Euro Car Parks company car driver advice needed!

[colston]

Hi guys

If the righteous anger directed at these private parking charlatans on this site could be channelled into electricity and used on the National Grid we'd be the most eco-friendly nation in the world within a week!

I'm looking for advice, please, ahead of a rammy I know is coming with Euro Car Parks. My missus parked in one of their sites last week, found the machine didn't take coppers as part of her #1.30 hourly fee (she was short of 15-20 pence in silver coins) so she left the money on the dashboard (no attendant around to explain situation to) and nipped to the Post Office for correct coinage change to feed their meter. You know what's coming next - parking attendant magically appeared in the 10 minutes she was delayed by PO queue and slapped a demand for #70 on the windscreen, the had scarpered by the time she returned.

Here's the rub. My wife is a company car driver and her firm lease her car through a lease hire firm. My guess is Euro Car Parks will contact the firm for our address, but how do we proceed after that? I believe the lease hire company will pass on our details because my wife reckons (but cannot be sure) that part of the lease conditions are that she has consented to such info being released when she signed for the car, rather than being stored for protection under, say, the Data Protection Act.

She is not the registered keeper, so cannot tell Euro Car Parks to bugger off and contact the person who was actually driving the car. She also fears that if we get involved in a letter writing exercise as we tell them to go forth and multiply with themselves, the lease hire company will also be drawn in and she will face costs and pressure from them as well and, therefore, her company's finance office.

Anyone plot the best course of action? As a starting point, I've asked her to contact the lease hire company tomorrow to get their position, in an off-the-record chat.

Do you know the galling thing? Probably like most of the people here, had the penalty (their terms and conditions board at the car park refers to it as a 'fine' by the way) been #20-#30 my wife would have cursed her bad luck and paid up, but #70 is nothing more than an attempt at extortion.

Finally, I appreciate we all have work to do and some of our jobs might have unsavoury aspects occasionally attached to them, but shame on the people who happily work for these shower of robbing %$#@*.

Rant over!

[Andy7807]

Euro will get the registered keeper address from DVLA, obviously the leasing company. What you should do is speak to the leasing company and let them know the notice is coming and ask them not pay it. Our leasing company tends to pay the fine then hits us with an extra 20 quid admin fee. They usually don't know their rights, it might be worth explaining the situation regarding private car parking PCN's. All they have to do is let Euro car parks know that they are not liable and they are under no obligation to inform them of who the driver is, the problem could be, can they be bothered to do it?

[Tau]

I would also agree with what Andy7807 has said.

[colston]

Thanks guys

My missus spoke to the lease hire company today and they've said they'll put a note on her file not to pay any charges that come in. However, they have also asked her to inform Euro Car Parks of her intention to appeal. We'll have to play it by ear because we know the appeals process is a sham - we want to put the onus on them to show 'proof of driver'. Obviously, if she appeals it's an admission she was driving and we're damned if we're making their job any easier for them.

The only fear (I don't know if anyone has encountered this problem at all and can offer advice) is the risk of being blacklisted by as a bad debtor for refusing to give in to this extortion...

[Rob S]

The only way which you can be classed as a bad debtor is if it goes to county court and the judgement goes against you and it is not paid. The most the company could ever claim for is their actual losses. Contract law does not allow for penalties to be claimed in these circumstances.