Car Towed from Property I have permit for!!

JoeAlonso

On Saturday 28th March I had my car towed away from my residential car park in which I have a permit for and have had a permit for now for 11 months.

Earlier in the month (March) our property manager informed us that they intend to change from London Parking Control to Gemini Parking Services. A further letter followed saying this would take place as from April 1st 2009, followed by a further after the previous two that we had to urgently collect our new permit and gate key on Wednesday 25th March otherwise the gate would be locked on Thursday 26th. In my haste and over-tired mind after an 18 hour shift I collected the key and permit placing it directly above my 'old' permit clearly in the window.

Saturday (28th March) comes and whilst I am at work London Parking Control enter the car park and tow my car away, their reasoning being that I was not displaying a valid permit. The property caretaker duley informed THEM that we are residents and clearly have to be residents for us to obtain the new permit. Obviously these people are not hired for their intelligence and ignored his pleas and removed the vehicle.

Furthermore, our property manager denies all responsibility as she did state that the new parking company takes over from the 1st April, 4 days after the incident. I can understand that, although she commented that if the gate would have be locked with the new padlock by a fellow resident who may have forgot then London Parking Control would not have been able to enter the property (extremely frustrating).

I have sent my appeal and had it rejected along the lines of:
- Not displaying a valid permit
- Their operatives are not mind readers and were not aware that our actual valid permit was under the new one (although the caretaker did inform them).

We paid the £400 as they refused to tell us where the car was and basically needed the car for Monday morning (to commute to work) so had to pay their extortionate fee.

From experience does anyone have any advice for me, do we have a chance to reclaim the money and what should our next steps be? I just cannot justify their fees for the simple fact that we had one if not two permits to suggest we are valid residents.

JoeAlonso

Does anyone please have any advice?

peter_the_piper

Did you pay by C.Card or Visa Debit? possibility of chargeback?

robnye

surely if you had placed the new permit immediately above the old one, then it was showing valid....

did the company provide proof that you werent showing the correct permit?
had the new permit fallen on the window?

not much help im afraid, but might give you some pointers to base your stance on

JoeAlonso

The new permit was for 'Gemini Parking' which were the new company which were taking over 'officially' 4 days after the incident occurred.

Technically London Parking Control were still in contract until March 31st so with the incident happening March 28th, thats their stance that we were not displaying a valid permit.

My argument is that our actual 'valid' London Parking Control permit was in the car (behind the new one) and that should not warrant a £400 fee being taken from us.

We paid by Debit Card as we do not have a credit card and the fees would have kept escalating day by day if they we did not pay. (The incident happened on a Saturday but they would not let me get my car until the Monday and made me pay an extra £70 for storage).

All I wish to know is:

1) Is their case valid that we did not have a valid permit 'clearly displayed'?
2) After providing evidence that we do have the permit they wished to see should be get our money back?
3) Does the fact our caretaker tried to stop them count for anything in our favour?

peter_the_piper

Was it a Visa debit? They, unlike the others , do have a form of chargeback. These "people" are nothing more than robbers and there would be no possibility of getting the money back from them without being able to twist their arm off.

JoeAlonso

It is Visa Debit yes, and what do you mean by Chargeback?

Also how do you sugges to twist their arm?

peter_the_piper

Check on google, visa chargeback. You tell them that your vehicle was taken without consent and were blackmailed into paying to get it back, not sure if this is the correct terminology to use but it covers the action, they should then pay you back and get the money off the scumbags. They may take a fair amount of persuading though. This, apart from sueing them and the landlord, is the only way you'll get your money back.