Car Clamped & Towed from Private Road by LPC Parking Solutions

[THE ROADIE]

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone could help me,

 

my car was clamped & towed a couple of weeks ago from a private road by LPC Parking Solutions.

I had parked there as I was visiting a resident who lived on the road.

I didn't see any of the signs from walking from my car the the persons flat.

There were no road markings so I thought it was ok to park there.

There was one sign quite high up on a lamp post within 20m of my car and the next one was hidden behind a tree/bush on the side of the building (more than 20m away from the car).

The sign closest to the car I did not see, as when I got out of the car I went straight to the boot of the car to get some stuff out.

 

I was parked there for about 2 hours, when by chance I was on the balcony of the flat, I saw an ominous looking man hanging around my car.

 

He saw me, my girlfriend and the resident on the balcony of the flat looking right at him then he walked away from the car

and we noticed there was a bright yellow clamp on the other side of the car where it was very difficult to see it from the flat.

 

We went down to challenge him and saw that he had slapped a PCN and a clamp on the drivers side of the car, again not visible from the flat.

 

I asked him how much to remove the clamp and he said £450! What a joke.

 

Literally 2 minutes after I got down to the car a tow truck arrived.

 

I was not happy as I do not have this sort of money just lying around.

 

Anyway whilst arguing with the man he then said that if we got there before the tow truck arrived it would have been £330 to remove the clamp!

We had got there before the tow truck arrived but he didn't tell us it was £330 from the off.

He said straight away it was £450 because he had called the tow truck.

 

Well after that he told the tow truck to go as we weren't paying and didn't give us any form of paper work and left in his van.

 

We then phoned up the company to see where they had taken the car and the people on the phone were very agressive and rude.

 

They hung up on us several times, and even threatened to put the price to release the car up (after they said it would cost £550 to get it back)

if we persisted in asking for the company's SIA number.

In the end it cost £525 to get the car back from Edmonton.

 

I would appreciate any help!

[Cardiff Devil]

Who does the road belong to? You may need to sue both them and the clampers to get your money back.

 

They can't charge you extra just because they've "called the truck", that's a common tactic that they use.

 

You will need to go back and get pictures of all signage, especially ones that are high up or obscured.

[THE ROADIE]

Thanks, I took some pictures of the signs they had up, which I didn't see when I first parked the car. I was made aware of them by the clamper after the car had been clamped. I also notice on the receipt it says the reason I was clamped & towed was because I was not displaying a permit, however there a no permit holder only signs on the road, only the clamping company's generic, vague and frankly inadequate signs. There are no road markings (lines) on the road either which led me to beleive it was ok to park there. I am currently writing an appeal letter which will probably get me nowhere, but I will be copying it to the Landlord and the Local MP. I will also be seeking compensation from the company/landlord for the 2 scratches they left in my front passenger door. Thanks for the help Edit: for some reason whenever I post it loses all the formatting, It happened in my original post too. Thanks to the mod who formatted it for me.

[Dragons Dennis]

This case hinges on the law of TORT. You have been charged an amount for trespass effectively. It is a private road and thus private property. The signs are displayed and you still parked.

 

HOWEVER, you say you didn't see the signs and thus the case changes direction. The clamping company forms a contract between themselves and you at the point you read the signs and choose to park anyway. You didn't read the sign and thus cannot agree to its contents. The clampers will try to argue that you read them retrospectively, but that does not count in court.

 

Do not waste a penny 'appealing'. Write to both the clamper and the land owner demanding a full and immediate refund or you will sue both jointly in court for your financial loss. It is almost cast in stone that the clamper will eitrher ignore you or just refuse. The land owner may or may not cave in. If you don't get your refund, take them both to court as co-defendants.

 

In court you should win the claim and the clampers will then either ignore the courts demand to refund or will change their Ltd co name. The landowner however is not is such a position and will have to pay if ordered by the judge.

 

Dick turpin did something very similar many years ago. Highway robbery that was called and I have no problem printing on a public forum that this is again Highway Robbery.

[THE ROADIE]

Great, Thank you very much for your help!

[THE ROADIE]

Great, Thank you very much for your help!

 

I have noticed that the PPC have scratched my car, but their signs say they accept no responsibility for any damage. Would I be able to get them done for criminal damage? Thanks for the help

[Dragons Dennis]

Absolutely. Doesn't matter a hoot what their sign says. If they damaged your car, that is criminal damage. Of course, the police will don their usual dodge the point thing of 'civil matter' which criminal damage is not.

[chattyjacey]

The same thing happened to me this last Sunday. I am trying to sue LPC and the owner of the car park (that I believe is Catalyst Capital) to get back the money extorted from me. I was just wondering what happened - did you get anywhere? It is easy to get the names and addresses of the directors (Aaron Scott and Nathan Darrah), but they are clearly going to try to disappear when chased.

[chattyjacey]

A PS to my last. I have checked a register of county court judgements, and I notice that in their 18 months of existance, LPC Parking Solutions have racked up 6 unsatisfied judgements against them, for amounts ranging from £300 to £700. Their address, 27 Old Gloucester Street, turns out to be a PO Box (no actual office at this address). My conclusion is that the only chance is to identify the owner of the car park, and sue them. You can identify the owners of land via the Land Registry.

[BankFodder]

LPC PARKING SOLUTIONS LIMITED are now in liquidation.

[themagician]

is this thread really two and a half years old ???? and still running.no conclusion yet

[chattyjacey]

Hi, This is two and a half years old, but there have been some conclusions. Firstly, the 'Protection of Freedoms' Act became law on 1st October 2012 and, among other things, it made it illegal to clamp or tow cars that were trespassing on private property. Thus, the menace of aggressive and dangerous looking people impounding your most valuable moveable asset and holding it to ransom is now illegal. LCP (one of the companies who made money in this way) has, naturally, disbanded, and their directors, such as Ross Jackson, are probably now creating new companies that fleece consumers in new ways.

 

My story also has a conclusion - and a happy one. It would have been impossible to recover money from Ross and his fly-by-night band, but (on the advice of this site) I also sued Savills and their land-owner client Catalyst Capital. Savills agreed that the 'charge' had been excessive and returned £300.

 

I used MoneyClaim and went to a County Court, all on the advice of CAG. I'd never done anything like this before, and I found it a positive and empowering experience. More exciting than stressful, as I was so pleased to be able to do something rather than just give in to this sort of bullying. I am very grateful to the people who run this.

[themagician]

Hi, This is two and a half years old, but there have been some conclusions. Firstly, the 'Protection of Freedoms' Act became law on 1st October 2012 and, among other things, it made it illegal to clamp or tow cars that were trespassing on private property. Thus, the menace of aggressive and dangerous looking people impounding your most valuable moveable asset and holding it to ransom is now illegal. LCP (one of the companies who made money in this way) has, naturally, disbanded, and their directors, such as Ross Jackson, are probably now creating new companies that fleece consumers in new ways.

 

My story also has a conclusion - and a happy one. It would have been impossible to recover money from Ross and his fly-by-night band, but (on the advice of this site) I also sued Savills and their land-owner client Catalyst Capital. Savills agreed that the 'charge' had been excessive and returned £300.

 

I used MoneyClaim and went to a County Court, all on the advice of CAG. I'd never done anything like this before, and I found it a positive and empowering experience. More exciting than stressful, as I was so pleased to be able to do something rather than just give in to this sort of bullying. I am very grateful to the people who run this.

got it now, just mystified as no dated conclusion as to how events ended,that was when??.

[chattyjacey]

The incident happened 1st/2nd July 2012. I finally got a settlement from Savills August 2013. So it did drag on. I was quite tempted to drop it after the new legislation and LPC disappearing. In effect, this battle has been won through the government bringing in legislation to stop it, and my case didn't really matter. You could argue that this thread is no longer of much relevance, but it does show that it is worth fighting if you believe you are being bullied. I still lost several hundred pounds and some time, but I felt much better being able to fight back.