Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) => Topic started by: goodgame on April 16, 2025, 05:04:17 pm
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We've been through this before - you can't set up autopay to cover charges before the date you set it up. If the terms aren't clear though we would hope for discretion but it's been like this for years.
Given you can pay a one-off charge three days in arrears this seems poor as presumably the VRMs are batched and not reconciled against non-payment until after this arrears window when you would have thought autopay could also be checked.
But maybe the batch file is sent to the autopay system earlier to filter out the outstanding charges (and indeed also one-off prepaid charges) and/or there is an issue with not being allowed by card companies to bill retrospectively. Or something.
I set up autopay week before last as I used the Blackwall/Silvertown tunnels - it's a bit of a pain to set up and you don't know if it's worked until after three days. I see my account is now showing a balance of £3 for two off-peak tunnel charges but the first statement date is 23 April.
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My latest autopay statement covers the period 6 March 2025 to 5 April 2025, but includes a charge for a journey on 5 March 2025. I presume this is because it became chargeable four days later which took it into the window for the statement.
But I would therefore similarly expect the OPs original journey (16 March 2025) to fall into his first autopay statement if it commenced from 17 March 2025 when he set up autopay.
HCA, can you explain which bit of the T&Cs you quoted go against this interpretation as I'm not seeing it as clearly as you seem to be!
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Which is probably because billing is continuous once an account is registered.
OP, I'm conscious that you say you don't want to risk incurring additional costs over and above the discount. IMO, the Ts and Cs are clear: billing occurs once an account is registered and does not take into account prior journeys.
By all means make reps that you understood that your journey on *** would be captured by the first billing period. But I'd be careful about demanding that the PCN be cancelled because the billing period should have captured this journey.
In short, IMO: a misunderstanding(because a PCN was in fact issued), you now have an account, the discrepancy is only ** days and would they exercise discretion.
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I have auto-pay and they they charge you four days after they film you on the ULEZ camera. So by that definition the OP's expectations seem justified that the first billing period would have included the original journey.
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OP, their Ts and Cs state the following. The emphasis is mine:
Billing Period - in relation to the Auto Pay service means one month or any other period we may decide and detail on our website. In each case the billing period will begin on the day that we accept an application to register for an Auto Pay service or any other day we may choose to accept.
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A formal complaint will just be water off a duck's back. If you submit representations, they will re-offer the discount if they reject them.
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Thank you, Incandescent.
I didn't realise TfL were so strict in enforcing PCNs and rarely accept appeals. Will decide how far I want to push this. I think I may end up paying the £90 and then launch a formal complaint and take it from there. Would really rather not incur any additional monetary costs but the principle of this PCN feels very unfair.
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Sorry, but if you are to prevail against TfL you must be prepared to stand your ground and take them all the way to London Tribunals if necessary, and forget the discount option which is the pathway to the "Mugged Club".
Reading your narrative it seems you have a reasonably strong case. Yours is not the first case we have seen on here where a person drove into the ULEZ, and decided to not just pay for that particular entry, but to set-up an Auto-pay account, assuming that in doing so, his ULEZ payment for entry before the account was set-up would be covered. Unfortunately it only works going forward, but you have identified some TfL text that would seem to indicate otherwise to a person setting up an account. So I'd say submit those draft reps and see what TfL come back with and post it here. Your actions in setting up the account show that you intended to pay for ULEZ entries, and not avoid payment. If TfL have any sense of fairness in their organisation, they should cancel the PCN and ask you to pay for the day in question.
However, see what others say, but don't miss the deadline for paying or submitting representations.
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Hi all,
First time poster here so thanks in advance for the help.
I recently received a PCN despite being signed up to ULEZ's Auto-Pay scheme. I've drafted my appeal below. If this is submitted, what is the likelihood of success? If chances are low, I would almost rather pay the £90 discounted fine vs. trying to appeal, getting rejected and being slapped with a £180 fine.
Grateful for all your expertise on this matter.
APPEAL:
- I purchased the vehicle in question on 16/03/2025 and drove home through the ULEZ between 10-11pm on this day
- I then promptly went online on 17/03/2025 to setup payment for this journey
- I opted for ULEZ’s “Auto-Pay” scheme
- I opted for Auto-Pay as the scheme clearly states that the system “charges [the account holder] automatically each month”
- Furthermore, the website also states that account holders receive "protection from receiving Penalty Charge Notices while registered"
- As I responsibly set up payment within the three days of my journey, it naturally seemed that charges related to this journey would be included in March's bill
- Critically, there is no notice whatsoever that historic journeys, within any time frame, would not be captured by Auto-Pay
- I have proof of this and believe ULEZ’s failure to clearly sign-post important T&Cs is negligent
- In my view, I clearly adhered to ULEZ’s requirements by setting up payment within three days of the journey