Private Parking Charge Notice - Leased Car

Bentley125

Hello,

A few weeks ago i contacted Tusker as they had paid a private parking charge notice which had been increased to over £200. I have had no letter or notice sent to me so when i was told by my employer that Tusker had paid this for me it was the first i had heard.

The parking charge was from a company called ES Parking Enforcement Ltd and was not done by the local authority or the police.

I sent a letter to tusker, here is a bit of it:

Your company is a member of the BVRLA and their guidance should be followed at all times. If you choose to pay a private parking charge notice and recharge this to myself or my employer you should ensure that your leasing terms & conditions allow you to do this.

Please see below text taken from the terms and conditions on my lease car:

You are responsible for any statutory notices and fines.
You must:
- pay for all parking fines, fees or penalties, speeding fines, bus lane fines
and any other fines issued to you during the term of the Agreement relating to
the Vehicle or your use of the Vehicle including those which result from
motoring offences, violation or traffic or parking regulations.
- pay the London congestion charge if you enter the appropriate zone.

If you do not pay these amounts then Tusker will pay them on your behalf and we will recharge this cost to you together with an administration fee. If as registered keeper of the vehicle, Tusker receives notification of any speeding fine or non-payment of a fixed penalty notice, Tusker will charge an Administration fee of £10 plus VAT for dealing with such notification.

A privately-issued parking charge notice is not a penalty notice, fee or a parking fine therefore this doesn't fall into any of the "fines" listed in your T&Cs. A privately-issued parking charge notice is between me and the parking company in question and Tusker have no direct liability for it.

ES Parking Enforcement Ltd have never been in touch with me regarding this parking charge notice so I have not been aware. If Tusker received something from the private parking company then as a BVRLA member you would be able to release my details for them to contact me directly. Instead of providing my details to the private parking company, you have
decided to pay the bill therefore denying me any opportunity, as the driver, to appeal the erroneous charge. This was your decision to pay the charge and in no way passes any obligation to the me. Tusker are Corporate Members of the BVRLA and are mandated to abide by the code of conduct and Terms & Conditions.

My understanding is that a privately-issued parking charge is not the same as a penalty or a fine so they should not have paid this. The parking charge notice is from January 2016 and the parking company, Tusker or my employer has never informed me i had this.

This is the response i have had from Tusker:

Thank your communication with regards to the parking charge notice that Tusker paid on the 06th March 2017. Having reviewed your complaint I wanted to firstly advise on the fine process.

What does Keeper Liability mean?
Posted: 03/10/2012 12:00

The Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) banning clamping and towing away on private land became effective on October 1st 2012, as did Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA), the new independent appeals service.

This is biggest change to parking on private land that’s ever taken place and comes with a number of complex issues, one of which is keeper liability.

On public roads and regulated public car parks in most of England and Wales, and parts of Scotland where Civil Parking Enforcement operates, the law says that the owner is liable for any penalty charges regardless of who was driving. The owner is defined in those cases as being the Registered Keeper at the time of the contravention.

On private land, and this includes private land owned by public bodies, it is the driver who is liable for any charges arising from a trespass or for not complying with the rules for parking which, in most cases, is simply a breach of contract.

In this instance the notice was initially issued to the vehicle and remained unpaid. The notice was issued to Tusker, who own the vehicle, and we responded a number of times to ES Parking Enforcement Ltd with your name and address, so that they may forward the notice to you directly. Tusker were then advised that the notice would be escalated to debt recovery and solicitors for non-payment, and as a result Tusker made payment against the notice and invoiced the employer.

As such Tusker have followed the correct procedure and maintain the charge made to your employer to ensure that legal proceedings were not actioned.

Am i in the right here or have they followed the correct procedure?

I have also sent a letter to ES Parking requesting all communication regarding this notice but i am still waiting for a response.

Any help would be appreciated.

Coupon-mad

we responded a number of times to ES Parking Enforcement Ltd with your name and address, so that they may forward the notice to you directly.

Right, so get copies of those letters from Tusker, they need to prove they transferred liability to you and if they did, ask them WHY they then paid it (seeing as they are saying they transferred liability, IMHO they can't then pay it just because the PPC writes back and worries them).

If they transferred liability then the PCN was yours alone from that point and they had NO business to then pay.

I would be looking to make a complaint to the BVRLA about Tusker, and to the IPC about the PPC not sending a notice to you after your name and address was provided (get Tusker's proof of this first).