Disgrace

benish

On Thursday night my friend went into Leeds city centre with his friends, he was the 'designated driver'.

On returning to his car at 2am, it had gone, presumed stolen.
He phoned the police to report it and went through all that business then the following morning Leeds City Council phoned and said they had clamped his car and removed it.
Now I guess he had stayed there far too long for them to clamp it then impound it, but they charged a DISGRACEFUL £365 to get it back, which would have increased by £100 if not paid that day.

He did see a sign and ignored it, and he has now paid the fee...
but if he refused to pay what would have been your advice?

(I'm not 100% sure it was the council or a private company that took the car!)

picnic

he saw a sign but chose to ignore....? what did he think would happen??????????? pay up

TheBogsDollocks

There may well be a way to get the money back. We need to find out if whoever took it did so lawfully. Upload all paperwork.

DaveF327

Was it on or off road?

lucylucky

As has already been suggested much more information is required before people can start to help in anyway.

peter_the_piper

picnic wrote: »

he saw a sign but chose to ignore....? what did he think would happen??????????? pay up

May I point out that the aim of this forum is to help the op's not castigate them. We have all made mistakes at some time but when penalised this type of amount its up to us to try to assist.

daveyjp

I'd like the whole story before commenting and advising - for a start who actually took the car?
Clamping in Leeds by the Council is not the usual method, but police will remove cars causing an obstruction.

Coupon-mad

£365 seems particularly high for a Council tow. If it was the Council, then you should definitely appeal after getting advice from pepipoo on what points to make. It's not just about the sign!

If it was a private clamper then your friend can sue the landowner and clamper for his money back, regardless of sign IMHO. That amount is clearly a penalty, and there's almost always other things private clampers do wrong on their paperwork and the wording of that sign which would mean you'd have a case for a Small Claim for a full refund.

Either way, don't let your friend think he cannot get his cash back!

Pepipoo are the experts:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

HTH

anewman

Whereabouts in Leeds did you park?

benish

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm not that close to this friend anymore, i just heard it through another friend so I'm not 100% sure on the details.

I hhve now found out though that it was not the Council, but a private firm. They demanded cash within the day and would not take card or cheque! Like I said earlier he has paid up to get the car back.
That's as much as I know! I only posted to see if there was anything that could possibly be done. If there is I'll get him to come on this website!

Thanks a lot!

anewman

If it is private then court action against the car clamping company and more importantly the owner of the land (reason being the clamping company will already have CCJ's they don't pay up and have their ways of avoiding them, the land owner is less likely to want a CCJ hanging over them). It would help the court case, however, if images of the signs and their location relative to the parking area and any entrances/exits.