don't bother contesting ... just ignore it. What the drivers of your car do is not a problem for you "the DVLA owner of the car" have to worry about!!

why don't you just ask the council to sort it out ... my experience of school run mums leads me to thinking you're wasting your time!!!

It was because the landowner pointed out that they do not pay CES any money or get any money for it, therefore they do not receive any damages etc.

The clampers pointed out that these were "reasonable charges" for their services.

I would have fought more, but we wanted to get the clampers where it hurts, not the landowner.... though I am writing to their directors to highlight their staff actions.

The property management company denounced all responsibility and employed a barrister to get them off. The judge agreed with the barrister that the landowner had taken all reasonable steps to employ responsible (haha) agents, therefore they were not liable. It is something to do with torts of the land etc etc. Shame the barrister probably cost more than my clamping cost, but thats the problem with housing authorities, they will pay thousands to avoid paying hundreds!

Funnily enough, I went back to the site last night to visit my friend, and they have since changed their signs to say "Warning Private Property", but they are still high up and tiny writing!!

Well the first cheque never arrived, but a gentle e-mail remider that I will enforce seemed to do the trick!

Failing that I had paid by credit card so was happy to take it back to them as they are jointly liable for it!!

I won :

(If you can't see it, Tinypic are having issues, but I won a full refund+interest+costs and court costs)

My story sounds extremely similar... When you phone up you get a rude response who demand extortionate fees off you and refuse to give you access to the car until the next working day. The sneering continues when you're picking up the car "There were plenty of signs, you chose to risk it" etc.

We went to court, Clive the company secretary turned up very unprepared, holding on to one photo of my car next to one of their signs. The judge agreed that the sign was not clear. Clive protested that it is, and I quote "How can you not see the word warning" but the judge said that it could have been a neighbourhood watch sign etc.

Just like you state, the signs where I parked were extremely high and not prominent. The judge agreed with that too.

Spend some time on all the posts here, you will a lot of people in your situation who have ignored the invoices and eventually they just go away.

It has been stated that 70% of people pay up when they receive these invoices, fortunately, the other 30% are wise enough to realise that a private company can not impose a penalty on anyone!

Who is going to stop them? DVLA sell your details for £2.50 a time and make £6million a year from it, it certainly wont be them!!

don't know if its relevant here, but my claim against the PPC (clamping&towing) included all my costs (eg printing, postage and milage)... but when the judge ruled in my favour, she ignored all that and started to work it all out again and just let me claim for what I could under the small claims track (eg no costs for time preparing case + postage etc).

Sticking to the facts of the case, they claim you entered into a contract (as per the signs). The signs don't state that you will incurr further costs (eg solicitors or admin fees) therefore they can't add them on as they please

Can anyone help?

How can they make me pay £236.25 for a £100 fine??

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

Thanks

Jan

They can't fine you ... they are not the police!

Read up on here, but what they are trying to say is that you parked on the land, agreed to a contract (that'll be the signs you didn't see!) and then as you stayed longer than the permitted time, you agreed to pay £100.

Quite simple really, if they wanted to get this money out of you, they could sue you for it, and lets say in the unlikely funny world you lost your case and had to pay, the judge would make you pay the £100+interest and court costs, non of these other noddy charges! It is not worth the PPCs time and effort to try and win because 99.9% of the time they don't so would loose to much financially.

shame he's gone.... I was going to show him the picture of my car and the sign next to it.

Strange how I won in court ...

Well I thought so too, but I was told it is all to do with torts?!!

Recently went to court and the landowner was discharged because they had contracted the independent contractors and took all reasonable steps to ensure they were legit etc. etc.

Yes and the BBC news said this morning that they are still "thinking" about independent appeals....

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this just the occasional news story thrown in every now and again. Surely the flooding would be enough for the papers to write about without scraping the barrel.

Rather bored of hearing "The government are going to" or "In the new year" etc. etc.

I agree to sue the landowner, but it is not a open shut case. If the landowner states that they contracted the clampers in good faith then they can discharge the responsibility of their actions.

Just saw it too and thought I'd come on here to congratulate the daily mail ... I mean it's their massive campaign that brought this to this today, no one else had anything to do with it at all, oh and I must have been dreaming the day I sent my views to for the home office before the daily mail started their campaign!

don't always assume the landowner will loose!!

Their process of charging you clamping, towing and storage is currently legal .. or rather currently not illegal!

If you didn't see the signs then you have an open and shut case, though you are going to have to take this to the small claims court.

First write to the clampers and state exactly what happened and that you didn't see the signs as they were not prominent and therefore any restriction on the site was not clearly brought to your attention.

I hope you paid by credit card, if so, get on the blower and ask for a chargeback as you have now discovered it was an unlawful transaction. Chances are they wont want to know so just make sure it is marked as disputed (you will still have to pay when the bill comes thru though).

When you write to the clampers, state that if you don't receive a full refund you will take them to small claims court where you will be adding your cost of the train ticket and a day off work as it was unreasonable not to allow you to get your car back on the Sunday when you had agreed to pay their charge etc.

do any PPC bother to comply with the BPA guidelines .. members or otherwise? I think not!

CES will not give you your money back!!! You'll be lucky to even hear from them again!

State in your appeal that unless you get a refund within 14 days you will be taking court action. This is the only way to deal with CES.

Driver gets £60 fine after moving a yard through red light to let police van on 999 call pass | Mail Online

I remember this...

dont think you're getting it .. you weren't fined! They have issued you with an invoice. Only courts, police or councils have the authority to fine you.

What Al27 was saying is that they can only legally sue you for losses incurred, which as you have a permit is £0

Hi.. my wife was recently clamped and towed. It cost £425 to get the car back. I phoned the CC asking for a chargeback and they wrote and said that unless I proved it was unlawful then they couldn't help.

I have now won in court (and not by default) against the clampers. I called the CC today and they said that I couldn't do a chargeback and had to persue it using the courts and their baliffs. I don't want to risk any more costs trying to get my money.

I thought that under the CCA they were jointly liable and now that the action of the clampers has been proved illegal then surely the CC are liable for this and my costs as per their original advice?

My wife had the same thing for stopping on the red route, the NTO arrived and said we ignored the PCN or whatever it was that was served the month before... I called up and they had no problem accepting the less amount. We have still never received anything from TFL except the NTO. I wasn't allowed to fight this one, the guilty wife made me pay up!

it took my clampers about a week to collect my appeal from the post office according to the recorded post... When I sent the court papers online to the registered address / accountants they acknowledged the same day they would have received them. The accountants probably faxed them over

Read that letter again .. "WILL" or "MAY"

You have made the first mistake by replying to them.

Were you really there at 4-6am?

Anyway, Graham White does not know how to go to court, it is totally unheard of.

It's not a fine ... you have broken no law. You wont go to court and you only get a CCJ after you've been to court and lost... something which will never happen!

Just start ignoring it and make sure you don't speak to them!!

Dont get stressed about it.. just ignore it! Just read the posts in this forum.

The simple fact is if you were doing something really wrong and this world was a better place, the attendant would have come over and advised you. Sadly, if he did that he'd be out of a job! His wages are paid by this [problem]