Parking Charge and Rental Company Admin charges. Help Please !!!

KKC27

Background

I am a traveller from Australia. Hired a car from Green Motion Car rental on 29 Apr 2023 for 5 days.

On 24 May 2023, Green Motion Emailed me to inform there is a pending Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) from a private company “ParkingEye”. I have appealed immediately to ParkingEye with my argument that I was the hotel guest at that time (Hotel Receipt enclosed). It was an operation procedure overlook during checkout.  I am still waiting for the outcome of the appeal which can take 45-day. Hopefully, the PCN will be withdrawn.

Green Motion Car rental demanded an Administration fee of GBP 68 and stated I need to pay up before lodging the appeal.  There was a fine print in the contract saying “Traffic Violations/PCN’s/Parking Charges are subject to management fees of GBP 68”.

On 27 May 2023, I emailed Green Motion to argue my case. Should the parking charge be withdrawn, there is no case of “Parking charges”, thus no Administration fee.  I told Green Motion explicitly that I am disputing the admin charge Invoice.

On 31 May 2023, Green Motion attempted to charge my Credit card on file WITHOUT my consent, but it failed because I have locked the credit card. Then Green Motion has threatened to initiate debt collection should the invoice not paid within 3 days.

 

Questions

Has Green Motion Car Rental breached the laws by debiting my credit card WITHOUT my consent when there is invoice dispute?  Do you have PCI certification process in UK?

 

Not sure why Green Motion is pressuring me to pay in 3 days, otherwise Debt collection process will be initiated after I explicitly dispute the invoice.  I hate this kind of bully tactics.

 

What will you do if you are in my shoes?

 

Fruitcake

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner. In this case you should complain to the hotel and instruct them to cancel. Leave negative feedback on their website or Tripadvisor if it isn't cancelled.

This was never a penalty charge notice. Unregulated private parking companies cannot issue penalties or fines, only speculative invoices.
#
The UK is the laughing stock of the world because it is the only country on the planet where someone who was not in the vehicle at the time of the alleged event can be held liable, but that's a whole other story.

Good for you for locking out the credit card.

Did Green Motion tell ParkingLie ParkingEye that you were the hirer, or did they just send a copy of the parking charge notice/notice to keeper to you. If the former, then you should have appealed as hirer, not as driver, but I wouldn't expect someone from overseas to have known that.
If it was the latter, you cannot by law be held liable unless and until Green Motion pass the hirer's details to the private parking company (PPC), and then the PPC send you a notice to hirer (NTH).

Debt collectors are powerless in the UK, and there is no way that the PPC, the hire company, nor debt collectors can touch a non-UK resident.

Check the precise wording on the hire agreement. Does it specifically mention parking charge notices from (unregulated) private parking companies, or perhaps private parking charges? If not, then you cannot be held liable because it is not a fine or penalty from an authority.

Even if it does mention private parking charges, it is an unfair contract term because charging you without allowing you to appeal first is an unfair contract term as defined by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

If the hire company is a member of the hire/lease vehicle trade association, the BVRLA, then Green Motion are in breach of their trade associations instructions that tells them specifically to pass the hirer's details to the PPC.

Coupon-mad

See if they are in the BVRLA and tell Green Motion you want to dispute the £68 charge and ultimately take them to ADR (provided by the BVRLA or whichever ADR Green Motion subscribe to) because the Hotel are cancelling the PCN, so it is a nullity, there is no PCN.

And £68 is obviously disproportionate and unlawful in UK Consumer law. It doesn't cost £68 to fill in a little slip.  Tell Green Motion that their £68 is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss so it is unlawful.

Then (or before the above) complain to the Hotel Manager and INSIST they get it cancelled, because their staff failed to draw your attention to any keypad to exempt your VRM.

The Hotel can email P/Eye to cancel it.

Oh, and debt collectors (as threatened by Green Motion) can do nothing.  Don't worry about that!  Even if they filed a claim you live outside of UK Court jurisdiction.  Tell Green Motion that too! They are spouting hot air.

fisherjim

Green Motion Car Hire is a franchise company and does not get very good reviews on Trust Pilot, or The Guardian, they seem to add on what ever charges they like:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/greenmotion.co.uk

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jun/09/green-motion-car-hire-bills