Parking Charge - what to do if car is leased?

vax2002

You can always advise them that you were driving and to send all correspondence directly to you, write to confirm they are dealing with the correct details.
Then ignore it.

It does not change anything.

Coupon-mad

steve1500 wrote: »

I have a company lease car.

Just received a begging letter from Highview Parking who give the impression they are Tesco's.

This is going to be a difficult one to defend and also shows up the flaws of the lease car company.

At the time in question M'Lud I was off work sick with a pot on my leg which went from my ankle to thigh...

Obviously the xxxxxx in the lease car company took no steps to find out if I was the driver and just disclosed my personal information to these nice people.

Sure the Data Protection Act has something about keeping personal information secure!!!

Actually that's a good thing, as long as the Lease Co didn't also charge you an Admin Fee and will not do so if they get more letters. Email them to make sure that they will ignore everything about this as it's the driver's fake PCN to ignore, not theirs to take seriously! See all the links already given as you may need them to call off the Lease co completely.

You do not have to 'defend it' as it's not a real PCN, not a fine at all. But you need to firmly hook the threatograms in your direction so you keep the power to ignore them all. So write to the PPC and say 'Please give more details of what this is all about as I am responsible for this car but was not driving'.

That would do, then you can ignore all the letters. Don't give them your real signature (this is a scam industry, remember!).

Zoso

Just coming back with an update about my situation with the lease company.

I first looked at the T&C's of the contract and it states "If any parking or speeding fines, congestion charges, or other fines, duties or charges become payable to any third party in respect of the vehicle we may choose to pay them on your behalf and re-charge them to you plus a £25 administration fee for each item or (at our discretion and where able) refer the third party to you for payment by issuing a letter of representation and charge you an administration fee of £12".

When I read the above I feared the worse. I assumed that because they included the term "charges" along side "fines" that they would not see the difference between a legitimate parking ticket and one issued by a PPC. I suspected I was going to have to pay a fee!

However, to my surprise when I spoke directly to the lease company they had a very enlightened view of PPCs. They were fully aware of the issues of legitimacy and lack of appeal processes and confirmed that all they would do would be to send out an "automated letter". With hindsight I forgot to ask who the letter would be going to - either the PPC with my details or my company telling me to contact the relevant PPC. They also confirmed that I would not get charged the admin fee of £12. FYI the lease company is Alphabet - well done to them for understanding their customers issues and the law!

Either way it looks like I can handle this without incurring any costs!!

Thanks to all who gave me advice.

Stephen_Leak

To misquote Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, of all the car hire/leasing firms in all the towns, in all the world, you lease yours from them.

Excel claim that, in 2010 they successfully applied for a Norwich Pharmacal Order against Alphabet to compel them to hand over records showing who was the user of one of their cars at the time.

Zoso

An interesting point. I very much doubt a Norwich Pharmacal Order would be applicable here as it involves "....information relating to unlawful conduct".

I guess if the PPC were to accuse me of breaking the law in order to get information out of Alphabet I would have grounds for a case of harassment.

Stephen_Leak

However, we have been unable to find any evidence of either this NPO application or any subsequent court case against the driver.

Last year, VCS (part of Excel) did actually successfully apply for an NPO against a Mrs. Ibbotson, compelling her to name her husband as the driver.

They then tried to get a default judgment against him by filing the court papers at the last minute. But he had his defence papers ready and printed, so he was able to file these in time, forcing VCS to appear in court or lose by default. The judge ruled that VCS' demands were unreasonable, were therefore an unlawful contractual penalty and found in favour of the driver.

VCS had also just being taken to court by HMRC for unpaid VAT. The tax tribunal had ruled that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. The judge also ruled that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. But tax tribunal and county court judgements don't set legal precedents.

VCS appealed the tax ruling and the upper tax tribunal upheld the ruling that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. The upper tax tribunal is a court of record, equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgement do set legal precedents.

Twodogs69

I have an issue with a PPC (Parking Eye) and now Alphabet (lease company). The PPC sent the parking charge to Alphabet who held it for 3 weeks (I received it 2 days after the discounted date) before sending it to me along with an invoice for £60 and a £30 admin charge.

I rang the LC to ask why they had paid this as I would have liked the chance to challenge it. I was told that they (LC) had a legal responsability as the registered keeper to pay all fines, parking charges etc. I pointed out the parking charge said that the registered driver had to pay.

To cut a long story short the PPC is saying my car was in Telford services for nearly 7 hours. The thing is I went in early in the morning and left about 20 minutes later and went in again later in the day and again left about 20 minutes later. I rang the LC to explain that both the car and myself were 50 miles away from where it was supposed to be and requested that they did not debit my account the £90. I was informed that I would have to take it up with the PPC and it was no longer Alphabets problem. How can I when the PPC has no record of me paying and would be unlikely to pay me the LC's admin fee back.

I have a parking receipt from the NEC dated on the day the parking offence was supposed to have happened, I have a store receipt which is dated and time stamped, I was at an exhibition so can get details of when I scanned in and also I can get people who I spoke to to say they saw me there when I was supposed to have been parked up a service station.

Alphabet have now debited my account so would welcome any advice.

The_Slithy_Tove

Twodogs69 wrote: »

Alphabet have now debited my account so would welcome any advice.

Advice: don't tag your post to an ancient, defunct thread. Start your own.

Coupon-mad

1. Dispute the debit with your card company immediately. Ring them up to find out how and point out that the terms of hire do not allow for invoices to be paid - only Traffic Offences and penalties. This is neither, this is an invoice from a private company and you deny that Alphabet were allowed to pay the invoice on your behalf at all.

2. Stop phoning them and send Alphabet a formal email or letter like this:

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

Here's a very recent result from this week, from a poster following that sort of very strong complaint to a hire company:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4510475

Success! You can do the same but remember that the hire company will not give up easily and will not know the difference between a real penalty and an invoice (fake PCN) so NEVER call it a fine or penalty in your replies. Educate them as to the scam this really is, demand a full refund and point out that the t&cs don't cover them falling for scams (scams that the BVRLA already tell them how to address, by simply passing on the hirer's details so that they have no liability). And don't give up.

3. Dig out your hire t&cs, let's see them please in your own thread; most unlikely to cover anything except penalties/fines/offences from Local Authorities or Police.

4. The slithy Tove is right - please start your own thread as we have to keep parking charge cases separate on this forum, due to the dates/details differences. To start a thread you just click the blue 'new thread' button on the forum (it's always one click away, see my signature for where to click to see the current forum).