Hire company paid private PCN against their own terms and conditions (ARVAL again!)

DJBenson wrote: »

Well ARVAL have backed down in so much as they've agreed to settle their invoice 'as a gesture of good will' but they have failed to acknowledge any of the points I put to them and the letter still seems to imply that their terms and conditions overrule legislation.

They actually still don't get any of it do they?
Why on earth would they need to pass on your contract details to a third party?

RE complaint in relation to parking charge notice.
I note the details in your letter, however you have either been seriously mislead, or the letter in itself is misleading.
You stated that
A:" in the overwhelming majority of cases, Drivers have no valid grounds to appeal the charge and Arvals actions bring welcome closure"

and B: In order for Arval to pass on the responsibility of fines and penalties in incurred to the driver ( where allowed by the issuing authority"


First of All, As you should be aware the private parking industry is completely Un-regulated Parking companies can request data from the DVLA on the condition that they belong to a recognised Accredited Trade Association, these trade Associations being the British Parking Association limited who run/control the POPLA appeals service, which in itself is far from indepentdant, and the International Parking Community (IPC) who run, and control the so called Independent appeals service, which shares directors with the IPC,and the Solicitors company Gladstones, namely a Mr Will Hurley and Mike Davies ( i suggest you google their names for more information )

As the Private parking industry is un regulated, news of bad practice is extremely common, including but not limited to adjusting photographs in order to falsely create a parking charge notice where nothing happened, un ambiguous and questionable sign age, badly laid out car parks, in accurate and fault ridden ANPR systems that are biased against the motorist ( google Double dip parking charge) and so on ( the list is potentially endless)

And in the case of B, private parking companies can no issue fines or penalties

For your information this case is being discussed on the money saving expert site at http://!!!!!!!.com/hhrkd3a from which it appears that your own Managing Director Benoit Dilly, is also a member of the Committee of the management of the BVLRA who's own advice and guidelines you appear to be disregarding.


As a result of your incompetence in dealing with this you have caused me a great deal of stress, as well as a large amount of time lost as a result, however as a gesture of goodwill i will be prepared to let this matter come to a close on the condition that you will be putting measures in place to rectify your shortcomings, and to fully re-fund all your other customers to who you have wrongfully charged for a private parking charge notice or similar.

DJBenson wrote: »

Anyone got a feel for a percentage of disputed invoices to successful outcome? A finger-in-the-air from your experience on the forum is good enough seeing as ARVAL have made a sweeping generalisation by saying 'in the overwhelming majority of cases, drivers have no valid grounds to appeal the charge' - I put this down to either lack of awareness or apathy.

I put this down to total ignorance.

In the case of hire vehicles, ARVAL should appreciate that it should be the hirer (not the driver) appealing the charge. The hirer nearly always* has a cast-iron valid ground to appeal i.e. the PPC failing to deliver a non-compliant Notice to Hirer.

In our experience, 100% of properly-formulated disputes against a Notice to Hirer have a successful outcome.

* Other than Athena ANPR Ltd, no other PPC bothers to send copies of hire documents with their Notices to Hirer. No documents = POFA fail.