Parking Charge from Rental car in NI

User0807

Ok I'll start off with I did read the newbies guide on what to do, and fought I had it all worked out but I'm still having issues.

The story so far, In October I rented a car from Eurocar and parked in a carpark with no signage or ways to pay for tickets, (turns out the car park is "closing down" for the past few years and they currently "fine" anyway parking there yet have no notice of this or attempt to stop cars entering)

I received a Parking charge notice from a Company called Smart Parking Ltd given the usual, pay up now or we will get you. I'm confident enough to just ignore the letters due to living in and having received the charge in Northern Ireland, but the issue I've run into the Eurocar is trying to charge me £40 for the privilege of being fined. I attempted to email Eurocar and tell them it wasn't a legal fine and I should not have been charged this admin fee.

I write in regards to the letter dated DATE that I have received in relation to my rental of a car REGNUMBER with Rental Agreement NUMBERS.


As detailed in this letter, a £40 admin fee will be deducted from my credit card on the 15th day following this letter. The documentation that you have provided in support of this transaction is a speculative and unenforceable invoice from a private company called SmartParking Ltd for a “Parking Charge Notice” for the 16th October 2018.


In the terms and conditions of hire quoted on your website section 9.3.1 -



9.3.1. Relating to Fines and Penalties
9.3.1.1. You are responsible for and will pay all charges arising from:
• any congestion or parking charges (or failure to pay them);
• a breach of any parking restrictions or a road traffic offence or any other offence or infringement involving the Vehicle such as (but not limited to) lane infringement, tunnel, turning and bus lane charges including the costs from the Vehicle being clamped, seized or towed away and any other charges/costs (or failure to pay them) levied by a relevant organisation or issuing authority.




The invoice issued by SmartParking Ltd is not a Penalty Charge Notice, nor is it a fine, nor any kind of notification of traffic offence. It has not been issued by any UK authority and was not issued as a result of a contravention of any current UK traffic legislation. It is therefore not covered under the terms of my rental agreement with Europcar and Europcar has no authority to charge my credit card for any fee as there was no requirement on Europcar to take any action on receipt of this invoice.

They responded to me today with quite a long winded email stating that they will still be charging me the admin fee and due to signing the rental agreement I don't have a choice, the only way I can get the money refunded is if smartparking cancel the charge and contact them.


Is there anything I can do here other than suck it up and pay the charge, my money is tight and even forking out £40 is a hit.


Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks

nosferatu1001

1) Complain to the BVRLA, if Europcar ireland is a member (no idea) as they are breaching the rental terms and conditions
2) Issue a chargeback on your credit card, as this is an unauthorised charge.

User0807

So if I charge back the card can they do nothing further about it?

I'll look into the BVRLA, maybe even just threatening to complain will get Eurocar to drop the charge.

KeithP

User0807 wrote: »

So if I charge back the card can they do nothing further about it?

Have a read of MSE's Chargeback article.

You will see there that Eurocar have the opportunity to object to the chargeback, but you will be telling your card issuer that by taking money from your card they are acting outside the agreement you had with them.

Fruitcake

As above, do a chargeback and tell Eurocrap you have done this as they have taken your money in breach of the rental Ts and Cs and thus have committed theft. This is now a criminal not civil case.

Complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.