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Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) / Re: TFL - 52g - Rotherhithe Tunnel Approach - Failing to comply with a prohibition on certain types of goods vehicles
« on: January 24, 2025, 10:38:54 am »
I just registered to say that if Zipcar have paid the charge on your account it is game over from the point of view of contesting the ticket with Southwark BUT! it is NOT game over from the point of view of contesting that you owe the money to zipcar! Depending on how far you want to push this you have the ability to file a chargeback (which is free and completely risk free) and even a small claims court claim against Zipcar and (if you paid by credit card, your bank) (but this is not free and there is a small risk of a costs order of up to a few hundred pounds if you lose):
- Zipcar will have auto-charged your credit/debit card for the fine PLUS an admin fee. You can file a chargeback claim with your bank to get that money refunded on the basis that (i) you didn't agree to pay this extra money but Zipcar have deprived you of the ability to file representations against the ticket on the basis of their t's and c's (which are unfair and in breach of consumer protection regulations) and (ii) Zipcar have imposed an extra admin fee on top which is not proportionate to the actual costs they incurred paying the ticket (the true cost is zero, or pennies). Filing this claim costs zero and has a reasonable chance of working. NB There are different rules depending on whether you paid with debit or credit card and different banks handle these complaints in different ways so you need to google this a bit before proceeding to give you the best chance of success.
- Even if you lose the chargeback claim you could potentially issue a small claims court claim against Zipcar on the basis that their T&C's are unfair in that they deprive you of any ability to contest tickets (and, I believe, Zipcar could simply have passed the ticket onto you rather than just voluntarily paying up). This seems a bit riskier in that you did commit the contravention and your representations were (I presume) fairly unlikely to succeed and if you lose you risk paying zipcar a bit more in court costs & you wouldn't get your claim fee back.
- If you paid zipcar with a credit card you can also sue your BANK in the small claims court as they're jointly liable with zipcar (assuming the amounts involved are over £100). This claim could be on the same basis as if you sued zipcar and is less risky as generally banks can't be arsed to defend tiny claims so will either fold immediately or may initially defend the claim but then agree to settle shortly before the hearing. This is not completely risk free either, because in principle if they defend & win and you're found to have acted unreasonably you could also pay costs (but in practice, I would think this is very unlikely). Note also that issuing a small claim costs money (which you get back if you win) and is a bit of a faff.
I am always in favour of aggro so personally I would issue a chargeback & then if needed sue the bank (as an easier target than zipcar) but if you just want an easy life, just give the chargeback a try (since it's risk free & free to do, apart from time invested). If you do go the court claim route this forum may help or you could also try the Consumer Action Group chaps a try (they don't do parking so far as I know but they do help with consumer small claims court claims).
- Zipcar will have auto-charged your credit/debit card for the fine PLUS an admin fee. You can file a chargeback claim with your bank to get that money refunded on the basis that (i) you didn't agree to pay this extra money but Zipcar have deprived you of the ability to file representations against the ticket on the basis of their t's and c's (which are unfair and in breach of consumer protection regulations) and (ii) Zipcar have imposed an extra admin fee on top which is not proportionate to the actual costs they incurred paying the ticket (the true cost is zero, or pennies). Filing this claim costs zero and has a reasonable chance of working. NB There are different rules depending on whether you paid with debit or credit card and different banks handle these complaints in different ways so you need to google this a bit before proceeding to give you the best chance of success.
- Even if you lose the chargeback claim you could potentially issue a small claims court claim against Zipcar on the basis that their T&C's are unfair in that they deprive you of any ability to contest tickets (and, I believe, Zipcar could simply have passed the ticket onto you rather than just voluntarily paying up). This seems a bit riskier in that you did commit the contravention and your representations were (I presume) fairly unlikely to succeed and if you lose you risk paying zipcar a bit more in court costs & you wouldn't get your claim fee back.
- If you paid zipcar with a credit card you can also sue your BANK in the small claims court as they're jointly liable with zipcar (assuming the amounts involved are over £100). This claim could be on the same basis as if you sued zipcar and is less risky as generally banks can't be arsed to defend tiny claims so will either fold immediately or may initially defend the claim but then agree to settle shortly before the hearing. This is not completely risk free either, because in principle if they defend & win and you're found to have acted unreasonably you could also pay costs (but in practice, I would think this is very unlikely). Note also that issuing a small claim costs money (which you get back if you win) and is a bit of a faff.
I am always in favour of aggro so personally I would issue a chargeback & then if needed sue the bank (as an easier target than zipcar) but if you just want an easy life, just give the chargeback a try (since it's risk free & free to do, apart from time invested). If you do go the court claim route this forum may help or you could also try the Consumer Action Group chaps a try (they don't do parking so far as I know but they do help with consumer small claims court claims).