Ask Honest John

Honest John Ask Honest John » My car was clamped and towed despite being in my friend's private space - must I pay the penalty?

My car was clamped and towed despite being in my friend's private space - must I pay the penalty?

My car has been towed away by a private firm. It was parked on private land. I parked it at 22:30 and it was clamped at 22:39, and towed at 23:05. On their website it says vehicles will be towed that have been “left unattended for a considerable length of time”. I think we can argue that 35 minutes does not fulfil this criterion. Furthermore, it was in my friend's designated bay. They are charging an extortionate £445 for this “service”. Whilst I am prepared to play a clamp fee, I cannot accept the towing without viewing it as an excuse to charge a further £185. Any advice would be fantastic.

Asked on 3 March 2012 by LO, via email

Answered by Honest John
They were licensed to do this by the last Labour government. From October 2012, when clamping will be banned under the Protection of freedoms Act, some of the same people will be licensed to extract much more money in smaller bites as Civil Parking Penalties from the registered keepers of cars parked on private land. There will be an appeals procedure set up by the British Parking Association, but that won’t be in place until October. In the meantime, anyone aggrieved by the behaviour of a private parking enforcement company should use www.britishparking.co.uk/AOS-Enquiries
Similar questions
I read your answer to the person who had problems with someone parking illegally on their driveway and wondered if the following solution might be possible? 1) Put up a sign saying that cars parking illegally...
A family bought a property nearby and they obviously buy and sell cars from it. I've seen cars from the lot with adverts in the windows and they park them in the high street and drop them back later. They've...
Having been clamped on private land (where I was working, I parked in the wrong bay at a block of flats last week), I now carry a powerful angle grinder in my van. The nice Russian lad who came to remove...