Advice On Car Being Clamped.

[saintpeter48]

Yesterday i had my car clamped outside of my home with a notification that it was untaxed, on going through my bank statements i have been paying a DD every month of £11.73, last monthly payment was on 1st August. The clamping company want £260 to release the car and then they say if they're wrong I can claim the money back.
Sure enough I checked the DVLA website and it shows my car as being untaxed, there is an administration problem somewhere, I have been paying money to the DVLA in all good faith every month, friends say I should get someone with a disc cutter to remove the clamp as the car has been clamped illegally, its the DVLA who are in the wrong and not me.
Any legal advice from anyone would be most welcome, thankyou.

[THECORBYLOON]

Of course, you're right about the surety fee.

[saintpeter48]

Latest update!
Ive just paid the £100 release fee, they did not charge me the surety fee, I suppose its because I cancelled my original monthly DD and set up a new monthly DD, I now have to try and claim the £100 back and also all of the past monthly DDs, its an error on their part as I have bank statements showing the monthly payments.
I've also been told that it may take a few days to unclamp my car, very convenient on this bank holiday w/end for a 74 year old living alone!!

[andy-hughes]

It is clear that something has gone astray somewhere.

Your first contact needs to be with the clamping company, pay and get your car released.

Yes it's a pain, and possibly wrong, but neither of those get you access to your vehicle.

Your second contact needs to be the DVLA, and you can discuss your payments to them, and ask for receipt of them, if indeed they have received them.

Once you have unravelled the situation, if you can prove that clamping company were not in receipt of information to lead them to legitimately clamp your car, you can sue them.

If they do have legit info, then hopefully you can claim your fees back.

[choux]

saintpeter, this is a dreadful situation to be in, you have my every sympathy. Please let us know how you get on with reclaiming the expenses. Sod's law that it would be on a long weekend too:(

[Hymie]

Whoever is at fault, the DVLA or the clamping firm, besides asking for all my money back, I’d check out the cost of hiring an equivalent vehicle (including insurance) for the entire period the car was clamped – and expect them to pay me that sum, regardless of whether I would have used the vehicle or not.

[Hymie]

Adding to the above – some years ago in the UK there was some rich footballer who owned a fleet of supercars - one of his cars was involved in a crash (not his fault) and he hired a replacement supercar while his supercar was being repaired; the total hire costs ran into many thousands of pounds.

The others insurer refused to pay for him hiring the supercar, noting that he had many other cars he could have driven. They lost the court case; the judgement being that his hiring the supercar placed him back in the position had the crash not happened (nothing more).

[Hymie]

Given the general incompetence of people working for the government and their agencies – it’s unlikely that you are the first to find yourself in this situation – and they may have a compensation scheme in place for those whose cars they illegally clamp/tow.

Adding to the above – I’d want compensation for the embarrassment of my neighbours thinking I was deliberately driving my car un-taxed. This figure alone could run into thousands of pounds.

[drmorgans]

Have you got the "legal advice" option on your car insurance? Might be worth a call.