Euro Car Parks 7 day notice vehicle removal

torontoboy45

lucylucky wrote: »

I am always amazed when idiots trot out the old "what if I park on your drive" scenario.

Utterly irrelevant.

me too.

and taffy should know better than to bicker with a cardboard cut-out.

'never argue with a [EMAIL="tw@t"]!!!!!![/EMAIL]. they'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience'.

(I love that gem of wisdom).

anewman

Lol try reporting them towing your car to the Police as theft and see how much interest they take. The Police will assume the towing is being done lawfully.

One option is to fit an alarm with a tilt sensor and pager so you know if someone's trying to tow it

lucylucky wrote: »

I am always amazed when idiots trot out the old "what if I park on your drive" scenario.

Utterly irrelevant.

I agree, but it isn't unheard of for people to randomly park on someone's drive, and I am sure it causes great annoyance when it happens. Certainly occurs far less though, and in a half-empty car park the situation just doe not compare.

2429barry

JIMI4567,
so what happened in the end?
its about 6 months now and I need to know as I have just had one of these 7 day notice today.

Coupon-mad

Jimi hasn't been back for four months - I checked his profile and he has not been active on the forum since 6th June.

I suggest you post your own thread, with a link to this one for the purpose of showing it's a similar case, asking for help. I also suggest you post a new topic about it on pepipoo forums as they are the experts:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

ECP have never taken anyone to Court and do not clamp vehicles so IMHO the letter is bollox.

notts_phil

2429barry wrote: »

JIMI4567,
so what happened in the end?
its about 6 months now and I need to know as I have just had one of these 7 day notice today.

Ring verity and tell them their actions are illegal....

jimi4567

I forgot about this thread I started. The rest of the story is I parked once more in their car park for about half an hour (to do some shopping!) and I got two large identical notices with a repeat of the 7 day warning with a scribbled signature of the store manager on it as well (although I couldn't be sure and it was photocopied!) They never actually tried to tow it though (and I'd be very surprised if they ever pulled that one because of the can of worms it would open). Anyway that car has now died and will be scrapped in a couple of days so its role in the PPC saga has come to an end!

I just like to thank this forum and its contributors for enlightening me about the whole issue.

memphis73

Firstly I wanted to thank all of the posters on this forum for all of the help and advice I've taken from these postings in the light of how to deal with Euro Car Parks.

I've been on the end of several of their threatening emails, and am adding to this forum in the light of what has happened today.

I too received exactly the same badly spelt photocopied warning that my vehicle was going to be towed.

I too received this warning at Balham Sainsburys run by Euro Car Parks

On the advice of this forum, and others like it, I chose to ignore it as yet more scare-mongering by ECP, on top of the rest of their unenforceable "actions" by themselves and their "affiliated" bailiff/reclaim department.
I simply cannot be sure that I was the driver on the dates they sent me Penalty Claims Notices, and neither can Euro Car Parks. Moreover, I entered into no contract, as I am only the registered owner of the vehicle.

But today, when my wife tried to park in Sainsburys Balham, two burly men in their 50's wearing plain clothes with no identifying uniforms, tried to prevent her entering the car park altogether (being stood at the entrance, apparently lying in wait!) With our 2 year old daughter sitting terrified in the back, they pursued my wife around the car park, waving fists at her and shouted that she wasn't allowed to park here anymore, that they had a van round the corner, that our car was going to get towed away. Their aggressive, physical intimidation was such that my wife in shock wound the window up, and then called the police.

The police came and with my wife by this point in tears, instructed the two ECP men to calm down, and subsequently took down all particulars, citing it as an altercation. On the police advice who said that it was indeed private land and that these men might indeed tow my wife away if she decided to park there, she drove out of the car park and away,
completely shaken and unable to comprehend what had just happened.

It is one thing to receive threatening letters. It is another to physically confront, shout and threaten a woman with a small child.
.
When she called to tell me this I immediately called Sainsburys Balham, who lease the land to Euro Car Parks, and the Assistant Manager listened to my calm, clear complaint and said he was "utterly shocked" to hear that Sainsburys customers had been treated in this way.

He took my number, contacted head office, and went straight to ECP head office as well. He said that the regional (?) head of ECP had visited today, and there was also another man who came for an hour, who I guess was one of the two men who confronted and intimidated my wife. These men were not the usual friendly car-park staff whom my wife
and I know casually by sight.

I can only assume the head brought down with her a pair of heavies, who were given the instruction to confront people like me who they deemed were persistent offenders, when they have no evidence that myself or my wife were the drivers on the days that our car was apparently parked for longer than the allocated two hours.

Sainsburys are rightly taking this appalling intimidation act seriously, and I have a meeting with the Manager in two days time.

I would welcome all advice at this stage in terms of my rights and how to make sure that this does not happen again to myself or others. I would be appalled to think of the effect that this bullying and physical cornering would have on an elderly citizen, or for that matter a pregnant woman or simply on another mother and child are regular, almost
daily customers at their local Sainsburys store.

Kite2010

They don't lease the car-park out to Euro, Euro are merely contractors, contracted to "manage" the car-park.

Trebor16

If they were trying to tow the car on the basis of the alleged unpaid invoices they would be up s**t creek without a paddle. They cannot tow a car over a disputed debt without any form of court order.

Coupon-mad

Euro Car Parks are not clampers, they only ticket. The 7 day Notice thing is an idle threat but you know that.

But due to the bullying that then occurred you absolutely must ensure that the Sainsbury's manager takes this action against you seriously.

ECP are just being bully-boys and you must take this complaint to the top at Sainsburys (not ECP). ECP cannot lawfully even get a firm to tow away your car if there are no such notices in the car park - unless they just remove the car on behalf of Sainsburys and put it outside the car park (even then they would have a duty of care to leave it in a safe place etc). A landowner can reasonably take steps to remove an unauthorised car in an extreme situation like this but they couldn't clamp nor charge for a tow fee nor clamp release fee without clear notices explaning the risk and cost beforehand.

They can stop you parking there but is that what the Sainsbury's manager wants? To lose your family's business and that of your friends, with the potential huge risk of you telling the local and national papers and your MP about this treatment as well?

As you say they cannot 'victimise' a CAR because it could have been driven by ME or anyone else with fully-comp insurance each time it 'contravened' their rules! To then bully the next driver of it is shocking - what if it had been a company pool car, a Council car club vehicle, a car that had just been sold on...the list is endless to explain why this is so wrong. They do not know who was driving the vehicle when they issued fake PCNs, and because of that they have no hope of forcing anyone to pay them so they resorted to desperate measures.

One small warning - bear in mind that before the meeting, the Sainsburys manager will have got ECP's side of the story. And he probably won't know that their 'fines' aren't worth the paper they are written on. He may have swallowed their version of events in the meantime and accuse you of 'not paying parking fines'. Be ready to respond to that sort of accusation. Have information for him - a link on your phone perhaps to the Watchdog video which explains things clearly.

Do NOT call their fake tickets 'Penalty Claim notices' as they are nothing of the sort, not a fine nor a penalty. Just an allegation of breach of contract against a driver they cannot even be bothered to identify as it's soooo much easier to harass the registered keeper and any other unsuspecting driver of that car who happens to arrive next!

And be really reasonable - listen to what he has to say and then calmly counter everything he has swallowed from ECP's version. If ECP have someone at the meeting wielding copies of the fake PCNs just study them quietly, look up and say 'so who was driving and what have you done to follow the matter up with the driver then'? Be absolutely clear in your own mind that (for fake PCNs issued prior to any 2012 Freedoms Act change in the law) this is ONLY a matter for the driver and you have no reason at all to tell a private company who that was, even if you could possibly be expected to remember. If ECP have a rep at the meeting tell him happily that you will report them for a serious breach of the BPA Code of Practice which clearly states they have to address requests for payment only to the driver (as at Jan 2012) and cannot continue to pursue another party such as a car owner/keeper/other driver. And tell him that the proper course of action if a company allege someone owes them money is Small Claims Court, not verbal and badly-written threats!

Cheerful smile, remain calm & reasonable throughout and go armed with copies of your recent Sainsburys receipts to whip out at an opportune moment, to turn the tone of the meeting around to the sort of business that the Store Manager will fully understand - money, repeat business and the local reputation of his Store!

Bear in mind the Sainsburys manager can indeed ban you from the car park if he wants - it is theirs, not ECPs (ECP are just the parasites infesting it). And if you or other driver were leaving the car there all day every day while at work, or similar, then stop doing that. Inconsiderate parking actually justifies the existence of a PPC so avoid that of course as there is a fine line between knowing fake PCNs are trash and taking the mickey on private land.