Hertz paid dodgy fine then told me

Half_way

although as private parking is unregulated, is that term in the contact enforceable?
Whats stopping ppc bods targeting hertz vehicles issuing charge notices for whatever made up rule breach they can dream up?
Vehicle not parked with tyre valves at the 12 O'clock position? that will be £60, no need to worry about the Registered keeper kicking up a fuss, Hertz will just pay.
Vehicle stopped on airport road as the barriers were down? £80 no problem, its a hire vehicle from hertz.

pappa_golf

however town and city parking. is a dormant company , town and city parking were bought out by smart parking many yrs ago , and the name was changed to smart , so why did this company act? no need for DVLA info , when the sticker says it all

first job would be to obtain a copy of this invoice

liviboy

Half_way wrote: »

although as private parking is unregulated, is that term in the contact enforceable?
Whats stopping ppc bods targeting hertz vehicles issuing charge notices for whatever made up rule breach they can dream up?
Vehicle not parked with tyre valves at the 12 O'clock position? that will be £60, no need to worry about the Registered keeper kicking up a fuss, Hertz will just pay.
Vehicle stopped on airport road as the barriers were down? £80 no problem, its a hire vehicle from hertz.

I agree with you.

What I meant was that Hertz were entitled to charge the admin fee as they "dealt with" a Parking Charge Notice and that does entail some form of admin. The customer agreed to that term when they hired the vehicle. If you don't agree with this term then don't hire the car...sad but that would be the ultimate answer, nobody forced the OP to hire a car...don't shoot me for saying this...

What Hertz SHOULD have done though, was simply passed on the details to the PPC, not paid the charge themselves.

That being said, £40 to open and reply to a letter is excessive in the extreme...I want a job that I earn £40 for opening a letter :-)

DoaM

liviboy wrote: »

Just reply stating it was not a fine, but in fact a charge notice.

Ask for a refund of both the £60. If this is not forthcoming, a letter before action and then small claims (no MCOL in Scotland unfortunately).

They have breached their own Ts&Cs by charging you, it is an unauthorised debit from your card (which you can also take up with the card issuer).

They are entitled to their Admin charge as their Ts & Cs state clearly:



Annex 1 which covers all these charges does in fact state "parking fine or charge"...

https://images.hertz.com/pdfs/RT_CHARGES_EU_EN.pdf

So whilst the £60 should not have been paid, they are within their rights to charge you an admin fee for "dealing" with the charge notice...

You're misunderstanding ... that statement is against the category Traffic Fines and Penalties ... a parking charge notice falls into neither of those categories.

The BVRLA Memorandum of Understanding covers what hire companies should be doing. (Search this forum ... I've posted elsewhere a dropbox link to a copy of the MoU - I can't access dropbox whilst here at work).

HO87

@ PG - Town & City Parking Ltd - as it is now constituted - is essentially an entity formed to allow the original trading name to be retained. The original company that later became Smart Parking Ltd after the then NZ-based Car Parking Technologies Ltd acquired T&CP in late 2011. At that point the original T&CP ceased to exist. However, in addition Smart retain "Town and City Parking" as a trading title i.e. Smart Parking t/a Town & City Parking.

I can't see any problem with that - it is clearly declared on Smart's website and so provided the PCN doesn't refer to T&CP Ltd then there isn't an issue here at all. The link provided by the OP also clearly shows that they are dealing with Smart Parking trading as Town & City Parking and not the limited company.

liviboy

DoaM wrote: »

You're misunderstanding ... that statement is against the category Traffic Fines and Penalties ... a parking charge notice falls into neither of those categories.

The BVRLA Memorandum of Understanding covers what hire companies should be doing. (Search this forum ... I've posted elsewhere a dropbox link to a copy of the MoU - I can't access dropbox whilst here at work).

I'm not sure I am the only one potentially misunderstanding this...

Their Ts & Cs CLEARLY state "Parking fine or charge". If it exclusively referred to "parking fines" then I would agree.

In addition, the BVRLA Guide to Road Traffic Offences states that for private parking notices in Scotland, the rental company has 3 options, option 3 states:

You can pay and recharge the amount to your customer, if your agreement permits.
A sample clause, which would allow you to pay and recharge, is:
‘You will be responsible for paying the following charges:
‘All charges and legal costs for any congestion charge, road traffic offence parking offence or
parking notice, or any other offence involving the rental vehicle, including from the vehicle
being clamped, seized or towed away.’

(page 13, http://www.bvrla.co.uk/sites/default/files/u11151/bvrla_guide_to_road_traffic_offences.pdf)

As the Hertz agreement permits Hertz to pay the charge and recharge it to the customer, then this would appear to be in agreement with the BVRLA Guide.

Regardless of a "Memorandum of Understanding" (which I have read and agree that by section 4.3.1 they should have passed the OP's details to the PPC), the OP signed an agreement that hertz would pay any parking fine OR CHARGE and at the same time be charged an administration fee.

I agree that Hertz should NOT have paid the parking charge as their own conditions also state that alternatively they will pass the hirer's details to the PPC, so they made a CHOICE to pay it. However, Hertz has "dealt with" by way of receiving, opening, responding and contacting the OP about the charge notice. Therefore they are surely entitled to the admin charge as agreed? (Albeit it is very excessive...)

I am in NO WAY condoning Hertz for their actions. Only looking at it from the point of view that the OP signed the Ts & Cs which state they can charge an administration fee...

I am by no means a defender of PPCs, trust me (especially as I too live in Scotland :-) )

DoaM

liviboy wrote: »

(especially as I too live in Scotland :-) )

Now your forum name has meaning ... I'm currently sitting about 20 miles away from there.

liviboy

DoaM wrote: »

Now your forum name has meaning ... I'm currently sitting about 20 miles away from there.

There is another person using my username on some other forums which really annoys me as I've been called it since I was about 10!

But what a gorgeous week it's been!

The_Deep

Many companies have unfair T&Cs, read this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/Thomson-case-could-spell-end-of-unfair-holiday-cancellation-charges/

Similarly, Brittany Ferries also have a highly dubious refund policy.