Help needed - potential illegal towing charge?

stuartking

Hi,

Where I am living there are permit parking spaces. Usually I keep my permit in my car but yesterday it was in the house and when I got home late from work I forgot to place in the car.

As a result I got clamped at 1.30am this morning. I accept that I did not have the permit in the window and so accept the release fee of £150, although it is excessive.

However, when I went to my car this morning 8.30am there was a tow truck parked near by. The man came out and indicated that I would also have to pay £250 of towing costs (the sign indicated that once the truck is called I have to pay the towing fee even if they don't move the car). I have two queries in relation to this:

1) Can they realy charge me £250 for towing the car when they did not move the car. Although the sign says that is the policy it seems excessive as they guy just turned up and waited.

2) Per the sign - I cannot call for the clamp to be released between 24:00 and 9:00. Surely this would mean that there would have been no oppertunity for me to get the clamp removed before the tow truck arrived and hence no oppertunity to avoid the tow charge?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

peter_the_piper

1) yep, they could charge you a million if they liked (not much likelihood of you paying it though)
2) get pics for the sign.
3) check your lease to see if you have a right to a parking space that you have paid for.
4) post all this on pepipoo.com as well.
5) if not already done so pay by credit card, failing that a Visa Debit card.