Car towed from outside my house

astra_user

My car got towed from outside my house and had to pay a £150 recovery charges and £30 penalty charges to the police.

However, I am rather confused on how this could happen and if it is against the law regarding the time restrictions:

1. Letter stuck on my window from the garage owner stating it was written at around 11ish (threw it away as it was stuck on my window using prit-stick).

2. I got issued the fixed penalty notice for "unncessary obstruction" at 12.25.

3. Noticed the car had been towed by 2.30 thanks to a lovely neighbour (so mustve got towed a good hour or so before that).

There is a dipped pavement for the access to his garage, however there are no signs posted or any yellow lines. I understand I am in the wrong about parking here as this obstructed his driveway, but the amount of time given to me seems a bit unfair. Parking is always terrible on my street at the best of times so had no where else to park.

Also, I thought the police/recovery service are supposed to make an attempt to notify the owner before removing the car? Which would have been easy since I live no more that 10m away and my neighbours all know who the car belongs to.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

flea72

you parked illegally, so you were towed

its not up to the police to track down the owner and get them to move the car, its up to you as the driver, to not park where you shoudnt

F

astra_user

Thanks flea for the reply, but if you read my post I acknowledge the fact I was parked illegally. But what I was asking is can they tow your car 2 hours after giving you a fixed penalty notice?

Also thank you for verifying that the police do not chase the owner up.

paddedjohn

as far as i know they can tow it away asap if its causing an obstruction.

forgotmyname

I would say you got off lightly, You deliberately caused an obstruction to someones garage, For what reason?

If it was my garage you would still be looking for the bits of your car that restricted my access.

Inactive

astra_user wrote: »

My car got towed from outside my house and had to pay a £150 recovery charges and £30 penalty charges to the police.

However, I am rather confused on how this could happen and if it is against the law regarding the time restrictions:

1. Letter stuck on my window from the garage owner stating it was written at around 11ish (threw it away as it was stuck on my window using prit-stick).

2. I got issued the fixed penalty notice for "unncessary obstruction" at 12.25.

3. Noticed the car had been towed by 2.30 thanks to a lovely neighbour (so mustve got towed a good hour or so before that).

There is a dipped pavement for the access to his garage, however there are no signs posted or any yellow lines. I understand I am in the wrong about parking here as this obstructed his driveway, but the amount of time given to me seems a bit unfair. Parking is always terrible on my street at the best of times so had no where else to park.

Also, I thought the police/recovery service are supposed to make an attempt to notify the owner before removing the car? Which would have been easy since I live no more that 10m away and my neighbours all know who the car belongs to.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Well you should move to a property with a driveway and hope that nobody blocks your access to it.

duchy

Why on earth would you park deliberately blocking your neighbour's garage ?????

Sounds like your neighbour got fed up with you doing it-Can't say I blame them.

Are you on bad terms with this neighbour anyway ? If they (the neighbour not the police) had knocked and asked you to move the car would you have.......or did they have reason to believe you wouldn't. (like you've refused in the past)

I think it's quite funny you are so indignent that you parked on a public road (you don't own the road near your house) and got towed-Really what did you expect when you knowingly blocked another house's access.

globetraveller

you threw away the letter he left on your car. How much notice do you need?

nopot2pin

astra_user wrote: »

There is a dipped pavement for the access to his garage, however there are no signs posted or any yellow lines. I understand I am in the wrong about parking here as this obstructed his driveway, but the amount of time given to me seems a bit unfair. Parking is always terrible on my street at the best of times so had no where else to park.

Also, I thought the police/recovery service are supposed to make an attempt to notify the owner before removing the car? Which would have been easy since I live no more that 10m away and my neighbours all know who the car belongs to.

Is there any chance that the police did make attempts to contact you at your home address, and you did not hear the door going ?

Is your telephone number X directory ?

If it was your driveway that was blocked in the same scenario, and you desperately required access, what time limit would you think was reasonable ?

Maybe you should speak to your local council about parking restrictions in your area.

astra_user

Well if I was in that position I would try and find the owner by asking the neighbours who owned the car first before taking action because:

1. I guess I am a nice guy.
2. I know that parking is a problem in the area
3. It could have been a lot quicker to find the owner (10mins?) to move the car than to go thro the process of getting it fined and towed (3hrs).

I threw the letter away *after* picking my car up, had to get it off the window so i can drive legally.

I have found (on another forum) that it is 30 minutes after reciving the PCN or FPN that you can get your car towed.

So thank you for all your responses but have now found the answer.

/thread

slyracoon

Theres a difference between a 'right of access' and a 'right of way'.

Parking blocking a road would mean you are blocking a 'right of way', this is illegal and you will be towed.

Its not illegal to park across a dropped kerb if there is no signage/yellow lines. Droped kerbs provide a 'right of access' rather than 'a right of way'. As long as the person affected is able to make contact with you and you are available to move the car in good time then you are not restricting their 'right of access' and should not be towed. If you have to park there again I would suggest leaving your contact details on some paper in the windscreen and ensure you are available to move the car at a moments notice. On this occasion it seems you gave the garage owner no way to identify you as the owner/driver of the vechicle so you were restricting his 'right of access' and were correctly towed.