Euro Car Parks: company car drivers warning

[colston]

My wife and I have had to reluctantly - very reluctantly - throw in the towel against those &^%$#@ at Euro Car Parks and pay #70 and hope our lesson stands as a warning to any company car drivers who are ever caught in a dispute with this shower (Any advice to follow would be gratefully received. Unfortunately, we can't use it now, but it may stand someone else in good stead)

 

ECP dished out a penalty charge to my wife for not displaying a ticket for a 10 minute spell. I wrote to them, told them we would not be paying their invoice as requested (ie 70 quid) because it was wildly excessive, but that we would pay a reasonable sum based on their losses incurred for having their space used for one sixth of one hour.

 

Suffice to say, we heard nothing (as a company car driver, my wife informed her finance dept and the lease company who are registered keeper of her vehicle about our communication with ECP). Her company and lease company were very sympathetic and promised not to pay anything to ECP without our say-so.

 

This week a letter from a debt collection agency arrived at our house via the vehicle lease company demanding #95 withing seven days. It had been sent to the leasing co. as registered keepers and they passed it on to us. I called the debt collectors, told them I'd see them in court, to which they replied: 'It's not you we go after anyway, it's the lease company.'

 

I then called the lease company to get a handle on the situation as they saw it. Explained my case to which (be to fair) they were very sympathetic. It was pushed up the line to a senior manager who cooed sympathetically again. However, the upshot is it's clearly their policy not to fight court battles on behalf of the people driving their cars: too expensive, not their fight, ECP have legal right on their side (v v debatable, I know) etc etc. Said the best they could do was phone ECP and get the invoice re-instated at original #70.

 

The lease company are probably the biggest in UK and manager admitted he sees cases like mine every day. I'm disappointed they have not taken on a couple of test cases but, ultimately, I know unfortunately they don't see themselves as consumer champions. Upshot is they've paid the #70 to ECP and are invoicing my missus through her company.

 

I still think they could do more on behalf of their customers but warning for all company car drivers, I think, who will find themselves between rock and hard place if they want to take on ECP in similar case to ours.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

I would have thought that the lease company has to demonstrate that there was a legal liability to pay the invoice to have a legitimate claim, not that they cannot be arsed to defend spurious claims.

[colston]

Sorry Bernie, I don't understand. Can you explain further?

[Zamzara]

If the lease company choose to pay when they are not responsible, I would have thought that is their problem. I don't see how this changes your liability to pay just because someone else is now claiming the illegal penalty.

[colston]

I agree Zamzara, but unfortunately we've been caught in a Kafka-esque nightmare in which our own wish for justice has been strangled in the red tape of others.

As registered keepers, the leasing company have clearly decided it's not their problem to fight these invoices because a) they're not champions of consumer justice b) don't really care, to be brutally honest and c) probably (I stress the probably) reckon companies such as ECP have civil law on their side.

Now ECP have been paid (by the leasing company), I guess the next step for us, theoretically speaking, is to refuse to pay the new invoice that will be raised by the leasing company. Realistically, however, that isn't going to happen, unfortunately, because it will put pressure on my missus at work. If snotty legal letters start flying in from the leasing company to her company's finance department it will only create problems because her finance department a) are not champions of consumer justice b) don't really care to be brutally honest and c) probably reckon the lease company have civil law on their side.

 

And so the merry-go-round continues.....

[patdavies]

I sympathise - it's a horrendous situation.

 

The one throw of the dice that I would make is to ask the leasing company to demonstrate why they feel that they are liable as RK to pay the invoice.

 

If they answer that they don't know, ask if they would pay any invoice that simply states that the RK is liable without a statute to prove that theory.

 

I would also point out to them, that for a genuine, and lawful, PCN, etc. they can lawfully pass liability to the driver via provision of details of a hiring agreement.

[colston]

Cheers Pat

 

I reckon your argument has a strong legal (not to mention moral) basis but I'm going to have to let it go because it relies on the goodwill of others to feel as strongly about this as I do and, unfortunately, the goodwill isn't there - it's just another piece of paper to be processed between (probably) over-worked and under-staffed departments (and Euro Car Parks know that and rely on that).

[patdavies]

When I last had a company car - one of the first Mondeos - I had to sign an agreement that allowed them to deduct parking penalties from salary - along with all the 'admin' charges

 

If this is the dame for you, I would write to fleet manager and payroll revoking that permission in this instance as the payment made by the leasing company was neither a penalty no a fine - as neither of these can be issued by a private company. If they choose to pay a spurious invoice, it;s their problem.