(page revised 5 May 2023)
HOME page Main Mersey Gateway Penalties page
WARNING. IN FEBRUARY 2023 A HIGH COURT JUDGE REVERSED THE DECISIONS MADE BY ADJUDICATORS OVER THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS. HE RULED THAT THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PENALTIES WAS LEGAL.
THIS HUMPTY DUMPTY DECISION MEANS THAT SOME OF OUR PREVIOUS ADVICE NO LONGER APPLIES. WE HAVE TRIED TO REFLECT THE NEW SITUATION BELOW AND IN OUR OTHER PAGES DEALING WITH THE PENALTIES
MERSEY GATEWAY PENALTIES - STAGE 4 - TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT CENTRE - RECOVERY ORDERS
This page describes the stage after the Charge Certificate where Merseyflow have applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre for a 'Recovery Order'.
There is also this document that we prepared in May 2018 which covers the whole of the TEC process.
Background
Try To Protect Your Car
Dealing With Recovery Orders - Filling in the TE forms
Other Options If You Can Not Fill In TE forms
What Happens If You Fail To Stop Recovery Orders.
Background
Drivers are regarded as easy victims and there are OVER TEN MILLION penalties a year issued by the authorities on drivers. That would overwhelm the County Court system, so they have a special County Court- the Northampton County Court Business Centre (also known as the Bulk Business Centre) that automatically registers debts against drivers. The part of the court that deals with driver including toll penalties is known as the 'Traffic Enforcement Centre'. Unlike proper courts, there are no judges and no real hearings.
The court has a help line on 0300 123 1059. You may have great difficulty in getting to speak to someone, so it is better to contact them by Email- tec@justice.gov.uk
If after 14 days from service of the Charge Certificate, it is unpaid, Merseyflow (under the fiction that they are Halton Council) can apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to recover the unpaid charge, as if it were payable under a real County Court Order.
The TEC will then authorise the issue of an "Order for recovery of unpaid penalty charge", otherwise known as a TE3. Though the Order appears to come from the TEC, this is just part of the fiction.
For each crossing the amount payable is an extortionate £69 (including £9 for the court's fee) plus the unpaid toll. Note that there may be no unpaid toll as the toll may have been already paid, but paid late.
The TE3 you gives another chance to pay and warns you that "If you do nothing your possessions may be removed and sold to pay this charge." This is not an empty threat, so do NOT ignore it.
If you have received a TE3 form, then you should also have been sent TE9 'Witness Statement' forms. These are very important.
For the first couple of years after the penalties started, there were various faults with the TE forms and the webpages and the forms that the TEC sent out were not the same as the ones that Merseyflow sent out (as if they were the TEC). That was partly because the TEC sent out 'Dart Charge' or 'Parking' forms, most of that has since been corrected, but there are still some problems with the TEC rejecting forms because they say that the wrong form has been used.
The sections below show what to do if you can't pay or decide not to pay.
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Try to protect your car
If you have reached this stage then there is a risk, that whatever you do, the 'debt' enforcers are called in. Unless they can bully or trick you into letting them into your home, the main risk is that they will clamp your car. You have to do something about this risk BEFORE the 'debt' enforcers pay a visit. So have a look at trying to prevent them taking your car and consider transferring the ownership of your car.
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Dealing With Recovery Orders - FILLING IN THE TE9
(THE FOLLOWING ALSO APPLIES TO ANYONE WHO HAS REACHED THE STAGE WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN SENT A 'NOTICE OF ENFORCEMENT' AND ARE BEING CHASED BY BAILIFFS. IT IS QUITE LIKELY THAT YOU NEVER RECEIVED THE TE FORMS, IF SO THEN YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO COMPLETE THE TE7 FORMS.)
DO NOT BE PUT OFF BY THE LENGTH OF THESE INSTRUCTIONS. THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO GET YOU TO PAY AND DISCOURAGE YOU FROM FIGHTING THEM. THEY WANT YOU TO PAY, HOWEVER MUCH HARDSHIP IT CAUSES.
The TE9 is a 'Witness Statement' that you can complete. It has various boxes that you can tick.
You should have received one TE9 witness statement form with each TE3 recovery order that was sent you.
You need to fill in a TE9 for EACH AND EVERY PCN WHERE YOU WERE SENT A TE3 .
The TEC used to allow the return of just one TE9 listing all the related PCNs. To deter you from filling in the forms, the TEC now insist on the return of individual forms for each PCN.
If you have not got the TE9 forms, then you can either contact the TEC and ask them to post you the number of forms that you require, OR you can download and save a blank TE9 form from here.
(Note that you should be able to complete a downloaded form on a computer without printing it out.)
The contact number for the TEC is 0300 123 1059. But there is usually a long wait before you can speak to someone, so we suggest that you email them at tec@justice.gov.uk
Give the TEC your address and tell them how many copies of the TE9 you need (one for each TE3). It is likely that if you did not already have a TE9 then you are late, so you will also need to ask them for a TE7 'Out of Time' application form (so that's a TE9 plus TE7 for every PCN.
Even if you have been sent paper copies of the TE9, you my prefer to download the form if you intend to submit the forms by email rather than post them.
(Note that if you are not able to complete the downloaded form on your computer and you have not got paper copies, then either print the blank form or contact the TEC and ask for paper copies of the forms.
If you are completing the forms on a computer, then you will have to save it as a different file name - such as giving it the number of the PCN. The form needs to be 'signed', if you are doing it on a computer, then just type your name.
If you have either completed the forms electronically or have scanned them after completing them manually then you can then email them to- tec@justice.gov.uk.
Otherwise you will need to post the completed forms to the address on the form.
The boxes available to tick on the TE9 form are-
"I did not receive the Penalty Charge Notice."
I made representations about the penalty charge to the Charging Authority concerned, within 28 days of the service of the Penalty Charge Notice, but did not receive a rejection notice.
I appealed to an adjudicator against the Charging Authority's decision to reject my representation, within 28 days of service of the Rejection notice, but have either:
Had no response to the appeal,
The appeal had not been determined by the time that the charge certificate had been served, or
The appeal was determined in my favour.
The penalty charge has been paid in full.
The box that is most likely to apply is that you (as the registered keeper of the vehicle) did not receive the PCNs, possibly because you had a shared postal address, or your partner may not have shown it to you or you have moved address or you may have been away from home long term. Obviously if you have previously been in contact with Merseyflow about the PCN, then you must have received it and you can not say that you did not receive it.
Unfortunately a lot of people may not be able to remember whether they received a PCN and if so then what they did about it.
It is possible that you think you have made a representation to Merseyflow (by post or online) but there is nothing recorded. When you make a representation there is no sure way of proving that you did (or tried to) make a representation as Merseyflow's systems are poor and they used to not send you any acknowledgement when you made a representation.
There is another possibility. Regulation 18 of the The Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 says that you should have been 'served' with a Charge certificate before a TE3 Recovery Order is issued, but there is no box on the form for this possibility. We drew this to the attention of the TEC, but the forms have not been changed. So if you did not receive the Charge Certificate before you got the TE3, then write that on the form.
You must return the TE9 as soon as you can. If it is delayed beyond the date marked in a box on the front of the TE3 form then you will also need to complete a TE7 'Out of time' form and say why you are submitting the forms late.
Inform Merseyflow when you send off the TE forms. If the recovery has not yet reached the bailiffs stage then it should stop that from happening.
IF IT HAS REACHED THE BAILIFF STAGE THEN IT IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAT YOU INFORM MERSEYFLOW AND ASK THEM TO SUSPEND THE BAILFF ACTION.
We suggest that you inform Merseyflow by Email- info@merseyflow.co.uk.
IF ANY OF THE BOXES ON THE TE9 APPLY AND YOU CAN TICK THEM, THEN THE WHOLE RECOVERY PROCESS IS STOPPED. The TEC will tell Merseyflow to cancel the recovery order and charge certificate.
MERSEYFLOW WILL THEN USUALLY RE-ISSUE THE PCNS. You can either promptly pay the £22 for each PCN or challenge them by making a representation, though in most cases this will be a waste of time. Note that any representation that you may have made for the original PCN will now be dead, so if you want to make a representation then you will need to make a fresh one.
If you are returning the TE9 form late, then you will also need to submit TE7 forms
If you are returning the TE9 form late, then you also need to fill in and return the TE7 form 'Application to file a statement out of time/ extension of time'.
As with the TE9 form, you can either do this by post or you can download and save an electronic copy of the TE7 form from here.
Download and save the form and you should then be able to type in the boxes and save the completed version. As with the TE9, if there is more than one PCN, then you will have to save using different file names for each PCN.
The completed forms should be posted or emailed to the TEC.
GO IN TO AS MUCH DETAIL AS YOU CAN AS TO WHY YOU ARE SUBMITTING THE FORM LATE. IN PARTICULAR IF YOU DID NOT RECEIVE THE TE3 RECOVERY ORDER AND TE9 WITNESS STATEMENT, THEN STRESS THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SUBMIT THE TE9s ON TIME AS YOU NEVER RECEIVED THE FORMS.
Possible other reasons for doing the return late include "I was on holiday when the TE3 arrived." "I was working away from home when the TE3 arrived." "I was looking after a sick relative and so was away from home when the TE3 arrived."
If you can then go into more detail, such as when and where it was that you were away.
If you are submitting the TE9 form late and therefore also have to return the TE7, then the TE3 is NOT automatically cancelled. Instead the 'court' refer the TE7 to Merseyflow (the TEC pretend that Merseyflow is Halton Council) who will decide whether or not to accept the reason that you have given for the late submission.
ince then they seem to oppose all late applications and stopped the recovery action.
As with TE9s that were returned on time, though the recovery action stops, Merseyflow will usually reissue the PCN.
FROM MAY 2019, MERSEYFLOW STARTED OPPOSING OUT OF TIME APPLICATIONS. THE TEC, APPARENTLY AT RANDOM, DECIDE WHETHER TO DO AS MERSEYFLOW WANT. WHEN THE TEC REFUSE YOUR APPLICATION, THEY WILL ALSO REFUSE TO GIVE YOU ANY REASON FOR THEIR REFUSAL.
If you have submitted TE forms and some of them have been rejected then see our STAGE SIX advice.
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OTHER OPTIONS IF YOU CAN NOT FILL IN TE9 or TE7
If you are not able to submit the TE forms then there are a few other options. You might be able to pay, you might decide to wait till the next stage (Bailiffs) and deal with them as best you can or try these other options-
TELL MERSEYFLOW IF YOU ARE VULNERABLE- This normally comes into play at the Bailiff stage, but there is no need to wait till then. Check on this part of our advice on Bailiffs to see if you might be classed as vulnerable and if so then follow the advice on the link.
MAKE A 'REPRESENTATION TO MERSEYFLOW- If you believe that either you did not see any previous forms or were not able to deal with them (for instance you may have been suffering from some illness that made it difficult or impossible to deal with this then you could make a 'representation' how to do this.
Merseyflow are not required to consider such a late representation, and from May 2019 or earlier it seems that whatever the circumstances Merseyflow are being ruthless and rejecting all late representations, so there is probably no longer any point doing this.
DISCUSS IT WITH MERSEYFLOW- There may be special circumstances (apart from vulnerability) or you may think that there has been an error and there should not have been a penalty issued to you. Or you might want to see if they will accept a payment less than what is demanded in the Recovery Order.
We recommend that you use email or visit, as Merseyflow may not give reliable answers if you phone them and may ignore letters. Their contact details are: by Email- info@merseyflow.co.uk, OR phone 01928 878 878, OR write to or visit the Walk-in centre at Howard Court, Manor Park, Runcorn, WA7 1SJ.
In these circumstances we strongly recommend that you copy any email to your local MP - (Contact details for MPs).
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What Happens If You Fail To Stop Recovery Orders
If you do NOT return the TE9 form OR return it late without a completed TE7 form OR what you say in the Witness statement or plea to Merseyflow is turned down, then the 'debt' will be passed to recovery agents, usually known as 'bailiffs'. They will issue a 'Notice of Enforcement', see STAGE FIVE - The Bailiffs
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