Clamping appeal

Peter B

I got clamped wrongly IMO in Dublin 2 weeks ago. I am looking to get it appealed.

After I submitted a form on the webappeals.ie to appeal the clamp they said I was wrongly parked and to pursue it further I had to appeal to the Independent Parking Appeals Services. I then asked them in a following email to send me all the information I submitted to them of the details of my clamping but they replied to me without giving me that information.

Their website should in my opinion send me copy of the details of my appeal when I submit it to them. I sent it in a rush so did not save it anywhere.

AM I entitled to get this information? Maybe under the data protection act?

mwrf

NCPS is a private clamping company and have no legal grounds to demand payment from you for their "services".

What exactly is the "Independent Parking Appeals Services"?
It looks like some attempt at self regulation on the part of these leeches. You should not have paid.

Legal discussion here:
http://blogs.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055629337

mwrf

Another instance here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055041472

Blanchguy

Just curious, but if someone parked on your property without your permission what would you do?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

To answer the OP's question:
I don't think there is any reason why you would be entitled to get the material back. If you sent any legal documents that you need for a further appeal then there is a case but otherwise no.

Peter B

mwrf wrote: »

NCPS is a private clamping company and have no legal grounds to demand payment from you for their "services".

What exactly is the "Independent Parking Appeals Services"?

I am not sure. When I asked for their contact details they told me to go to their website. I quickly googled it but had no luck.

mwrf wrote: »

It looks like some attempt at self regulation on the part of these leeches. You should not have paid.

I wish I had the choice. It was the Wednesday in Dublin when it started to snow just before lunch time. The whole city came to a standstill. I was driving home to Tipperary that day and when I saw the snow I wanted to miss as much of the traffic as possible. In the end it took me 5.5 hours to get to Nenagh.

Blanchguy wrote: »

Just curious, but if someone parked on your property without your permission what would you do?

I agree there are some merit to what clamping companies do. Without them town/city parking would be impossible and private spaces would be impossible to keep free. However in my case I feel it was not obvious that the space I parked in was a reserved spot (in the middle of a public car park). Also the fine was €120 euro. Whats stops them setting the fine at €1,000 since its apparently private property?

jor el

First off, were you parked in a parking space, did you pay (if it was a pay zone) and display (if required)? If it wasn't an actual parking space, was it something like a taxi stop area, loading bay, entrance way?

Before appealing anything, which I think is mostly a waste of time, you'll need to be absolutely sure that you shouldn't have been clamped.

Also, was this clamper working on behalf of the council, or a private company, i.e. were you parked on private or public property? This could be important, as I don't believe you'll get anywhere with a private company, but with the council you might have some hope.

Ste.phen

webappeals.ie is NCPS, a private company

Peter B

jor el wrote: »

First off, were you parked in a parking space, did you pay (if it was a pay zone) and display (if required)? If it wasn't an actual parking space, was it something like a taxi stop area, loading bay, entrance way?

Car parking space I parked in was a reserved space. I did not see the signs when I was parking. The car park was the Apollo House car park (on the left after Pearse St turns right before Pearse St Garda Station, also near Tara St) for anyone who is interested. As I drove up the ramp to the car park I had to turn left, left again and the space was the second spot to my left. There was a reserved sign on the ground but it was not possible to see from where I drove in. I thought it was just pay and display so I went to the ticket machine and paid for my hours parking. I put the ticket on my dashboard at the bottom of the windscreen. When I was next up in Dublin I did check the car park and there is a sign close to the ticket machine saying that some places are reserved but probably due to the weather conditions I was in (it was snowing heavily) I did not notice it.

jor el wrote: »

Before appealing anything, which I think is mostly a waste of time, you'll need to be absolutely sure that you shouldn't have been clamped.

Also, was this clamper working on behalf of the council, or a private company, i.e. were you parked on private or public property? This could be important, as I don't believe you'll get anywhere with a private company, but with the council you might have some hope.

I see what you mean. It probably is a complete waste of time but I do think its unfair that people like me who don't have €125 (€5 payment fee) to waste on a parking violation have to accept these fines. As I said before, I know clamping companies do do a useful job but in my opinion in my situation I was very hard done by!

Peter B

Peter B wrote: »

When I was next up in Dublin I did check the car park and there is a sign close to the ticket machine saying that some places are reserved but probably due to the weather conditions I was in (it was snowing heavily) I did not notice it.

Also I know this might be important. Text message services are allowed to start charging you lots of money without your knowledge if you subscribe because they have outlined everything in small print in the T&Cs which is not obvious to the user. This may be the case with me where the rules were stated but were just not obvious to see. Therefore I might not have a leg to stand on.

If the space was marked and reserved and you simply did not notice it then you won't be entitled to your money back.

However, if the space was covered in snow and it was impossible to see the reserved markings then I think you could have a case BUT you would have to prove that this spot was covered in snow and that that you could not possibly have seen that it was a reserved spot, photos would probably be required.

If it's the latter OP, it's totally unfair but I'd say the chances of you getting any refund are very slim. I noticed on another thread that that independent appeals board charge €20 to lodge an appeal so you could end up losing even more money.

jor el

Ooh, I'd say you're out of luck here. It was a reserved spot, and "I didn't know/see" is never going to be accepted as an excuse. You'll just waste more time and money appealing it.

dudara

I agree with jor el here. Unless you can demonstrate that there wasn't a reserved parking sign on the space at the time you parked there, you're caught for the fine.

tatli_lokma

sorry to jump in on this, but I had a similar situation ans my thread was moved to commuting.
I parked in a loading bay, but like OP this was not clear - the road markings were badly faded and also the sign which indicates the operational hours was missing, so it was not clear that it was a loading bay. I thought it was ok to park there.
I got clamped on behalf of Dublin CC, who said that there was no way to appeal the clamping at that stage, and that if I wanted to be released I had to pay and then appeal it after.
any advice on my chances of winning an appeal? I have photos showing no sign in place, and also photos showing other cars parked in the area, not clamped, and finally photos showing how other cars parked in the loading bay obscured my visibility of the road markings.

dudara

Cincikchick wrote: »

sorry to jump in on this, but I had a similar situation ans my thread was moved to commuting.
I parked in a loading bay, but like OP this was not clear - the road markings were badly faded and also the sign which indicates the operational hours was missing, so it was not clear that it was a loading bay. I thought it was ok to park there.
I got clamped on behalf of Dublin CC, who said that there was no way to appeal the clamping at that stage, and that if I wanted to be released I had to pay and then appeal it after.
any advice on my chances of winning an appeal? I have photos showing no sign in place, and also photos showing other cars parked in the area, not clamped, and finally photos showing how other cars parked in the loading bay obscured my visibility of the road markings.

Cincikchick - your thread is being answered over in Commuting & Transport. Yours is different to the OP's in that your thread is in relation to loading bays - which are legislated for under law.

Here the OP is dealing with a private company with private rules.

axer

Out of curiosity what is the procedure the OP should have taken here?

Go to the Gardai to report some sort of interference with your car? Cut the clamp themselves?

Del2005

axer wrote: »

Out of curiosity what is the procedure the OP should have taken here?

Go to the Gardai to report some sort of interference with your car? Cut the clamp themselves?

You can't cut the clamp yourself and the Gardai have better things to be doing then dealing with a civil mater.

griffdaddy

Del2005 wrote: »

You can't cut the clamp yourself and the Gardai have better things to be doing then dealing with a civil mater.

It's not a civil matter, interfering with a car is a criminal offence.

jor el

Del2005 wrote: »

You can't cut the clamp yourself

That all depends on the situation. If clamped by a private company, then you may not be doing anything wrong by cutting off a clamp. Many have done exactly this, and there was no penalty. However, cutting off the clamp could be construed as criminal damage, so the clamping company may be able to take action.

In short, you can cut off a clamp, but you may be opening yourself up to a whole load of trouble by doing so.

Olduvai

Under the Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 you have the legal right to request and gain access to all records that this organisation has on you whether it is in hard or computer format.

The data controller in the organisation has 40 days to comply with the provisions of the Acts after receipt of your request and if they fail to comply with legislation you bring the matter to the attention of the Data Commissioner who will investigate.

The data includes your letters, any records that the company generated on you including photos of the car etc.

MunsterCycling

Olduvai wrote: »

Under the Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 you have the legal right to request and gain access to all records that this organisation has on you whether it is in hard or computer format.

The data controller in the organisation has 40 days to comply with the provisions of the Acts after receipt of your request and if they fail to comply with legislation you bring the matter to the attention of the Data Commissioner who will investigate.

The data includes your letters, any records that the company generated on you including photos of the car etc.

This would be the route to take as has been stated above they will either have to produce the info requested or rescind and return your money or face a fine from the Data Commissioner, who isn't a nice man

It also has a nice side effect of increasing the cost of business for them. :eek:

DANG333

Was recently clamped in UCD, as my time had expired, but in my opinion the ticket machine was no clearly readable. I appealed and was sent out a generic email telling me to make sure my ticket was visible on my dashboard. So I rang up to ask why my appeal was not properly dealt with. It has come to my attention that there is no real appeals section in in NCPS, they just keep on sending you onto staff members who tell you to appeal to the Independent appeals (IPAS) and this costs a further €20. If you look into the directors and also the IP addresss register of this company you will see clearly that in fact it is not independent as they so claim. I have reported this the the National Consumer Agencey, and UCD and both seem very interested in this.