Hire car, foreign licence and parking eye

danandjens_worldtravels

I am visiting from NZ and after using a hire car have received notice from parking eye. I only know as I've questioned a charge on my credit card from the hire company and they have emailed me their letter and the letter they received asking for driver details.

This letter has been sent to my NZ address as I used my NZ licence when hiring the car. Now I'm still in the UK and will be for a few more weeks, post very rarely gets delivered to our house in NZ as its down a private road and the postie often can't be bothered to deliver.

So, I'm wondering what if any will be the consequences of ignoring this? Will the car hire company keep charging me admin costs as the parking people can't find me, or is their obligation now over? Are there any other potential pitfalls.

I don't want to pay a further £80, I over parked by 22 mins in a car park I park in all the time and was not aware there was a limit. I don't have a receipt for the shop as I'm not sure I even used it that day- I spent most of my time resolving an issue at the bank following a recent death and can't remember if I bought shopping or not. It's a quiet town, on a quiet day and I do shop in that store when I need to buy food.

What do you lovely people think?

dazster

What I think is that you need to look at the terms of your rental agreement for the car. They normally only cover genuine penalties and fines issued by genuine authorities, not speculative invoices from private companies. However, the hire companies like to pretend otherwise because the admin charges are a nice little earner for them.

So, what you need to do is to read those terms, make sure the the hire company can't pay PE themselves and then charge it to you, and whether they were entitled to take an admin fee. You can then write to the hire company telling them that they are not authorised to charge your card in respect of this matter, and you want your admin fee back otherwise you will report it to the card company as an unauthorised transaction and get it back that way.

The crucial thing is to stop the hire company paying and then charging to you. Having done that you can forget about PE because they can't sue you in NZ, you can just bin any more letters they send you.

Coupon-mad

I only know as I've questioned a charge on my credit card from the hire company and they have emailed me their letter and the letter they received asking for driver details.

Did the hire company say they had provided PE with your name and address as hirer? Is that what their letter says? That's good if so.

Did they also show you the PCN so you have the PCN number and vehicle registration?

As long as you have that info, I would appeal to PE now using the usual template from the NEWBIES thread, calling yourself 'hirer/lessee' on the drop-down menu and giving your CURRENT address. See the NEWBIES thred for the short wording and you could add to it that you are currently at an English address so can they send your POPLA code/rejection letter there please, if not cancelling the charge.

As long as you are here a few weeks you should find PE give you a POPLA code in fairly quick time. Then you can do a POPLA appeal online which can then be handled by email from then on, with help from this forum to rebut any evidence pack they might email to you even if you are home by then.

The reason I would appeal (even if you haven't seen your version of the PCN yet...which might takes weeks to arrive so don't wait!) is also because that removes the hire firm from the loop by confirming you were the hirer - and you have winning appeal points if you call yourself 'hirer/lessee' only, and DO NOT talk about who parked/what happened.

No 'me/myself or I' in the appeal except 'I am the hirer and my current English address for the rejection letter is xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx' and 'send me a POPLA code'.

StaffsSW

Depends entirely on the hire company - but as you have already received paperwork at your NZ, it sounds like they have already passed on your details to Parking Eye, and charged an Admin fee, but not the "penalty" / Parking charge element.

If the paperwork you have received in NZ is a Notice to Hirer, then there is no reason for the hire company to pay PE, as they have already absolved themselves of any liability. It's also unknown for PE to come back to hire companies and claim they can't extort the money from the driver - it is only UKPC who try this trick.

On various assumptions, personally I'd be inclined to swallow the admin fee (if it is not extortionate itself) and know that PE would never instigate a court case against a driver who resides 10,000+ miles away.

dazster

Why on earth would he want to appeal to PoPLA when he can simply flick a V-sign towards Chorley as his 'plane back to NZ takes off?

Although I do like the idea of giving PE a UK address so they can write fruitlessly and even waste their money bringing a court claim and getting a default judgment against someone who is safely ensconced in rural NZ! (So long as the OP doesn't intend to become a UK resident within the next 6 years!)

Coupon-mad

dazster wrote: »

Why on earth would he want to appeal to PoPLA when he can simply flick a V-sign towards Chorley as his 'plane back to NZ takes off?

Although I do like the idea of giving PE a UK address so they can write fruitlessly and even waste their money bringing a court claim and getting a default judgment against someone who is safely ensconced in rural NZ! (So long as the OP doesn't intend to become a UK resident within the next 6 years!)

I say appeal as hirer/lessee (not saying who was driving) because if they don't hear from him they will (wrongly) revert to the Hire firm. Who will then pay, and deduct the money from his card. This is not worth ignoring and is easily enough seen off with forum help which is why he came here.

It's also unknown for PE to come back to hire companies and claim they can't extort the money from the driver - it is only UKPC who try this trick.

Can't be too careful/can't be sure they won't revert later to hire firms next month or next year in a big batch as PE's next 'plan'. May as well see it off.

He appeals as hirer and he wins at POPLA because hirers have it soooo easy, they win every time if they know what to say! No hire documents served with any PCN (in fact right now he has no PCN but that's irrelevant).

Forgot to add, some hire firms ALSO refund the fee if you later show them you appealed and won. And if they don't, he can still complain/ask for a chargeback or whatever to get the admin fee returned, we hope.

danandjens_worldtravels

Yes the hire company have notified parking eye it's me and sent the PCN.

As I understand it they have to send a new PCN with hirer details (?or hirer agreement still not sure about this bit) which they rarely do and so I can appeal successfully.

If I contact them before this stage could I scupper chances of a successful appeal by removing these essential obligations.

And I don't want to give them a uk address as that's potential problems for whoevers house it is if they send debt collectors letters etc.

Sadly no copy of hire contract, I'm not my most organised self at present and have thrown it away. I'm sure I can get a copy, but most hirers point it out to you at time of hire, so it's probobly there and probably valid.

StaffsSW

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I say appeal because if they don't hear from him they will (wrongly) revert to the Hire firm. Who will then pay, and deduct the money from his card.

In fairness to Parking Eye, I've not known them to come back to the hiring company if they can't pursue the driver - I assume that they have enough hire companies paying and recharging to worry about the occasional missed driver.

UKPC on the other hand, I have a ream of letters entitled "unable to contact driver" from them. I also have a short but sweet letter saved as "UKPC FRO" that I send them in return.

dazster

It is highly unlikely to be there. There will certainly be a clause concerning liability for real penalties from real authorities but we see a lot of these contracts and those that cover speculative invoices from private companies are very rare.

Many big hire companies have their standard agreement on their website somewhere.

StaffsSW

dazster wrote: »

It is highly unlikely to be there. There will certainly be a clause concerning liability for real penalties from real authorities but we see a lot of these contracts and those that cover speculative invoices from private companies are very rare.

Many big hire companies have their standard agreement on their website somewhere.

Any BVRLA affiliated hire companies should now be using agreements with a liability statement that does cover private parking invoices.

Some of the lower end PPC had been rejecting the transfer of liability as the statement does not specifically mention this, and seeking enforcement against the hire companies. Granted, a lot of hirers also used it to argue against the admin fee, but the PPC exposure seemed to be more concerning.

A lot of the big rental companies have had the amended liability statement for around a year now.

danandjens_worldtravels

Just to confirm nothing received in NZ, I have an emailed copy of PCN and letter hire company sent to notify of 35 admin fee.

I may well return to the UK within 6 years and wish to avoid a CCJ

And flicking the Vs will be very satisfying, if I can do it for myself I gladly flick a few for anybody else as I fly off next month!!