Hertz, Parking Eye & Welcome Break Gretna Services

van_west

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some help on a speculative invoice from Parking Eye.

The driver parked their hire car in the Gretna Welcome Break services late on a Saturday evening and did not notice the signs with regards to parking. They stayed for 31 minutes over the allocated 2 hours free parking.

Two weeks later (03/10/2015) the driver noticed on his bank account that there was a £102 pending transaction from Hertz. The driver was slightly bemused so rang Hertz and they said it was for a parking fine. £60 to pay Parking Eye and another £42 administration fee for Hertz paying the invoice on the drivers behalf. The driver was not happy and all Hertz recommended was to appeal tthe so called 'parking fine' with Parking Eye.

After reading these forums, and the sticky's, it seems there might be a chance for the driver to get his money back but we're unsure of how to approach it. We will try and get some more clear terms and conditions from Hertz, the ones in the rental handbook are very vague and full ones are not easy to find online.

Some other points. At this moment it is unclear whether Hertz have passed on the drivers name to Parking Eye (like they should have done in the first place) or have simply paid the invoice then charged the driver. We're also not clear on the effect of the parking event taking place in Scotland. The driver does not reside in Scotland so does these even matter?

Any help on how to approach this would be greatly appreciated and if you need me to post any more info, like copies of the invoice etc, just let me know.

Thanks, van_west

Captain_Krunch

This thread may help. Its from 2011 but the poster got his money back. http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=60049&st=20

Fruitcake

If the charge is on a credit card or debit card, immediately contact the card provider and put it in dispute. Hertz are members of the BVRLA and as such have no business paying these fake unenforceable invoices. Whilst their Ts and Cs may refer to fines and penalties, they will not mention private parking invoices or Parking Charge Notices.
The BVRLA has instructed its member to send the hirers details to the parking company and NOT pay these charges themselves.
By paying the charge, Hertz have denied the hirer the ability to use an appeals process.


In Scotland there is no keeper liability therefore the hirer, who is the legal keeper of the vehicle during the hire period (as opposed to the registered keeper,) is not liable to pay these charges irrespective of where they live. The only person liable is the driver, but by Scottish law, there is no requirement to reveal who this is irrespective of whether they were the hirer or not.


Write to Hertz as hirer telling them they are breaking the law by paying this fake charge, and demand they refund the money immediately. Write to the card provider saying the same thing and no matter what, do not pay this charge.


There must be no mention ever who was driving the vehicle. Only talk about the hirer and Scottish law.


Hopefully one of the experts will be along later to explain this better. Currently I am in the USA and slightly inebriated so my ramblings may not make perfect sense at the moment.

Iceweasel

Inebriated or not Fruitcake is right.

I can't suggest anything better than he has.

van_west

Thanks for the replies so far. The bank have said that the driver must wait for the payment to go through before they can look into disputing this.

If the charge is disputed but Hertz coming chasing the driver for the money, what should the driver be preparing to contest their claim?

We recieved this e-mail from them yesterday
Dear **********,

Thank you for contacting us. I appreciate the opportunity to review your concerns. I have enclosed a copy of the penalty charge notice.

One of the conditions of rental is that if Hertz is required to pay and/or process road tolls, fines, charges or associated costs, we may charge you with the amount we are required to pay plus an administration charge for doing so.

Any disputes on the fine itself must be taken up directly with the local authority, contact details for which are included on the enclosed document.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for contacting us and we look forward to serving you in the future.
Yours sincerely,

**************

We have asked for a full set of T&C's. Those in the rental agreement handbook are quite vague (see below)

What about parking fines, road tolls and other traffic related charges?
You are responsible for all fines, road tolls, congestion charges and other similar charges incurred in relation to the vehicle during your rental.
Some of these charges and fines will be sent to us for payment, which we will pay and recover from you by way of reimbursement. Alternatively, we may be required to provide your details to the relevant authority, who will contact you directly. Either way, in addition to any fine or charge you incur, you will also reimburse us for any time and costs we incur in dealing with such fines or charges.

---

What do other people make of that?

Castle

FYI
Short term parking at Gretna is £5 for between 2 and 6 hours as per
http://www.welcomebreak.co.uk/about-us/parking

The_Slithy_Tove

They have it wrong right from the start by calling it a Penalty, which it is not. Their vague Ts&Cs say, "You are responsible for all fines, road tolls, congestion charges and other similar charges." As fines, tolls, congestion charges are ALL there by virtue of statute, i.e. a law has been passed to allow these charges, I would work on the line that a parking charge is NOT a similar charge, as it is not there by virtue of legislation, but is merely a speculative invoice from a private company.

Captain_Krunch

van_west wrote: »

Any disputes on the fine itself must be taken up directly with the local authority, contact details for which are included on the enclosed document.

PPCs are aren't a local authority so you could always reply saying this information is irrelevant as it only refers to penalty charge notices issued by local authority's. You have a parking charge notice from a private company

Johno100

Haven't I seen a link to a BVRLA newsletter or similar posted on here previously that sets out how hire companies are supposed to deal with such matters?

The_Deep

Leaving aside whether Hertz back down or not, you should be aware that, whatever the High Court verdict, Beavis is not in any way relevant. There is no commercial justification for the excessive charge, you can stay for as long as you like as long as you pay the daily charge.

nigelbb

Paying this invoice for parking is just like Hertz paying a bill from a hotel who contacted them claiming that you left without paying after your rental car registration was logged when you checked in.