Wheel Clamping Law
The law relating to parking on private land without permission from the legal occupier comes under the laws of trespass. Anyone who enters and parks on privately owned land without the permission of the legal occupier will be trespassing on that given piece of land for the duration they are there. If the claimant can prove the trespass is legal he is entitled to recover nominal damages, even if he has not suffered any actual loss or damage. If the trespass has caused the claimant actual loss or damage he is entitled to receive an amount that will compensate for that loss. If a claimant can prove that a trespasser has entered and made use of the claimants land without permission, the claimant is lawfully entitled to receive a reasonable level of compensation in the form of damages for that use. A claim can also be made where there is a breach of parking regulations that are clearly stated on warning notices.
Test Case: In 1995 wheel clamping on private land was challenged in the High Court. The case Arther v Anchur is a well known and documented case. A driver parked his car on land in the Town of Truro he returned to find the car had been clamped. The case started in a small claims court and ended up in the High court where a ruling was made against the motorist. It was concluded that the motorist saw the warning signs and chose to ignore them. The breach of contract made him liable to pay for the release of the clamp.
CONTRACTUAL LAW:
By parking and thus ignoring the warning signs the offending motorist has entered into a contractual agreement to pay a parking charge. We operate our collection procedures under the Administration of justice act 1970.
DVLA CODE OF PRACTICE FOR PRIVATE PARKING ENFORCMENT:
The company adheres to the DVLA’s code of conduct to ensure lawful ethical and fair business practice when obtaining the offending vehicles registration details for the purpose of enforcing parking charges which remain un-paid.
DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998:
All info obtained from the DVLA is treated in the strictest of confidence and will not be passed on to any third party other than approved BPA operator credit control specialists.
British Parking Association
The BPA are an accredited body of the driver and vehicle licensing agency that has produced a code of practice that reflect the rights of the motorist and of the landowner. A copy of the code is available on their website www.britishparking.co.uk
