Help! Rental Car company paid PCN without first consulting me!!

BaronV

In august I rented a car to go on holiday and help with moving my things after finishing university.

On the day I got the car, I parked it infront of my house and went to get the parking permit - lo and behold it turns out my housemate who had moved out the same day had mistakenly taken the parking permit with her!

By the time i realised this and checked with her the evil parking warden had come by and stuck a PCN on my rental car. (was parked in front of the house for 30 mins at most)

My housemate said she posted back the permit but it never arrived in the post. Since that day I have been forced to park my car further away where a permit is not required to avoid additional fines.

I lodged an informal appeal stating the mitigating circumstances and providing proof that I was residing there at the time which entitled me to a parking permit (and their records would indeed show there was one for that address).

Since then I have moved abroad. This month i get a shock £102.40charge in my credit card statement!

A check with europcar told me that it was for the same PCN. Europcar immediately paid the fine without contacting me "which is our policy to avoid the fines getting higher". The fine conveniently included an arbitrary service charge of almost 50%!

I informed them of the appeal status and they replied stating that they can only refund the money if the council cancels the charge.

I then contacted Nottingham City council to find out whats going on...

They replied stating that my appeal had been rejected. Apparently Nottingham City Council had sent a letter stating that my appeal was rejected (surprise surprise!) but since I didnt reply they sent the fine to vehicle owner (Europcar) which whas then promptly paid.

The thing is in my initial appeal, I SPECIFICALLY STATED that I was moving abroad and hence ALL correspondence should be done via EMAIL - something they chose to ignore!

So all this while I thought the fine was still pending appeal - but instead I have been denied my rights and am now 3x out of pocket compared to if I had been correctly notified. ( i would have had the chance to pay just £35 within 14 days or lodge a formal appeal)

Nottingham City Council says that since the fine was paid the case is closed and they wont entertain any further correspondence. Europcar says they cant do anything without first getting conformation that the PCN is cancelled.

What can I do? £104.20 is an awful lot to pay just because I didnt know that my housemate ran away with my parking permit!

Can I still lodge a formal appeal even though the fine was paid by Europcar as I had no say in the issue?

peter_the_piper

Post this conundrum onto pepipoo.com as well please as they have a wide range of experience in these matters.

BaronV

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Post this conundrum onto pepipoo.com as well please as they have a wide range of experience in these matters.

done thanks!

Trebor16

It might be worth contacting the c redit card company and challenging the payment with them as well. But as Peter said, try Pepipoo.

peter_the_piper

Don't think there is much point in challenging the c/c company as a council ticket is covered in the terms and conditions. However, although Nottingham say that its done and dusted, the OP has not had a chance to appeal so there should be some leeway somewhere.

BaronV

Trebor16 wrote: »

It might be worth contacting the c redit card company and challenging the payment with them as well. But as Peter said, try Pepipoo.

Ive already done that. But all they said they can do is cancel my credit card and issue me a new one...

Coupon-mad

Sorry BaronV there's nothing you can do IMHO.

If you had come here when you first got the PCN I would have advised you to make one informal appeal as the driver and then if rejected, to pay it at the discounted amount which the Council would then have re-offered. After that stage it's no longer in your control as real (Council) PCNs are not the responsibility of the driver I am afraid. They could not have continued to email you (the driver) about it.

See my reply (post #5) on this thread from last week, saved the poster suffering the unwelcome surprise you did:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3696635

- Councils are supposed to reply by post to appeals I believe, so they were correct not to email you, even if you emailed the appeal to them.

- The next stage after rejecting an informal appeal if that they send a Notice to Owner (NTO) to the registered keeper. They get the details from the DVLA.

- And when it's a hire car it's then game over as many Hire Co's will usually pay it - which will then at NTO stage be at full cost - and hammer the driver with an admin fee on top (it's in the t&cs you signed, sorry, so don't try to reclaim the admin fee via your card, it's pointless as the transaction was authorised when you signed the Hire Agreement).

If this had not been a hire car then things would have been different and pepipoo may have helped you get off it altogether. However I am sorry to add as well that you gave no grounds on which they could have cancelled it. Your appeal was not 'mitigating circumstances' as such and you would never have won on that basis alone, of someone else going off with the permit. You may have won on other grounds that we or pepipoo could have suggested but again, NOT when it's a hire car because the formal representations are their responsibility as owner, not yours.

And if this had been a fake PCN from a private firm like in a Supermarket car park then things would be different - but this is a real PCN and this was going to happen all along. Sorry, you had the worst of both worlds and you just didn't realise you were on a hiding to nothing and were always heading for this outcome.

esmerobbo

I think C-M is right once its got to the NTO to the hirer they will just pay it, as it's their responsibility. Its easier for them and it's a nice little bonus!