I found a similar letter for another rental company with the same argument so we're sending our version of that to this company. We'll see what happens. What is the process once we get a reply from the car hire company (which might very well be a negation of our claim)? Which steps do we follow to arrive at county court (hopefully it won't get that far)? Thanks for your help!

I would really appreciate some clarification about the situation I've gotten myself into with a rental car! Earlier this month we rented a car from a large car hire company. This week I received an invoice from the car hire company explaining that we'd received a parking fine while using the car and that the car hire companyhad charged it to our credit card and charged a £42 administration fee ("the charges on this invoice cover costs incurred in providing the driver or renter name and address to the relevant authority in the UK, subject to notification of a traffic offence that is alleged to have occurred during the period covered by the original rental invoice"). I had no idea about the fine and was not aware that we had 'committed' any parking offence. The car hire company phrases the issue as a traffic offence, which is presumable not as ParkingEye has no real right to charge us - correct? However: Under normal circumstances, everything I have read about ParkingEye's methods and their 'fines' leads me to believe that I would not and should not pay. The complication is the car hire company and the 'driver' rule. If the car hire company pay the charge with our credit card (and charge us on top of that), we've lost. We phoned the bank but they wouldn't stop the charge from going through. Having read more of ParkingEye, we're phoning the bank again tomorrow to clarify the situation and see if they'll freeze the transaction for now. The car hire company can identify us (and have) as the ones in possession of the car during this period. However, it was a single driver agreement and I was not driving. And it is my address they have (the driver lives abroad). What to do? I don't want to get into a dispute with the car hire company, but I don't think we should have to pay this 'fine' as well as a £42 administration fee. It seems that the car hire company, who will be aware of ParkingEye's activities, have jumped on the bandwagon to earn money. (I phoned the car hire company today and the representative said they'd waive the admin fee as a gesture of goodwill if ParkingEye granted an appeal. However, PE is unlikely to do this because it wouldn't benefit them!) Any advice greatly appreciated!