut winning appeal.

If the penalty charge amount does not go up prior to midnight on 21 April, then you might want to consider paying the discounted amount while you can.

Of course that leaves aside any issues of signage, as google street view is not up to date with the new ULEZ signs we cannot say whether the signage is adequate or not, and you obviously can't go back and check given that you live in Wales. You could appeal on the signage anyway, but it would be a gamble as we'd be going in blind.

@Susaq I should add, if the penalty goes up at some point on 21 April then you need to open another browser window and go to https://time.is and get a screenshot capturing both the amount due and the time.is website. If this scenario plays out let us know and we'll help you with the appeal.

Hi
It’s a Nissan Navara so I’d thought it wouldn’t be compliant.
Thanks

I have checked thank you.