Private parking charge notice on a hire car

d3mon4ngel

Good evening all,

Please could someone give me some advice?

I have received a parking fine from MET Parking Services, for parking too long on a McDonalds carpark last month. I've read other posts that say to just ignore it, but the car involved was a hire car. MET originally sent it to the hire company, who have then forwarded it on to us, along with adding a £35 admin fee to the credit card I used to hire the car with. The fine is also in an incorrect name, made up of a combination of both mine and my OH's.

Where do I stand with this? The hire company have obviously passed on the name and address to MET and we have had a letter direct from them demanding £50 (£100 if I don't pay by 12th July, plus additional admin costs if I don't pay by 26th July). Can I safely ignore it as other posts have said? I don't want them going back to the hire company and them charging it to my credit card now that they have my details. I'm also worried that they will pass my credit card details directly onto this MET company.

Edit: Just to add in case it makes any difference, this was a free carpark, not a pay and display.

Any help will be appreciated!
Thank you
x

Tilt

Technically it is an invoice which is aimed at the person using the facility. The hire co could of ignored it but obviously they can charge you the admin fee as you agree to be responsible for parking/speeding tickets ect.

The hire co cannnot pass you card details on so that the charge can be collected by the PPC but I think it's a bit rich charging you the £35 simply to provide your details to them. Personally, I would now ignore the PPC because all they can persue you for are damages or losses caused by you using the car park. Bit difficult to do when the parking is free! So let them take you to court because they will have to convince the judge that they are NOT persuing a fine or penatlty because they have no legal status to claim as such.

As for the hire co, I would contact them and say that you would like the £35 admin charge refunded because this is not an official parking fine or penalty, it is merely an invoice. If they choose not to make a refund, tell them that in future you will take your business elsewhere.

RENEGADE_2

You must insist on your £35 refund. Don't let this one drop as it is your legal right. The PPC's demand is unlawful plus they ae only too familiar, this is why they will never take you to court.

Explain to the hire company that the matter is between you and the PPC and that they should remove themselves from the theatre of conflict forthwith. They don't stand to get in trouble, the driver would (had this demand been legal, which it isn't).

Coupon-mad

Yep, you must complain and get that £35 back and tell the hire company that this matter is frankly nothing to do with them.

Firstly I would contact your card issuer and explain that there has been an UNAUTHORISED transaction, Get a chargeback if it's a credit card or a VISA debit, insist on it. And tell the card issuer that any other payments the hire company may try to take are not authorised because your business with them is finished.

This pepipoo thread is the one for you to read:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=62531

Copy the letters the poster on pepipoo used, just change anything not relevant. It's extremely unlikely that the hire co terms and conditions refer to anything other than proper penalties from Councils/Police. Check your hire t&cs now and quote them at the hire firm like that pepipoo poster did.

Do not take no for an answer, this is not on! This is a private allegation against a driver (you). Do not let the hire co tell you what they 'think' their hire t&cs cover (reference to 'fine' 'penalty' 'offence' or 'authority' in hire t&cs can ONLY relate to proper PCNs). Use the same sort of wording as the pepipoo poster did in that linked thread.

To convince the hire company, I would also send them this Fleet News link (or print it out if writing snail mail) and maybe conclude by saying you are somewhat surprised that a large company such as them, would fall for this well-known trick and you are sure they will want to rectify their error asap:

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2009/5/28/question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/30698/

Oh, and if you want you could even write a letter to MET along the lines of the one I suggested in this thread (just to stop them writing any more letters to the hire company). Do not write anything else, say nothing about the circumstances, not admitting whether you overstayed, no other detail, no appeal (LOL!) and certainly give no phone number. TBH you do not have to do this but it may help in your situation if the hire company get no more letters. You can get them instead and ignore them!:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3340700

Let us know what happens with the hire company. We don't need to know about MET because we know what they will do, they will just send out debt collector threatograms, then nothing. You can just ignore all the letters, they are all shown in our top thread and are computerised templates. MET never do Court.

d3mon4ngel

Thank you all for your replies, and thank you especially to Coupon-mad for those links. I'm going to have a read through them, and contact the hire company either by phone tomorrow, or by letter depending on which seems the best way to go about it.

My OH was really stressing over this, but I'm glad I'd read something about these dodgy firms on here in the past and didn't just pay up straight away like I would have done a few years ago.

Will let you know what happens with the hire company

Thanks again x

Coupon-mad

Phoning the hire co is almost certainly pointless, you will speak to a clerk who will be convinced that they can just take £35 and will probably think that a fake PCN is a real PCN. You will probably go round in circles in the conversation and you really need to come across as assertive and informed about the t&cs (as the writer in the pepipoo link does).

That's why I reckon email with links, or snail mail letter with a printout of the Fleet News article, worded like the example on pepipoo, is the way forward. The Fleet News article should be included just to embarass them into realising it's their mistake not to know the difference between a real penalty and a bogus PCN. If they think this fake PCN is real does that mean they unquestioningly take seriously - or pay - ANY scam invoice that arrives in the post?!

And don't forget also to try the chargeback immediately to just reclaim that £35 direct. I would do that and send the letters.

d3mon4ngel

This is the letter I have composed to send to the hire company. I'm going to copy and paste the fleet news article onto a seperate sheet when I send it out. Please can you have a read through it and let me know if anything should be changed / re-worded?

Thanks again! You guys on here really are life-savers

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write in regards to the letter dated xxx 2011 that I have received in relation to my rental of a car for the period of xxx 2011 to xxx 2011 with contract number xxx.

As detailed in this letter, a £35 admin fee has been deducted from my credit card. The documentation that you have provided in support of this transaction is a speculative and unenforceable invoice from a private company called MET Parking Services Ltd for a “Parking Charge Notice” for an “alleged breach of the advertised terms and conditions” on xxx 2011.

In the terms and conditions of hire quoted on your website at https://enterprise.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/1291975/1308756967/redirect/1 section 4d on charges states that I agree to pay you:
"A reasonable administration fee for processing any fines or offences against the Vehicle, you or us during the rental period, unless caused through our own fault".

The invoice issued by MET is not a Penalty Charge Notice, nor is it a fine, nor any kind of notification of traffic offence. It has not been issued by any UK authority and was not issued as a result of a contravention of any current UK traffic legislation. It is therefore not covered under the terms of my rental agreement with Enterprise and Enterprise had no authority to charge my credit card for any admin fee as there was no requirement on Enterprise to take any action on receipt of this invoice.

Due to those reasons given above the charges against my credit card were unauthorised and should be immediately refunded.

I also refer you to the enclosed article on private parking, which can also be found here: http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2009/5/28/question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/30698/ . I am surprised that a large company such as yourselves would fall for this well-known trick and I am sure that you will want to rectify your error asap.

Kind regards

xxxx

Coupon-mad

I like it. Let's hope it has the desired result, if not then 'round 2' of letters as per the pepipoo poster who got a refund (from sixt) without too much trouble, and he gave them something to think about by all accounts as they had to take legal advice it seems!

d3mon4ngel

Thanks again for the input. I'll ignore the MET threat-o-grams and come back and let you know what the hire company say

Coupon-mad

d3mon4ngel wrote: »

Thanks again for the input. I'll ignore the MET threat-o-grams and come back and let you know what the hire company say

Except that you won't get those threatograms unless you tell MET to send them to you (even then they may still write to the hire co again, even though they 'should' not under the BPA Code of Practice). See my first reply above if you want to see an example of a letter to write to MET to try to get them to cease contacting the hire co.

Look forward to seeing what reply you get from the hire company!

blarb

Hi,
would like to know what the hire car company say too ... am just sending the same letter proforma (referring to a different "Parking Management Company") to the same hire car company. Thx