Euro Car Parks 7 day notice vehicle removal

jimi4567

I have read all the PPC threads having originally (stupidly) paid a "fine". I know how they work now.... However, I've received a new letter and a new threat which I haven't seen before on any forum.

Since discovering the truth about PPCs I have used my local Euro Car Parks Sainsbury's car park quite a few times without worrying about their "PCN"s, and so over the past year have racked up a few tickets. I do shop at Sainsbury's for all our family shopping and the car park always has loads of empty space, so I don't feel like I am taking the p*ss too much.

I am used to the letters you get when they try to get some money from you, but the other day I got this one from Euro Car Parks themselves (not a debt collector or agency).

"The above vehicle is a persistent offender on Sainsbury Balham Car Park, at the time of writing the vehicle has been issued xx Parking Charge Notices xx of which remain outstanding.

The vehicle will be issued a 7 Day Notice the next time it is on-site and will be removed by an approved contractor, it is therefore advised that the vehicle does not return to this site or any other Euro Car Parks Car Park, and that you contact Verity Weir on 0207 563 3000 during business hours to inform of your intent regarding payment for your outstanding Parking Charge Notices

Yours sincerely

(Illegible squiggle)

Euro Car Parks"

All terrible spelling, grammar and syntax courtesy of Euro Car Parks admin staff, including missing full stop at the end.

Needless to say Verity will not be getting a call from me, but it sounds as if they are threatening to report my vehicle as abandoned on their land and have the council remove it if I ever park in any of their car parks again. As far as I know they cannot clamp or remove vehicles themselves, so who or what the "approved contractor" is and to whom they are actually contracted I really don't know. Maybe it's just a new bit of badly worded nonsense from them.

Has anyone heard of this kind of threat before? Can they do this? What would be the consequences?

Thanks

taffy056

It's rubbish and completely illegal , they cannot clamp a vehicle or remove for past alleged debts, also what happens if you sold the car, or someone else used it to go shopping ? If there are no clamping signs there at the shop it would be illegal to tow the car, basically they would be stealing it, and a call to the police saying the car has been stolen would be in order!

Coupon-mad

That's astonishing from Euro Car Parks and Sainsburys!

I would send a copy to the Sainsburys CEO and ask if illegal clamping/towing threats to a regular customer from a company with no SIA licenced operatives (Euro Car Parks) is something they condone? Do they not realise that clamping/towing in a car park with no notices to that effect is illegal?

Tell them you have copied in your local Trading Standards and await their reply.

jimi4567

I hadn't thought about the fact I may have sold the car before they removed it! That would cause some trouble....

The wording doesn't make it clear what they would do, but after a bit of googling, I came to the conclusion they must been reporting the vehicle to the council, who would issue a 7 day notice of removal, i.e. telling me that if I didn't move the vehicle within 7 days, the council would come and remove it. However, presumably every time this happened, I could just phone up within the 7 days and say there had been a mistake and that the vehicle had not been abandoned. It could only be removed if I really did leave it for 7 days and not respond to the notice.

Either way, I'm sure the council would get very p*ssed off with Euro Car Parks if they abused their service like this.

Obviously ECP are getting angry at the amount of people who don't pay their "PCN"s and are resorting to playing dirty by threatening me with illegal actions!

Has anyone heard of this before? Is this a new tactic by the PPCs?

peter_the_piper

I'm not going to be too popular now but considering how you have been upsetting them recently maybe it would pay you to be more circumspect in the future and only park there when shopping (or shop elsewhere if that's your wish). Whilst they have really exceeded their remit it seems that you have really p*****d them off and they know that there's not much more they can do.

taffy056

peter_the_piper wrote: »

it seems that you have really p*****d them off and they know that there's not much more they can do.

Awww not feeling sorry for them now are you? :rotfl:

Oopsadaisy

taffy056 wrote: »

Awww not feeling sorry for them now are you? :rotfl:

I'm not sure how such a tangential post adds any value to the thread.

Coblcris

So a vehicle is a 'persistent offender'.

What tosh.

I suggest you check the planning permission for that car park and find out if free parking is a condition. It often is.

peter_the_piper

taffy056 wrote: »

Awww not feeling sorry for them now are you? :rotfl:

Course I am, I think so much of them I'd contribute to their retirement fund.:D

jimi4567

peter_the_piper wrote: »

I'm not going to be too popular now but considering how you have been upsetting them recently maybe it would pay you to be more circumspect in the future and only park there when shopping (or shop elsewhere if that's your wish). Whilst they have really exceeded their remit it seems that you have really p*****d them off and they know that there's not much more they can do.

I think you are right. Whilst we clearly don't have to pay these tickets, I don't think we should behave in an objectionable way. I think it's totally reasonable that Sainsbury's car park should be for their customers' use, and if I thought I was causing inconvenience to anyone I certainly wouldn't park there just because I could get away with it. As I said, the car park is never anywhere near full, and I park as far from the actual supermarket as possible so no one is missing out on any parking spots because of my behaviour. But I take your point that maybe I've !!!!ed them a bit too much. I do think threatening to tow my car, or have the council tow it is a bit much, though!

taffy056

Thing is it would be illegal to tow or clamp without the signs up, and that is hardly going to happen in a supermarket because none of them have clampers there, as for the council ones if you don't stay there for 7 days shopping you will be pretty safe