Car clamping

[Ratpack]

Was going to work last week to find someone clamping my car. I asked him what he was doing and he said I'd not paid a parking ticket. He was a bailiff and I owed him ?650.

I told him I'd never got a parking ticket. He told me to phone the council. When I did he continued to clamp my car. The council (Southwark) said they could not give me details of the parking ticket as it was out of their hands and with the bailiffs.

Even though I said how could I pay ?650 for something I have no knowledge of they said they couldn't help.

The bailiff said my car was going to be towed in the afternoon if I didn't pay the cash.

As I had just completed on my flat that day my car was full of everything to move house after work. I was also due at work for a very important event. The man had me over a barrel and so I had to pay the cash as I needed my car.

The council have since said the parking ticket was from CCTV and not an actual paper ticket but can't give me any more information. They even sent me some close up shots of my car - which could be anywhere as they are so blurred and just show my car and not the location or what it was doing wrong.

This has really upset me. If I parked wrongly I'd pay the fine but I've never had any letters, tickets anything. This is the first I have heard of this. I am now severely skint (when moving house) and really angry at the council.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I'm going to have to take this to court to get my cash back, which I could do without to be honest.

[monica]

Appeal it ratpack, the pics should show the registration number clearly. I had a similar situation years ago and appealed it on the grounds that the photos were out of focus and won.

[pablogrande]

the bailiffs wouldn't be JBL would they?

[Ratpack]

It was JBW enforcements

[pablogrande]

Thats the ones, check out a few bailiff websites they feature a lot, I had the same trouble for a parking ticket that I thought I'd paid they said they had sent letters which they hadn't

first thing to do is get a breakdown from them of the what the amount they paid you consisted of, there's all sort of rules and regulations they should carry out. Letters to be issued etc etc they have to visit you to try to get payment before clamping cars etc.

I had a knightmare with them, we had a newborn baby and their thuggish guys lied through their teeth about what they had or hadn't done, in the end I got Tessa Jowell involved and she got onto Southwark who seemed to be part of the same corrupt gang as the bailiffs and she sorted it out for us I know for a fact she had other cases on file about the underhand tactics they use

good luck, if I can be of any more help PM me

[kford]

This is why this the spread of CCTV enforcement is wrong, because often you won't have realised your error, for example: if you stop to read the restrictions on the sign in a CCTV zone, you'll get done; likewise, if you pause to look at a map, or drop off an elderly relative at the tube station, as I did once, you'll get done and you won't know until the fine arrives at your door, or not, in Ratpack's case. And they can't read disabled badges, so you're presumed guilty until you present your credentials to the council, or bailiffs.

CPZ, anyone?

[david_carnell]

Hire one of these for ?30 and chop the bloody off your car. Then let them take you to court and see how they like it. Bastards.

[louisiana]

JBW is clearly a racket (claim money for things they've never done).

And councils are going along with the racket.

But they are all at it.

I let out a flat for some time to someone who didn't pay bills, fines etc. He also punched a bus driver in Brixton! For years afterwards (when I moved back to the flat), I received quite literally hundreds of communications from so-called bailiffs, all claiming they had visited the property but failed to get an answer. As I was on the other side of the front door in all cases (I work from home) and would have heard them knocking or ringing just feet away, their claims were clearly spurious. Some 80+ of their letters claimed to have visited, but none of them ever had! (The only ones who did were CID, in relation to the GBH incident in Brixton. We had a nice cup of tea to help me get over the shock.)

[KidKruger]

This is very scarey indeed.

Is it actually legal that you can turn-up at your car and some guy is clamping it ? Isn't there supposed to be some notice in writing to your door via Royal Mail or recorded delivery ?

Can't believe this guy's car was clamped like that.

[pablogrande]

that's the thing they don't have to send anything recorded delivery so their standard response was 'we can't be responsible for the royal mail'

they are supposed to send letter then visit, the thing is it's not in their interests for you to pay on time, the fees they are allowed to charge for these first letters/visits are minimal, it's only when they take items/clamp you that they get any real return. As I said get an itemised breakdown of their claim for the ?650 it's a scary business and the bullying tactics must work many times as people don't know what they are allowed to charge.

There should be a law that makes them send info out recorded delivery (they should be allowed to claim this from the person fined) and also a standard leaflet indicating charges and escalations of them

[motivated teen]

when a enforcement company clamp a car it is not up to them they can only clamp cars that they have been told to by the council you need to find out what council issued it and speak to them, try to appeal you case.

[pablogrande]

that's not strictly true, the council hands over the debt and the enforcement company is meant to follow a strict set of stages to enforce the debt.

Southwark council in my experience don't give a flying f**k what happens once the debt has been passed on, there's plenty online about this and questions asked in parliment about a case in ED involving an MPs daughter

[snorky]

get proper legal advice, but until the debt has gone to court and you have been found liable, then if you regster that you fornmally dispute the debt, Im sure these debt primates cannot do anything - but you/ they have to be pedantic with the procesdure - any non adherence on both sides negates their case somewhat - you need to check it out carefully - there are so many variables, its hard to say.

[motivated teen]

JBW would have already been to court which allowed them the warrant of execution.

[giggirl]

OMG what have we come to? This is such a horrible thing to happen and I hope you get it sorted out and get your money back.

[kford]

Just talking about this at lunch - a mate had his Golf clamped and removed while on holiday for a parking fine incurred by someone who'd cloned his number plates. By the time he'd got back, his ?12k car had been auctioned off for ?2k and he said he had no recourse.

Someone else at the same lunch received a parking fine via CCTV outside their house in Camden (of course), the day after their parking permit ran out. The same person then had the car stolen from the same spot a week later, yet Camden would not allow the incriminating footage from the CCTV to be used to identify the thieves, citing the Data Protection Act.

This shady practice has been bubbling under for years, and we're all responsible for letting it go on.

[louisiana]

pablogrande Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> that's not strictly true, the council hands over

> the debt and the enforcement company is meant to

> follow a strict set of stages to enforce the debt.

>

>

> Southwark council in my experience don't give a

> flying f**k what happens once the debt has been

> passed on, there's plenty online about this and

> questions asked in parliment about a case in ED

> involving an MPs daughter

http://www.lmag.org.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=131

[kford]

Sub-human scum, to paraphrase Alan Partridge.

[Al&Em]

Anyone ever been done outside the old blockbuster in Forest Hill - I remember the camera appearing there a year or so ago and making me very nervous about my DVD giving back loitering...

[giggirl]

I'm so glad I don't have a car anymore.

[martinchiversfanclub]

I read recently about a chap who was travelling across a yellow junction box and had to brake suddenly when a pedestrian ran in front of him. Because he stopped in the junction box for those seconds, he was picked up on CCTV cameras and was issued with a fine. He took legal action and got the charge rescinded.

[kford]

giggirl Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm so glad I don't have a car anymore.

Don't worry - they have other ways of watching you in the pipeline http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/05/commentary/ontechnology/rfid/

[pablogrande]

Oh the irony

Just had a friend from my old flat drop off a letter that was delivered there this week DATED 29th FEB!

It's warning me I must pay within 21 days (hmmmm difficult one that) ?155.00 for unpaid parking ticket on Coldharbour lane

I've been racking my brains and I couldn't work out when I got a ticket there, then I realised the date of the ticket was January 2007 the day my son was born, we couldn't get into the hospital carpark so I fiulled the meter to it's limit but only got back out to the car about half an hour after the ticket had expired. I had written a note in the car telling the warden that my girlfriend was giving birth in the hospital and left the ward telephone number and my name on display in the car but they chose to ignore it.

I sent ticket and a letter to Lambeth at the time, this is the first I have heard from them shows you what pricks they are

[char1ie]

You paid ?650? Jesus. Obviously its a bit late for advice but you should have asked the bailiff to tell you which court issued the ticket then spoken to the court and arranged to appear in front of the magistrate to make a statuary declaration. Takes an hour or so and you could probably have got the bailiff to leave you alone with a call to the court.

Charlie

[kristymac1]

and according to Austin Mitchel MP from the parliamentary record mentioned earlier:

Instead of giving that useless and untrue information, the council could have told my daughter that she could have made a statutory declaration in the county court, which would have cost her ?5. That would have gone to the Northampton parking fines centre, stayed the process and the clamp could have been removed.

So a statutory declaration costs 5 quid - one to remember for all us I think - sorry it comes a little late for Ratpack.....