Fine / Invoice from Private Firm for Vehicle Recovery

JC2025

Before anything else, I'd like to say that I'm new to this forum. So if this is in the wrong place, I apologise and will repost in the correct one.

A little background on this one:

I used to live at Brighton Marina (private property owned by Premier Marinas and policed by SABA) and had a motorbike I kept parked in the corner of a multi-story. Over one winter by the sea it was badly rusted to the point of being unrideable, and subsequently remained there. I later moved house, but did not bring it with me at the time. I attempted to sell the thing but was met with no-shows and time wasters so ultimately gave up and figured I'd sort it later. Which in hindsight was a pretty lazy way to shoot myself in the foot, and I'll freely acknowledge I set myself up for this one.

Fast forward to today, when I received a letter from Hobbs Recovery Services who have obviously been tasked by the marina with removing all the abandoned bikes (there are always a half dozen or so which are similarly ruined by the sea air). They've invoiced me for £195 for the recovery + £39.50 per day storage. Given that I've been away for the week and only just picked it up now (and the letter was signed delivered Monday), including VAT I'm being charged around £500 for a bike that, given the age, mileage and condition, people would not take off my hands for £50.

So my question is, am I required to pay and collect the vehicle? Or I'm I'm reading the letter correctly, do I have the option of not doing so and they will sell the vehicle off instead? As I said, I admit it was my own stupidity that led to this, but no matter how I look at it that still seems a bit steep to me.

Mildly_Miffed

Phone them and tell them you don't want it, please dispose of it. That'll stop the storage costs.

Then pay... because they've had to go and pick up your abandoned rubbish.

JC2025

Thanks for the response, Miffed. Obviously they're getting paid, and probably from multiple angles- call out charge, scrap value, etc. The wording of the letter seems to imply there's a choice between paying and collecting, or letting them dispose of it. But I think I might not have explained my initial question very well.

With parking fines, there's a clear delineation between council fines (which must be paid) and private ones (which are a grey area depending on signage, land ownership etc. and are in fact invoices). With vehicle recovery, as far as I can tell with my inexpert eyes, it seems to be the same kind of situation. The police can recover a vehicle, for which payment is mandatory. But this seems to fall into a grey area, as an invoice for a service which I did not request and was not notified of in advance (no signs or letters).

Am I correct in thinking this? Or is there something I've missed somewhere?

Mildly_Miffed

There's a charge for removal. You owe this, because they were forced to remove your abandoned scrap vehicle.

There's a daily charge for storage, with a maximum of 31 days. You owe this from the date of collection until you tell them to dispose of it.

If you think the scrap value is worth anything, you're welcome to collect it and scrap it yourself. As, indeed, you could easily have done at any time in the period between stopping using it and now. How long is that?

How do you know you weren't notified via signage/a letter affixed to the bike itself?

What do the Ts & Cs of your usage of the parking state?

I presume we're talking about...
https://www.premiermarinas.com/marinas/brighton-marina/marina-facilities-and-services/parking

"Annual berth holders can have up to two parking permits.
...
All vehicles parked in any of the car parks must be taxed and insured as well as holding a current MOT certificate and be kept in a good, clean and drivable condition. 

JC2025

To answer your questions:

• The bike has been there for approximately 18 months
• There most likely was a letter affixed to it, as would be with a parking ticket, but unlike with a parking ticket, they didn't send one to my address to ensure I received it. Which seems a bit odd when you consider they had no issues sending the invoice through the mail
• To be honest, I couldn't tell you the Ts & Cs off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing signposted regarding towing
• You have the correct site, but permits are a separate system used to access the vehicle barriers and park without being ticketed- bicycles and motorbikes are permit exempt there

What I'm trying to pin down here is that when you say I should pay, are you saying that because I'm legally required to do so? Or because you dislike the way I've handled / mishandled the situation and believe it to be the correct moral decision? If the latter, while perfectly understandable, it doesn't really answer my initial query.

If I really am required to pay for it, I'll have to find the money somewhere. But as far as I can tell, it's an invoice for a works which weren't requested, agreed or properly notified.

Like I said, not trying to be argumentative here, I'm just trying to work out how I need to proceed with this, as the sum they're asking for is disproportionate. If it transpires that I am required to pay for these services, I can then speak to the involved company directly to try and find a solution which works for everyone.

Mildly_Miffed

I would say that is most certainly legally enforceable, yes.

The solution that works for them will be to pay now, before they launch proceedings to recover the debt from you, which will inevitably work out a lot more expensive.

As far as sending a letter to the registered keeper, given that this is a vehicle you abandoned before moving, is the address on the V5C one that you can be reached at?

LightFlare

Just to clarify - were you “allowed” to park it there for 18months as in do you have valid permit or pay in some other way or did you just abandon your scrap on someones property?

This might be the start of all manner of aggravations if you’ve effectively had 18months of “free” storage.

JC2025

Mildly_Miffed said:

I would say that is most certainly legally enforceable, yes.

The solution that works for them will be to pay now, before they launch proceedings to recover the debt from you, which will inevitably work out a lot more expensive.

As far as sending a letter to the registered keeper, given that this is a vehicle you abandoned before moving, is the address on the V5C one that you can be reached at?

Thanks for confirming. For reference, yes, the vehicle has been registered at the same address the whole time. I was staying with one relative, then moved in with a different relative. I suspect they might find arranging a payment plan preferable to the hassle of debt recovery proceedings, but that's neither here nor there.

LightFlare said:

Just to clarify - were you “allowed” to park it there for 18months as in do you have valid permit or pay in some other way or did you just abandon your scrap on someones property?

This might be the start of all manner of aggravations if you’ve effectively had 18months of “free” storage.

Effectively just abandoned there. But as stated, motorbikes are allowed there by default unless, as would be the case here, they end up in breach of Premier's requirements. There are no permits for bikes, and permits for cars are free of charge.

Sounds like I'll have to give them a call. I'll be honest, it's not the verdict I was expecting to hear, but I have only myself to blame.

Mildly_Miffed

JC2025 said:

I'll be honest, it's not the verdict I was expecting to hear

On what grounds did you think you'd get a free pass from the consequences of others having to clear up after your mess?

Okell

@JC2025 -  although this isn't technically a parking issue I'd suggest that you ought to be posting this thread on the parking ticket board as I suspect the legal issues are very similar.  If I were you i'd ask the the site team to move it to the parking board before they go off for the weekend.

You could also try the private parking board over at FTLA:  Private parking tickets  (Read the "READ THIS FIRST" sticky.)   

IANAL but I would think that whether or not these charges are legally enforceable will depend on the parking T&Cs that you originally signed up to with Premier Marinas(?) and whether or not you are in breach of them.  Are you saying you no longer know what those T&Cs were?

Assuming the charges are legally enforceable, then I'm pretty certain that Hobbs will continue to pursue you for any outstanding balance even if you tell them to dispose of the bike as scrap or whatever, so that won't necessarily get you off the hook.  (BTW I'm not saying that the charges are or are not enforceable - I simply don't know the answer to that)

Herzlos

I think you're on the hook for some costs, but I'd argue that £195 to recover a motorbike is steep, and £39.50/day is robbery. It's taking up virtually no space abandoned in a yard.

You can get caravan storage in Sussex for £11/week, so I'd argue that their actual costs are in the region of £1/day.

I'd argue that you aren't being invoiced for a service, because you didn't agree to a service and signed no contract with anyone. So I'd contact them and tell them to scrap the bike to stop the fees accumulating and offer to pay them £100 + £1/day as reasonable compensation for their losses. If they want more than that, they can justify it in court which will invariably cost them more than they get.