Quote:
Originally Posted by auburn  Hello to all,
my daughter paid for a ticket in Lidls car park on return 20 minutes later she found her car had been clamped, the ticket she bought was not sticky and we can only assume that when the car door was shut the wind blew the ticket onto the ash tray. she showed the attendant her ticket but he was not prepared to listen, he would only take the clamp off when we paid 125.00, otherwise he was getting her car taken away as a carer for the elderly this would have been a disaster. I am so angry i mean it is not like the fine is small, who these days has 125.00 to give away just like that.
any advice would be appreciated, thankyou.  |
Hi, welcome to the forums.
You daughter will have been clamped for allegedly breaching a "contract" that she is deemed to have entered into when she parked in the car park. The contract may not be valid for a number of reasons.
One question to ask is did your daughter pay cash or card. If it is the latter then she may be able to go to the bank and claim the payment was made under duress and get the money refunded.
Failing that what I would do is write to LIDL's advising them of the situation. Advise them that your daughter had a valid ticket and enclose a copy of it as proof. Ask them to intervene with the clamping company on her behalf. After all she did buy a ticket and was presuambly shopping in their store. They surely don't want genuine customers inconvenienced. It may be worth trying the manager of the store concerned in the first place otherwise try customer services at head office.
Also have a read of this guide from Citizens Advice Bureau. It's not to good on remedies but does give some good guidance on legal grounds and background. Click
here. Have a read of the guide at the top of this forum entitiled Private Parking Companies/Charges Everything you need to know. It has a lot of valid information on parking contracts.
Clamping is now governed by the Security Industry Act and administered by the Security Industry Authority (
http://www.the-sia.org.uk).
The first thing you want to check is were there clearly visible signs in the car park that clamping was in operation. These signs should include a telephone for to allow the driver of a clamped vehicle to pay the release fee. The release fee should be clearly stated on the signage.
You daughter should also have been issued with a receipt. This should have the SIA registration number of the person who clamped the car on it. You should check that the registration number is valid with the SIA. It is an offense under the act for an unlicensed person to clamp a vehicle and both the landowner and their agent can be prosecuted for the offense.
If you find non-compliance of any of these things or anything else mentioned in the CAB guide it will certainly help your case if you mention it to LIDL's that should this matter not be resolved to your satisfaction you will be considering reporting them to the police and the SIA for breaches of the SIA act.
If you can it would be good if you could post up pictures of the any signs in the car park so that we can look at any contract terms and see if there is anything that you can add to your letter.
It may be that you get nowhere and that your only remedy will the county court but there it is a bit of work to do before you get to that stage.
Post back here if you have any questions.
wheel clamp 
