No Stopping Hire Car Fine

ecuador1

See section of T&Cs below - interestingly says you can dispute the charge with the issuer...but then says nothing about that meaning a return of the administration fee!!

15 Speeding, parking and traffic fines and charges
15.1 You are responsible for all fines and charges issued as a result of you or any driver using the Vehicle. Fines and charges could include: all parking fines or charges; toll charges; towing charges; clamping costs; traffic fines or charges; speeding fines; and any other charges or fines.
15.2 If a fine or charge is sent to us because you haven’t paid a charge or complied with the law, we will take payment for: (a) our administration fee of 40.00 GBP for every transaction handled by Sixt which is notified to you at the time of booking and can be found on our website at to cover our costs of dealing with the fine or charge; and (b) the fine or charge itself (if we have to pay it).
15.3 By signing the Rental Agreement, you give us permission to collect these payments. We will charge them to your payment card.
15.4 By signing the Rental Agreement, you agree to us giving your details, as well as a copy of the Rental Agreement to the authority or private company that has issued the fine or charge if we consider they have a right to the information and the law allows us to do so. We will charge you a processing fee for doing this.
15.5 If we are not able to lawfully pass on your information in accordance with clause 15.4, we will pay the fine or charge on your behalf and then invoice you for the fine or charge, and our administration fee.
15.6 If you want to appeal, contest or dispute a fine or charge, we will give you the details of the fine or charge and, the organisations who issued the fine or charge. You must deal directly with the issuing organisations to get a refund and/or compensation.

Fruitcake

ecuador1 said:

My initial plan was to appeal the decision and ignore future correspondence inducing debt collectors notices and just wait to see if it goes to court which I understand is unlikely - the problem being that in my specific case I am looking to retrieve the admin fee of £40 from Sixt. I understand that given these threads are aimed more at private parking companies that this might be something I cannot receive help with - if I actually had a successful appeal then I could turn around to Sixt and demonstrate this which would surely see my Admin fee returned...but if the plan is to appeal, have it rejected then wait for court papers that are unlikely to ever arrive then any return on the admin fee seems unlikely?

If the scammer was a BPA member you would stand a chance of winning at the second stage appeal. Unfortunately you are being scammed by an IPC scammer, and the IAS second stage appeal process is a kangaroo court. You probably stand less than a 20% chance of winning if you use it.

You still need to do the initial appeal as per the edna basher template in the NEWBIES once the NTH arrives.

There is nothing stopping you putting the Sixt charge into dispute with your card provider if that's how you paid for the vehicle hire. You can mention that since you have not received a NTH from the scammers and have not therefore had a chance to appeal the PCN, you expect the hire company to put the admin charge on hold.
Thoroughly read the hire Ts and Cs, both the paper copy and online version as they are sometimes different.
Many hire terms do not include private parking charges, only penalties and fines from an "authority" which an unregulated private company is not.

If there is nothing in the hire agreement about private PCNs then you should complain and demand you money back as it has been fraudulently taken in breach of said hire agreement.

ecuador1

If there is nothing in the hire agreement about private PCNs then you should complain and demand you money back as it has been fraudulently taken in br=reach of said hire agreement.

Seems to me in the T&Cs clause 15.4 does mention private companies issuing fines   

Fruitcake

Private companies cannot issue fines.

ecuador1

Fruitcake said:

Private companies cannot issue fines.

Aware of that from earlier in the thread so shouldn't have quoted fines myself though T&Cs state 'the authority or private company that has issued the fine or charge' so guessing this falls under 'private company issuing a charge'

In any instance it sounds like the next thing to do is state that I have not had the chance to appeal and bring that up with my debit card provider as it seems to me I cannot go back to Sixt and claim they have fraudulently breached the hire agreement...

nosferatu1001

it states fine or charge. so that is possibly covered
I would still dispute £40 for literally 5 minutes effort.

D_P_Dance

You would be looking for wording to the effect that they will charge you to deal with fines, penalty charges,  FPNs issued by police and LAs for traffic offences, which PCNs form PPCs are not.. 

They have shot themselves in the foot imo by referring to this charge as a fine and an infringement.  They tell you to contact an authority, but no authority issued it,  It was probably issued by an ex-clamprer.. 

There are dozens of similar threads on here, read a few. 

Le_Kirk

You are looking for the difference between a FINE or PENALTY and what you received which was a speculative invoice.  Did you receive a Parking charge notice or a Penalty charge notice?

To settle the payment, the authority will contact you by regular mail with a new payment deadline.

Who is the authority?  Is this a council car park?

D_P_Dance

 Did you receive a Parking charge notice or a Penalty charge notice?

It was UKCPS, see the OP.

ecuador1

Who is the authority?  Is this a council car park?

It isn't even a car park that's the hilarity of it...let alone a council one!

If I was going off what Sixt say in there covering email alone - i.e. making reference to a 'fine' or 'authority' then I can reply by pointing out this is false. However in the covering email it also states 'The handling fee of this invoice applies according to our T&C for the processing of the ticket' and the T&Cs as pointed out above do state;

"a copy of the Rental Agreement to the authority or private company that has issued the fine or charge if we consider they have a right to the information and the law allows us to do so. We will charge you a processing fee for doing this"

It also says;

If you want to appeal, contest or dispute a fine or charge, we will give you the details of the fine or charge and, the organisations who issued the fine or charge. You must deal directly with the issuing organisations to get a refund and/or compensation."

I will point out the inconsistency in the covering email which implies this is a fine from an authority, though I suspect they will simply point me to these wordings in the T&Cs. Seems the only thing to do is state that I will be appealing the charge and demand the admin fee back - but without an actual successful appeal might be tricky! 
The sort of thing I'm thinking of saying to Sixt is the following;

-I will be disputing and appealing this 'parking charge'
-Your email says this is a fine and to contact the authority, neither of which are correct
-The notice claims this is a 'parking charge' and it did not even take place in a car park
-The evidence provided is insufficient
-Given that I have still not received a notice in the post from UKCPS I have not even had the chance to appeal the decision yet so believe the admin fee should be put on hold

Or, would it be better to wait for the inevitably late post from UKCPS to arrive, and also bring up this flaw with Sixt as further reason that the parking charge is highly disputable and that the admin fee is therefore not validated?