Private Wheel Clamping

One of the things I really hate is private wheel clamping.  Well boys, your days are numbered! 

Next month (November 2010) sees the Freedom Bill begin its passage through Parliament.  If its passage through the Commons and the Lords is successful, it will be unlawful to implement any clamping operation on privately owned land.  So it will be good riddance to the hired thugs who charge £150 for the release of a wheel clamp installed (usually as you approach your vehicle) just moments earlier - and who then extort another £150 from you for the 5 minutes it takes for you to return from a cashpoint machine!

I recently helped a client who was clamped, whilst sitting in his car, with the engine still running,  next to his 18 month old baby strapped into her baby seat!  Dad and daughter were waiting for wife and mum to exit the adjacent chemists with every parents' favourite recreational drug: Calpol.  My client came to me £470 poorer than when he turned his left indicator towards the gaping and alluring space by the (apparently private) kerb.

But what can we do now when faced with intimidating demands for obscene amounts of money from the fat boys in luminous jackets?

Well the starting point is to require sight of the clamper's written authority to clamp.  To become a licenced private wheel clamper, you need more than a warped desire to cause people distress and misery - you need, amongst other things, to abide by Clause 6 of the British Parking Association Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice.  This regulatory little beauty requires you to have written authority from the private landowner where you are operating.  When you are near shops or similar (ie where parking would appear to be an uncontroversial thing to try!) you might well find that, whilst the clamper has a written authority from "somebody," it is really just a "nobody" - in the legal and "property owning" sense.

If handing over cash is the better immediate alternative to arguing about the rights and wrongs of the Clause 6 authority, then don't despair.  You or your solicitor can write to the clamping company after the event to ask for the written authority from the landowner.  I suggest you do this under threat of an application for something called Pre-Action Disclosure (for the legal anoraks amongst us, see Part 31.14 of the Civil Procedure Rules...taken best with a very large brandy!)

If the clamping company refuses to co-operate with your reasonable written request, the Court will often Order that the disclosure of the key document  be accompanied by a cheque to reimburse legal costs!  That always feels good.

For a better feeling still (if through this process you discover that there is no valid authority for the particular piece of land you were parked upon) advertise locally for other victims of the same scam and bring a group action to recover all of the money improperly extorted during the clampers fleeting but highly profitable visit to your town.

If the Freedom Bill becomes law, then old fashioned "no parking" signals will come back into vogue - like the building of walls and the erection of gates.  If however, before that day comes, you would like help in tackling some luminous jackets, then please contact me via our website:  http://www.cwd-law.com/.