TfL Penalties: Congestion Charge, ULEZ and LEZ Enforcement

That form is a PE3 statutory declaration rather than the TE9 a council penalty needs, though both sit within the wider traffic and parking enforcement landscape.

Getting that wrong is expensive. Someone who files the council form against a ULEZ penalty has used up the 21 day window on a document the court cannot act on.

The charges TfL enforces this way

Four schemes sit in this family, and one trip can often trigger more than one of them, because the zones overlap and each charge is assessed separately.

The Congestion Charge applies in central London, currently £18 if paid on the day or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel, operating 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers all London boroughs and charges £12.50 a day for a vehicle that does not meet the emissions standard. It runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day, which is why a single non-compliant vehicle can accumulate charges quickly.

The Low Emission Zone targets larger and heavier diesel vehicles across Greater London and carries much bigger penalties than the other two.

The HGV Safety Permit, awarded under the Direct Vision Standard, is required for lorries over 12 tonnes gross vehicle weight entering or operating in Greater London, with the Progressive Safe System conditions attached to lower rated vehicles.

Read those LEZ rows carefully before assuming which applies, because the tier depends on the vehicle's weight and its emissions standard rather than on what it is called.

The chain from camera to enforcement agent

TfL's schemes are camera enforced, so the first you usually hear is a penalty charge notice posted to the registered keeper.

1. The penalty charge notice is served. You have 28 days from the date of service to pay or to make representations.
2. If TfL rejects your representations, it issues a notice of rejection telling you how to appeal.
3. You may appeal to an adjudicator, free of charge, unless the deadline on the notice of rejection has passed. For these schemes that is the Road User Charging Adjudicators, an independent tribunal administered by London Tribunals but separate from the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators who handle borough penalties.
4. If nothing is resolved, a charge certificate adds 50% and gives 14 days. Representations are closed from this point.
5. TfL then registers the debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, adding a registration fee.
6. An order for recovery is served, with 21 days to pay or to respond.
7. After that, a warrant of control can issue and an enforcement agent is usually instructed.

The registration step is administrative. The Traffic Enforcement Centre in Northampton does not decide whether the penalty was fair; see the Traffic Enforcement Centre for what it does and does not do with a debt once an authority sends it there.

The form is a PE3, and this is the exception

Almost every traffic penalty in England is now challenged at the Traffic Enforcement Centre by a witness statement on form TE9. TfL road user charging is the family that is not.

Regulation 19 of the Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London) Regulations 2001 requires a statutory declaration, served on the county court within 21 days beginning with the date the order for recovery was served on you. Practice Direction 75 fixes the paperwork: the declaration goes on form PE3, and form PE2 is the application if you are out of time.

Two features of that regulation often catch people out.

The declaration must state one of three things: that you did not receive the penalty charge notice; that you made representations to TfL but received no notice of rejection; or that you appealed to an adjudicator and had no response. There is no ground for having already paid the charge. The witness statement regimes have a fourth ground for payment, and this one does not, so a driver who has paid needs to prove that to TfL directly rather than through a declaration.

The PE3 also has to be sworn, before a Commissioner for Oaths, a magistrate or an officer of the county court, unlike the TE9, which is signed with a statement of truth. Filing a false declaration knowingly is an offence under the Perjury Act 1911, and the form says so.

TE9 or PE3: challenging an order for recovery sets out the grounds, the swearing and the deadline in full for both routes. If the order for recovery in front of you names a council rather than TfL, bailiff parking fines is the page that covers that route.

Two things this page does not decide

A London bus lane or moving traffic penalty is not covered here. Those run under separate London legislation from the road user charging schemes, and the form family for them is not something this site will assert without primary authority. If your order for recovery relates to a bus lane, a banned turn, a box junction or a similar contravention, check the form enclosed with the order for recovery and use the one it names.

The same caution applies to an HGV safety permit penalty. The permit scheme is enforced by TfL, but it sits under lorry and traffic restriction powers rather than the road user charging regulations, so the enclosed form governs.

Silvertown and Blackwall

The user charges for the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels are decided by the same Road User Charging Adjudicators as the Congestion Charge, the LEZ and the ULEZ, which places them in the same tribunal family. For the crossings outside London, and for the toll roads that are not penalty charge schemes at all, see Dart Charge and toll enforcement.

Once an agent has the file

A TfL warrant of control puts you in the ordinary enforcement regime. The agent must give you a notice of enforcement at least 14 clear days before taking control of goods, and notice of enforcement explains how those clear days are counted and what the notice must contain.

A vehicle is usually the obvious target for a charging scheme debt, because reaching one parked outside does not depend on getting into a home. Can bailiffs take my car covers ownership, finance and the exemptions that can protect one.

If you have filed a PE3 or a PE2, tell the enforcement agent and TfL in writing, with the date of filing, and keep the proof. A filing the agent does not know about will not stop a visit.

Acting at the right moment

A penalty charge notice has arrived. Pay within 14 days for the half price figure, or make representations inside 28 days. Both, done late, cost you the discount.

Representations were rejected. Appeal to the adjudicator before the deadline on the notice of rejection. It is free and the decision binds TfL.

A charge certificate has arrived. Representations are gone; the practical choice is payment or waiting for the order for recovery and considering a PE3.

An order for recovery has arrived. Check the 21 days, then decide honestly whether one of the three grounds applies to you.

An enforcement agent has written. Get the reference and the amount, check that a notice of enforcement was properly given, and get advice quickly through our help page.