Car Has Been Towed

tomsutherlanduk

Hi All,

I returned home on Sunday morning to discover that my car had been taken from the private car park in my block of flats. I am told that this is a result of me failing to show the correct parking permit.

I have only lived in the flats for a few weeks and displayed in my window the only permit which I have been given. Apparently in the last couple of weeks, new ones were issued, but I have not seen any evidence of this.

The car park is operated by a private company who are now charging me £275 for towing my car (a quarter of a mile) and will charge £45 per night until it is paid for a retreived. Obviously this is time critical as the longer I leave it the more it could potentially cost.

Can someone please advise me what information I would need to provide when contesting the fee and asking for my money back.

Many Thanks,
Tom Sutherland.

Premier_2

tomsutherlanduk wrote: »

Hi All,

I returned home on Sunday morning to discover that my car had been taken from the private car park in my block of flats. I am told that this is a result of me failing to show the correct parking permit.

I have only lived in the flats for a few weeks and displayed in my window the only permit which I have been given. Apparently in the last couple of weeks, new ones were issued, but I have not seen any evidence of this.

The car park is operated by a private company who are now charging me £275 for towing my car (a quarter of a mile) and will charge £45 per night until it is paid for a retreived. Obviously this is time critical as the longer I leave it the more it could potentially cost.

Can someone please advise me what information I would need to provide when contesting the fee and asking for my money back.

Many Thanks,
Tom Sutherland.

So no other residents cars in the car park are displaying this new permit?

And they only towed your car?

tomsutherlanduk

Sorry I have phrased that badly. There is no evidence that I was sent a new permit. Upon inspection this evening I can see that other vehicles have the new pass. However they look similar to the ones we used to have, and I would not have noticed the other cars had them had I not intentionally looked for them.

muckybutt

To keep things in the right place i'm asking for this to be put in the parking section.

Right then your car has been towed ! first step is to get your car back by paying the clamping scum bags.

Next you need to get photos of all signage and of where you were parked.

You then need to write to the clampers, management company / landowner etc or who ever contracted the scum bags and put them under notice that you will be taking them to court as you had a permit to park there.

You will then have to sue BOTH the clampers and who ever contracted the clampers should you not get your money back by asking, it is imperitave that you jointly sue BOTH PARTIES. Generally the clampers will ignore you from the start once they have your money thats it for them, so you sue the other party as they were responsible for hiring the clampers.

It can be a longish drawn out process but its the ONLY way you'll get your money back.

You can also post this on pepipoo for more advice, plenty have sued both parties and you will get your money back.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Clamped-driver-sues-firm-hired-clampers/story-11962039-detail/story.html

andrew-the-cat

As said the only course of action is to pay to get your car back, and then sue them for the money.

What you need to do once you have your car back is write a short and sweet letter to the clamping company, whoever employed the clamping company, and the property management company / land owner (if it is not one of these who employed the clamping company) telling them that unless they issue you a full refund within 10 days you are going to take them to court to recover your losses.

Whoever employed the clamping company is jointly responsible so you have as much right to sue them as you do the clampers.

If they don't pay up then file a claim on MCOL (money claim online). If it gets to this stage I suggest you go to the Pepipoo forum as they will give you fantastic advice and you WILL get your money back.

tomsutherlanduk

Hi everyone thank you for your help so far.

Muckybutt, is moving the thread something I need to do, or had it been done already?

Here is a draft of the email I am sending to the car park company, and will form the basis of my email to the property agents. How does it sound?

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to contest the fine I received this weekend.

I was parked in the private car park in the apartment building in which I have lived for the past couple of months. I had displayed on my windscreen the only permit I have ever been provided with. Your representative told me on the phone today that I should have received a new permit in my letter box around a fortnight ago. This is not the case and as far as I am aware, there is no evidence of this pass ever being sent to me. Additionally, if I had been provided with a new pass and was aware of the requirement, surely I would be displaying it already.

Secondly, your representative claims that the requirement for a new pass was adequately highlighted by the presence of posters in the building. Please see the attached screenshot of one of the posters. The poster reads "Please note that only permit holders are permitted to park in the residential car park. If you do not have a permit you run the risk of being clamped.

My first grievence with this is that nowhere on the poster does it say that new passes will be issued or that they will be required. There is a bad, black and white picture of a permit which looks similar to mine, and a caption saying that it is a valid permit. It does not say that this permit is to replace any which may have already been issued. My second grievence is that the poster states that car may be clamped, not towed away, which would not have required a storage charge.

I am happy to send you documentation as evidence of my occupancy of the building and eligability to use the car park. I hope this situation can be resolved amicably before legal action is taken against you by you returning to me the sum of £345 in full.

colino

Hi OP, do you own the flat or are you leasing? If it's not yours, also kick up a stink with your landlord, they've contributed to this nonsense.

vax2002

I would not pay to get the car back.
Serve a statutory demand upon the management company for the value of the vehicle.

shaun_from_Africa

Here is a draft of the email I am sending to the car park company, and will form the basis of my email to the property agents. How does it sound?

Personally I would forget about an e-mail and send the letter by recorded delivery mail.
All you can show with an e-mail is that it was sent, not that it was received but with a letter you will have proof of delivery and a signature to go with it.

vax2002

The letter will be laughed at.
You can only win by playing handball with these people, you dont write letters asking nothing, you issue them with demands and served documents in a worked out time set order.

shaun_from_Africa

vax2002 wrote: »

I would not pay to get the car back.
Serve a statutory demand upon the management company for the value of the vehicle.

A statutory demand can only be issued in an attempt to get a specific debt repaid and not for something such as getting goods returned, so this won't work.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/CourtClaimsAndBankruptcy/DG_187711

The letter will be laughed at.

Quite possibly, but at least there will be proof that the OP has attempted to resolve the matter before taking legal action.