Lex Autolease has invoiced me for a private parking notice that was 'in appeal' without warning

AnnoyedLesee

Ah, got it.

The area the vehicle was in was a Patient/Visitors area.

There is an iPad in reception to put a registration in, though it's not immediately clear unless you go in.

If a vehicle is picking up or dropping off this is not immediately obvious.

(I'm think that if you climb into the bushes or own opera glasses you may be able to read the signs!🤔)

GlynDwr

Have you tried complaining to your MP and Welsh Assembly Member yet. This helped my PCN from Cardiff and Vale get cancelled.


The Tablet terminals are not conspicuous, and very sparse in Cardiff and Vales hospitals. Some e.g UHW and Llandough, you don't need to enter details unless you overstay 4 Hrs. Others, e.g St Davids, you are supposed to enter details on arrival, though signage doesn't explain this adequately.


So much for free hospital parking inWales, when it looks like PE don't want you to find the terminal in the first place, so that they can charge you. Now there's a thought!!

AnnoyedLesee

I've emailed my MP and AM about this specifically, and also the wider issue of predatory charging at Welsh hospitals (someone recently got charged for driving out 1 second over the allocated time which unfortunately they paid)

I've written to the CEO of the hospital too but printed that off so it will take a couple of days.

AnnoyedLesee

Update on this so far:

I raised this with:
The local MP - acknowledgement that it's being looked into but nothing further so far
The CEO of the NHS Trust - no response to date
The local Assembly Member - no response to date

POPLA - still valid for now but will expire shortly...

Lex Autolease have since got back to me stating they are in the right and will reinstate their invoice from next week. They have sent nothing to explain who they paid or why they paid an arbitrary amount of 180% of the original parking charge and have thus far ignored my S.A.R. (they have 2 or 3 days left to respond to that) despite being reminded of this about a week ago.

Half_way

There is an iPad in reception to put a registration in, though it's not immediately clear unless you go in.

With parking being 'free' in NHS wales hospitals, you ould expect that to be without trying to find a tablet/touchscreen

Lex Autolease have since got back to me stating they are in the right and will reinstate their invoice from next week.

What did they say, exactly?

AnnoyedLesee

I can confirm that there has not been a failing in us paying the parking ticket. We received the ticket in March and nominated you to the parking company.

We were then contacted again in July and advised that the ticket had yet to be paid. At this point if the ticket wasn’t to be paid, the parking company has the ability to take us to court as we are the registered keepers of the vehicle. We therefore paid the ticket and recharged you for the full amount.

Lex Autolease have not failed in paying the ticket as we would not be taken to court when a customer hasn’t paid a ticket. If you can provide evidence that you have successfully challenged the charge, we can refund you the full amount.

We will now close the complaint and issue a final response letter in writing which contains your escalation rights, should you remain unhappy with the resolution to your complaint.

Redx

I suppose you could take it to the BVRLA adjudication panel, assuming LEX is a member ?


LEX is talking rubbish , once they nominate the hirer or lessee under POFA they are no longer liable as a keeper, they have denied you your legal rights and acted as judge and jury (and executioner)


clearly they do not understand POFA even after almost 7 years

Half_way

A few alarm bells ring with that response form Lex, as above they are talking complete rubbish, at best its mis informed rubbish, at the other end it could be seen as fraudulent.
Either which way ( ignorance is no excuse) Lex are treading on some very dodgy ground with statements like that.


I would go as far as keeping a conversation loop open with them acknowledging your receipt of their ill informed and mis leading letter,/ reply which could be interpreted as trying to obtain money from you by deceit.
As mentioned its been 7 years since PoFA and a corporate entity the size of Lex should know what they are dealing with.


They should know that the private parking industry is completely un regualted
they should know that the two main trade associations are run for the benefit of the parking companies, and these trade associations write the rules the so called codes of practice to suit their members ( the private parking companies)



Companies such as Lex should know that companies such as Parking eye, and other parking companies use flawed systems (ANPR) and some of these so called approved operators have even been found to be tampering with camera time stamps, the list goes on and on.




You should also let Lex see this post, on this forum, here is the link: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/60315322

MistyZ

AnnoyedLesee wrote: »

I can confirm that there has not been a failing in us paying the parking ticket. We received the ticket in March and nominated you to the parking company.

We were then contacted again in July and advised that the ticket had yet to be paid. At this point if the ticket wasn’t to be paid, the parking company has the ability to take us to court as we are the registered keepers of the vehicle. We therefore paid the ticket and recharged you for the full amount.

Lex Autolease have not failed in paying the ticket as we would not be taken to court when a customer hasn’t paid a ticket. If you can provide evidence that you have successfully challenged the charge, we can refund you the full amount.

We will now close the complaint and issue a final response letter in writing which contains your escalation rights, should you remain unhappy with the resolution to your complaint.

I feel like I'm on drugs reading all this. In post 35 above, on 27th August, you mentioned that you had a POPLA code that had not yet expired. So Lex's 2nd paragraph above is utter nonsense.

They say they will refund if you provide evidence that you've successfully cancelled the charge. But you have the evidence that you were in the process of attempting to do so and YOU WERE NOT OUT OF TIME in which to achieve that end when they paid the thing.

The_Deep

I would certainly threaten Lex with a court claim if this is not resolved to your satisfaction.