Complaint Review: Harris County Toll Road Authority -

Like many of you, I am also being charged outrageous amounts of money for violations that started about 5 months ago, and continued until I recently found out that I had been committing violations.

About a year ago, I failed to update my credit card information on the HCTRA online portal for monetary reasons. They require you pay $40 every time the account balance reaches $10, which for me is  a lot of money (I am a student, and pay I for my own tuition, rooming and board, food, etc., so every penny counts). I found out by trying to make a partial payment last year that you could pay less than $40, so I did. I would make smaller payments of $15-$20 or so when my account would be low. However, sometimes my balance would go in the negatives for about $1 or $4 (currently). It turns out that every time I would go through an EZ tag station, I was committing a violation (which I was honestly unaware of). Such notices of violations were (according to the HCTRA agent) sent to the address under my vehicle registration and via email. The only problem with that is that since I’m a student I move around quite often in order to find better housing options. I recently moved in September to a new apartment, and I forgot to update my registration address and the notices were sent to my old apartment. I do not understand why the HCTRA would fail to send me such notices on the MAILING address I have on record. As far as the email part goes, I spent hours trying to find emails which they supposedly sent notifying me of the violations. I checked under my inbox and spam folders only to find nothing.  

About two months ago I added my girlfriend’s car to my EZ tag account. Last week she received a notification letting her know that a violation had been committed. So I logged on the HCTRA online portal to try to see why she had been fined. As soon as I logged on I saw on the screen a set of notifications appeared telling me that my account had been suspended specifically because of my girlfriend’s car. At this point I called HCTRA as to inquire why she was being fined. It was then that the employee told me that MY car had upwards of 80 violations totalling around $2,000 in fees. I was in shock. If it hadn’t been because I added my girlfriend’s car I would have never known that I “owed” them that much money, and the total would have kept on increasing.

After watching a report by Jeremy Rogalski / KHOU 11 News I-Team, posted on February 14, 2014, I now realize I am not the only one being overcharged by them in an unfair manner. Had I been aware of the first violation I would have immediately taken care of it. It has become obvious to me that the HCTRA did not make any effort at all to try to contact me in order to allow such fees to be sent to a third party, Lineberger Goggan Blair & Simpson LLP, and to continue piling up charges. After doing research it seems as if the whole system is very one-sided. I have no idea what to do next. I quite simple do not have the money they are asking for, in order to be able to pay them, I would have to quit school since I cannot afford the payments. If you guys have any input on this matter, or suggestions as to what to do next, please let me know.