PCN received while driving hire car

colonelmustard

I have a parking ticket problem which doesn't seem to have been covered in the dozens of threads below. (Or at least in the dozen or more pages which I have scrolled back through.)

I was using a hire car rented from one of the big car hire companies, and parked at Watford Gap services for about five hours. About 3 weeks ago I got a letter from the car hire company advising me that they were deducting an administration charge of £42 from my c/c under some paragraph or other in their terms and conditions because I had incurred a penalty charge while using their car.

Then on Monday of this week, I got a letter from CP Plus -- what seems to be a standard "Charge Notice", asking for £90, reduced to £50 if paid before a date next week.

After reading the entries on this forum, my first reaction was not to pay, and tough it out as I think it is a diabolical liberty that you are not allowed to use a service area for more than 2 hours. However, realising that the car hire company has my c/c details and that they have already taken £42 off me, I think I might have to cut my losses and pay over the fifty quid. Otherwise CP Plus will probably end up going back to them as the registered keeper, and I will get hammered for the full amount plus whatever extra admin charges they can dream up.

I only went into the service station to have a quick break and then used the wifi to do a bit of work which took longer than I thought. Because I was in no rush, I thought I might as well stay. My free wifi will now end up costing me £92!

Guys_Dad

This has actually been covered a few times.

In short, you get in touch with your Credit Card company and dispute the charge.

You get back to Avis/Hertz and tell them that they have exceeded their authority as you DID NOT RECEIVE a penalty charge, just a disputed invoice (be careful of the actual wording og the contract, though, just in case they have covered it with wording). Inform th hirer that you are accepting full responsibility for dealing with this, enclosing a copy of a letter you write to the PPC saying that you were the keeper (don't use the word driver) at the time in question and all correspondence should now be with you.

You also send the PPC a soft appeal as per stroma's, wait for the appeal rejection, and use the POPLA code to go to POPLA.

Others may want to give you a longer version of the above, so keep watching but do try to search this forum on "Hire", "Hirer" "Lease" etc

The_Slithy_Tove

Now that the hire company have given the PPC your details (for once, they didn't just pay the fake charge, for which you should be partially thankful), the PPC cannot come back to the hire company. That's not to say they won't.

As already suggested, you must dispute this with the hire company as it is (probably) not within their terms and conditions. Here's a thread where someone eventually got Sixt to understand and refund the money:
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=62531

You need to use the same approach. You will probably have to repeat yourself many times that this is NOT a penalty or a fine, and so does not fall within their own Ts&Cs.

Good luck.

Meanwhile, appeal the fake charge and then on to POPLA.

nigelbb

Interestingly as I just noticed on re-reading POFA 2012 (as you do:)) the rental companies in order to discharge any likelihood of keeper liability must provide a statement that the car was hire, a copy of the hire agreement & -

13
(2)
(c) a copy of a statement of liability signed by the hirer under that hire agreement.
(3) The statement of liability required by sub-paragraph (2)(c) must:
(a) contain a statement by the hirer to the effect that the hirer acknowledges responsibility for any parking charges that may be incurred with respect to the vehicle while it is hired to
the hirer;

I suspect that the T&Cs of most of the rental companies do not in fact include a clause to this effect as they normally only refer to fines & penalties not 'parking charges'.

Guys_Dad

nigelbb wrote: »

Interestingly as I just noticed on re-reading POFA 2012 (as you do:)) the rental companies in order to discharge any likelihood of keeper liability must provide a statement that the car was hire, a copy of the hire agreement & -

........................

13
(2)
(c) a copy of a statement of liability signed by the hirer under that hire agreement.
(3) The statement of liability required by sub-paragraph (2)(c) must:
(a) contain a statement by the hirer to the effect that the hirer acknowledges responsibility for any parking charges that may be incurred with respect to the vehicle while it is hired to
the hirer;

......................
I suspect that the T&Cs of most of the rental companies do not in fact include a clause to this effect as they normally only refer to fines & penalties not 'parking charges'.

You can see why they may want to hit the motorist with an admin charge for their time,

Coupon-mad

colonelmustard wrote: »

I think I might have to cut my losses and pay over the fifty quid. Otherwise CP Plus will probably end up going back to them as the registered keeper,

Wrong. As others have said, legally the PPC have to stick with you now and you can appeal and win this like everyone else does on here.

It's a 2 stage appeals procedure and you will win in the end at POPLA if you follow advice. Soft appeal first to the PPC, send it soon:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=80125&st=20&start=20

Then when they reject and give you a POPLA code you then draft an epic POPLA appeal like these, and ask for advice before sending it off to POPLA:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/61968045#Comment_61968045

And once your appeal is lodged at POPLA that will take 2 or 3 months to get a decision in your favour.

Also put in a dispute with your card company and the Hire co. over the £42 admin fee since it's unlikely that the hire company have a suitable clause for charging you for passing on driver's details private parking invoices. They did the right thing though, it's just that £42 is hefty and probably not covered in their t&cs.