My insurer recently provided me with a hire car from Enterprise after an accident. I soon received a £60 penalty charge notice (PCN) for driving in a bus lane in Aberdeen. Not only can I prove I wasn’t in Scotland, the photo on the PCN shows a completely different car. I’ve appealed against the fine, but Enterprise has already deducted a £35 administration fee for providing Aberdeen council with my details. The local branch can’t help, there’s no phone number for contesting the fee, and my email hasn’t been answered.
FF, Stoke-on-Trent, West Midlands
It doesn’t require a forensic mind to detect that you are blameless. The car pictured on the PCN is white. The car you hired was black. Aberdeen council has now admitted to me that it made an error in noting the registration. Enterprise refunded the fee after I contacted its press office. It says: “Where there is an alleged traffic violation we rely on the information being passed to us by the relevant authority being correct. Details received from the council gave the registration of the vehicle which the customer had hired.”
The registered keeper of a vehicle is liable to pay any fines and car hire companies are the registered keepers of their fleet. But they can pass the responsibility to the relevant driver, provided the customer signs an agreement to accept responsibility for PCNs incurred while they are at the wheel. The complication is that the registered keeper has to appeal against any fine issued. Enterprise is now appealing on your behalf, but not all hire companies are willing to take on the hassle.
AW of Bristol was as startled as you to receive a PCN after driving on the Tyne tunnel toll road in a car hired from Europcar. He paid the £1.90 charge by phone and a month later was informed by Europcar that it had paid a £30 fine from Tyne Tunnels (TT2) on his behalf, and was debiting the sum, plus £40 admin fee from his card.
“TT2 said that Europcar would have to appeal on my behalf as I was not the registered keeper. Europcar gave me a third-party authorisation letter which it said would allow me to deal with TT2 directly. But TT2 replied that it had stopped accepting such letters last December.”
After I got in touch with TT2 it liaised with Europcar and refunded the fine, which was issued because you misread one digit of the car registration when paying the toll.
Philip Smith, chief executive of TT2, says: “Tyne tunnels bylaws oblige us to issue fines to the hire car company, and appeals also need to be initiated by the hire company. However, we recently became aware that a small number of hire companies are not making it easy for customers to use this appeal process, so we have reviewed the process and would like to offer drivers of hire vehicles the option of appealing fines directly with TT2.”
Europcar confirmed that it does not appeal against fines on behalf of customers, but offers written waivers so they can do it themselves.
MT of Chester says he and his wife lost their chance to appeal against a PCN because it was sent to the wrong person. Private parking firm CP Plus had issued a £60 PCN in his name, but at the time of the alleged parking infringement MT was in hospital.
Moreover, he is not the registered keeper of the vehicle, which belongs to his wife. “When I eventually left hospital and went through my mail, I wrote to CP Plus, informing them my wife is the registered keeper and was in charge of the vehicle at the time,” he writes. “The fine was paid in December and we heard nothing more until March when I received a letter from a debt recovery firm demanding payment of £110 with no explanation.
“My wife informed them by phone and email that she was the registered keeper, but they sent another letter to me threatening court action. A week later, CP Plus acknowledged my wife’s payment in December, but claimed it had been received after the 14-day early payment discount deadline had passed, and so a further payment was required. The demands keep coming and it’s affecting my rehabilitation.”
If the initial invoice had been sent to your wife, as it should have been, it could have been paid in time. The root of the problem seems to be that the dealer from whom you bought the car erroneously registered you as the keeper. The mistake was swiftly corrected last September and the V5 duly shows your wife’s details, but it would appear that the DVLA has issued the wrong details to CP Plus.
CP Plus denies receiving any communications from you. “We rely on the DVLA and motorists to keep their information up to date, and therefore cannot accept responsibility if these details are incorrect,” it says. “However, as a gesture of goodwill, we will accept the £60 already paid with no extra charge.”
The DVLA was contacted for a comment.
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