Work paid parking fine - now taken money from wages without knowledge!

Mumtobe2016

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could advise my husband what to do with regards to a problem with his previous employer. I apologise now for the long message!!
He left the job, under good terms, over a month ago. Last week he received 3 letters which stated he had 3 sets of parking fines. The parking fines were for parking on private land which he didnt realise as the signage was small and at the opposite end of the street. The parking company was also one of these "unofficial" companies who send threats for payment but have no legal standing.
Anyway, his company have paid the fines but have not paid them early. They had the offer to pay a reduced payment of £60 in 14 days or £100 after the 14 days. On each copy, of the parking fine letter my husband received, there is a date stamp which showed the letter had been read at the beginning of july but the payments were not made until 17/18 days later. The company paid £100 for each of the fines bringing the total to £300. They have stated in the letter that my husband owes them £135 for each fine and offered him a payment plan, which he had 14 days to discuss with them. He also had the opportunity to appeal these fines and send his appeal within 10 days to the head office.
This was what he was planning to do, so phoned the office to discuss the fines and what he would need to write in his appeal and what evidence work would require. The person dealing with this matter was unavailable and was away all week. Fine... we drafted the letter ready to send the next day.... then my husband recieved his final wage slip from work to see that they had taken £270 from his wages and he was paid nothing.
He phoned them the next day to be told " well we had to take it from you because you've left us and we wanted the money back."
Now we dont know what to do. He accepts that he parked there and had he been told would've paid the fines early to just pay £60 so the company wouldn't get the threatening letters. But he didnt even know about any of this until the letters arrived.
In his contract it also states that parking fines are the responsibility of the driver - so why did they pay the fine and not bother to tell him in time?!
What can we do about this? Or is the money just gone and that's it? Thanks in advance

tehone

In his contract it also states that parking fines are the responsibility of the driver

Does it also state that the company will charge him an additional £35 on each fine, if not then I'd query this - that at least would have the effect of him only owing the company another £30 rather than £135.

Whilst there is an argument that our husband may have paid £60 each time, I think the sad fact is that his company paid the £100 each time, so from their perspective its £300 not £180.

Its horrible but I don't think there is a lot that can be done as he is an ex-employee now and I can see that most companies would want everything financial wrapped up in a final salary payment. Maybe just ask them to waive the outstanding payment?

oldernonethewiser

Perhaps he could point out that there are no fines, merely invoices from private companies.


Did his terms and conditions specifically allow for the taking of money from his pay to cover such charges?

Mumtobe2016

There is nothing specific in his contract that states they would/could take the money from his wages. He was told they did that because he has left and they want the money.
There was also no mention of this on the letters they sent him to inform him if these fines.

We have looked into his contact and there is not mention of administration costs either.

Thank you for your advice and pointing these things out. I do think the money is gone and will ask to waive the final amount.

Savvy_Sue

oldernonethewiser wrote: »

Perhaps he could point out that there are no fines, merely invoices from private companies.

I wouldn't rate anyone's chances of getting the money back once payment has been made.

daisy23169

The £35 is likely to be an admin fee charged by the leasing company for forwarding on the fines, rather than it being a charge added on by the employer.

Did he sign an additional agreement when he received the vehicle? Normally the liability for parking tickets etc would be dealt with in a company car agreement rather than the contract of employment. It's worth checking the wording on that (assuming there is one) to see if it states that monies owed can be deducted from final pay.

And does his contract definitely not say anything about recovering monies owed from final pay? That's a pretty standard clause so it's unusual for it not to be in there.

getmore4less

There is a board on here dedicated to parking scams.

tacpot12

I think oldernonethewiser makes an important point. He should check to see whether the contract states that "Penalty Charge Notice" or "Parking charges" are the responsibility of the driver. If the contract states Pental Charge Notices are the responsibility of the driver, the company has overstepped the mark in paying a charge that was not legally enforceable, if they did not ask to see any evidence that the vehicle was parked.

Also, were tickets stuck to the windscreen of the vehicle? If not, this might make the parking charges automatically unenforceable, or appealable, so again the company has overstepped the mark in paying the charges when no-one needed to.

SandC

Sometimes the lease company pays the fine (because they receive it), then forward to the company for reimbursement (plus an admin charge). Often these letters don't come through too quickly and may not have the driver name included, just the car make/model/reg.

I would dispute the penalty charge on the basis that he wasn't made aware of the tickets until it was too late. Either that or put it down to experience and move on.

I would say that fines should be processed and passed to the driver asap as it is down to them to dispute or appeal and also to have the option of early payment reductions. It's maybe because he had left that someone just decided to process as they have done (also this time of year, absences due to holidays may have been a factor).

The_Deep

This thread would be better posted here imo.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

Undervalued

The_Deep wrote: »

This thread would be better posted here imo.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

Well I am not sure it would as the situation here is the the former employer has paid the fine / charge (be it lawful or not) and has taken the opportunity of stopping the money out of the final salary.

So it has now become an employment dispute and not a dispute directly with a parking company. Any claim the employee may now have is against the employer.