Toll charge not properly served on foreign-registered vehicle

Toll operators like Dart Charge, Mersey Gateway, and Tyne Tunnel struggle to trace the owners of vehicles registered outside the UK. If your vehicle has foreign number plates, the penalty charge notice must be sent to your registered address abroad with proper notice. If it was sent to a UK address instead, came back undelivered, or never reached your foreign registered address at all, the process was not followed correctly and you can challenge on that basis.

Legal basis

Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1783); EU Cross-Border Enforcement Directive (EU) 2015/413 (post-Brexit status varies); CPR Part 6 and PD 6B (service out of jurisdiction)

How to identify this in your case

Vehicle was foreign-plated. PCN was sent to a UK address (return-to-sender) or never received at registered foreign address.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

Dear Sir/Madam, Re: PCN [NUMBER] — Vehicle [REG] (registered in [COUNTRY]) I challenge this PCN on the ground of defective service. Vehicle: [REG], registered in [COUNTRY]. Registered keeper address: [FOREIGN ADDRESS]. The PCN appears to have been sent to [a UK address / not received at the registered foreign address]. Under SI 2013/1783, statutory time limits run from valid service on the registered keeper. Cross-border enforcement post-Brexit relies on either (a) the EU Cross-Border Enforcement Directive 2015/413 channels, where applicable, or (b) properly served notice at the registered foreign address. No such valid service has occurred. The procedural ground 'no PCN served' applies. Please cancel. Yours faithfully, [NAME]

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Toll charge not properly served on foreign-registered vehicle

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps