Lease company paid charge to UKCPS

sctla

Hello all, I’m looking for some advice on a parking charge.

I have searched the forum and can’t find anything which relates directly to the specifics this case.

A parking charge has been issued by UKCPS regarding a (approx. 50 minute) overstay in a retail car park on 19/09. The car is on a private lease. I received a letter from the lease company which stated:

‘We have given your details to the relevant authority transferring liability of this offence to you. The authority will now contact you directly.’ The letter also stated that if I accept liability to make a payment. It also said if I do not accept liability to appeal to the authority.
After reading advice on this forum I waited to hear from UKCPS directly and was planning on appealing. I haven’t heard anything.

Two days ago I realised the lease company has paid the fine when I received an email from them with an invoice attached for £100 parking charge and an admin fee. I called them and was told since my initial correspondence with them they have communicated further with UKCPS and paid the charge which happens to be the uplifted amount for not paying within 14 days.

I was advised I can appeal the charge with UKCPS. Am I correct in assuming this will be a waste of time giving it has already been paid and the time that has passed?

The contract I have with the lease company states:
‘You must pay all fixed penalty charges, fines, congestion charges or any other penalties or charges in connection with the Vehicle or its use, including any fine in connection with the failure to register the Vehicle on the Motor Insurance Database. If we pay or transfer liability to you for any of these sums on your behalf you will repay us upon demand any sums so paid and an administration fee.’

Surely they can’t accept liability for me on my behalf and expect me to pay the uplifted amount!?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Half_way

Name of Lease company?


A few things of importance to note:
This is not a fine, under no circumstances contact the lease company and call this a fine, it is nothing of the sort

‘We have given your details to the relevant authority transferring liability of this offence to you. The authority will now contact you directly.’ The letter also stated that if I accept liability to make a payment. It also said if I do not accept liability to appeal to the authority.

UKCPS are not an authority of any sort what so ever, the Driver who generated the Parking charge notice ( which, again is not a fine) has also committed no offence


Again name of Lease/hire company, and please check the terms and conditions of the lease/hire, exact wording is critical if you can post the Ts and Cs up here, look for where/if it says fines/penalties, a private parking ticket is neither, and a private parking company is not an authority

Coupon-mad

I received a letter from the lease company which stated:

‘We have given your details to the relevant authority transferring liability of this offence to you. The authority will now contact you directly.’

Send both firms a SAR* (look up the contact on their PRIVACY page) asking to see the communications relating to the above. And ask UKCPS for the Notice to Hirer they then sent to you, or are they contending that the lease firm failed to transfer liability? Make it clear your contact is a data processing concern, not an appeal.

Tell UKCPS you will be complaining about them to the Information Commissioner for not handling a transfer of liability from the lease firm properly as per the POFA and not sending you a Notice to Hirer to appeal, and then contacting the lease firm again about you when the statute (the POFA Schedule 4) actually bars them from doing so - they CANNOT contact the keeper once they have the name & address of the hirer.


*Google it

sctla

Half_way wrote: »

Name of Lease company?


A few things of importance to note:
This is not a fine, under no circumstances contact the lease company and call this a fine, it is nothing of the sort



UKCPS are not an authority of any sort what so ever, the Driver who generated the Parking charge notice ( which, again is not a fine) has also committed no offence


Again name of Lease/hire company, and please check the terms and conditions of the lease/hire, exact wording is critical if you can post the Ts and Cs up here, look for where/if it says fines/penalties, a private parking ticket is neither, and a private parking company is not an authority

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Send both firms a SAR* (look up the contact on their PRIVACY page) asking to see the communications relating to the above. And ask UKCPS for the Notice to Hirer they then sent to you, or are they contending that the lease firm failed to transfer liability? Make it clear your contact is a data processing concern, not an appeal.

Tell UKCPS you will be complaining about them to the Information Commissioner for not handling a transfer of liability from the lease firm properly as per the POFA and not sending you a Notice to Hirer to appeal, and then contacting the lease firm again about you when the statute (the POFA Schedule 4) actually bars them from doing so - they CANNOT contact the keeper once they have the name & address of the hirer.


*Google it

The company I lease the car from is nationwide vehicle contracts. I make payments to Leaseplan UK, it is Leaseplan UK who have paid and who I have corresponded with. The exact wording in the hire agreement is:

2.1 You shall pay to us without deduction or set off:

2.1.3 reasonable administration costs and expenses (including legal expenses) that we incur as a result of your failure to comply with any term of this agreement

2.2 You must pay all fixed penalty charges, fines, congestion charges or any other penalties or charges in connection with the Vehicle or its use, including any fine in connection with the failure to register the Vehicle on the Motor Insurance Database. If we pay or transfer liability to you for any of these sums on your behalf you will repay us on demand any sums so paid and an administration fee.

The_Deep

. If we pay or transfer liability to you for any of these sums on your behalf you will repay us on demand any sums so paid and an administration fee.

As this ia an invoice for damages for an alleged breach of contract, (not a charge for parking), this sounds to me as if it might well be an unfair terms in a consumer contract.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unfair-contract-terms-cma37

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

Guys_Dad

The situation is simple.

If it is a charge from a council or their appointed agents, then your lease agreement allows the leasing company to pay and charge you. Loosely, that is a fine.

If it is on private land, then it is not a fine but a speculative invoice and is not covered by the lease and, as advised above, POFA lays down what a leasing company is required to do for private parking charges.

Write and point that out to the leasing company, demand a refund and tell them you will take out a small claim in the courts to recover your money.

No chance of PPC refunding the charge and you have lost any right to appeal.

sctla

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Send both firms a SAR* (look up the contact on their PRIVACY page) asking to see the communications relating to the above. And ask UKCPS for the Notice to Hirer they then sent to you, or are they contending that the lease firm failed to transfer liability? Make it clear your contact is a data processing concern, not an appeal.

Tell UKCPS you will be complaining about them to the Information Commissioner for not handling a transfer of liability from the lease firm properly as per the POFA and not sending you a Notice to Hirer to appeal, and then contacting the lease firm again about you when the statute (the POFA Schedule 4) actually bars them from doing so - they CANNOT contact the keeper once they have the name & address of the hirer.


*Google it

Thank you I will do this now.

I should also add that attached to the invoice was a copy of a letter from UKCPS to Leaseplan UK. This was, I assume, a reply to Leaseplan's attempt at passing on my details and transferring liability. It stated:

'We refer to the above matter and your recent correspondence received on the 8th October 2018 with regards to the above registration number.

Under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 the following documents are required from you in order for us to transfer the liability:

1. A statement signed by the vehicle hire firm that the vehicle was on hire under a Hire Agreement,
2. The page of the Hire Agreement, showing the Hirer's details and signature,
3. Statement of Liability (if not included within the above documents)

As these documents have not been provided by you we are unable to transfer liability as you have not conformed with Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Therefore the responsibility of the charges remains with the hire company.

If you still wish to transfer liability please ensure that you provide us with the information above within the next 14 days from the date of this letter.

Please be aware we will not be entering into any further correspondence unless the documentation is provided.'

It looks like Leaseplan did not provide the necessary details rather than UKCPS not handling transfer of liability properly.

Castle

sctla wrote: »

It looks like Leaseplan did not provide the necessary details rather than UKCPS not handling transfer of liability properly.

Under POFA only the keeper may be liable and Leaseplan wasn't the keeper at the time.

sctla

Castle wrote: »

Under POFA only the keeper may be liable and Leaseplan wasn't the keeper at the time.

Thank you for your input but can I please ask what information are you basing that on?

Information I have from Nationwide Vehicle Contracts and results from a google search indicate that Leaseplan are the registered keeper of the vehicle.

nosferatu1001

The fact that you arent aware of the difference between
Keeper
and
Registered keeper

RK is simply who the DVLA says is in day to day charge of the vehicle
Keeper is presumed to be RK unless proved otherwise, and is the person ACTUALLY in day to day charge of the vehicle.

sctla

nosferatu1001 wrote: »

The fact that you arent aware of the difference between
Keeper
and
Registered keeper

RK is simply who the DVLA says is in day to day charge of the vehicle
Keeper is presumed to be RK unless proved otherwise, and is the person ACTUALLY in day to day charge of the vehicle.

I appreciate your reply out need for condescension. I simply asked a question in a polite manner under the assumption the previous poster was privy to some information I am not aware of.

As you say, according to POFA the keeper is presumed the RK unless proved otherwise. In a previous post I stated that Leaseplan failed to provide the necessary documents to UKCPS transferring liability. Therefore in their eyes Leaseplan is still the keeper and registered keeper and liability was not transferred.

Does anyone have any thoughts on where that leaves me?