Hi all,
I apologise in advance for the long-winded post and hope you can bear with me
as I explain my situation as I am confused about what I should do next
and could really do with some advice!
I live in the South East and occasionally have cause to use the dartford crossing
which in late 2014 converted the toll system to an online system where you could pay within 24 hours of a crossing.
I set up an account in April 2015 for my husband's car which I credited with £10
and authorised to take automatic top-ups as and when needed.
We then proceeded to use the crossing several times over the summer when going on weekends away or day trips.
At this point I was also looking after my new baby who, due to reflux and eczema,
was sleeping very poorly and I was becoming quite sleep deprived.
I was not on top of my usual filing of post etc and had let it pile up on the windowsill for 'when I have time'.
I know this was foolish but genuinely wasn't expecting anything troublesome in the post!
When I finally did open the post I was horrified to see 5 PCN letters from dart charge
and came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of mistake,
in my next foolish move I decided it was best not to mention this to my husband
and that I could surely rectify it easily enough.
Well, unfortunately by the time I put in my online appeals
I was sent a letter stating that I was out of time to respond and that the case was going to court.
At this point I told my husband what was happening (the car is in his name)
and he was quite content that we would be able to explain the situation at court and it would be fine.
we waited for the witness summons.
The next thing we know we are being contacted by an EA who claim there was a court case at the end of June
and they will now be sending bailiffs to collect the debt.
My husband contacted them and explained that we were not aware of the court date
and hadn't had a chance to explain that we had tried, in good faith, to pay for the crossings.
The EA told him that there was nothing we could do now except pay up, we hoped that this was not true
and so asked for copies of the court orders which we still have not received.
Yesterday we received a visit (apparently at 6am although I was awake and heard nothing)
from an EA who posted a letter adding £235 to our costs (over £800 on this one)
today a further letter detailing more PCNs on a seperate reference totalling over £500
with a warning that if not paid by tomorrow the EA will visit on this case.
My husband is adamant that we should not pay these fines
when we have an account, in credit, with dart charge that should have covered the cost of the crossings.
It has transpired that I actually input a 0 instead of an O when creating the account (sleep deprivation again)
and dart charge have (since I created the account) installed software that prevents this type of error
due to so many people making this mistake.
I am now confused about what, if anything, we can do next?!
My husband is adamant we should not pay
but with three small children I hate the threat of the visits from an EA
and am starting to be tempted to try to pay to remove the pressure,
especially as the costs keep rising.
Thank you for reading all the way through this
and thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions you may have.
