Help needed with impounded car -Camden Council

[grumpyone]

Hi everybody
I hope you could help us.

We had not used our car for about 3 weeks or so and had parked legally in a nearby road.

However, during this time, it appears that Camden Council suspended the bay where it was parked and then towed it away.

We only discovered today when we went to drive the car. It turns out Camden towed it 10 days ago and now want £700 to release it (due to the daily storage charge!)

We are completely shocked and amazed that nobody even contacted us to say that the car was towed away.

The car is probably not even worth £700 - although that is besides the point.

We wonder if we have any rights? I did speak to the car pound on the phone and was informed that if we let them 'dispose' of the car, they will waive the fees and charge us only £70.

We can't help but feel that Camden is effectively stealing our car. Does anybody have any suggestions. All help much appreciated

[Horace]

One thing that I have discovered in London is that they will never tell you that your car has been towed - the only way you know is if you ring the police to report it stolen and they give you a number to ring.

What you can do is pay the fine then appeal the ticket and the towing to PATAS (parking & traffic appeals service), you will need to appeal the ticket first to the council who will no doubt refuse the appeal and it is at that stage you take it to PATAS.

It is unreasonable to tow the car when they could have placed it into a bay that wasn't suspended. Look on Camden's website under parking to see their appeals procedure, sometimes the council will let slip that they can remove a car to a different bay or even a different street (Lambeth do this and my OH managed to get his ticket and towing revoked because the council had acted unreasonably).

Be wary of when the council says it will scrap the car - it won't they sell them at the auctions.

HTH

[Keith]

One thing that I have discovered in London is that they will never tell you that your car has been towed - the only way you know is if you ring the police to report it stolen and they give you a number to ring.

The TRACE line which should be in every Londoners phone.

Camden can remove a car they give reasonable notice that the bay is going to be suspended, they could (past tense - as things may be different now) also relocate it if it is still in the bay when they turn up to do the work.

Check out the t&c of your residents permit regarding bay suspensions, and go from there.