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Your car is clamped or seized, but you rather a new car anyway Check the clamping passes the enforcement compliance test and if it does not then read on: Clamping of motor vehicles on private land is a criminal offence. Section 54 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. You can report the crime to police, and clamping on a public road is also illegal under Regulation 17(3) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 when the driver (not necessarily the owner) has not received a statutory Notice of Enforcement, or the vehicle does not belong to the liable person.
This method should only be used with LOW VALUE vehicles or vehicles near the end of their service life because this is a neat way to get a new car at a bailiff's expense by simply taking advantage of his abuse of authority. For high value vehicles, use bolt cutters or pay & reclaim If the vehicle has already been removed then you can also consider using the small claims court route of recovering a seized vehicle. Make a formal complaint against the bailiff citing chapter & verse on the regulations. This is how to make a formal complaint, and use the template below as your grounds for your complaint, DO NOT change its legal content. Make a formal complaint about a bailiff illegally using a wheel clamp.
Send the completed complaint to the court that issued the bailiff's certificate, then afterwards, email a copy to the bailiff's head office. Watch that clamp - and possibly your old jalopy disappears too! If the clamp alone disappears leaving the car behind, better luck next time, your bailiff wasn't so stupid. Attend the formal complaint hearing anyway, you might still get an award. When the clamp AND the car quietly disappears in your absence, make a claim against the council for excessive levy and non-compliant taking control of goods using this template which is a combined Formal Complaint and Letter Before Action. Bespoke it where possible leaving the legal content intact but you can load your extras into the spaces provided. Make a "letter before action" and claim damages.
Wait 14 days then file a claim in the county court using a Form N1 using the following non-particularised statement of claim, amend to suit your circumstances but do not change its legal content. Claim particulars, these are your "grounds" for making a claim at court.
When the court sends you the form N149 Allocation Questionnaire to complete and return, you will be directed by the court to file what is called a particularised Witness Statement. Use this template to make your witness statement and file at court and serve it on all defendants. Make sure your added expenses match that of your Letter before Action letter. Make a claim if the vehicle seized is a disproportionately higher value than the debt being recovered.
If you are certain your old car has been sold by the bailiffs, you can make another separate formal complaint against the bailiff for excessive levy or non-compliant taking control of goods, but leave this for a month or two and after the car has been sold, (and assuming the bailiff hasn't lost his certificate from your wheel clamp complaint), otherwise the court might list both complaints for the same hearing date. DO NOT change the legal content of the complaint grounds. Make an EAC2 complaint if you have been exposed to an unlawful loss by a bailiff.
Et Voila! What goes around comes around. You get paid for a replacement car and it doesn't matter if its a nicer car because "betterment" is term used in insurance contracts and no such contract exists between you and the council, you are allowed to claim the cost of a replacement vehicle of similar and roadworthy condition plus all your costs & expenses given in the template on the basis you researched this legal work all by yourself as a litigant in person.
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