Tow-tally Peed Off!
Dervla | February 19, 2008Yours truly had her car towed last Saturday. Visiting friends, I had parked partially in front of their neighbours gate. So, neighbour decides to phone a towing company, as advised by the Gardai, before knocking next door. Needless to say I was rather shocked when I walked out after two hours and discovered it gone!
Helpful Garda gives me the name and number of the towing company. Heres the bit that really, really, really bugs me. On phoning, I’m told they close at 1.30pm on a Saturday. This was 1pm. I was in Cabra. My car was on the back of a tow truck making its way to Donabate. This journey involves negotiating the M50 roadworks on a busy Saturday lunchtime and the M1.
Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get a lift from my friend and the nice(!) towing company people waited for me to arrive at about 1.45pm. My car was still on the truck when I arrived, 10 minutes after the driver!
How can a towing company be allowed get away with taking your car and then shutting up shop? Yes, some might say I deserve to be inconvenienced for inconveniencing my friends neighbour, however, am I not entitled to have the option of retrieving my car?
€181.50 poorer, thats one experience I’d rather not repeat!
Now I understand why some people buy the biggest car on the market. The will never be towed
And another thing it is good to live good with your neighbours.
How is it in any way legal for someone to call up a company and get someone elses car towed? Surely the Guards have to come out – inspect the scene and then it be up to them to make the decision to get it towed, but for a civillian to take matters into their own hands like that, on the advice of the guards or not is disgracefull. I would investigate my legal options over that – it’s a case of people taking the law into their own hands, and the guards being lazy.
All I can say is deal with it.
Please we would all like some more entertaining articles here, like we have had recently.
You broke the rules, you paid the price.
If the the penalty doesn’t hurt, what’s the point?
Such is life.
Don’t feel sorry for ya one bit to be honest.
Used to have someone block my entrance all the time and the neighbours we’re less than helpful.
Why do people block people’s entrances anyways?
Towing someones car seems like drastic action. Did they have a sign clearly displayed informing you that cars parked would be clamped or towed? Was it a public road? Could they still access their driveway? The towing company are not the police, surely they cant just take away other peoples property and charge them for it’s return.
If it was so easy to get cars towed away then everyone would be doing it. They called the tow truck so surely they should pay for the truck, for any damage you find that may have been done to your car, and for the inconvience you suffered. You should check this out and if necessary contact a solicitor. I’m not one to advocate taking legal action but they brought out the big guns first.
The argument is between them and your friend not you. The Gardai may have told them to hire a tow truck but I doubt they fully understood the situation and were telling them to do what could be seen like theft and extortion. If it is legal then I’d just quit my job buy a tow truck and start towing away cars at random.
Thomas: Good point. I might query a Garda friend on that.
Stephen: I’m not looking for sympathy and I have dealt with it. I’m just querying the method applied.
Ben: At least you had the courtesy to speak to the neighbours! This neighbour (actually their offspring who doesn’t reside there) didn’t. Thats my gripe, along with the towing company closing early.
Dec: It was a public road, no signs, and I wasn’t completely blocking their driveway. I’d rather not instigate bad relations between my friends and their neighbour (who was very apologetic for their offsprings actions), however the legality question is certainly of interest.
Dec: Legally speaking you can not block an entrance to a private residence or gateway and if you do it contravenes the Road Traffic Act. The Gardai enforce the Road Traffic Act in this instance unless there is a private operator. You don’t need signage to indicate this.
All your neighbour would have to do is ring the gardai and the gardai can ring the tow company and have your car removed. Now in the instances where this kind of incident occurs the gardai will generally visit the location first.
Also the fact that you paid the removal would indicate that the neighbour probably didn’t authorise it. If they had of, they would’ve had to pay for it. The tow companies operate on a licence and tender contract for the Gardai. So i would imagine that the call to the tow company came from the Gardai.
I think the method is correct and it’s driver responsibility to be more careful about where they park. The tow company’s time of closing is more unfortunate than anything. surely they have a right to close whenever.
Thanks Ben for clearing up some of my questions.
I personally think you got what you deserve, i am currently waiting all day for someone to move there car from outside my driveway, if everyone just played along with the rules all would be happier. I would never block anyones driveway, i have elderly parents who need to be driven places and this person just comes along and parks there car outside my gate and leaves. This IS taking the law into your own hands. Play fire with fire thats what i say. Why would you block someone elses driveway – driveway my guess is you wouldnt be so understaning about it. You are responsible for you own actions and therefore it is your own fault i believe that you got what you deserved.
I’m so happy there ARE people out there who act on such things and maybe people like you will eventually learn your lesson.
I’m looking for advise on a problem I have with people blocking access to my driveway. My house is located at the end of a small cul de sac and as the roads are narrow, somone parking opposite my driveway means that i can’t get in or out of my driveway. I’ve spoken to the offending neighbour, but still having problems….going on for quite a while now and I’m loosing patience. what can i legally do if all else fails with neighbour?
I’m having the same problem with people either blocking my drive way or the whole road where people can’t get in or out. We got new neighbours recently but our neighbours next door keep blocking their drive way and in doing so the new neighbours can’t get in their drive so leave their car opposite which blocks the whole road then. U can’t get in or out without getting someone to move which is hard sometimes as they don’t seem to hear the knocks on their doors or pretend they don’t. This is a dangerous hazzard in my opinion as what happens if u need to take one of ur children or urself to the d doc in the middle of the night. It’s up to the county councils to do something about it. I rent my house but am seriously thinking of refusing to pay my rent unless they sort the problem. It’s ridiculous it’s no consideration they have drive ways to park in but leave their drive ways empty while blocking up the road. Inconsiderate fools! I’ve no sympathy for people who do this and they deserve to have their cars towed away.