Are Car Hire Firms Legally Obliged to Pay Charge Notices?

The_Deep

If monies have beeen taken from your credit card without your sayso complain in writing to your local Trading Standards Department. Do not go through CAB

BikingBud

Thanks so far, how's this to the credit card company:

Grounds for challenging card charge from ABC Hire Car dated xx XXX XX:

I have been charged by ABC Hire car company a sum of £xx on xx XXX xx, I dispute this charge as I believe it to be erroneous for the following reasons:

1. The charge is not a Penalty Charge Notice, a specific instrument available to certain organisations empowered by the Road Traffic Act, it is a speculative invoice from a commercial entity.
2. The charge relates to an alleged contravention of the contract for parking on private land.
3. We stayed overnight in the hotel on site, refer to statement XXX for hotel payment, and as such were entitled to use the parking. This has been confirmed by the hotel who also subsequently advised the private parking company to cancel the charge
4. The private parking company sent a parking charge notice to the car hire company requesting payment. Or asking for details of the driver to be provided. This approach is not in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 as they should only present a Notice to Keeper.
5. POFA 2012 Paragraph 13 – Relating to Hire Vehicles provides clear instruction that the hire company upon receipt of a Notice to Keeper, may provide a statement, within 28 days of the issue of the charge, that at the material time the vehicle was hired to a named person. This enables the private parking company to approach the hirer to seek payment of the bill, POFA 2012 Schedule 4 Paragraph 14 refers.
6. Instead of providing details of the hirer to the private parking company, ABC decided to pay the bill therefore denying me any opportunity, as the hirer, to appeal the erroneous charge. This was their decision and in no way passes any obligation to the hirer. This decision is in contravention of the flowchart page 11 within the British Vehicle Rental and Licensing Association Guide to Road Traffic Offences, (although parking on private land is not a road traffic offence). ABC are Corporate Members of the BVRLA and are mandated to abide by the code of conduct.
6. ABC then charged me on yy YYY yy, for the parking charge notice, £xx, that they were not obliged to pay plus an administration fee, £zz. I seek cancellation of these payments that ABC made of their own volition despite this being in contravention of their own trade body code of conduct and the protection provide to them via POFA 2012 Schedule 4.

BikingBud

One other quickie on the timing, if the charge notice was issued to the car hire company 31 Mar 17, stamped in by them 4 Apr 17, even if it was a POFA 2012 correctly formatted NTK and they have not passed anything back to the creditor Para 13, then their 28 days are up. And they cannot now pass anything on to me?

I have not made any contact with the charging company.

Coupon-mad

Not quite, you need to understand that it's not the approach (4) that's wrong. It's the fact this document was one which could not hold the hire firm liable at all. So CP Plus never had that right.

POFA 2012 Para 4 - CPPlus have the "Right to claim unpaid parking charges from keeper of vehicle" - Initially the hire company.

No, they never had that right.

So I would suggest:

Grounds for challenging card charge from ABC Hire Car dated xx XXX XX:

I have been charged by ABC Hire car company a sum of £xx on xx XXX xx. I dispute this charge in the following grounds:

1. The car was hired but the terms of that contract regarding 'fines' only relate to paying penalty charges from 'authorities' where ABC Hire would potentially have liability. This would only cover real 'fines' from Local Authorities, the Police, or Congestion charges.

2. I stayed overnight in a hotel and parked there with permission. A private parking company erroneously sent a parking charge notice to the car hire company, respite the fact we had stayed overnight in the hotel on site. (ref statement XXX for hotel payment) and as such were entitled to use the parking space offered.

3. This has been confirmed by the hotel who also subsequently required the private parking company to cancel the charge. But the Hire company had already acted outside of their authority by paying it, thus denying me the right to appeal it and ensure it was cancelled.

4. This action was in breach of both the Hire contract and the car hire industry's code of practice (BVRLA). The hire firm should simply have provided the parking company with my name and address as Hirer, to allow me to appeal, and passed the Notice to me. They did not.

5. The charge was never the liability of the Hire company to pay and they were never liable for it in law. It was not a Penalty Charge Notice, a specific instrument available to certain organisations empowered by the Road Traffic Act.

6. It was a speculative invoice from a commercial entity (CP Plus), not worded to enable that firm to hold the Hire company liable in any way in law, so it was never the Hire company's charge to pay. Whilst some private parking charges are so worded for potential 'keeper liability' under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act, this one was not.

7. This charge was a matter for the driver only, not the Hire firm's business, and at no point did I agree to such invoices being debited to my credit card.

8. This decision is in contravention of the flowchart page 11 within the British Vehicle Rental and Licensing Association (BVRLA) Guide. ABC are Corporate Members of the BVRLA and are mandated to abide by the code of conduct.

9. ABC have - without authorisation - charged me on yy YYY yy, for the parking charge notice, £xx, that they were not obliged to pay plus an administration fee, £zz.

10. I seek cancellation of these payments that ABC have debited of their own volition, an error by them and not a matter for me to pay.

BikingBud

Cheers note passed to credit card company and record placed on system. Let's see what happens next week.

Timothea

BikingBud wrote: »

Thanks so far, how's this to the credit card company:

Grounds for challenging card charge from ABC Hire Car dated xx XXX XX:

I have been charged by ABC Hire car company a sum of £xx on xx XXX xx, I dispute this charge as I believe it to be erroneous for the following reasons:

1. The charge is not a Penalty Charge Notice, a specific instrument available to certain organisations empowered by the Road Traffic Act, it is a speculative invoice from a commercial entity.
2. The charge relates to an alleged contravention of the contract for parking on private land.
3. We stayed overnight in the hotel on site, refer to statement XXX for hotel payment, and as such were entitled to use the parking. This has been confirmed by the hotel who also subsequently advised the private parking company to cancel the charge
4. The private parking company sent a parking charge notice to the car hire company requesting payment. Or asking for details of the driver to be provided. This approach is not in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 as they should only present a Notice to Keeper.
5. POFA 2012 Paragraph 13 – Relating to Hire Vehicles provides clear instruction that the hire company upon receipt of a Notice to Keeper, may provide a statement, within 28 days of the issue of the charge, that at the material time the vehicle was hired to a named person. This enables the private parking company to approach the hirer to seek payment of the bill, POFA 2012 Schedule 4 Paragraph 14 refers.
6. Instead of providing details of the hirer to the private parking company, ABC decided to pay the bill therefore denying me any opportunity, as the hirer, to appeal the erroneous charge. This was their decision and in no way passes any obligation to the hirer. This decision is in contravention of the flowchart page 11 within the British Vehicle Rental and Licensing Association Guide to Road Traffic Offences, (although parking on private land is not a road traffic offence). ABC are Corporate Members of the BVRLA and are mandated to abide by the code of conduct.
6. ABC then charged me on yy YYY yy, for the parking charge notice, £xx, that they were not obliged to pay plus an administration fee, £zz. I seek cancellation of these payments that ABC made of their own volition despite this being in contravention of their own trade body code of conduct and the protection provide to them via POFA 2012 Schedule 4.

That's too complicated for the credit card company. All you need to say, in the first instance, is what I suggested. If the car hire company disagrees then you might have to explain in detail how the car hire company broke its own contract with you. There's no value in confusing them by mentioning POFA.

Coupon-mad's version is much better but still too detailed, IMHO.

BikingBud

So I also complained to BVRLA and got the following:

We understand you are dissatisfied that Hire Car Company paid a parking charge notice on your behalf.

Without seeing sight of the parking charge notice, which was issued by CP Plus, it is not possible to comment on whether this is a valid PCN under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, or as you say a speculative invoice. Hire Car Company has however provided a copy of their rental agreement, which after review by our Legal Department, we are satisfied that parking charge notices are covered in the statement of liability.

We understand that these matters can escalate quickly and therefore to avoid increases in parking charge notices or bailiffs being sent, some rental companies find the best course of action is to pay the notices and recharge the customer accordingly. If there is an error in the issuance of the notice by the private parking company they are normally amenable to issuing a refund.

Having reviewed Hire Car Company’s action we do not believe there has been a breach of our Code of Conduct. In addition, you make reference to our Road Traffic Offence Guide which is simply a guide and it is not a condition of membership that our members follow it.

In light of the evidence before us we are of the view that the charges have been correctly raised by Hire Car Company and we are unable to uphold your complaint against them. We would like to assure you that all aspects of your complaint have been fully examined and would wish to thank you for bringing the matter to our attention.

Astounding. And sent this response to the credit card:

I find it difficult to grasp how the BVRLA can deem a Parking Charge Notice as valid without them having seen the item in question. As the validity of the PCN has not been established the obligation of Hire Car Company to pay the invoice is also not verified and their decision to pay the charge is not an obligation that should be passed on to me. Satisfaction that the T&Cs cover Parking Charge Notices is only the opinion of BVRLA, and not a fact. It is a fact that the chairman of Rental Committee of the trade body is xxxx , see link, an employee of Hire Car Company and therefore far from independent. They consider that the code of practice has not been breached, how surprising. They also advise that the Road Traffic Offence Guide is "simply a guide” and via their comment dismiss any further value it may offer to protect the organisation or perhaps more importantly the consumer. This counter to the intent of codes of practice in general.

Hire Car Company have made no effort to approach CPPlus, the company that issued the PCN, and to challenge the validity of the parking charge, which as you will have observed is issued in error as we paid to stay in the onsite hotel over the period in question. This fact on its own should be sufficient to close this issue and both Hire Car Company and CPPlus have those material facts, if they do not wish to acknowledge those facts then I should not be penalised.

The final paragraph is contradictory to the statement that they have not reviewed the PCN as clearly all aspects of the complaint have not been fully examined. Therefore any deduction about the correctness of the charge raised by Hire Car Company and the validity of my complaint is clearly flawed.

I trust this information will enable you to draw a logical conclusion to this issue.

Credit card company refund my cash. Heard nothing from Hire Car Company

Many thanks to those who assisted directly and also those that provide help to so many others. Keep up the fight.
:beer:

fisherjim

We understand that these matters can escalate quickly and therefore to avoid increases in parking charge notices or bailiffs being sent, some rental companies find the best course of action is to pay the notices and recharge the customer accordingly

What utter cobblers, I suspect the BVRLA which is just another trade association, is no better than the BPA.

Coupon-mad

Well done!

Credit card refund being the way to go, if useless Fleet Managers or hire firms pay baseless fake PCNS as if they are all potentially POFA versions.

StaffsSW

BikingBud wrote: »

So I also complained to BVRLA and got the following:

Credit card company refund my cash. Heard nothing from Hire Car Company

This will also have more of an impact on the hire company than anything the BVRLA could impose.

The hire company could still come after you to recover their "losses", so do keep all of your paperwork and documents relating to this matter.