Hire company paid PCN and billed me 176 days later

parkingshouldbefree

Hi all!

Hope your weekend has been better than mine dealing with this

I've read the newbie guide and countless posts about similar hire company conundrums but I think this is a weird one that has only been resolved before by the direct involvement of Auxillis on this forum (them replying and having the OP contact their helpline).

Timeline: First contact with Auxillis: 02/03, signed contract: 03/03, Got car: 04/03/22, PCN: 26/03, Gave car back: 01/04, Received email about PCN: 18/09.

The Penalty Charge Notice in questions (arrows are poor signage mentioned later):

I had a hire car with Auxillis (previously Albany Assistance) after they were recommended to me by my insurance. I had the car for the month of March. On the 26th March the hirer was given a Penalty Charge Notice from Premier Park Ltd for parking outside of the marked bays. Fast forward time 5.5 months and I get an email from the lovely people at Auxillis saying I have been charged £120 (£60 ticket & £60 admin fee) for the above PCN. I have not contacted them since nor have I contacted my bank (paid by credit card). I've been juggling my options since and preparing my 'defence'.

The defence I have prepared so far (an email that I was going to send to Auxillis whenever I contact them/they contact me):

• TL;DR at the bottom if you want to skim over it all
• I signed a pre-contract, during the on-boarding on Auxillis online portal, before signing my hire agreement that states on page 1, paragraph 5 that “You will be required to provide credit or debit card details and an authority for Auxillis to charge it with payments immediately due under the hire agreement (fines, penalties and damage)." I was given a PRIVATE Parking Charge Notice from Premier Park Ltd. Acting as agents on behalf of B&Q. I also did not enter in to a contract for Auxillis to pay for any and all Penalty Charge Notices, only "fines, penalties and damages".
  
• A key word in the pre-contract is immediately which was failed upon because the charge (and PCN being brought to my attention for the first time) was over 5.5 months after the event occurred, precisely 176 days. Arguably unprofessional and unenforceable time frame for a PNC to only now be told to me.
• There are multiple reasons why I did not break any agreement with the land owner (thus nullifying the PCN) including but not limited to:
  - I was within the 10 minute grace period (stopped for sub-5 minutes to decide on which nearby fast food restaurant to get lunch from) that is part of the BPA guidance that Premier Park Ltd. Abide by as members.
  - There was inadequate signage at the parked location that could not be seen by the driver upon entering the car park and/or without getting out the car, which I didn't do during my 'stay' (photo 1 in the PCN shows my car facing away from the signage, with another car in frame to look like mine potentially)
  - No original contract was entered in to by myself and/or upheld with Premier Park Ltd. Thus no contract could have been broken.
  
  
• Now for the tricky part:
  Clauses 20 & 21 of the Vehicle Hire Agreement contract that I signed on the online Auxillis portal states, at the time of agreeing to said contract, on page 2:
  
  20. You must pay all road tolls, penalties, impounded vehicle charges, infringements, congestion charges or any other charges imposed by statute or otherwise relating to the way in which the Hire Vehicle is used, driven or parked
  21. You must when asked pay Us on demand (i) the reasonable retail cost of providing or arranging roadside assistance (except where it is provided to rectify or deal with a matter that is Our liability under this agreement) (ii) for any of the costs set out in clause 20 which We have paid on Your behalf and (iii) an administration fee of £50 plus VAT for each occasion We deal with a damage claim relating to the Hire Vehicle or receives a charge and/or penalty or notification of any of them and each time We demand payment from You in respect of payments due under this agreement other than Charges.
  
  - There is an absolute and complete list of reasons that could break the clause in the Vehicle Hire Agreement. None of these were broken, as in I received a Penalty Charge Notice from a private company. This (as we know) is NOT a Parking Charge Notice or Fixed Penalty Notice from an authority (i.e. Local council or police) that would have been covered under Clause 20.
  - In the email sent to me on 18 September 2022 (at the bottom of the post) from Auxillis Client Charges Team, there is the phrase "Penalty Notice Recharge" used as is the word "fine". Please note these are NOT accurate so I can only infer the member of the team was confused on the day as to the nature of the Parking Charge Notice sent to me and has mistakenly attempted to recharge me. As members of the BVRLA (and with Premier Park Ltd. Being members of the BPA) you would be well aware of the Memorandum of Understanding developed between the organisations in November 2013. In section 4.3.1 it states clearly that "When a BVRLA member receives a PCN, which relates to a vehicle that was, at material time, subject to a lease or hire agreement, then the BVRLA member will provide full written details of their customers or hirer to the BPA member that has issued the PCN where the contract allows them to provide the customer or hirer details". This is later affirmed in the October 2020 BVRLA's Parking Code Enforcement Framework consultation & PAS 232, Privately managed parking – Operation and management. By immediately jumping to paying the PCN and denying my legal ability to appeal the Parking Charge Notice you have broken the BVRLA code of conduct that Auxillis have agreed to abide by as part of your membership. I would hope, having been revised twice in the past decade that the Client Charges Team are keeping up-to-date on relevant reading material, guidances and agreements they must adhere to. Upon signing the Vehicle Hire Agreement I provided my: Full government name, current address, email, phone number, and drivers licence. There was no legitimate reason for the failure in provide Premier Park Ltd. With my details to send the PCN to me.

• As no contract was broken between 1) myself and Premier Park Ltd. And 2) Auxillis Services Limited, clause 21 can not be enacted meaning the admin fee of £50 + VAT can not be charged to my card, thus is unauthorised. Not to mention the disproportionate cost in comparison to the amount of work required to (incorrectly) pay my Parking Charge Notice and send me an email almost 6 months later.

Now for the ultimate question: should I send the above letter (and/or call them recorded) and attempt to dispute the charge to my card through 'correct' means or should I chargeback the amount as an unauthorised charge and when they come calling, send them the letter above and continue from there?

I know this is long and I really hope I have provided enough information, any help would be greatly appreciated! I'll be keeping my eye on here constantly to reply ASAP.

Keeping fighting the good fight,
Parkingshouldbefree 

Email on 18 September 2022:

TL:DR - Their pre-contract only covers "fines, penalties and damages", none of which I occurred during my time with the car. I did not break any contracts with Premier Park Ltd (who gave my the original PCN) for: not going over grace period and inadequate signage. Clauses 20 & 21 in the Vehicle Hire Agreement say the can charge me for "road tolls, penalties, impounded vehicle charges, infringements, congestion charges or any other charges imposed by statute or otherwise ... for how it is parked" - they never sent the PCN to me which they should have under the BVRLA and BPA MoU (main argument) and, again, I never broke the original contract for parking (I would have won at appeal with the help of you lovely folk). And unbelievable timeframe of sending the PCN recharge to me 176 days after the event.

Coupon-mad

You have this the wrong way round:

"I received a Penalty Charge Notice from a private company. This (as we know) is NOT a Parking Charge Notice."

There is also an earlier paragraph where you also call this a 'penalty charge notice' which it isn't.

parkingshouldbefree

Coupon-mad said:

You have this the wrong way round:

"I received a Penalty Charge Notice from a private company. This (as we know) is NOT a Parking Charge Notice."

There is also an earlier paragraph where you also call this a 'penalty charge notice' which it isn't.

Beginner mistake. I've updated that on my side in the email but I don't think I can updated in the post... Thank you! 

Johnersh

That is the point. The agreement is to statutory charges - speeding fines, parking penalties and the like. 

They actually didn't need to pay at all, they could have simply named the hirer on the rental agreement.

A hold on the payment would be effective, but presumably you then need to convince Visa etc of the merits of that point.

B789

Whilst not disagreeing with the issue of the hire company breaking its own terms & conditions by paying the PCN and then charging you, your defence against the reasons for the issue of the PCN in the first place seems a bit irrelevant, especially as the PCN was issued for "occupying more than one marked bay". 

• There are multiple reasons why I did not break any agreement with the land owner (thus nullifying the PCN) including but not limited to:
  - I was within the 10 minute grace period (stopped for sub-5 minutes to decide on which nearby fast food restaurant to get lunch from) that is part of the BPA guidance that Premier Park Ltd. Abide by as members.
  - There was inadequate signage at the parked location that could not be seen by the driver upon entering the car park and/or without getting out the car, which I didn't do during my 'stay' (photo 1 in the PCN shows my car facing away from the signage, with another car in frame to look like mine potentially)
  - No original contract was entered in to by myself and/or upheld with Premier Park Ltd. Thus no contract could have been broken.
  

parkingshouldbefree

B789 said:

Whilst not disagreeing with the issue of the hire company breaking its own terms & conditions by paying the PCN and then charging you, your defence against the reasons for the issue of the PCN in the first place seems a bit irrelevant, especially as the PCN was issued for "occupying more than one marked bay". 

• There are multiple reasons why I did not break any agreement with the land owner (thus nullifying the PCN) including but not limited to:
  - I was within the 10 minute grace period (stopped for sub-5 minutes to decide on which nearby fast food restaurant to get lunch from) that is part of the BPA guidance that Premier Park Ltd. Abide by as members.
  - There was inadequate signage at the parked location that could not be seen by the driver upon entering the car park and/or without getting out the car, which I didn't do during my 'stay' (photo 1 in the PCN shows my car facing away from the signage, with another car in frame to look like mine potentially)
  - No original contract was entered in to by myself and/or upheld with Premier Park Ltd. Thus no contract could have been broken.
  

I understand where you're coming from but I think the defense still stands - the grace period is still in force which should cover all parking regardless of how I parked, i.e. I've accidently parked for 3 minutes and not sideways across 3 bays for a 1.5 hour B&Q trip.

Also, and apologies if I'm wrong here, how can one enter in to a contract if there is inadequate signage at the parking location? Potentially I could not have seen that "you shouldn't occupy more than one bay".

Potentially reframing the letter to tackle the pay and recharge should be the priority here.

Coupon-mad

I think the advice is that that much detail about the PCN and potential defence is irrelevant to the email to Auxillis, which should be more focussed.

parkingshouldbefree

Hello all, I have revised the dispute to Auxillis that I think is considerably more concise in line with advice. 

The paragraph marked with the bullet point is one that I don't think is very helpful but might be worth adding? And have I been accurate with my quoting of PoFA?

As always thank you all in advance!

Good afternoon,

This email is in relation to an email I received 18 September 2022 regarding a Parking Charge Notice I was allegedly given while using a hire vehicle (LO71 CXK) from Auxillis Services Limited. There was an charge on my credit card for £120.00 which was unauthorised and against the Vehicle Hire Agreement I signed.

Specifically in regards to the email sent to me from the Auxillis Client Charges Team, there is the phrase "Penalty Notice Recharge" used as is the word "fine". Both of which are inaccurate as to the nature of the Parking Charge Notice I was allegedly given on the 26 March 2022 during my hire period, from this I can only infer that the member of the team was confused and mistakenly attempted to recharge me. On that date I was given a Parking Charge Notice which is an invoice for supposedly breaking a contract. As members of the BVRLA (and with Premier Park Ltd. Being members of the BPA) you would be well aware of the Memorandum of Understanding developed between the two organisations in November 2013. In section 4.3.1 it clearly states that "When a BVRLA member receives a PCN, which relates to a vehicle that was, at material time, subject to a lease or hire agreement, then the BVRLA member will provide full written details of their customers or hirer to the BPA member that has issued the PCN where the contract allows them to provide the customer or hirer details". This was more recently affirmed in the BVRLA's Parking Code Enforcement Framework consultation & PAS 232, Privately managed parking – Operation and management, on page 2, which was published in October 2020.

By charging my card you have evidently failed to abide by these guidelines meaning you have broken the BVRLA Code of Conduct that you agreed to as part of your membership under the guise of 'preventing further increases in cost'. Without my consent or knowledge you have denied my legal ability to appeal the Parking Charge Notice. The email on 18/09/2022 was the first notice I was given to the existence of the Parking Charge Notice. When agreeing to the Vehicle Hire Agreement I provided all relevant, updated and complete details (full name, current address, email, phone number, and drivers licence) to provide to Premier Park Ltd. There was no legitimate reason for your failure to Premier Parking Ltd. With my details, leading to their failure to send me the Parking Charge Notice as per protocol.

The Vehicle Hire Agreement I signed allow for the recharge of a specific and complete list of reasons as set out in Clause 20, it's imperative to understand that you were provided an invoice from a private company which is not set out in Clause 20. Clause 21 continues on to cover the recharge element that I am disputing today - there was no right to charge my card as no element of Clause 20 was broken and no monies should have been paid to Premier Park Ltd.

• Additionally, in the pre-contract also signed the phrase “You will be required to provide credit or debit card details and an authority for Auxillis to charge it with payments immediately due under the hire agreement (fines, penalties and damage)." And as detailed previously what I received on 26 March 2022 does not fall under any categories listed here. A keyword here is immediately which was gravely failed upon, notifying me of the Parking Charge Notice 176 days after the matter - which is completely unacceptable and unprofessional, as well as, making the charge unenforceable as the timeframe fully goes against Schedule 4, paragraph 13(1) of the Protection of Freedom Act as no notice to keeper was provided to me within 28 days.

I am writing today to wholly dispute the charge to my credit card on 18 September 2022 and request a full refund of £120.00 for the unauthorised charge. I am providing 14 days for the amount to return to my account otherwise I will be forced to chargeback the amount with my bank under Section 75 Protection as you have broken our  contract.

I hope you consider my request in a timely manner and look forward to your response.

Best,

Parkingshouldbefree

Coupon-mad

The keyword here isn't 'immediately', It's 'fines, penalties and damage' none of which covers an alleged contractual private parking charge invoice, which is most certainly none of the above.

These sentences need re-writing as a single sentence, and a word is missed out:

" There was no legitimate reason for your failure to Premier Parking Ltd. With my details, leading to their failure to send me the Parking Charge Notice as per protocol."


And you say:

"On that date I was given a Parking Charge Notice which is an invoice for supposedly breaking a contract."

Were you actually GIVEN a PCN on the windscreen?  Most PPCs don't do that, but if they did why didn't you appeal it, to stop Auxillis ever hearing about if?

DE_612183

 There was no legitimate reason for your failure to Premier Parking Ltd. With my details, leading to their failure to send me the Parking Charge Notice as per protocol.

need to add another word or so in first sentence

Le_Kirk

which is completely unacceptable and unprofessional, as well as, making the charge unenforceable as the timeframe fully goes against Schedule 4, paragraph 13(1) of the Protection of Freedom Act as no notice to keeper was provided to me within 28 days.

Weren't you the Hirer or have I misinterpreted your post?