unfair parking charges

hamtaro_2

Hi!
We rent our flat and have one assigned parking bay. We've got parking permit for that and always display ticket at the window screen. few days ago we were going for holiday. we took of the ticket from our window and left it with our flat mate. unfortunately on our way our car has broken down. we had to call RAC and they transport our car to our home. because it was middle of night we didnt want to wake up our flatmate ( for parking permit). we left little note on our screen that we have parking permit and we will put it back in few hours. we left our home nr and phone nr in case they need to contact us. in the morning our neighbour woke us up telling that our car is already clamped and they came to take it. we rushed to speak with them, showed them our parking permit but they didnt want to listen. they told us that we have to pay £130 for wheel clamp release fee and £250 for removal fee. they said that if we hadnt pay they would take our car. they said that fistly they will take our neighbours car and than come back for ours. i dont understand why they wanted us to pay removal fee if they came for neighbours car in first place, not for ours. we paid, under duress... we were going to write them letter with complain askind about giving us our money back as we had parking permit. Before anything my boyfriend has done charge back on his debit card. now we are little stressed if we did right thing! can they sue us for that ? money should come back in our account in 2-3 working days. can they take it back ? how does it work? i will be really glad for your quick answer. xxx

ps. parking control management charged us

Inactive

You will no doubt get a quick answer if you post it in the correct section.

At the top of this section.;)

anewman

It's great that you managed to do the charge back. In the same circumstances my extension cable and angle grinder would have made an appearance. The law is somewhat sketchy on the legality of clamping and as you say many people are unfairly clamped.They of course argue that there is a contract and you supposedly broke the contract by not displaying the permit. Everyone is all for bringing in companies like these when they're !!!!!! they can't park outside their house and have to park 5 meters down the road, then the clampers come in - someone's permit falls off the dash and they get clamped and charged - then noone else gives a to$$ because it isn't their car. I would argue that in the circumstances you describe, clamping the car and demanding money constitutes tortious interference with goods and blackmail.

They cannot take money back without you authorising it (or unless they stole the card details). If any money goes missing contact the police and bank immediately. They also can not sue you, you have a parking permit. If you get threatening letters and threats of court ignore them. Seek advice if you get genuine sealed papers from a court but I doubt you will.

There's one reason they don't keep a log of reg numbers and not clamp the cars with those reg numbers - it's because they can't make money that way. They only make money by aggressively targeting the people with permits.

For future reference, the landowner is jointly responsible with the clamping company, never take a clamping company on their own to court you have to also bring the case against the landowner to have any hope of getting money back as the landowner will not want CCJ's, the clamping company will already have loads of CCJs and never pay, will hide behind PO Box addresses, and the business will close when the going gets tough and open up under a new name. Clamping companies, and the people who work for them, are all low life scum.

hamtaro_2

Inactive wrote: »

You will no doubt get a quick answer if you post it in the correct section.

At the top of this section.;)

oh... i am sorry.. do you know how to move this post to another section?

hamtaro_2

Anewman, thank you very much for your reply. It really helped me. Hopefully we will be able to see our money back in to account (bank said it will take 2-3 days). Until i see it, i won't believe. If not I will have to sue them and seek for further advise. hopefully my problems will finish quickly. I was just worried that doing charge back we've done something illigal .. we will see what will happen. thank u again x

wazza

hamtaro wrote: »

Hi!
....... Before anything my boyfriend has done charge back on his debit card. .......

can i ask what is a charge back?

hamtaro_2

charge back : " A chargeback is the return of funds to a consumer, forcibly initiated by the consumer's issuing bank. Specifically, it is the reversal of a prior outbound transfer of funds from a consumer's bank account, line of credit, or credit card"


Basically you ask your bank to reverse a transaction.