Impounded Car

[Sarah75]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help. My car was recently given a PCN, clamped and impounded for 3 days while I was away. I was charged £380 for its release (£60 PCN + £200 removal + storage @ £40 per day). The reason for this was that the residents' bay in which I was legitimately parked was suspended. The council tells me that they are only required to give 3 days notice for a suspension. I had no way of knowing that they had put up the yellow warning sign as I was abroad.

Can I do anything about this? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[green_and_mean]

You need to check the terms of the residents scheme to see if it mentions suspending bays.

[adamna]

Seems damned unreasonable to me. Can you find out what the suspension was for, and how many bays/length of road was supended?

[Sarah75]

It was only a couple of bays, I think for a house-move or some builders. Not sure how long the bay was suspended for, but - alas - I suspect that, knowing the council, duration of suspension or reason for it will make little difference...

[JonCris]

Was there anywhere they could have safely moved the car to nearby?

And as a tenant did you get written notice, in advance, of their intentions

[duntaxi2]

have they a traffic regulation order for the street ?

[adamna]

They (councils) request being given different notice for different numbers of bays/distance. So the more space, the more notice, e.g. 4 weeks.

I think it's been pointed out before that they cannot just move your vehicle as you could claim from them for any damage if it was parked in a place not of your choosing (if someone hit it for example). It might be worth trying to find out who applied for the suspension, and how much notice they gave.

It's definitely something that needs sorting out, a friend of mine had a similar situation, didn't go out of the house for 3 days so didn't know there was a supension 'till her car was gone. I will ask how they sorted it. It's so obviously unreasonable.

[green_and_mean]

http://www.parkingandtrafficappeals....rker-main6.pdf

[adamna]

My friend just got back to me with this:
they picked it up and parked it in another road and slapped a ticket on it. I protested the ticket and won and I never mentioned they had moved the car to anyone I just drove it back.
Interesting.
She has left the country, I wonder why?

[adamna]

I worry a lot. I woke up in the night with this one.

I don’t know what would happen if a car was legally parked, but not with a residents' permit, but it strikes me that if there are terms to the permit, then they form part of a contract.

You cannot enforce an unreasonable contract (well you can try).

It is unreasonable to expect folk to check their vehicle / the road on a daily basis, or engage a 3rd party to do this for them. This 3rd party would in any case need to be able to move the vehicle if necessary. This would mean they need to be insured/capable/have access to keys, a very limited pool of 3rd parties. Therefore it must be an unreasonable contract. PATAS would not be the place to go for restitution on this (yet again).

There is nothing to prevent the ‘authority’ resolving their problem by either moving the vehicle (as they did to my friend, but to a suitable location) or even removing it to a pound at their expense. With apologies for needing to do so. The inconvenience is enough to deter people from ignoring notices that they have seen, and deter the ‘authority’ from not advertising the suspension properly (they didn’t in several of the cases cited).

I call that approach service. I call the other a disservice.

I was listening to a programme about parenting. It warned against talking at teenagers, and advised talking to them, and listening to what they have to say. Common sense, good advice, can be hard to follow after years of being the unquestioned ‘authority’. Whilst that is about parents and children, it demonstrated the dangers of not listening and imposing authority without agreement. The recipients of the imposition tend to rebel, sometimes it gets quite nasty.

Off to work soon, a one off for the marathon, bizarrely at a solicitor’s office, overlooking the TfL masters at County Hall, I wonder if it’s a sign.....

Spent ages trying to work out how to get there by public transport given the road closures etc. Would take 55 minutes by various bus/tube (none affected by the closures) and a deal of walking, and I have heavy equipment. Or 10 minutes by car (if that on a Sunday). Decisions, decisions....