I'm wondering if you could possibly offer me any advice, like you have kindly given to many before me. The Task Enforcement came this morning at 7am to tell me that my car had been clamped, and that I could un-clamp it by paying a fee of £535 It all started on 22.07.2015 when I was contacted by my old landlady. She told me I was being chased by Bailiff's for unpaid Congestion Charge Penalty Notice. I realized that DVLA must still have my old address, so I immediately sent off my driving license, and also called the Congestion people. They said that I now owed about £270 from entering the congestion area on 26.02.2015! But was too late to pay them. They kindly advised me this happens all the time and not to worry. There was another procedure. They put me in touch with the TEC. It was all very friendly. Having looked in my diary, 26.02.2015 I was on a job on Curtain road and retracing my steps on Googlemaps, I had turned around just inside the congestion zone without realizing at the time The TEC then sent me the PE3 & PE2 Statutory Declaration application forms, which I completed and had signed by a local solicitor (£10 charge) The TEC then sent me a letter on 04.08.15 to say that my APPLICATION WAS REFUSED without a hearing. There were options to apply for a review but they both had extra costs. I presumed I would have to bite the bullet and pay the full amount, and have been waiting for a final bill. Then the first correspondense from the Bailifs came this morning with a clamp. Aparently they are called Task Enforcement and I had to pay them £535 so that I could take my kids to school and drive to work I must add that the bailiffs were actually nice guys, and it saddened them that there was nothing they could do. They said they would wait in the van for five minutes whilst I had a think Is there any way of getting some of the money back now that I have paid it in full? Breakdown of payment below debt £202 Compliance stage fee £75 Enforcement stage fee £235 Thanks and best wishes Joe

Hi, At a critical stage now with a hand delivered letter from Martson Baliffs who now are wanting £467.04 for this £10 Congestion charge. Thing is i live in Cornwall and was rushed up to St Tommys hospital in London for an emergency precedure that my local hospital didnt want to do. My Partner drove myself up in my car as i was not in any fit state to do so. TFL spotted my car on westminster bridge and proceeded to send me a bill for £60 (i think, partner dealt with it). Before this bill came through i was completely unaware of how/why where etc you pay for the charge or indeed where the congestion charges applied, i wrote to them about this and explained my situation and felt it fair that i pay the the £12 for the next day fee for the CC. This was not good enough and they then proceeded to send another bill for £180 because i had gone over the 28 days. I wrote to appeal which was unsuccessful (why i dont really Know) Anyway with a stressful pregnancy i have left my partner to deal with this (reason i was at Tommys). My partner has told TFL & has maintained through all of this that it should be his bill as he was the driver, they do not acknowledge this and say as the owner it is mine, my partner and has refused to pay TFL £180 which i somewhat agree with. Now obviously the baliffs are knocking and I get the feeling with the way my partner feels so adamant about this that it will get nasty etc. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction as to what to do next and get this sorted. Its silly i have to pay a £467.04 for something had i known about would have gladly paid the £10 fee Thanks in advance

Hi all, When I set up my account to autopay Congestion Charge out of my bank I asked if I could clear any debt outstanding. They said it was done. The car was registered to my mum. She has just given me baliffs letters for three outstanding charges to her (cos the car was in her name) for around £200 each. I call them. They tell me to call up a number about an 'out of time statutary declaration'. The people on the number I call tell me the reasons I (or in this case my mum) can apply for them and they dont seem applicable. I call Congestion Charging again. They say its cos the charges dont go on the system for 4 to 10 days so they thought I was all paid up and basically tough luck. Also said I and my mum could send a letter but beyond that went too helpful. What is the best thing to do now?

Ok, here's the situation... On Friday i drive in to the Congestion Charge zone. I forget to pay charge that day (for those of you who are unaware you are allowed to pay the charge up to midnight the following day) So, the following day at around 22:15 i go on to TFL's website to pay the charge but, i am greeted with a notice, which tells me the website is undergoing maintenance and they are unable to take payments. The website should be back up on Sunday at approx 1am. MMmm, funny how it is back up one hour past the time i am able to pay the charge don't you think? I read further and it tell me that i am able to pay by telephone but, the lines close at 22:00 on a Saturday. I am able to pay in a shop that supports PayPoint but in shops i am unable to pay for the previous or following days. So, in other words i am unable to pay for the previous day so i can expect a fine through the post. I feel this is greatly unfair of TFL. They give people the option to pay the following day and when they do that option is suddenly not in operation because of website maintenance. It was very funny how the rest of the website was in perfect operation but the only part they needed to maintain was the payment section. I feel this is a right stitch up and something TFL do to pull in extra money from motorists. I am going to appeal but am interested to know what people think of my chances of an appeal being a success.

I was charged for a phantom visit by Marston, enabling them to charge for a second visit and an attendance fee boosting the day's taking by about £280. I can prove that they didn't visit on the first date and have told them so. They claim to have fully investigated the case and conclude that the first visit did indeed occur (which we know didn't). Now I have asked them to provide evidence and guess what, it's gone silent! This is clearly a case of fraud by a thug with the clipboard. TfL have confirmed that once the debt is passed on to Marston it is no longer their responsibility. So, can any learned friends confirm that in spite of being contracted initially by the Government as collection of a fine (or buying the debt) that this is a criminal act of fraud and not civil complaint. I don't care about the fine as much as assisting in removing a criminal organisation from a lucrative gov't contract and telling them they're f***ing with the wrong people!

I've had to drive into central London 3 times in the last 3 weeks. On all 3 occasions I though I had purchased the Congestion Charge. I've just got a fine for not paying the last occasion. I can see from my history in my browser that I logged onto the site a few minutes before I left to drive in. However, it seems that although I thought I'd made the payment similarly to the previous 2 times it seems the payment didn't go through. I just wonder if anyone has had any trouble with paying the Congestion Charge online. It really should be a simple process. I am a web designer and I have worked on hundreds of websites and purchased many different things online and I find it hard to believe I made this mistake.

I had 2 congestion charges that I got on my Brother's car from TFL on 04/12/09 & 28/06/10 which got to Equita 'auction notice' stage. I spoke to them after receiving the first 'auction notice' dated 16/11/2010, and arranged a monthly payment plan of £101 with a woman calling herself Christina starting 22nd Nov. ( I then pointlessly received exactly the same letter 2 days later dated 18/11/2010, which I'll no doubt be charged for). I started to pay off the balance of what I was told to be £294.32 on 22/11/2010 with a payment of £101. I then missed the next payment and paid late on 14/01/2011 with a payment of £132.10 ( a figure I can't explain as my balance was over £200 at the time, which can be seen in my bank statement along with all other payments to Equita ). Having no work at the time and having just made a payment along with a death in the family meant that I missed the next monthly payment. Now here's where they really sting me... On the evening of 04/02/11 (thankfully my Mum had gone to work and I was out of the country) my Brother, after work, finds 3 letters addressed to him (bear in mind it’s his car which I borrow for work and occasionally get and pay tickets on). The first is dated 01/02/11 and is exactly the same 'auction notice' as before. The second is also dated 01/02/11 but is a letter saying that they were "disappointed to find Congestion Charging Penalty Charge Notice remains unpaid". They then go on to give the opportunity to pay the outstanding balance of £98.16. (Which I would have settled, given a chance) The third letter however was a form 7 notice of seizure that was obviously hand delivered, as on the inventory of goods section he has written my Mum's car details in! (Nothing to do with me or my Brother's car) Despite arriving on the 04/02/11 the form7 is dated 05/02/11. The total amount if paid today reads £444.24 !!!!!! I obviously phoned Equita straight away to immediately settle the balance, by borrowing what I still believe to be £98.16. I am told that no-one at the call centre can speak to me about my account and I must now speak to A*** B*** the allocated bailiff assigned to me. After trying to speak to him he is obviously unmovable on the figure, which he believes to be £444.24, and constantly tells me he is well within his rights to take my Mum’s car. I then receive an undated ‘Delivered by Hand’ Bailiff Removal letter saying that called to execute a warrant on behalf of Northampton County Court. In the top right hand corner he’s written “paid £101, outstanding £444.24”. Through fear of this happening I set up a payment plan with him, after seeking advice from CAB, as I was completely out of places to borrow money and had no work at the time. They suggested I offer him whatever I could and he reluctantly accepted, taking £101 on 08/02/11 (even though I said £100). I then made a payment of £151 on 15/02/11 and then settled the balanced as agreed on 01/03/11 with a final payment of £197.16 ( a figure which at the time seemed about right but adding it all up just doesn’t work. I also asked for a receipt and breakdown which hasn’t arrived ). The bailiff was happy that the balance was clear and I was angry but relieved that the ordeal was over. Or so I thought... (For the record, if at this point if I were never to have heard another thing from them I wouldn’t have written this and probably just accepted that I’d let 2 congestion charges escalate to cost me £683.26 and the worry of my Mum and Brother). On the morning of the 30/3/11 I received two letters from Equita. The first was dated 29/03/11 and was a final demand notice but with a different reference number on it. The second, also with this new reference number, was another bailiff removal warrant to execute from Northampton county court . This had a new bailiff in charge whos’ mobile number was provided to me as my only point of call. I called him and explained that I’d already paid the other bailiff ,A*** B***, £449.16 on top of the £234.10 I paid to Equita’s call centre. He said that his records show I owe £415 but he’ll check with the office and get back to me. Meanwhile I called and text A*** B*** to get a receipt of proof of payment but got no response. I received no response from the new bailiff so called back the following day and he said the same about checking with the office, and again didn’t get back to me. I’ve since moved out of my family home but want to prevent these people terrorising my Mum’s house as that is where the car is registered. I truly believe that I’ve more than paid what I owe and if I pay the other £415 the total will come to £1098.26 which will ruin me. The reference number for all correspondence up to last week has been the same despite them telling me on the phone that they were dealing with two matters. This ‘new’ case has a new reference number with a new bailiff to go with it. Any advice on what I can do next would be great. I’d also like to know if this will affect my brother’s credit rating as it is his car I was driving. Many Thanks, Pierre

Help!!! Please. In January I received a letter from Equita with reference to an unpaid congestion charge asking for £198.44 by return. I did not have the whole amount, and so rang them offering to pay £100.00 and the balance £98.44 the following month. The final payment would be paid on 18/2/11. They accepted this amount, I thought, and took £100.00 by card. This morning(10/3/11) at 7.45 a bailiff woke me having clamped my car - he demanded £445.24! On the 'notice of seizure and inventory of Goods' it stated that 'Amount owing' was £185.00 (How can that be right?) Bailiff Costs £260.24 (For a debt for under £100.00?) Total £445.24 I did not have the money....I phoned the police and they kindly came out (I was very glad to see them - the bailiff was really aggressive) but - there was nothing they could do. I spoke to the Equita office - who told me that I had 'broken my arrangement' and that the balance was due a week after the initial payment. There is no way I would have made that arrangement...I would not have had the balance the following week. He unclamped my car and left saying he will be back on Monday morning to collect the money - or take the car! Is this it? Do I have to pay all those charges for a debt that was under £100.00? I have searched everywhere for an easy to understand table of charges..but have failed dismally. All help would be appreciated.