Parking Charge Notice issue

[kraam86]

Hi folks. I have a bit of an issue with a number of PCNs that some of you may be able to help me with!

I am from Ireland but was working in the UK for a short period earlier this year. I had a rental car from a well known rental company for a few days as my own car had issues. A week after leaving back my rental car and travelling back to Ireland I began to receive a number of emails from the rental company saying I had received Parking Charge Notices. It turns out, by a genuine mistake I forgot to register my rental car reg with the Sm*rt P*rking managed car park at my apartment. As a result I have received 8 notifications from the rental company of PCNs and they have told me they have passed on my details to Sm*rt P*rking. Needless to say, I have also been invoiced for 8 administration fees (£40 each) meaning I have to pay £320 in administration fees for the rental company to pass on my details to Sm*rt P*rking.

So far, I have only received 3 PCN notification from Sm*rt P*rking in the post. There is a massive delay in the PCNs reaching me.

PCN #1 - Date of contravention 1st March.....PCN dated 23rd March......PCN received in post 22nd April (53 days later)
PCN #2 - Date of contravention 2nd March....PCN dated 24th March......PCN received in post 6th April (36 days later)
PCN #3 - Date of contravention 8th March.....PCN dated 2nd April..........PCN received in post 13th May (67 days later)

So as you can see, I am receiving the PCNs a long time after the date of contravention. Surely this is too long just to be a delay in post arriving from the UK, as I have received letters from a debt collector for each of these PCNs, and they are all being received less than a week after the date of issue. There is no dates on any of the envelopes. As mentioned, I have only received 3 PCNs but have been notified by the rental company of 8 PCNs they received so im expecting to receive the other 5 at some stage, bare in mind the earliest of these PCNs should be from 24th February.

While I have been tempted to just ignore all the PCNs as I am in a different country and surely they can't take me to court, I would rather appeal these PCNs as I won't have too pay the admin fees to the rental company.

Any help from ye would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers folks!

[MIKE770]

ostell

[ostell]

So with the original PCNs you received did you also get copies of the rental agreement and the original PCN to the the hire company? Probably not.

In which case:

Sirs

Ref PCN xxxxx VRM yyyyyy

I am the hirer/keeper of the above vehicle and am in receipt of the PCN you issued. I have no liability on this matter as you have failed to meet the requirements of Schedule 4 of The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not limited to, failing to supply the additional documents mandated by section 14 (2) (a) of the Act. You cannot therefore transfer liability from the driver at the time to me, the hirer keeper..

There is no legal requirement to identify the driver at the time and I will not be doing so.

Any further communication with me on this matter, apart from confirmation of no further action and my details being removed from your records, will be considered vexatious and harassment. This includes communication from any Debt Collection companies you care to instruct.

Yours etc.

In the UK normally suggest sending first class post with a free certificate of posting from a post office, don't know what is available in Ireland.

In hire cases there can be a long time between the incident and the hirer receiving the notice. If there was no windscreen ticket then the parking company have 14 days to get the notice to the hire company, the hire company have 28 days to respond and the parking company then have another 21 days to issue a notice to the hirer.