The grumpy thread

[Station]

While changing an engine recently I had a fellow gabbing away showing interested in what I was doing, and then came 'Do you want me to take that old engine away for you?' You should quote above the going rate of scrap metal, and when he haggles, haggle further upwards.

[RoadworkUK]

I've seen two Transit flatbeds, of the pikey persuasion drive past today, one carrying a tidy BRG Rover 200 (Honda Concerto generation), and one a damaged Megane Scenic.

 

What peturbs me more than them coming knocking on your door, is the idea that there are folk out there who say "Yes."

[Claypole]

  RoadworkUK said:

I've seen two Transit flatbeds, of the pikey persuasion drive past today, one carrying a tidy BRG Rover 200 (Honda Concerto generation), and one a damaged Megane Scenic.

 

What peturbs me more than them coming knocking on your door, is the idea that there are folk out there who say "Yes."

 

Nope the knock on the door is to see if anyone is in.

 

No answer and then whatever they've spotted on their driveby will be gone.

 

I'm pretty sure you could drive around in a hi-ab doing this day in and out and take anything where the owner isn't in and no one would ever stop you.

[Alexg]

  Station said:

Got both of my cars clamped today. They were parked untaxed in off-road carparking in front of my house. I've managed to remove one from the Metro (half an hour), and the other one doesn't have driveshafts, which will make the job easier. I'll probably have a fine, etc and face a court, but I'm past caring. I've only had the car less than a week, and it was getting on the road tomorrow.

 

Good job, now ring them up and tell them to come and collect their clamps. I don't see how you can be forced to pay anything?

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

[RedSparrow]

I am getting paranoid now. TR7 has been sitting on the road for a few weeks with a flat tyre and broken choke cable. Must move it before it recieves red hot hi-ab action.

[Richard]

  Leonard Hatred said:

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

 

I've seen a car with two clamps and "UNTAXED VEHICLE" stickers all over it.

[55bloke]

  RedSparrow said:

I am getting paranoid now. TR7 has been sitting on the road for a few weeks with a flat tyre and broken choke cable. Must move it before it recieves red hot hi-ab action.

 

I know exactly what you mean!

[Cavcraft]

  Richard said:

  Leonard Hatred said:

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

 

I've seen a car with two clamps and "UNTAXED VEHICLE" stickers all over it.

 

 

That'll be the DVLA as opposed to private clampers.

[Lankytim]

I remember reading about a woman who sued the DVLA's bank (as you cannot sue the DVLA directly) for the cost of a BMW they had mistakenly removed from a private parking area and crushed. I wish I could find the thread, it was bloody hilarious.

[retrogeezer]

  Richard said:

  Leonard Hatred said:

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

 

I've seen a car with two clamps and "UNTAXED VEHICLE" stickers all over it.

 

Yeh, commit this heinous crime and get publicly humiliated........surely this should be against your 'human rights'

[Lankytim]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/fo ... rong/page2

 

Check posts 24 to 27.... They don't like it up 'em!

[Rover414]

On top of what I mentioned before about the 75, I have two other grumps about it that maybe someone can shed some light on.

 

1. It has not been SORN'd since purchase (from an auction cat D salvage) so while have the relevant papers for it, it is not currently in our name so will the DVLA fine us for this when it comes to apply for logbook and then SORN (or tax) it?

 

2. It is in the wrong tax band. All other 75s with the same engine are £135 for 12 months tax, this one is £245. Why? This surely must be a mistake on the DVLA or whoevers part, even the V8 75s cost just a tenner more to tax. Hell even cars like TVRs etc were just a tenner more so there clearly must be an error?

 

Also this summer it will have been in the driveway for 3 years and I just hope it can finally be put back on the road by the end of this year. One can hope

[maxpower]

  Leonard Hatred said:

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

 

i got a £50 fine from "parking eye" who do the car parks for morrisons.... i went online to dispute the fine as i had been in the store shopping. and today i got a letter regarding my appeal but what made me laugh was the return to sender address on the back of the envelope

 

communists (tnt)

chorley

leeds

 

so stalin is alive and running a parking scam in leeds!!!

[retrogeezer]

your biggest mistake was appealing....if you get a 'parking fine' from any company other than the council traffic wardens/police you should just ignore it.

They will send you loads of letters/threats/letters from debt collection co's (usually from the same address as it's the same company) but all they are doing is sending you an invoice and it's up to you if you pay it.

 

http://forums.pepipoo.com/

[Negative Creep]

If it's a fine from a private parking company then the contract is with the driver of the vehicle, not the registered keeper. They can't prove who was driving at the time so basically they can go bollox

[Station]

It's getting well known now that you don't have to pay for private car parking fines. I can't imagine how much they've profited by now, and still are.

Just realised one of my clamped cars is in another person's name at a completely old address (from 2000).

[Richard]

  retrogeezer said:

  Richard said:

  Leonard Hatred said:

Clamping is considered extortion under Scottish law and has been outlawed for well over a decade. LAND OF THE FREE!!

 

I've seen a car with two clamps and "UNTAXED VEHICLE" stickers all over it.

 

Yeh, commit this heinous crime and get publicly humiliated........surely this should be against your 'human rights'

 

That's what I thought. It was a respectable Mondeo outside a respectable house so I doubt they had any intention of defrauding the taxpayer, it was the start of the month too.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

  Lankytim said:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?158267-DVLA-in-the-wrong/page2

 

Check posts 24 to 27.... They don't like it up 'em!

 

Good story!!! The DVLA are such a bunch of chancers! If I ever got a car clamped by them I would take the clamps off (unless I knew I was 100% guilty) and take it from there, there seems to be no procedure at all beyond that point so its just a case of putting up a damn good fight I reckon.

[Guest]

I would take the clamps off even if I was 100% guilty and plead ignorance to the whole thing, "what clamp" etc.

[Negative Creep]

Fucking DVLA again!

 

 

Just had a letter to my parent's address announcing they will be taking court action against me for keeping an untaxed vehicle. Except I sold the car back in August 09 by ebay and sent the v5 off. I moved from the address I was at soon after that sale so never heard anything more about it. Yet when I check on their site the car is still showing up as taxed until May of this year

[Station]

Same with traffic wardens! I got a fine through the post after I sold the car, I requested proof and evidence I'd sold the car, and they're still sending me letters, saying my appeal has failed and they haven't even given photographic evidence!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Heres another case of the DVLA taking away and crushing someones car then having to cough up for it afterwards. Wankers!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/fo ... .php?83485

[Station]

Ha!:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3112670.stm

[Negative Creep]

It is completely beyond me why in this day and age you cannot do a change of ownership online.

[autofive]

  Station said:

Ha!:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3112670.stm

 

see him in action.......

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQMq3hNv-g

[Guest]

Thing is with the DVLA is that as they treat people like an outlaw, I feel this gives people the right to act like an outlaw in return.

 

For example, some years back I got a SORN fine for something I had legitimately sent the paperwork off for (which had been taxed in the meantime anyway). However, you can't win against them - even if it is lost in their system, they will just quote the same old baloney about "proof of sending is not proof of receipt". I'm sure they can even wriggle out of it if you send it by recorded delivery. I also took offence to the fact that the fine is usually £80, but if you pay them quick it is "only" £40 - I've felt for a long time that half-price early payment deals should be illegal, as people are more willing to pay them when they're in the clear, rather than arguing the case. You wouldn't confess to a murder you didn't to commit to get half of a life sentence, so bollocks to accepting any sort of civil fine not due, it's the principle.

 

On that note, something the DVLA never make clear is that SORN fines are only a civil matter anyway, all dealt with through the County Court. You can't go to prison for non-payment, but they try to muddy the waters by referring to criminal acts where you could do (e.g. driving with no tax is a police matter). If an advertiser was this unclear, the ASA would step in, no question. As the DVLA is given free reign to say pretty much whatever they like, you just have to keep abreast of the law and never let them catch you out. I know that it is an absurd waste of money to issue a County Court Claim for £80, let alone try to enforce it - I never heard anything more of mine. To be honest, I wonder if anyone in the country has ever been issued a CCJ for non-payment of a SORN fine.

 

Anyway, these seizures seem to be with regards to two slightly different things:-

1. Removal of a SORNed vehicle from non-private land

2. Removal of an unlicensed vehicle on private land

 

With regards to a SORN vehicle on non-private land, what is considered private and not can be fairly surprising (and unclear). If you've SORNed your car and you don't physically own the land it is parked on, I would strongly advise you to read up on it. For example, a tucked away parking area behind a block of flats could well be considered not to be private (even an assigned space). On the other hand, if your street happens to be an unadopted road, they generally can't touch it. Of course, given all the "clarity" of the situation and the fact that it is farmed out to contractors, there'll no doubt be loads of cases where they've done it wrong - either through incompetence or just chancing their arm as people don't usually understand their rights.

 

On the other hand, the removal of unlicensed vehicles on private land was a power they were given a couple of years back (which was kept very quiet). Given that the whole thing is based around their computer showing things up as SORN, best thing you can do is regularly check everything you own to make sure they haven't messed it up and/or keep everything you own locked away out of sight, where no one can touch it.

 

Hope this is of some help to someone or other, I just like the info to be out there. Shouldn't have to be, but that's their fault for screwing people around.

[Station]

That's well written up, probably clearer than anything the DVLA have ever produced in however long their sorry, depressing, soul-crushing existance is.

I've only ever been in trouble with 'the governing bodies' (police, DVLA) a few times, and it's all bloody car related - one speeding, and the rest with the DVLA or whoever with the fucking fines. When in court last when the DVLA fucked up my license and I had to pay 240 quid to have my car released from a compound, and then a further 80 quid for court charges, the entire court dealt with motoring offences, everyone in there (about 14 people) was with a motoring conviction. I don't know what the convictions were exactly, but I bet most had the DVLA's stamp of disapproval on it. I'm serious, I'm not paying any fines, and I'm keeping their stupid yellow clamps to chuck in the boot for when I weigh a car in next or when I see a traffic warden's moped, the fuckers.

[Lankytim]

Hey Hirst, that "proof of sending is not proof of recept" really is a crock of shit. The DVLA have admitted in court that they cannot handle recorded delivery, as their system would blow up with the amount of signatures they would have to deal with. However, anything the DVLA send out is classed as "delivered" no matter what. So if you end up in court because you didn't receive a SORN fine- tough shit!

[Guest]

Bonkers isn't it? They've got a few funny little exceptions to the rule and I'd love to know them all.