DVSA No 'Rent' Clampings and a Fer Shale

[Faker]

Bit of a gripe for me this one...

 

Details to follow

[Faker]

I used to autotest an old nova. I was told to update it as it was getting tatty, cue a nice corsa b. I'd stripped the interior bar the drivers seat.

 

The house I was in at the time had a huge piece of tar down one side. It was done for ease of maintainance, it had been grass at one time. The corsa was sorned and kept on this strip of tar, which ran next to the public pavement. It is clearly visible to see the BT junction box, which stands on the footpath and not on the private ground, which you'd have thought was enough of a sign that the huge patch of tar was private...

 

Story goes like this.. corsa gets clamped and I call the clamper and dvla, and tell them it's on private property. Clamper said it was public and clamped the car, dvla said pay up or you'll be in court. I replied with fine, let's go to court. I'd stated that the car wasn't to be crushed as this was going to court.

 

Whist waiting for court day I'd gone to land registry and got the site maps for the property showing the ground and boundaries, which included the strip of tar. I'd also gone and got official letters from the council and doe road service, stating the ground was privately owned and not council or road service maintained.

 

Court day I arrived armed with my documents and my solicitor. He went in and came back out a short time later, smiling, that's it.. been withdrawn from court. The dvla will be in touch.

 

Dvla did get in touch. Short letter stating that no further action was to be taken. No apology... nothing..

 

So I contacted the clamper and asked for my car back. It had been crushed. I contacted the dvla who said it had nothing to do with them, the clamper is responsible as they clamped the car and made the mistake. The clamper washed their hands of it as they acted within the guidelines, and gave me a number for their head office on the mainland.

 

Now.. at this stage I'm down a very tidy corsa b, land registry charges, official letter charges, a day off work, and a solicitor bill. I wanted some money back!

 

Head office call went something like this...

 

Yes we're aware of this case, all you're entitled to is the scrap value for the car, I've the invoice here.. it was £65. So.. what about my extra fees? I was told I'd have to take the head office to court, on the mainland if I wanted to chase my money..

 

Needless to say they all won, I didn't have the time, or surplus money to take it any further... I was down about £1,200 already, with the price of the corsa and the incurred fees, and this was all just to clear my name... I'd have been better off if I'd just paid the fuking fine!

[SiC]

I used to autotest an old nova. I was told to update it as it was getting tatty, cue a nice corsa b. I'd stripped the interior bar the drivers seat.

 

The house I was in at the time had a huge piece of tar down one side. It was done for ease of maintainance, it had been grass at one time. The corsa was sorned and kept on this strip of tar, which ran next to the public pavement. It is clearly visible to see the BT junction box, which stands on the footpath and not on the private ground, which you'd have thought was enough of a sign that the huge patch of tar was private...

 

Story goes like this.. corsa gets clamped and I call the clamper and dvla, and tell them it's on private property. Clamper said it was public and clamped the car, dvla said pay up or you'll be in court. I replied with fine, let's go to court. I'd stated that the car wasn't to be crushed as this was going to court.

 

Whist waiting for court day I'd gone to land registry and got the site maps for the property showing the ground and boundaries, which included the strip of tar. I'd also gone and got official letters from the council and doe road service, stating the ground was privately owned and not council or road service maintained.

 

Court day I arrived armed with my documents and my solicitor. He went in and came back out a short time later, smiling, that's it.. been withdrawn from court. The dvla will be in touch.

 

Dvla did get in touch. Short letter stating that no further action was to be taken. No apology... nothing..

 

So I contacted the clamper and asked for my car back. It had been crushed. I contacted the dvla who said it had nothing to do with them, the clamper is responsible as they clamped the car and made the mistake. The clamper washed their hands of it as they acted within the guidelines, and gave me a number for their head office on the mainland.

 

Now.. at this stage I'm down a very tidy corsa b, land registry charges, official letter charges, a day off work, and a solicitor bill. I wanted some money back!

 

Head office call went something like this...

 

Yes we're aware of this case, all you're entitled to is the scrap value for the car, I've the invoice here.. it was £65. So.. what about my extra fees? I was told I'd have to take the head office to court, on the mainland if I wanted to chase my money..

 

Needless to say they all one, I didn't have the time, or surplus money to take it any further... I was down about £1,200 already, with the price of the corsa and the incurred fees, and this was all just to clear my name... I'd have been better off if I'd just paid the fuking fine!

Could you not have taken the clamping company to the small claims court to regain the funds you lost?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That's really bad innit. Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I wouldn't pin much hope on the small claims court myself. Surely the clamping contractor will turn up and say 'we're just doing what we've been told to do by the DVLA" or whatever, then whats the small claims judge gonna do? Its just a really bad shitshow of private execution of state policy. I'd be friggin livid, but I really wouldnt know what to do beyond what faker has done.

[Faker]

Could you not have taken the clamping company to the small claims court to regain the funds you lost?

Sought advice from my solicitor. Not that easy... solicitor was baying for blood, and wanted some sort of compensation payment, but it meant taking a claim against the clamping company, not a sub contractor.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Be interesting to do a FoI request to find out what guidance DVLA give to their contractors about clamping cars not parked on the roadside mind you.

[Faker]

There's issue over public place, public excess, and private property. The tar strip along my old boundary was private property. As such no doe roads, bt, water board or any other agency could dig it up or work on it. It was as if it was still my garden, only covered in tar. It was being used as a driveway! The clamper just assumed it wasn't privately owned and clamped away.

 

Funnily enough. There was another thread on an NI car forum, some years ago, and I'd posted a similar reply. One of the clamping firm operators was also on the forum. He basically called me out and called me a liar! He ranted and raved how he was going to make a boy out of me. He asked for the registration mark, which I provided.... he never returned to post again on that thread!

 

It's never going to go away! I'm bitter about this. I was wrongly clamped, taken to court at a huge personal expense, for the matter to be withdrawn from court. It never made it to the court. None of the agencies apologised for the mistake. None of the agencies cared. They passed the blame.. and I got no satisfaction at all (see.. still sore about it!). You can rest assured I'm not the only one..

[Snipes]

So I assume they clamped it, and at some later date, took it away?

[sierraman]

Crushed after the pikeys who lifted it stripped everything they could fit in the boot to flog on eBay.

[forddeliveryboy]

It's never going to go away! I'm bitter about this. I was wrongly clamped, taken to court at a huge personal expense, for the matter to be withdrawn from court. It never made it to the court. None of the agencies apologised for the mistake. None of the agencies cared. They passed the blame.. and I got no satisfaction at all (see.. still sore about it!). You can rest assured I'm not the only one..

Don't let it eat away at you, move on, learn from the experience and bear in mind that as far as state apparatus goes, the individual is irrelevent unless there's huge adverse publicity and most of the country cares, as in the Windrush affair.

 

When there's a mixture of state and private involved, the perfect excuses exist which allow them to behave very unpleasantly with little or no chance of retribution. Things are definitely growing worse, we appear to have taken on European levels of faceless bureaucracy and US style justice over the last couple of decades.

[jakebullet]

Wasn't you tempted to introduce the illegally applied clamp to mr angle grinder? Your clamps dumped over there in the public road, see you in court if you're not happy...

[D Spares & Tyres]

If any of my cars were to get clamped then I would just winch it into my trailer and take the lot away for safe keeping. It's obviously illegal to damage their clamp but I don't think it would be to remove the whole car.

 

or you could just drop the bottom ball joint and remove the clamp...

[Des]

I was clamped some years ago after I genuinely forgot, pulled the clamp and went straight for an MOT, ignored lots and lots of letters until a court one came, sent them a copy of the MOT with a most fantastical covering letter explaining my imaginary frustration at the DVLA ignoring all of my non-existent communications and it went away, maybe I'm naughty but they're dickless pieces of shit. Still have the clamp, the lock is one of those big flat dimpled key fuckers, a big cable tie pointy end trimmed 1/2'' jiggered it open with a small screwdriver, maybe I should blob a weld on the keyhole and return it the next time I'm stuck behind the wankers blocking a road.

[Faker]

So I assume they clamped it, and at some later date, took it away?

Yes I'd 48 hours to mot and tax it, pay the fine for breach of sorn too. I wasn't for paying it. I did however instruct the clamping company that it was being contested. They crushed it 14 days later.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Silver Beemer locally.... parked up on  the cycle lane for a while now, it does change direction every couple of days but has the plates removed. Untouched.

Maybe it's just waiting for a new set of Romanian or Bulgarian plates, because untouchable.

[Faker]

Wasn't you tempted to introduce the illegally applied clamp to mr angle grinder? Your clamps dumped over there in the public road, see you in court if you're not happy...

  

If any of my cars were to get clamped then I would just winch it into my trailer and take the lot away for safe keeping. It's obviously illegal to damage their clamp but I don't think it would be to remove the whole car.

or you could just drop the bottom ball joint and remove the clamp...

I wish I'd the balls to just cut the chain or drop the ball joint! With me going all the way to clear my name lawfully, I don't see me removing it to cause more trouble for myself.

[flat4alfa]

I taxed a car on a Sunday afternoon.

 

And was pulled over by an irate Traffic plod on the Wednesday. 

 

ANPR is all very well, but if the Police database is THREE DAYS behind DVLA then there is no hope for the world.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

... Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing....

It's designed that way so that nobody is accountable.

[New POD]

Wasn't you tempted to introduce the illegally applied clamp to mr angle grinder? Your clamps dumped over there in the public road, see you in court if you're not happy...

I would do this and hide the car and then demand my car back.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Maybe it's just waiting for a new set of Romanian or Bulgarian plates, because untouchable.

 

HOUSE!!!!!

[sierraman]

I'm not starting a big EU debate here but do foreign plated cars get tickets? I see a fair few RO plated cars sailing through the 70 cameras on the motorway at 90+.

[DodgeRover]

I'm not starting a big EU debate here but do foreign plated cars get tickets? I see a fair few RO plated cars sailing through the 70 cameras on the motorway at 90+.

If they physically get stopped the driver can have points added to there licence that are only valid within the uk in addition to a fine that they may or may not bother to pay depending on duration of stay etc.

Otherwise even if a letter makes it home I've been told by colleagues they just ignore them as there's no chance they will pay.

These days with digital cameras etc there's no reason speeding fines etc couldn't be enforced when leaving the country - at the docks outstanding fine? Join that line for the cashpoint sir or we confiscate your vehicle.

[Snipes]

I would do this and hide the car and then demand my car back.

That's basically what happened only they hid the car from him.

[Faker]

Here's where the legal system really falls down. I don't get legal aid. I work and pay my way. I was totally in the right... and foolishly thought if this went to court and I won, court would have awarded me damages, and the dvla would have got landed with costs... Nah... no such luck! Withdraw from court, no apology, get fuk all and be out a fortune!

[Faker]

See!!

 

I'm still sore about it!

 

Shower of kuntz