Bay Park Management - Can I win in court?

tbutler12345

Hi,

I was clamped by Bay Park Management in a Private Business Park in Jan09. They charged me £295 release fee, which they would only let me pay in cash (luckily my mates had cash cards on them so they could withdraw the cash for me as I was hours from home).

That fee was made up of £150 charge and £145 charge for cancelling the tow truck!

They gave me a reciept. The clampers had valid SIA numbers. I sent 2 appeal letters with no response so I went through Money Claim Online, won by default as they did not respond and so sent in the baliffs.

I later found out that the balifs could not do anything with the PO Box address I had been given (obvious when you think about it but im an amature). Therefore the warrant has come back as unenforceable.

As a last gasp attempt I called Bay Park Management and spoke to the MD, he says he never recieved my appeal letters nor the court order (or whatever its called). He has now filled a form to "set judgement aside" with the court (apparently) so I should get something through from the court in due course.

He says if I want to continue with the case through the courts he is confident they will win, apparently they have won all cases they have defended and successfuly counte-claimed for their legal costs in all cases.

I know they are bound to try and scare me off but i'm not sure of my legal position - could I get stung for court costs if I lost my case?

The case I brought was for the £295 charge, less £60 which I said would be a reasonable fine, plus about £80 Moneyclaim online fees.

I'm already £375 down and really want to press on with my court case as I feel im in the right but can't afford to risk losing their legal fees too.

Any help or advice much appreciated!! What do I do??

Cheers, Trev

Coblcris

I would stongly suspect that, to be blunt, the company is lying through its teeth.

Feel free to PM me what details you have on them so I may research a little further.
I take it it was Box number 52668 ?

The real address behind a P O box can be forced from the Post Office by an order of the court. The Bailiff should know this, it is sad that they did obtain such an order.
As a successful claimant you can ask for such an order. Visit an office of your local County Court.

The risk you run is that company has disappeared, which is one of the reasons I made the offer to receive details from you via a PM..

They trade under the name of CNJ Contracts which is under a proposal to be struck off and has never filed accounts.
As was the company C N J CONTRACTS LIMITED.

From this and your description of events I surmise that the people behind this may not be honest.

tbutler12345

Thanks Coblcris appreciate your offline advice.

Would welcome any other thoughts from seasoned members or anyone that has encountered this company.

Thanks!

maqama

Hi

I've also been clamped by this company. The receipt had the wrong company number on it and no VAT number. They are claiming a misprint for the first and that they were not VAT registered at the time, which is a flat lie.

There is a difficulty obtaining the real address because they are subject to a confidentiality order because of all the threats they received - I don't know whether your average bailiffs can get through this.

They are indeed not honest, and have made several false claims in the reply that they have sent to my appeal. They have chosen not to refund any of the £295 fee despite the advice of their appeals officer that I am certainly entitled to at least £150 back for the nonsense about calling a tow truck, when the two employees that clamped me turned up in a tow truck.

I have just put in a small claims court claim - we'll see where it goes.

oldone_2

If they have a depot somewhere to store the clamped cars, it should be possible to give the balliffs this address to seize goods to the value of your claim. Alternatively, park outside this depot and note the car numbers of those that work there.In theory the DVLA should be able to supply addresses, one of which may be the company owner.

Gordon861

Coblcris wrote: »

The real address behind a P O box can be forced from the Post Office by an order of the court.

Not actually needed, you can just contact the Post Office and request the information from them and they will tell you.

I looked at setting up a PO Box for a club a while back to keep my home address private but if you read the T&Cs for PO Boxes they state that they will give the details of the address behind it to anyone that asks.

edit : Just checked my PDA, the number I have for PO Box details is 0121 212 7370, it might be old but worth a try.

From the T&Cs ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/cmwalk/doc/active/doc42/PO%20BOX%20Ts%20and%20Cs.pdf

Disclosure of information
Royal Mail reserves the right to give the
address (and title) of the PO Box holder to
any enquirers, and this information will be
added to the Royal Mail’s national address
database – the Postcode Address File (PAF).
Information on PAF is used to produce a
number of Address Management products

that are available to the public.

tbutler12345

Thanks guys.

Im speaking to the landowners so we'll see how that goes.

Please continue to share your experiences here and ill do the same.

peter_the_piper

I would love to see their faces if someone had superglued all the locks on all the clamps in the carpark. I think there would be a riot. Not that I would suggest anyone should do such a thing, I am just daydreaming.

Domthemon

I'm sure its been covered elsewhere, sorry, but where do you stand if you cut the padlock off with bolt cutters? Surely the worst they could do is take you to small claims for cost of padlock?

peter_the_piper

Can you see that happening realistically?

Chris40D

Hi all,

This company have been recently appointed to manage our residents private parking scheme.

From reading the forum and events at the weekend where they had their first contact with the residents (leading to the assault of the resident), we have concerns as to their suitability.

Any information you may have on this company would be of help.

Thanks

Chris