Europcar and traffic violation invoicing

benjc

Early last month I hired a car from Europcar. Yesterday, I received a traffic violation invoice from Transport for London via Europcar.

Obviously, Europcar charged me an admin fee of £36 which is irritating but par for the course these days. What really irked me was that from receiving the traffic violation invoice on the 18th of May, Europcar seemingly sat on it for 3 weeks before sending it on to me. In the end, I received the traffic violation invoice 33 days after it was issued.

Had they sent it right away, I would have had a fine of £65. Had they sent it a week or two later, the fine would have been £130. But they took so long to process it, I have had to pony up £195, meaning their inefficiency has effectively cost me £130.

Had they taken any longer I'd've possibly received a court summons.

Surely there must be some comeback I have against this? I fully accept I caused the traffic violation but there was literally nothing I could have done to have paid this fine any sooner.

Anybody have any idea what my rights are on this? Do I have any rights to request the £130 back from Europcar as this fine increase was due to their incompetency.

agrinnall

I'd certainly try. Whether you have any success may depend how far you're prepared to take it. And make sure you read your hire agreement fine print to see what they say about fines.

enfield_freddy

there must be something in legislation that states , where it is a hired vehicle , the time clock only starts to tick when the driver receives the ticket?


go to pepipoo http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=idx and ask your question there , they are more geared up to this setup

benjc

Thanks- have posted on pepipoo and will see what they say there.