got a phone call from a good friend today with some rather alarming news, he’s had a bailiff turn up out of the blue yesterday looking to collect on behalf of dart charge - it seems that after putting a private reg on one of his trucks they forgot to swap it on their dart charge account, so said vehicle has now got a grand total of 65 unpaid crossings to its name, so ok, he’s (or his missus is) at fault for failing to swap the reg on the system, but, the odd and infuriating bit is, they have never received the penalty letter you are supposed (and I have) get when you don’t pay, not one thing has come through the post until now its in the hands of the debt collectors - and because of this the bill is now going skyward, to the tune of an estimated 20k!!! which is ridiculas!! obviously many phone calls have been made to try and sort this out - from what I can gather dart charge have been pretty unhelpful, saying theres not a lot they can do!■■ its not like he’s been trying to avoid paying to cross - they have an account for six trucks with dart charge which is constantly topped up when required, its just there has been an “admin error” on their part - looking like quite a costly one.
so two questions …
has anyone else fallen foul of dart charge big time…
and can anything be done in situations like this??
I would contact the new owner of the number plate and ask them if they have already paid for the disputed crossings as it may be the case that the dart charge has been applied to two different accounts for the same journey, if it has been paid they can’t charge your mate. I am pretty sure if you have proof of the transfer of the number plate there won’t be a court in this land that will make you pay this bill because of an admin error I would suggest that they will go after the correct person in this case but once bayliffs get involved they want their percentage of the costs regardless.
Richard R:
I would contact the new owner of the number plate and ask them if they have already paid for the disputed crossings as it may be the case that the dart charge has been applied to two different accounts for the same journey, if it has been paid they can’t charge your mate. I am pretty sure if you have proof of the transfer of the number plate there won’t be a court in this land that will make you pay this bill because of an admin error I would suggest that they will go after the correct person in this case but once bayliffs get involved they want their percentage of the costs regardless.
Er - surely the point is that the new owner of the numberplate is the person who is being chased for payment?
Richard R:
I would contact the new owner of the number plate and ask them if they have already paid for the disputed crossings as it may be the case that the dart charge has been applied to two different accounts for the same journey, if it has been paid they can’t charge your mate. I am pretty sure if you have proof of the transfer of the number plate there won’t be a court in this land that will make you pay this bill because of an admin error I would suggest that they will go after the correct person in this case but once bayliffs get involved they want their percentage of the costs regardless.
Er - surely the point is that the new owner of the numberplate is the person who is being chased for payment?
Sent using smoke and mirrors
Your right they should but you still have to prove that it wasn’t you retrospectively as the account wasn’t updated when the plate was sold on.
Richard R:
I would contact the new owner of the number plate and ask them if they have already paid for the disputed crossings as it may be the case that the dart charge has been applied to two different accounts for the same journey, if it has been paid they can’t charge your mate. I am pretty sure if you have proof of the transfer of the number plate there won’t be a court in this land that will make you pay this bill because of an admin error I would suggest that they will go after the correct person in this case but once bayliffs get involved they want their percentage of the costs regardless.
Er - surely the point is that the new owner of the numberplate is the person who is being chased for payment?
Sent using smoke and mirrors
Your right they should but you still have to prove that it wasn’t you retrospectively as the account wasn’t updated when the plate was sold on.
You’ve lost me. Who should? And should what?
The “correct person to go after” is surely the current user of the number plate?
The situation as outlined in the OP is that:
Fred Bloggs has a lorry which used to have the registration AB12CDE. This registration was logged with the Dart Toll people so he didn’t have to worry about remembering to call them every time he used the crossing - they would simply charge it to his account.
Fred has recently acquired the registration FB10GGS and put it on his lorry but forgotten to tell the Dart Toll people of the change. This vehicle has since used the crossing a few dozen times, racking up unpaid tolls and now they are chasing for payment (plus recovery costs).
What has this got to do with the new owner (if there is one) of AB12CDE? What has it got to do with the previous owner (if there was one) of FB10GGS?
Richard R:
I would contact the new owner of the number plate and ask them if they have already paid for the disputed crossings as it may be the case that the dart charge has been applied to two different accounts for the same journey, if it has been paid they can’t charge your mate. I am pretty sure if you have proof of the transfer of the number plate there won’t be a court in this land that will make you pay this bill because of an admin error I would suggest that they will go after the correct person in this case but once bayliffs get involved they want their percentage of the costs regardless.
I think you’ve misunderstood what ive put, my mate has put a private number plate on one of his trucks, and then not updated his dartcharge account with the new plate - a simple but stupid mistake - but should have been picked up almost immediately when the first penalty notice came through the post, but he’s never had a single one! so dart charge have decided he’s ignoring the post he isn’t receiving and it has gone through Northampton (crown I think, could be magistrates?) court and been put in the hands of the bailiff - its all very official anyway.
ive been to see him today and to be fair to the bailiff he’s been very helpful and they have come up with a way that prevents costs from multiplying out of control, he pretty much sided with my mate and agreed that dartcharge is a total scam!! that’s the shortened version anyway. after several phone calls to different law firms, including one championed by commercial motor it looks like he’s stuffed! dart charge is fully automated and they say they have sent the relevant penalty notices out which have never arrived, my mate cannot prove he’s never received them (how could you??) so from a point of law that’s the end of that, looks like the total bill will be aprox 9k, which frankly stinks in my opinion
DonutUK:
So not only did they not get any of the reminder letters from DART…they never got any of the court paperwork either?
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The court paperwork is usually served like a summons has to be handed to the person and they have to accept it. So that could be contested.
Not exactly…if they have used the central county court system at Northampton…the documents are mailed out…and you would get a summons, and a judgement…so at least 2 lots of paperwork…not sure if you would also get notification of the distress warrant as well, which is what allows the bailiffs to act.
DonutUK:
So not only did they not get any of the reminder letters from DART…they never got any of the court paperwork either?
[/quote
The court paperwork is usually served like a summons has to be handed to the person and they have to accept it. So that could be contested.
Not exactly…if they have used the central county court system at Northampton…the documents are mailed out…and you would get a summons, and a judgement…so at least 2 lots of paperwork…not sure if you would also get notification of the distress warrant as well, which is what allows the bailiffs to act.
If mailed out then would they be done as recorded delivery
Dart are notorious for not sending out notices then escalating it to nasty letters making things much more expensive. I added a car to my account for a short while but somehow one crossing slipped through and first thing we got about it was a letter saying bailiffs would be next and it was now at some high figure.
Trouble is the car was owned by Ford so communication was going through their offices, when finally I rang Dart to try and sort it they said just pay the disputed £2.50 and it’d go away. Talking to other people this seems common that they only actually collect the toll and not the trumped up charges.
DonutUK:
So not only did they not get any of the reminder letters from DART…they never got any of the court paperwork either?
not a thing, first my mate knew about any of it was when his mrs rang him to say they had a bailiff at the house, there should have been at least 130 letters - 1st penalty notice and a reminder, not a thing though. apparently the same guy (bailiff) had been to Next aswell and issued them with a bill for around 30k for a similar thing!
so hasn’t this happened to anyone else? I think the system needs looking at, ive been fined three times now - I don’t go over the crossing very often unless im going to Belgium in my van and having to pay by midnight keeps catching me out lol - but at least the letter comes, dart charge must be making a killing out of so many people, lets be right its not very well advertised is it??
8wheels:
Dart are notorious for not sending out notices then escalating it to nasty letters making things much more expensive. I added a car to my account for a short while but somehow one crossing slipped through and first thing we got about it was a letter saying bailiffs would be next and it was now at some high figure.
Trouble is the car was owned by Ford so communication was going through their offices, when finally I rang Dart to try and sort it they said just pay the disputed £2.50 and it’d go away. Talking to other people this seems common that they only actually collect the toll and not the trumped up charges.
I went over in my car when it first went automated, got two penalties but they let me off as it was new, since then they don’t let you off with owt, 70 pound fine plus the crossing charge but if you pay within 14 days it only 35 quid and the crossing charge, ive got a dispute on at the moment from my last Belgium trip, I went which involved two crossings but didn’t ring and pay until I got back as I couldn’t get through for some reason when I tried to pay on the way out and then just forgot so I did it on my way back up north and as I was due to be going again a fortnight later I paid 12 quid to cover me for that, sure enough a penalty letter came through!! I spoke to a guy on the phone who agreed I had obviously tried to pay but as it was automated he couldn’t do owt so pointed me in the direction of the dispute section of their website, I now await their response…
DonutUK:
So not only did they not get any of the reminder letters from DART…they never got any of the court paperwork either?
not a thing, first my mate knew about any of it was when his mrs rang him to say they had a bailiff at the house, there should have been at least 130 letters - 1st penalty notice and a reminder, not a thing though. apparently the same guy (bailiff) had been to Next aswell and issued them with a bill for around 30k for a similar thing!
so hasn’t this happened to anyone else? I think the system needs looking at, ive been fined three times now - I don’t go over the crossing very often unless im going to Belgium in my van and having to pay by midnight keeps catching me out lol - but at least the letter comes, dart charge must be making a killing out of so many people, lets be right its not very well advertised is it??
Sorry if this has been covered but it is definitely a bailiff your mates dealing with and not a collection agent pushing his luck?
Find it unlikely that much court paperwork would go missing. If it is only a collection agent they are far more restricred in what they can do compared to a bailiff
