Rental company refusing liability of PCN (I wasn't the driver)

sirlod

Hello,


I recently hired a car from local rental company. The agreed hire was starting at 8pm on 27/03, but as this are out of office hours the company delivered the car to my home earlier - around 11am. I wasn't home so they called me and I instructed them to leave the keys in mailbox. When I got home I found the car parked on a permit only parking space and PCN sticked to the windscreen. The time of PCN is 15.26. I called the rental company, but they refuse to be liable of it. As I wasn't the driver and my hire hasn't started yet I'm not going to pay it.



What should I do?


I have permit for that carpark and could appeal to the parking company explaining that rental company parked it in wrong bay and I have a permit. There is high chance that they would cancel it and if not I could seek further help from the company managing the building that contracted the parking company. But this is not 100% sure and I would rather avoid it as it somewhat draws the liability to me.



To add another layer to the issue, it was rental for business trip and I'm not the hirer - my University is and it paid for the rental. I contacted also the University, but I wouldn't count on them.

I have some photos of PCN and T&Cs from rental company, but can't upload it.


Thank you for your help.

Coupon-mad

Who is the PCN from?

You can certainly show us a Dropbox shared link, if you BREAK THE URL first.

sirlod

PCN is from Alliance Parking.


here are some links:
imgur. com/8xPouc2
imgur. com/hIzdBaH
imgur. com/wiP3EcE

Fruitcake

sirlod wrote: »

PCN is from Alliance Parking.


here are some links:
imgur. com/8xPouc2
imgur. com/hIzdBaH
imgur. com/wiP3EcE

https://imgur.com/8xPouc2
https://imgur.com/hIzdBaH
https://imgur.com/wiP3EcE

Fruitcake

I had to deal with one of these as a union rep when a member's hire car was collected earlier than the time on the rental agreement and the hire co driver later parked in a council car park without paying.

I got him to collect witness statements from neighbours who saw him outside in his dressing gown handing the car over, and witnessing the hire co driver leaving with the car earlier than the time on the council ticket.

I suggest you get witness statements from people who can vouch for you being elsewhere when the car was delivered and therefore the hire co driver must have parked the car and got the PCN as a result of their negligence.
Be very forceful when you write to the hire co stating you dispute this, you forbid them from taking money from you to pay the charge and warn them that will constitute theft if they do and you will report it to the police.

If they are members of the BVRLA, complain to them as well.

Did you sign anything from the rental company at any time?

twhitehousescat

Alliance Parking., ahh thats a new name older ones were athens , as parking , etc etc
seem that they have all made friends with the IPC after a long rie in the wilderness

however I cannot see Alliance on the IPC list

company number 09766749 please check this against signage and paperwork

in fact I would contact DVLA ASAP and ask for name AND COMPANY NUMBER of whoever asked for your info

Umkomaas

Alliance Parking are an off-shoot of AS Parking (Cornwall), and seem to operate in the Swansea area.

At one time they were starting to be listed on the IPC AOS site, but without a commencement date, that listing is no longer there which could suggest their membership application to the IPC has not been accepted (must have been a gawd awful one not to be accepted by the IPC!).

If that is the case, they cannot get registered keeper data from the DVLA (unless they try an illegitimate back door access via AS Parking) and the advice would be, if this was your own car, to make no contact and see whether your data had been accessed.

Having two layers (hire company and uni) above you does complicate matters as they will be contacted (if AP obtain the RK data) before you know about it.

I would still do nothing at this stage (other regulars might also comment on this) and see what transpires. Alerting the hire co or uni by handing them the ticket to deal with might just see the genie come out of the bottle, with a bigger mess to sort out than if AP somehow acquire RK data, then there will be a better mapped process to be followed.

Your suggestion of contacting AP and appealing to their better nature is like going to stroke a lion which hasn’t eaten for a fortnight and hoping it won’t be hungry!

I’d leave the MA out of it for the time being.

sirlod

Thanks for all your responses, very helpful!


So for now I'm just going to wait for further development. I advised the uni to not pay anything and that I deny the liability.

Hopefully the AP will not get anything from DVLA and this would be the end of it.

Fruitcake

You still need to TELL the hire co not to pay this parking charge if they get a request from the parking scammers.

As I said, be forceful. Tell them THEIR employee parked the car, and since this was before the hire agreement started, you cannot be held liable. Any attempt to take money from your for something THEIR employee did will be a criminal offence.

Complain to the BVRLA if they are members.

Also get witness statements as I already advised you from people who can show you were elsewhere when the car was delivered. Better yet, see if you can find someone who saw the car being parked and can positively state you were not the driver.

Keep copies and screenshot of all documents and correspondence in both directions.

Don't sit and wait for the scammers to get the keeper data then send a bill to the hire co who have already proven to be unhelpful and are therefore likely to charge the Uni who may well then try to charge you.
Be proactive.

Coupon-mad

sirlod wrote: »

Thanks for all your responses, very helpful!


So for now I'm just going to wait for further development. I advised the uni to not pay anything and that I deny the liability.

Hopefully the AP will not get anything from DVLA and this would be the end of it.

I would email the DVLA a link to ALLIANCE PARKING's website and state you want to know that they WILL NOT release DVLA data to this non ATA member?

Get that in writing up front. Hopefully the DVLA will tell you the answer, even though you are not the keeper.

sirlod

Done.


I emailed both the rental company and DVLA. I'll let you know how the situation will develop.
Thanks for your help!


The rental company asked for the copy of PCN (they dont have it). Is it good idea to forward it to them?