Parking Eye PCN with car rental

DavePaddi

Thanks everyone for your input.
Just to keep you updated, I have now submitted my appeal to ParkingEye (big thanks to Edna for helping me a lot with that) and I have also contacted Green Motion, asking for a refund of their admin fee, and letting them know I will challenge the transaction with my bank if they refuse to do it.
I will let you know as soon as I hear from any of them.
Thanks again,
David

Fruitcake

DavePaddi wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your input.
Just to keep you updated, I have now submitted my appeal to ParkingEye (big thanks to Edna for helping me a lot with that) and I have also contacted Green Motion, asking for a refund of their admin fee, and letting them know I will challenge the transaction with my bank if they refuse to do it.
I will let you know as soon as I hear from any of them.
Thanks again,
David

It's up to you how you do this, but personally I would put the charge into dispute with your bank first.


You should also complain to the BVRLA otherwise it will continue to happen to other people.

DavePaddi

Hi all,

I have called the bank to dispute the transaction. They didn't want to do it to start with, saying that I am responsible for parking fines or traffic offenses that occurred during my rental, and that I consented to the admin fee by signing the rental agreement. They haven't even seen the T&Cs of the rental agreement. They finally did it after I got a bit upset over the phone, but they warned me that they will more likely take the money back as it will be easy for Green Motion to prove I consented that fee...

I have also contacted Green Motion directly to let them know what I did, like suggested by some members. And that's their answer:

Good Afternoon
As per our terms and conditions, any PCN/Traffic Violation incurs a fee of £84.00. This is for fees we incur from the legal owners, we charge this on with our admin fees of £30 + VAT for making representations for the fine issuer to take out of our name.
No refund is due, we would urge you to seek reimbursement for our fees from the fine issuer.
Kind Regards

So not looking very good! I will keep you all updated as soon as I hear back from the bank.

Thanks,
David

Fruitcake

DavePaddi wrote: »

Hi all,

I have called the bank to dispute the transaction. They didn't want to do it to start with, saying that I am responsible for parking fines or traffic offenses that occurred during my rental, and that I consented to the admin fee by signing the rental agreement. They haven't even seen the T&Cs of the rental agreement. They finally did it after I got a bit upset over the phone, but they warned me that they will more likely take the money back as it will be easy for Green Motion to prove I consented that fee...

I have also contacted Green Motion directly to let them know what I did, like suggested by some members. And that's their answer:

Good Afternoon
As per our terms and conditions, any PCN/Traffic Violation incurs a fee of £84.00. This is for fees we incur from the legal owners, we charge this on with our admin fees of £30 + VAT for making representations for the fine issuer to take out of our name.
No refund is due, we would urge you to seek reimbursement for our fees from the fine issuer.
Kind Regards

So not looking very good! I will keep you all updated as soon as I hear back from the bank.

Thanks,
David

Utter b0llocks from your bank and Green Motion.


You may have consented to the auto payment of fines and traffic offences but you have most definitely NOT consented to private parking charges. These are not covered by the hire company's Ts and Cs so are not valid charges.


Have you contacted the BVRLA and made a complaint to them as suggested? This is your best course of action as well as telling Green Motion they have violated the BVRLA code of practice. Keep hitting the hire company with this. Quote the relevant parts of the BVRLA CoP to back up your case and quote it to your bank as well. I suggest you tell the bank's CEO you are going to change to another provider that actually has the interest of its customers at heart rather than lines the pockets of scam PPCs and hire companies. Posting your card cut into pieces might make him/her sit up and take notice.


Tell him/her the people he/she employs are ignorant if they do not know the difference between a fine/penalty and a private parking company invoice.


Also point out to Green Motion and your bank that denying you the right to an appeals process is unlawful and forms part of an unfair contract.


Local and national press might be interested in this sharp practice, as well as Fakebook/Twitter/Trip adviser and anything else where the hire company might receive bad press.


As mentioned before, the PCN will not have the word fine on it anywhere. Send a copy to Green Motion and your bank's CEO asking where the word fine is used. Point out that if they can't find it, the PCN is merely a speculative invoice and not a fine and therefore not covered by Green Motion's Ts and Cs. Consequently there is no requirement for you to pay it.

StaffsSW

The legal owners / registered keeper of the Greenmotion fleet will have only charged them an admin fee of £15+vat for transferring liability...

Greenmotion run predominantly as a franchised operation, I'm not sure if the individual franchisees are BVRLA members, but the trading entity of GreenMotion in Bucks. definitely are a corporate member of the BVRLA.

DavePaddi

Thanks for your posts.

@ Fruitcake, I just want to make clear the fact that what Green Motion has charged me with is only their admin fee, they haven't paid the Parking Company invoice, they have only passed on my details to ParkingEye, as recommended by the BVRLA. Do you think I should still get the BVRLA involved, on the base that their T&Cs doesn't cover private companies charges / invoices?

Thanks,
David

Fruitcake

DavePaddi wrote: »

Thanks for your posts.

@ Fruitcake, I just want to make clear the fact that what Green Motion has charged me with is only their admin fee, they haven't paid the Parking Company invoice, they have only passed on my details to ParkingEye, as recommended by the BVRLA. Do you think I should still get the BVRLA involved, on the base that their T&Cs doesn't cover private companies charges / invoices?

Thanks,
David

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, complain to BVRLA. £84 is an horrendous amount to pass someone's details on to a parking company. I also believe that they are not supposed to charge for doing this. The BVRLA CoP should say this somewhere. If it doesn't, an assumtion that it is free would not be an unreasonavble assumption.

DavePaddi

I have emailed the BVRLA about this and their answer was that they do not regulate admin fees charged by car rental companies, as long as the amount of the admin fee is clearly stated on the rental agreement (which it is in my case). And they consider invoices from PPC as legal fines, so my argument saying that this isn't covered by Green Motion T&Cs doesn't make a lot of sens to them...

Coupon-mad

Many Lease firms will refund the admin fee when you win the appeal and can show them (Zipcar and Europcar do I think). So keep that in mind, ready to ask when you win at POPLA. And it's not a legal fine at all, not from any authority and not covered by the t&cs. Green Motion have done the right thing by naming you so now appeal but be careful.

Move on to appealing as 'hirer/lessee' (NOT DRIVER) and winning the case at POPLA. Use the template from the NEWBIES thread and choose 'hirer/lessee' in PE's dropdown menu on their appeals page, if you've not already appealed it. Do not appeal about what happened, do not appeal as driver. The hirer/lessee can win at POPLA and you need to include 'no keeper liability' at that stage as a POPLA appeal point, but that's for later.

Fruitcake

DavePaddi wrote: »

I have emailed the BVRLA about this and their answer was that they do not regulate admin fees charged by car rental companies, as long as the amount of the admin fee is clearly stated on the rental agreement (which it is in my case). And they consider invoices from PPC as legal fines, so my argument saying that this isn't covered by Green Motion T&Cs doesn't make a lot of sens to them...

More b0llocks but from the BVRLA this time. Complain to their chairman about this lack of understanding by the person you contacted. Only a court can issue a fine, only a Council or the Police can issue a penalty. An invoice from a PPC is none of the above.

Have a close look at Green Motion's Ts and Cs. If they only mention fines and penalties, but do not specifically mention a PCN from a PPC, they cannot charge you an admin fee.

If this is the case, contact Trading Standards as this charge forms part of an unfair contract because it isn't mentioned in the hire agreement. Contact the press, give the Green Motion bad publicity on Fakebook if they have a website, Tripadvisor as well.