cheap car towed away. Can I just leave it in the car pound?

[ramanujan]

Hi,

 

I've got a really cheap old Fiat Cinquecento that died on me yesterday just as I was parking it in a pay and display bay.

 

I didn't have a phone on me so I had to get the bus home, look up car recovery services on the net and arrange for a tow to a local garage. This took a couple of hours.

 

When I went to wait by my car for the tow, the car had been towed away.

 

I was told it would cost £250 to release it from the car pound, £60 for the PCN, £100 for the tow to the garage plus god knows how much to repair the car, if it's repairable at all.

 

Bearing in mind that the car is on it's last legs and only worth £200 or so, I'm tempted to leave it in the car pound and just ignore any letters they send me demanding money.

 

Could I do this?

 

I'm just so mad that they towed the thing away and resent having to pay all that money for a car that may never work again.

 

Any advice?

 

thanks

R

[dutchcourage]

Not really advice, just my opinion but i say go for it

 

There is plenty of advice on this site about fighting the pcn's. Have you got anything in writing or was it all dealt with over the phone?

[patdavies]

If you had genuinely broken down, that is enough to get the PCN rescinded, Once the PCN is gone, then the towing charge follows automatically.

 

You will need to pay it up front and appeal I believe, but at the end of the day all you will be left with is the recovery and repair costs

[ramanujan]

It was all dealt with over the phone I'm afraid (i.e. my call to the garage), so any appeal I make is probably not going to be successful.

 

I'm not too fussed about the £60 PCN....it's the cost of getting the car out of the pound, which will be £300 now (they add £50 a day for it being there) plus the cost of the tow to the garage and any repair...wich is likely to be prohibitive on it's own.

 

As I say, the car is only worth £200.

 

 

What do other people reckon? Would it be a bad move to leave the car in the bound and ignore the repurcussions.

As you can tell, I dont have much money

[ramanujan]

My Friend, who gave me the car 2 years ago (she got it for £300 from some dodgy guy up the road) was insistent that I pick it up and kind of scared me into going to pick it up late last night.

So we went to the pound at 10pm (it's open till midnight) and I was resigned to paying up. However, they were short stafffed and had closed early, so I'd arranged to go back today.

However, I really don't want to pay all that cash for what may end up being a pile of junk .

 

What will the car pound do? Just keep sending me letters and demands and then send the balliffs round?

The only thing I own of value is this laptop that I'm typing on and that cost £300. The baliffs can try and take that if they can find it

 

Help!!

 

 

PS....yes I had genuinely broken down

[crem]

Are we talking about a council car park or private PPC car park? To be charging £50 per day storage sounds excessive for it to be council.

 

On that basis, paying up front and appealing to a PPC is going to be a non-starter without going to court. Even then you're unliekly to get your money back from the PPC unless you also sue the landowner.

 

If it is a PPC then you may well be better off just leaving it.

[ramanujan]

Hi...its council.

It was in a pay and display parking zone.

In fact the car conked out just as I was pulling in to the bay marked on the road, which is weird.

[londoncass]

how can you go and pick it up if it had broken down!! Tell the council you can't afford their charges and therefore they are more than welcome to keep the car as payment!

[ramanujan]

how can you go and pick it up if it had broken down!! Tell the council you can't afford their charges and therefore they are more than welcome to keep the car as payment!

I have to call a garage to come to the pound to pick up the car.That will cost £100.

 

They said if they dont get payment, they crush the car and then send baliffs round. There's no scope for 'doing a deal'.

[londoncass]

Oh well if you have nothing but the laptop, let them send baliffs. When they come knocking just tell them the laptop is not yours and they can't take it!

[green_and_mean]

If its crushed you can get a refund on remaining road tax and use that towards the penalty.

[Jamberson]

If I were you I would inform the pound that you do not intend to pay to retreive the car and tell them to dispose of it. This should stop you racking up extra daily charges.

 

Next, write to the council and appeal the PCN. Explain about the breakdown and enclose all evidence - copies of paperwork from the company you called out (if any) or at the very least a record of the phone call you made. If you can demonstrate that you had broken down, then you've got a good case for having the PCN cancelled.

 

Assuming you succeed, write in and appeal the tow charges too. This is a separate process, but once you've secured a cancel on the PCN I can't see them enforcing tow charges, especially if you've forfeited the car.

[gwc1000]

ramanujan, are you 100% sure that storage is £50 per day?

[green_and_mean]

ramanujan, are you 100% sure that storage is £50 per day?

 

Its £40 in Croydon not sure where he got £50 from.

[ramanujan]

ramanujan, are you 100% sure that storage is £50 per day?

 

sorry, my mistake. It's £40.

[ramanujan]

If I were you I would inform the pound that you do not intend to pay to retreive the car and tell them to dispose of it. This should stop you racking up extra daily charges.

 

Next, write to the council and appeal the PCN. Explain about the breakdown and enclose all evidence - copies of paperwork from the company you called out (if any) or at the very least a record of the phone call you made. If you can demonstrate that you had broken down, then you've got a good case for having the PCN cancelled.

 

Assuming you succeed, write in and appeal the tow charges too. This is a separate process, but once you've secured a cancel on the PCN I can't see them enforcing tow charges, especially if you've forfeited the car.

 

I've just cycled down to the pound and asked if I could check to see if my car would start. He let me try and no, it didn't start.

The guy suggested , as you have, that I sign the car over to them. He reckoned that it's unlikely that once I've done this that they will chase me for the £250 towing away charge. I took a gamble and did this. Don't know if this guy knows what he's talking about but I took te chance that they won't come after me for the £250.

 

I did pay the PCN which was £40, but will appeal. I have absolutely no evidence that the car broke down except some bloke in a dodgy garage that I've used before who said he would call me back to arrange the tow yesterday but never did! I suppose I could say the guy at the pound wittnessed me trying to start the car, which he did.

 

If I get away with paying just £40 I'll be happy, even though I've lost my car. But to be fair it was only a matter of time before something big went wrong with it and I was going to have to scrap it. I couldn't go any long distances in it since it only had a 900cc engine and no working speedo and I couldn't get AA cover cos it was so old (1990)

[patdavies]

I did pay the PCN which was £40, but will appeal. I have absolutely no evidence that the car broke down except some bloke in a dodgy garage that I've used before who said he would call me back to arrange the tow yesterday but never did! I suppose I could say the guy at the pound wittnessed me trying to start the car, which he did.

 

 

It's al totally irrelevant now.

 

Once you have paid, that is the end of the matter.

 

You can't pay and then appeal a PCN; you pay or appeal.

 

By paying, you have admitted the contravention and thus validated the towing/storage.

[green_and_mean]

It's al totally irrelevant now.

 

Once you have paid, that is the end of the matter.

 

You can't pay and then appeal a PCN; you pay or appeal.

 

By paying, you have admitted the contravention and thus validated the towing/storage.

 

You can appeal a PCN of a vehicle that has been towed after payment otherwise you would have to wait months for it to go to PATAS before you got your car back.

[ramanujan]

It's al totally irrelevant now.

 

Once you have paid, that is the end of the matter.

 

You can't pay and then appeal a PCN; you pay or appeal.

 

By paying, you have admitted the contravention and thus validated the towing/storage.

The ofiicers at the pound said I could appeal and gave me a form to do so.

[Jamberson]

I'm pretty sure that you can appeal the towing and storage costs independently of the PCN, hence the form given out at the pound. It's not part of the PCN appeals process.

 

I would be most surprised if they didn't drop the costs now they have retained the car.

 

And although from a technical point of view a paid PCN can't be appealed, it's still worth writing an appeal letter - only costs a stamp. My local authority can and do issue refunds on paid PCNs if they consider it appropriate. While they aren't obliged to, they aren't prohibited either.

[green_and_mean]

I'm pretty sure that you can appeal the towing and storage costs independently of the PCN, hence the form given out at the pound. It's not part of the PCN appeals process.

.

 

Yes it is.

[ramanujan]

the form they gave me was to appeal the PCN

[Jamberson]

So what is the status of the PCN? fully paid, or open with a balance owing? You may want to call the local authority and ask them what their system says.

 

It doesn't make a great deal of difference to your situation. If it's open, you can appeal it. If it isn't, you can appeal the towing charge element.

 

Towing charges can be dealt with separately, but usually are not because most people pay the whole amount in order to retreive the car, and any subsequent appeal covers the whole amount.

[ramanujan]

So what is the status of the PCN? fully paid, or open with a balance owing? You may want to call the local authority and ask them what their system says.

 

It doesn't make a great deal of difference to your situation. If it's open, you can appeal it. If it isn't, you can appeal the towing charge element.

 

Towing charges can be dealt with separately, but usually are not because most people pay the whole amount in order to retreive the car, and any subsequent appeal covers the whole amount.

 

Hi,

 

This is what the officer at the car pound told me:

If I sign the car over to them, they probably won't come after me for the towing and storage fee. He said 'probably' and couldn't promise. However,I was kind of out of options, so took a gamble on this.

 

Next he said I should pay the PCN then appeal against it via a form he gave me. So I paid it and then filled in the form and sent it off to Croydon Council this morning.

 

As you can guess I'm pretty clueless about all this stuff. I just took the advice of the guy at the car pound and followed what he told me.

 

This was my first car and to be honest ,it's put me off having another car.

It seems that at every turn you get nailed

[nozzer2009]

It's al totally irrelevant now.

 

Once you have paid, that is the end of the matter.

 

You can't pay and then appeal a PCN; you pay or appeal.

 

By paying, you have admitted the contravention and thus validated the towing/storage.

 

Whilst i agree with most of your posts pat, im afraid i cant on this occasion. I have in the past paid and then appealed decisions. My last was with Chelsea who towed my car. I appealed and won.

But i agree with most of your posts lol