Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all,

A brand new member here looking for some advice.

I think it is pretty straightforward.....

I parked for a few minutes in an empty tesco car park in Cheltenham in a hired car. I live abroad.

When I left the car park, ANPR pictured my car and sent me a charge for overstaying.

The car hire company sent the car parking company my details and have charged me 45GBP for admin.

When I went to the car parking website to pay the charge, it said that the charge had been cancelled and there was nothing to pay. I don't know why it was cancelled.

So, my question is, why am I responsible for the car hire admin fee when there is no parking charge to pay?

It seems that issuing the parking ticket was clearly a mistake and I am expected to pay admin charges for their mistake.

What would you do?

Would you tell the car hire company to go and get their money from the car parking company, since it is their mistake?

Should I pay the car hire company and reclaim my money from the car parking company?

Should I immediately threaten lawyers and court action to everybody until they sort it out?

It seems a fairly straightforward case of an unfair contract, since I am, it turns out, completely innocent of creating this situation.

Any answers or opinions very gratefully received.

Thanks.

Should I immediately threaten lawyers and court action to everybody until they sort it out?

No - courts expect potential litigants to use court action as a last resort, not the first thing to throw at a dispute.

The starting point will be the terms of your agreement with the hire firm - what exactly do they say about private parking charges? (Even if they do mention such an admin fee, this fee may be unreasonable as per the above, but let's start with the wording of the agreement so that we know which angle to approach this from)