Payment of the Congestion Charge allows you to enter, drive within, and exit the Congestion Charging Zone as many times as you wish on that day.
There are no tollbooths or barriers around the Congestion Charging Zone and no physical tickets or passes are required. Instead, you pay to register your vehicle registration mark on a database for your journeys within the Congestion Charging Zone, on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis.
You can pay the Congestion Charge either in advance or on the day of travel before, during or after the journey or by midnight the following charging day. The charge is £8 if you pay by midnight on the day of travel or £10 if you pay by midnight the following charging day (you can pay the following charging day via the call centre and website only).
Cameras read your vehicle registration mark as you enter, drive within or exit the Congestion Charging Zone and check it against the database. Once your vehicle registration mark has been matched, showing that you have paid or do not have to pay the charge (because your vehicle is exempt or 100% discounted), the photographic image of your vehicle is automatically wiped from the database.
Following a final check at midnight (the following charging day), the computer keeps the vehicle registration mark of vehicles that should have paid but have not done so. We then manually check each recorded image and issue a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) of £100 to the registered keeper of the vehicle. As with parking penalties, this payment will be reduced to £50 for prompt payment within 14 days. Failure to pay the PCN within 28 days will result in the penalty being increased to £150.
Upon the PCN increasing to £150, a Charge Certificate is sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle advising them of the increased penalty and that action to recover the outstanding penalty will now be taken. As with parking penalties, failure to pay the outstanding penalty can result in further action, including registration of the debt with the County Court and finally Bailiffs being appointed to recover the debt.
The Enforcement Process
The Enforcement Process is defined in Parliamentary Regulations, to understand the process please click on the following link Enforcement Process. This information includes what notices you will receive, how much money is owed at each stage, how long you have to respond and how to challenge the issue of a PCN. This guide to the enforcement process is for information only. You may wish to seek your own legal advice.
Challenging the PCN
You may be entitled to challenge the PCN. To find out more click on the following link Challenging the PCN.
Further information about the PCN, including details of how to make Representations against a PCN are provided on all PCNs issued.
Clamping & Removal
Vehicles with three or more outstanding Congestion Charging penalty charges may be clamped or removed. Staff working on behalf of TfL are authorised to clamp and remove vehicles both within the Congestion Charging Zone and across the whole of Greater London.
The current clamp fee is £65 and the removal fee is £150. Storage in the Congestion Charging car pound costs £25 a day. If a vehicle is clamped or removed, then all of the outstanding penalty charges and the appropriate clamp/removal and storage fees must be paid before the release of the vehicle can be authorised.
If the release fee is not paid after 56 days the vehicle may be disposed of at auction or by scrapping. However, in these circumstances the registered keeper will remain liable for any charges still outstanding, including an £80.25 disposal fee.
If you believe your vehicle has been clamped or removed incorrectly then please explain the circumstances to the staff at the car pound who will provide any assistance they can. |
