National Clamps, parked in neighbor's space and clamped, advice please!

[Famous bean]

Hi there, I posted this in pepipoo but I know some of you don't go there so it's good to get second opinions, here's what I posted:

 

I don’t know where to start, it’s a bit lengthy to outline the whole situation so I’ll give you the basics and then go on to details and a few interesting bits afterwards. Please have patents with me on this as I really need some help.

 

The simple version:

Parked in one of my neighbour’s spaces which is adjacent to mine, that was taken up by the visiting landlady at the time. I Come back to my space 30-35 minutes later and it’s been clamped which I had to pay £80 to get released.

 

Now the details:

 

Were I live we have three blocks of flats that has its own gated car park shared by all three on site. We have our car park looked after by National Clamps and we are each given a permit to put on display that has a serial number corresponding to our allocated space, it’s. Each space is numbered according to you flat number.

 

As I mentioned, my space was occupied by the landlady who owns the space, so I thought it was fair enough if I just parked up in the space next to mine for 30 minutes while I pop in to get ready for work. It was the middle of the day so obviously, by neighbour is out at work and their space was empty, as are most of the spaces at that time of day.

The landlady left and 10 minutes later when I get to my car and realise it was clamped, I asked the clamper why this has happened even though I had a permit. He said he realised and checked back with his office to make sure and when they got back to him they told him to go ahead because I was in the wrong space.

 

I phoned up the company and they wouldn’t listen to reason and kept saying the same thing that I ‘was in the wrong space’. The woman on the phone was very unhelpful to say the least and was acting like a child... but I’ll get on to that later.

So in a need to get to work quickly I paid up and the clamper gave me the relevant information to appeal.

So here I am, asking for advice since I want to contest this. You see the square we live only has a limited number of spaces compared to the number of flats and in the first couple of years before I lived there, they had problems with people parking anywhere they wanted, ones who didn’t even own a space. So after trying different ways of getting it to work properly like numbering the spaces to the flat, the resident’s association eventually decided to get a parking control company and National Clamps to help the problem. This is paid for with an increase in our annual service charge to the management company which pays National Clamps.

 

A few interesting things to mention, about a month ago the management came to the complex and did some maintenance on site, when the left they tore down the parking instruction and clamping signs form the lamp posts so we had no indication there was any parking enforcement in operation, I will post the pictures below. Furthermore, each year we are given a new permit with a few visitor permits to display which has the year printed on it. This year of 2012 they have failed to do so. As a side, some residents with garages who can’t be bothered lock up every time they use their car quite often park outside their spaces on a junction in our car park and it’s been quite obvious that there has been a lack of parking enforcement the past 18 months or so.

 

I’m thinking with these combined, it’s reasonable to appeal on these grounds that there is no indication any sort of clamping is in force.

 

I’m hoping to speak to my neighbour tonight, she doesn’t live in my block but the one next to it. I was thinking of putting a note on her car or in her post box and just asking if she could put something in writing to say she made no complaint and we are quite liberal with each others spaces should ours be used up and they are empty . After all, I have no idea if her or someone in her flat made a complaint, but that would make no sense, she’s seen my car every day for the past 3 years, I’m sure she knows it’s me in her space and for some reason I was just using hers quickly, we’ve all done it before in our square. I’m wondering if the clamper man just got embarrassed when I asked how did he know to come down here and clamp me so quick and he just said his office told him to check my car specifically.

 

The way it is supposed to be is that we as residents, get NC to work for us. If we decide between us to move a spot or use a space for 10 minutes or an hour and no complaint by the owner has been made, then I don’t fully understand the logic. When they first started working in our square, there were a couple of instances when a visitor was clamped but the residents had a word with them, letting them know works going on and it all was sorted out. Today, it seemed as if they didn’t want to know. When I spoke to the woman on the phone, I asked if it wasn’t obvious I was a paying resident, I have a permit, although not for the space it is for A space, it’s not like I’m someone off the street using someone else’s car park, if my neighbour was to come back she could have used my space. At which point the woman started laughing, which as you can guess, is a bit of a numpty thing to do. I then asked, since my neighbour’s space used up by my clamped car, if she was to use mine would she get clamped then? To which I got a very smug ‘yeah...and?’

 

It’s like these people go with the letters of an agreement without thinking of the philosophy behind it. No understanding, no intuition or common sense... I feel like I’ve ranted too much.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in the beginning, the landlady is my mother, I rent the place off her with my girlfriend, so there’s no point going down the route of passing it all on to the flat owner to sort out.

 

So I was thinking the part about no signage. I was under the impression that there is a requirement for there to be a sign x amount of distance between the land and the post?

 

Thoughts on actions I could/should take (if any) very welcome, thanks for reading.

[dx100uk]

if you paid by card do a chargeback

 

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/

 

dx

[assisted blonde]

Agree but it shows the dangers of employing these gfet rich quick [problem] merchants, if people didnt employ them then we would all be better off. I hate car clampers.

[Famous bean]

No such luck, I paid cash. damn.

[sailor sam]

Did the person who parked in your space get clamped? If not, why not? They can't have it both ways!

[Famous bean]

thanks for the replys.

 

@sailor sam: As I said, the person who parked in my space was the owner/landlady of the property , who is in fact my mother. She had left by the time the clamper showed up. I was in the other space no longer then 30minutes.

 

Also, I'm not the sort of person trying to get people clamped and expecting others to be, that's not why I'm here.

[sailor sam]

thanks for the replys.

 

@sailor sam: As I said, the person who parked in my space was the owner/landlady of the property , who is in fact my mother. She had left by the time the clamper showed up. I was in the other space no longer then 30minutes.

 

Also, I'm not the sort of person trying to get people clamped and expecting others to be, that's not why I'm here.

 

I wasn't suggesting that you were. What I was getting at is that as your space was occupied by the landlord, then they to should of been clamped also. If however they wern't clamped because that they were simply the landlord, then that should mean you shouldn't have been either. Now I've cleared that up, why can't the landlord (your mother) who indirectly caused you to get clamped, explain to the clamping firm what happened and get you a refund? As she is the landlord, surely she carries some clout here?

[lynol]

Not sure if i am posting this in the right place new on here but we are having the same problems on our estate, agroup of residents have formed a limited company and have decided they are going to control the parking on our estate, eg. getting cars towed,clamped if parked in wrong place, and also saying comercial vehicles are not allowed on site during the hours of 12 am - 5am. Are these people legally allowed to do this, i cant believe a bunch of residents can tell all the other residents how to park?

[dx100uk]

Not sure if i am posting this in the right place new on here but we are having the same problems on our estate, agroup of residents have formed a limited company and have decided they are going to control the parking on our estate, eg. getting cars towed,clamped if parked in wrong place, and also saying comercial vehicles are not allowed on site during the hours of 12 am - 5am. Are these people legally allowed to do this, i cant believe a bunch of residents can tell all the other residents how to park?

 

i'd start a new thread

 

dx