Clamping Question?

[jeebowhite]

Hi Guys,

Where I work, we have to park in a residential area, they are threatening to start putting clamps on our cars! bar stewards!!!

Anyway, we park legally, and consideratly, we dont block the road, and we dont block the driveway.

If they put a clamp on my car illegally, do I have the right to take a set of bolt cutters to it, and remove it?

[RCJ]

check out:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/t_wheel-clamping_on_private_land.pdf

[Shauno2010]

best way is to seek legal advice

[jeebowhite]

Thanks, Unfortunately the issue is more to do with public roads, not private.

its not something we have worried about too much, the residents are more mouth than action! but it was just wondering, if they did clamp the car, could I claim it as a gift, since they trespassed on my car, and attached it to my vehicle, I can only assume that they wanted to give it as a gift...

[mintalkin]

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question568201.html

[johnH]

without looking at the links provided.

short answer is no, you cant cut them off as you will be commiting criminal damage...

in a related scenerio with clamping...my mates dad who had an old fiesta (ex-police) on his front court, DVLA turned up and claimed it was on public highways so they were clamping and removing in two days. he turned around and laughed and said i would come sooner than that...the towey just laughed and called his bluff.

well safe to say my mates dad, pulled an angle grinder and cut...not the clamp but rather the axel and cut the wheel off. he left the clamp with the wheel and got his mate to take it to a compound, hidden.

the towey turned up and the look of his face when he realised what happened...but couldnt do a thing. well anyways my mates dad took DVLA to court regarding false and illegal clamping. proved the land the car was parked on is actually his drive and won! got the money back in damages to repair the vehicle and is now on the road. dont know how but he did

ive read stories of people being clamped, they cut the padlock off, and leave a brand new one with keys to replace the old and the courts dont anything as you compensated them with a new lock.

i have the best reason to get my car unclamped straight away. "its a commisioned car, clamp it, your going to prison." they say "why" i show them MOD paperwork with the queens signiture on it ;)

[jeebowhite]

Lucky you being in the RAF! you do get some benefits dont you ;) oh well... Its crap really, and I havent finished reading the link by mintalkin so should try and do that later!

[spikeymj]

if it is a public road they cant touch your car dude if they do u can take them to court for damages it is a public road and you pay your road tax, it is agents the law for them to do it becoz the only ppl who can claimp on a public road is the local govement but there has to be signs up everywere and thgen they can only do it if your are in a permit area, yellow lines, keep clear or a set of red lines it is not agents the law for you to block a driveway if there is no car on the drive the police will do nothink if the person who owns the drive calls them they wont even come out good luck dude

[paramaniac]

Yep I agree with the other posts. If it is a public highway where you are parking, and as long as you don't commit any traffic offences, park on the pavement, block driveways and your vehicle is taxed, they can't do anything. Especially clamp. Clamping is restricted to SIA licenced personnel and only applies to private land.

You might !Removed! of the locals but there's nothing they can do about it, short of going to court to get an injunction. They could apply for an injunction against nuisance (if its a driver who obstructs an access repeatedly) and can also claim costs against the offending driver for necessary taxi expenses etc.

[jeebowhite]

haha, yeah, I know theres little they can do, I just needed to know what rights the unlucky sod (aka me and my colleagues) would have should they be pains! Shame really, I was looking forward to someone donating a clamp to my car. It would have been a nice little security feature.

Well since writing this post all those moons ago, the council / landowners where I work are now starting to build a car park for our use, so they wont have to put up with it much longer. Needless to say, since writing this article, I have yet to find my wheel decorated in yellow, shame really!

its amazing how few rights people have. If someone clamps my car, I could be inconvenienced and wouldnt be re-imbursed, and poor soles like Focus_DSL here, who had their car driven into by thieves, ends up car less and with a dent in the wallet. Why are we all Law Abiding Citizens again?

[Nigel S]

Surely if they are !Removed! that you block their driveways when you park, clamping the car so you can't move it isn't going to help?

[jeebowhite]

You would have thought so wouldnt you! its not like we park like muppets, we do park legally and safely, just they are annoyed that apparently "we pay our road tax and we cant even park on the road outside our house". 1) Get a job! 2) I didnt realise my road tax only covers the square feet from the pavement to the white central line, and as far as the boundaries of my house...

Needless to so yes clamping would have been silly, but hey ho!