congestion charge rant

[captain_chaos]

Where do they get their vehicle details from? Because it sure don't seem to be the DVLA. My dad recived a letter demanding £60 for crossing into the congestion charge zone on the 11th of February at Tower Hill. It even showed a little picture of the car as proof. The only fault with this demand is that my dad had sold the car on the 9th of January!!! So after reading through the paperwork explaining how to contest the charge notice, it had no actual contact details. So after 10 minutes speaking to a robot customer services finally got through to someone who said to send a copy of the bill of sale and details of the current owner. Hope not to hear anything else back otherwise it'll be a £120 charge.

[jackster]

This happens to a mate of mine on a regula basis.He`s had letters like yours saying he has`nt paid the charge, when infact his car is 240 miles away in the works carpark. The problem seems to be with copied number plates, apparantly it`s very common. He olso drives a silver focus which is the worlds most common car, so that won`t help

[nero279]

He should have had an acknowledgement back from DVLA to confirm the transfer of ownership, i'd just take a copy of that and send it to them.

[Scorpion]

Whenever I sell a vehicle I write out 2 receipts. One from me to the new owner and one from the new owner to me. I list the date and time that the new owner took possesion of the vehicle and also add that the new owner is responsible for any road traffic acts from that time.

A bit anal I know but a friend of mine was once charged with dangerous driving, as half an hour after he sold the car the new owner almost knocked down a school crossing lady. He had a hell of a job proving that it wasn't him or that the car was still his while the other guy was driving it.