Car clamped in private car park £180

mobileuser

Hi Guys,

I wonder if you could give me some advice.

I made the stupid mistake of parking over night in a private car park. When I came back to my car it had been clamped. There was a ticket on my drivers door saying i had been clamped and had to pay £150 plus VAT and to pay as soon as possible and any delay would result in the charge being raised to £245 + vat

I had not choice but to phone the number on the ticket. They came back in 15 minutes and told me i had to pay otherwise it would get towed and the fee would be even more. I had no other way of paying for this but to use my credit card. So I was forced to pay £180. I can't afford this either and there seemed no option as I need my car for work. Is this legal it seems a huge fee to pay! One which has pushed me even more into debt.

I now know I shouldn't of parked there but it wasn't very clearly marked not to and other cars were there which don't seem to have been clamped. The company involved is Proserve in Ipswich Suffolk.

Thanks for you help!

ManxRed

Were you aware of the risk of being clamped when you parked there? Forget the other non-clamped cars for a second. If it went to court and a judge was presented with pictures showing the signs would they be likely to come to a decision that a reasonable person would have been aware of the risk, given the prominence of the signs?

This is what it might end up boiling down to.

Essentially, in theory, this is how it works. You issue a claim against the clampers and the landowner that they have trespassed against your goods (tortious interference). They may defend the claim. If they can demonstrate that you would have been aware of the clamping by virtue of the signs displayed, then they win. If not, then you win.

There may be other ammo you could use though. It would be worth posting up a scan or photo of the receipt you were given (scrubbed of personal details) to see if they might have breached legislation in some way.

JagDriver

Firstly get onto your CC provider. Demand a charge back. You paid under duress and their merchant (and therefore their Agent) were at best misleading and at worst committing a criminal act. You are covered under section 75 of the consumer procection act (Experts - please correct if I'm worng).

Expect a fight. Expect them to tell you that as you entered your pin you authorised the transaction. Get them to point to the clause in your contract with them where it states this, as it b*llocks. If they honour the charge back stop here and pat yourself on the back. If not (most likely) then make an offical complaint, that you will be following up with a written complaint. Escalate as far as you can.

Parallel to this you need to start digging around to find some details out:

Did the Grunt's have their SIA badges on display?
Did you get the 'tow truck' Reg no?

Did you get a reciept (if you did, host an image of it minus you personal details) ?

Find out who contracted the Grunts.
Find out who owns the land you parked on.

You will probably end up suing them all jointly and severally.

Good luck!

Coupon-mad

PROSERVE ENFORCEMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED

Companies House status: Active

Registered Address

UNIT 1 CLAYDON BUSINESS PARK,
GREAT BLAKENHAM
IPSWICH
IP6 0NL

Activities

This company has not yet filed a description of their activities.




Directors and Secretaries

Current Directors

Mr Stephen John Duff
Mrs Karen Dawn Duff


Stephen Duff has 1 company director or secretary appointments.
Short name - Stephen Duff
Director ID : 916907184
Month/Year of Birth: 03/1965

Karen Duff has 1 company director or secretary appointments.
Short name - Karen Duff
Director ID : 916907185
Month/Year of Birth: 12/1972

Mr Duff is a well known cowboy clamper in the Ipswich area

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/clampers_...ctics_1_198467

Good to know his moneymaking scheme will come to an end in 4 weeks.

But all people can do right now is try a chargeback if paid by card, then if no joy, then sue them and whoever contracted Proserve to be there, they are jointly liable and will be the ones to pay up if you win. Proserve absolutely won't pay even if they still exist by the time you get to Court and get a CCJ so you need to find out who contracted them (owner or occupier of the car park).

The OP should take the fight to pepipoo for help:

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

Look how many other clamping cases are on there suing over this soon-to-be crime. Read a few and start a new topic with pictures.

zagfles

I thought this was now illegal under the "Protection of Freedoms Act 2012"! Surely the OP can report them to the police as it's a criminal offence?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Freedoms_Act_2012

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/section/54/enacted

Coupon-mad

Not until October 1st. You will see it in the news I expect but that's when the clamping ban takes effect.

That's why I said above 'Good to know his moneymaking scheme will come to an end in 4 weeks.'

zagfles

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Not until October 1st. You will see it in the news I expect but that's when the clamping ban takes effect.

That's why I said above 'Good to know his moneymaking scheme will come to an end in 4 weeks.'

Ah thanks. (I replied before seeing your post). The legislation doesn't seem to mention the date, though just found this which does http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/legislation/freedom-bill/fact-sheet-part3?view=Binary

Stephen_Leak

Expect the "feeding frenzy" to continue. And I fear that it won't suddenly stop at midnight on 30 September. October is going to be a busy month.

The_Slithy_Tove

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Expect the "feeding frenzy" to continue. And I fear that it won't suddenly stop at midnight on 30 September. October is going to be a busy month.

I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that clampers whose SIA licenses have been expiring recently may not have renewed them, as you still have to pay for a whole year for a license which becomes a meaningless piece of paper in just a few weeks. So, always worth checking the SIA details.

Secondly, come October 1, does clamping on private land become a CRIMINAL offence? In other words, can the police be called without getting the standard "it's a civil matter" response?

mobileuser

It was a S Duff who clamped me and made me pay the fee.

I contacted my credit card company saying i was forced to make a payment under duress and they said there is nothing they can do and it's between me and the merchant. And I can't get the transaction investigated till the 6th September.

With regards to the Signage there extremely low down and you wouldn't notice them very easily. I certainly could not read them until i walked up to them after the incident.

I guess i will have to look at suing them but i think i wouldn't be able to afford a solicitor anyway as that would just put me more in debt. I guess he will get away with it.

Does anyone know how i might find out who the owner of the car park is?

Thankyou for your responses they are much appreciated. Days like this you feel like giving up. I wish it was already October.

ManxRed

You can sue them without a solicitor, people on here (or Pepipoo) will be able to advise you.

Land Registry (there may be a small fee payable) should be able to tell you the landowner, however you need to jointly sue whoever hired the clampers. This may not necessarily be the landowner, it could be a property management company. You may need to do some digging.

Get photos of the area, and the signs, so you can build the case that you were not made aware of the risk of being clamped when you parked there.

A scan or photo of the receipt is needed before we can get more specific on your potential line of attack.