Reclaining hire company admin fees on an invalid/successfully appealed parkingeye ticket

angryorange

Hi all

I couldn't see anything about this in the newbies thread.

While using a hire car to get to hospital appointments as a patient ParkingEye issued a ticket. (Legitimate disabled bay parking. They issued a ticket incorrectly claiming the car was in a pick-up/drop-off area).
The ticket was successfully appealed, but an (exorbitant) admin fee from the hire company was charged for their handling of the initial ticket.

ParkingEye claim they aren't responsible for any fees incurred in their response letter, and the hire company rightly points out that these fees are agreed to in the rental agreement.

Has anyone successfully retrieved hire company fees from an invalid ticket?

Fruitcake

It has been done but must be via the hire company themselves. Some companies will refund after a successful appeal, especially if the hire Ts and Cs don't cover private PCNs.

If you paid for the hire with a credit card and the excess charge was put on that card you can use the card provider's chargeback system for spurious/fraudulent charges, but do try going through the hire company first after carefully reading the hire agreement. Check the Ts and Cs online as well as the paper version because they are sometimes different.

If the hire company are a member of the BVRLA, have a look at this trade associations guidelines and the memorandum of understanding with the BPA. Complain to them if the hire company have breached the BVRLA's guidelines.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9b0iavad3aqeh28/BPA BVRLA MoU.pdf?dl=0

Complain to the BPA and DVLA that the keeper's personal data was obtained without reason which is a DPA/GDPR breach as well as a DVLA KADOE contract breach. 

DVLA data breach complaint goes to ccrt@dvla.gov.uk and the contract breach goes to KADOEservice.support@dvla.gov.uk

Make the same complaint to the landowner/PALS/Hospital Trust manager/CEO.
Also complain to the ICO about the data breach, and of course complain to your MP about this unregulated scam. I would even complain to the Prime Minister who said he was going to stop this sort of thing months ago, well before the covid virus pandemic.

If you are really up for a fight you could make a claim in the small claims court against the hire company.
 

D_P_Dance

Is this not a matter for Tradinjg Standard?

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and has been known to get the charge cancelled.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully, when life gets back to normal, it will become impossible for those scammers who are left to continue their vile trade, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Coupon-mad

You could issue a Letter Before Claim to ParkingEye for say, £250 for abuse of your DVLA data, pursuant to the DPA 2018 and harassment under the Equality Act 2010. 

Their negligence in not providing a mechanism for disabled drivers to exempt their cars has meant they were never entitled to your DVLA data and by their conduct, they have caused an actual loss of £xx (attach a copy of the lease firm's letters).  Plus x hours of your time in having to appeal and grovel to the lease firm who are not refunding their fee due to the admin time ParkingeEye's correspondence took up (£xx).  Plus a nominal sum for distress: £xx which takes the total to a very reasonable £250.  This is in line with other court awards against more than one parking company for DPA abuse alone, but this case is worse because it involves a disabled driver correctly using a disabled bay and harassment of (or causing detriment to) such a person is illegal anyway, due to their protected status the Equality Act 2010.

Have a look at the words and case law in this reply under 'Harassment and notice of proprosed £900 counter claim' and use some of the same case law:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77178604#Comment_77178604

Send your LBC by post and email to enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk

zhonguonuren

I sued ParkingEye (before the forum police step in, yes me personally).  I forget as I sue a lot of firms and this one coincided with another major one I was working on.   I actually won by default and when I phoned ParkingEye’s office to check it was legitimate and it had assets in situ in case I needed to send the bailiffs in it was weird - like one guy, no office noise or anything.  On google view it appeared to be an industrial estate.  The guy said that I needed to submit a complaint and I said actually I won - check claim number xxxxx.  He obviously did because the next thing I knew I had a letter from their lawyers, BLM saying they would be applying to set the judgement aside.  I said I would consent if they paid £100 in costs which they did.  

I say go for a moneyclaim.  For £25 it makes them sit up and take notice.   

I previously sued the DVLA for breach of GDPR.  If more people sued I am sure this would help.  

Tomorrow I am suing Apcoa.  I forgot I had an issue with them back in November.  

I copy all my cases to the DVLA.  

travellover123

Apologies, I've posted this on the wrong thread and I can't figure out how to delete the comment

fisherjim

They are not Penalty Charge Notices, it is very important you get the terminology correct!

Le_Kirk

travellover123 said:

Apologies, I've posted this on the wrong thread and I can't figure out how to delete the comment

Just let it fade away OR wait until your title turns from NEWBIE to FORUMITE and then you will have editing permission.

travellover123

Le_Kirk said:

travellover123 said:

Apologies, I've posted this on the wrong thread and I can't figure out how to delete the comment

Just let it fade away OR wait until your title turns from NEWBIE to FORUMITE and then you will have editing permission.

Thank you! I'll stop commenting on this thread 

fisherjim

travellover123 said:

fisherjim said:

They are not Penalty Charge Notices, it is very important you get the terminology correct!

What are they? I assumed they are PCNs as the ticket says "Contractual Parking Charge Notice"

Parking Charge Notices, they want people to think they are Penalty Charge Notices, but basically they are speculative invoices.

Half_way

when dealing with hire companies it Is very important to get the terms right.
these are not penalties or fines or anything like that.
they are issued by un regulated parking companies who make their own rules up