Arval Vehicle Leasing attempting to get parking charge from me

Fergie76

AK4LH wrote: »

A private parking charge is covered within section titled ‘Liability and Indemnity’ of your contract. This refers to payment of fines or penalties for parking, driving or similar offences incurred by Arval relating in any respect to Vehicles hired.

What exactly does the Liability and Indemnity section of the contract say?

bod1467

The text you quoted says what it means - fines or penalties, NOT private parking charges. But yes - it would be useful to see the specific wording of the Liability and Indemnity section, as Arval's stance seems to hinge on this point.

AK4LH

The specific wording is as follows:

"10.1 In respect of any responsibility, claims, liabilities, losses, damages, or expenses, including legal fees, and any liability resulting from legislation for the payment of fines or penalties for parking, driving or similar offences or contraventions in connection with Vehicles (the "Liability"): (a) ARVAL has no responsibility for the Liability; (b) the Hirer accepts all responsibility for the Liability including taking all appropriate action; and (c) the Hirer indemnifies ARVAL and holds ARVAL harmless against the Liability. ARVAL shall be entitled to charge the Hirer a reasonable administration fee for any work carried out or documentation processed relating to the Liability."

bazster

Slightly confusing because the OP posted it on another thread before he started his own.

According to the OP it reads thus:

“In respect of any responsibility, claims, liabilities, losses, damages, or expenses, including legal fees, and any liability resulting from legislation for the payment of fines or penalties for parking, driving or similar offences or contraventions in connection with Vehicles (the "Liability"): (a) ARVAL has no responsibility for the Liability; (b) the Hirer accepts all responsibility for the Liability including taking all appropriate action; and (c) the Hirer indemnifies ARVAL and holds ARVAL harmless against the Liability. ARVAL shall be entitled to charge the Hirer a reasonable administration fee for any work carried out or documentation processed relating to the Liability.”

bod1467

So that section just digs the hole deeper for Arval then.

Coupon-mad

A few questions: and suggestions:

- who is the PPC?

- have Arval actually paid it yet as the first post reads that they have not?

- If you know who the PPC is then you could post (snail mail) an appeal from yourself as driver, quoting your car registration rather than the PCN number if you can't get it. Obviously written really 'feebly' and naively in wobbly 'old person handwriting' in the hope of hooking a reply from the greedy scammers and a POPLA code which will cut out the middle man and get the ball in your court to appeal robustly after that.

- where was the car parked, don't suppose it was a train station or Airport or Port car park? Or in Scotland?!

- not sure why you are saying the only way forward is court when Arval have handed you the Ombudsman's details on a plate! IMHO once you have reached the end of a company's complaints procedure, referring a case to the FSO is absolutely brilliant. I did it about a travel insurer and got the full payment, albeit 12 months later but that wasn't the Ombudsman Service's fault. It costs you nothing except a stamp after filling in the Ombudsman's form, don't discount it if Arval say you've already exhausted their internal complaints procedure. You would need to argue your case well and clearly because you can't expect the FSO to know much about whether a private PCN is a real 'fine' or not. You'd need evidence to show their wording doesn't cover this sort of invoice and to prove it's not just semantics. You have 6 months to send the FSO complaint I think, so ages!

- but do your utmost to find a way to appeal the PCN anyway as driver. You could still do the FSO complaint of course even if you win the POPLA/IAS appeal (in fact that would help your evidence to prove that their blunderbuss policy was wrong).

- was there ever a windscreen PCN that you ignored or was this an ANPR 'ticket'?

AK4LH

"Dear Mr Key,

Thank you for your recent email. Having reviewed all the information relating to your query, in this instance we are prepared to offer you a full refund of £100 for the parking charge and £25 + VAT to cover our administration fee on the basis that you confirm your agreement that we can pass all your future parking fines and charges directly to the private parking company or Local Authority to contact you directly for payment.

Our Legal department have confirmed that in line with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, where a hire company is contacted by a private land owner, or their agent, the hire company are legally obliged to disclose the fact that the vehicle is on hire and to whom. In light of this, we no longer require that you sign a form to give consent for your details to be passed to private parking companies.

Please respond to this email, confirming your acceptance of this proposal by 25th September. Upon receipt of your confirmation, we will process your refund which will show on your next invoice. If your response is received after 25th September, your refund will show on your October invoice.

I trust this settles your dispute. If you are not happy with this response, you do reserve the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent and free service. You can find useful information on their website http:www.//financial-ombudsman.org.uk"

I'm not really sure what they are getting at here, I'm pretty certain that they're asking me to take responsibility for exactly what I've already taken responsibility for in the first place when I signed the original contract.

Also, do you think it's worth pushing for compensation because my bank will effective be down £130 for one month?

The_Slithy_Tove

They've nearly got it, but:

AK4LH wrote: »

Our Legal department have confirmed that in line with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, where a hire company is contacted by a private land owner, or their agent, the hire company are legally obliged to disclose the fact that the vehicle is on hire and to whom.

Not quite. There is no legal obligation. However, they can absolve themselves of any liability by doing so.

AK4LH wrote: »

Also, do you think it's worth pushing for compensation because my bank will effective be down £130 for one month?

Only if you've actually lost out by being so, e.g. were you charged by your bank for being overdrawn. Loss of any interest would be negligible, so don't go there.

Dee140157

Sounds like a win. Well done.

Guys_Dad

AK4LH wrote: »

Also, do you think it's worth pushing for compensation because my bank will effective be down £130 for one month?

You have won. They have learned something. I would chalk up the victory and leave it at that. Well done.