Free Traffic Legal Advice

On 22nd August I received a NoE from Marstons for two PCNs relating to two consecutive days travelling in the ULEZ without paying the charge.
I then contacted Marstons (24th) to check whether these were legitimate as I had no knowledge of the contraventions. They informed me (29th) that they were legitimate and gave details of the incidents.
I also checked the details of the PCNs and contacted TfL to tell them that I wasn't aware of the PCNs and what should I do to challenge them (I didn't get a response).
I then had a follow up from Marstons saying they would send an enforcement agent at additional fee (30 Aug).
The agent arrived on the 11th and left a notice of intention to remove as no one was in.
I then spent a week or so trying to get through to TfL on the phone, only to be given details of TEC and finally got through to them where a very friendly lady told me that the PCN had probably gone to the wrong address because I hadn't updated my log book when I moved house, and that I should complete a statutory declaration out of time and sent me the forms (12 Sep).
I spoke to the enforcement Agent (12 Sep) over the phone to inform him that I had been told to complete the SD and he said that he was not able to put the case on hold until TEC had processed the forms and updated the case.

I also contacted bailiffadviceonline (12 Sep) who told me that the PCN had been returned to TfL and that I should complete the forms for them to check (15 Sep).
I duly completed the forms and sent them to be checked and was told they urgently needed to be reworded, but have had no contact from them since.
Alongside this I contacted a number of solicitors to find someone who could witness the forms but have not been able to find anyone will to sign them who has availability any time soon.

I am getting increasingly anxious about how long everything is to taking to move, particularly with bailiffs a ever-present concern.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your response. I wasn't whether paying the Marstons fine would mean that the money was then lost. Is there any beenfit to paying now to avoid further costs or are they limited?

In response to you specific questions:

Are you the registered keeper of a car?
No the car has been sold recently (I think it is still in process of changing details with DVLA)

Is this the same one as appears in the PCNs?
I haven't seen the PCN (I never got it!), but when I spoke to TfL they had my previous address on file.

Is your V5C up to date?
It was not updated before the car was sold, so had my previous address on it.

When was this last amended?
In process, went through first week of September, before that it was when the car was bought in 2016.

Have you moved, if so when?
Yes, October 2021

Dates of PCNs?
29 & 30 December 2023

Do you have copies of the PCNs?
No, but have seen the infringements on TfL website.

Thanks again.

The current amount owed is £943.00, which seems to be correct.
This broken down into Debt (£279) and Compliance-stage fee (£75) for each of two PCN, and one fee of £235for the visit.

How do I go about contacting TEC about the Warrants?
Do I need to do this via a formal process? or is it just a case of phoning and asking?

Many thanks,
Joe

I am afraid your assumption about acceptance is wrong, sorry to have to say it. Any Out-of-Time declaration to TEC (Statutory Declaration, or Witness Statement), can be opposed by the enforcing authority, who invariably do object to its acceptance. If they object, your OOT will be declined. The problem is one of your own making, being failure to keep your V5C up-to-date, indeed two years out-of-date, I believe.

Anyway, let us know how you get on, you could get lucky !

You've now got to the maximum amount the bailiffs can charge, so maybe don't pay until the result of our OOT comes back. Once your OOT is received and processed by TEC, all bailiff action must cease, so they can't turn up and seize goods or clamp your car, but TEC have been very slow post Covid in processing OOTs. So you need to watch out for them. Of course if you pay the amount demanded, this has no influence on whether your OOT is accepted or rejected. As I said before, your case doesn't look good, because you failed to update your V5 in a timely manner.