Van removed illegally from MY private space

thiscatisalandmine

Firstly to apologise for any confusion as to who owns what excetera!

The original post was by my sister's flatmate as i had to go to work after finding the van was missing. I am owner of the van and went away to work in nepal for3 months, leaving the van in my sisters private parking space for security reasons (laughable now!). My sister and her flatmate have the lease for the property and the rights to the parking space.

The management of the residential area is split between two companies ( god only knows why). Realty management is the company who manages my sisters flat and parking space. Mainstay is the other one which towed and destroyed the van due to a complaint by a resident (who funnily enough works for Mainstay!).

Because Mainstay have no ownership or right to intervene with the parking space (regardless of whether they notified me or not) they have acted illegally. Mainstay did not notify my sister or her landlord (Realty) before taking any action. Surely the first thing you would do, if you managed the car parking space, is find out which tenant rented the space and notify them directly that there was an unregistered vehicle in there space and ask if they were aware of it. This never happened. Secondly you would at least check your records to see if you ACTUALLY MANAGED the space in question, if not then contact the CORRECT management company.

The police have been informed and have requested a receipt of destruction which i will hopefully obtain tomorrow. Taking a vehicle without concent is a major crime regardless if you notified the owner or not. "I'm going to steal your car"!! It is even worse when the company has no legal rights over the space it was parked in. It appears that it was removed because a member of Mainstay management thought of it as an eyesore and didn't want it ruining their view. Now unbeknownst to them the van was full of my house and personal possessions as i was away for some time and as a result i now have:

2 coats
1 jumper
2 t-shirts
2 pairs of trousers
Some books and dvds

for 26 years on this planet! It's fortunate that i have been worki gwith people in Nepal who literally have no possessions yet their lives are full of everything that matters, mine is now the same

thiscatisalandmine

PasturesNew wrote: »

It might have counted as a commercial vehicle and there might be some small print about not parking commercial vehicles in the car park.

The van was not a commercial vehicle it was a rover sherpa (87 i think). The DVLA has advised us that the parking space is treated as private property, they said my sister could of parked a piece of scrap metal (ironic eh? i am actually thinking of getting the scrap delivered back into the parking space as a present for the complainer:)) in the space if she wanted to whether she owned the vehicle or not as long as she had given her consent!

Rallydriver

Regardless or not of the police doing anything, it won't get you any money back for the classic motorhome or your possessions. A successful police prosecution would help your civil case but that could take longer to go through.

You'd probably be best to add up what it was worth (vehicle plus possessions) and put in a claim to the management company. Await their response, if you disagree then take legal advice (a solicitors letter) and if that doesn't get anywhere then it will be a claim through the courts.

Alias_Omega

I would start making phone calls in the morning to the 2 companies, asking where your van is.

Maybe they will clear it up why it was towed, probably think someone has dumped it, due to not being registered the address.

If your sister isnt married, im sure they would of been able to tie the surnames together, but i guess she maybe married hence the no ties.

A good question could be.. 'where is my van.?', 'my sister was using it for sometime'.

My guess is that they seen it there, dumped, unused and have towed it as dumped.

cyclonebri1

I think an apology is in order from a couple of posters

a11waysindebt

I say again, no company is just going to take a vehicle and destroy it. This looks like a stunt gone wrong by the person working for the company.

If they had taken my camper and done the same, the guy who complained from the company would be having sleepness nights.

dzug1

Is it possible that your lease doesn't allow the parking of vans, etc - only private cars? That's certainly the case with some developments.

If it does (not allow it) that certainly gives the management company the green light to remove it - not necessarily to scrap it though.

And does it allow you to 'sub-let' the parking space anyway?

Provided the company has gone through the correct procedures there's no way it's 'theft' in the legal sense.

bclark

What has the company that got eh vehicle towed had to say about this? How have they defended their actions? Surely they know that they may be in quite a bit of trouble?

Premier_2

thiscatisalandmine wrote: »

Firstly to apologise for any confusion as to who owns what excetera!

The original post was by my sister's flatmate as i had to go to work after finding the van was missing. I am owner of the van and went away to work in nepal for3 months, leaving the van in my sisters private parking space for security reasons (laughable now!). My sister and her flatmate have the lease for the property and the rights to the parking space. ...

Nice footwork ... but it doesn't fool me I'm afarid.

The person who posted in post#1 you claim is your sisters flatmate. i.e. one of the people who lives at the property.
You say you could't post at that time as you were on the way to work.
That post was made at 5.24pm BST, 9.54pm India time. What are you? a nightwatchman in India?
I see this is also a brand new user account set up yesterday.

However come 6.58pm BST, 11.28pm India time you are suggesting the person who created the account in post#1 had sent you the id & password so allowing you to post yourself from India
Short working hours in India, eh? :rolleyes:
... and you didn't think to say you were not the same person as who had created the thread, despite using the same id?

And you were still posting at 12.05am BST, 4.35am India time. Whats up? Can't you sleep or something?

Is this parking space under a rickety old bridge by any chance?

bclark

Premier wrote: »

Nice footwork ... but it doesn't fool me I'm afarid.

The person who posted in post#1 you claim is your sisters flatmate. i.e. one of the people who lives at the property.
You say you could't post at that time as you were on the way to work.
That post was made at 5.24pm BST, 9.54pm India time. What are you? a nightwatchman in India?
I see this is also a brand new user account set up yesterday.

However come 6.58pm BST, 11.28pm India time you are suggesting the person who created the account in post#1 had sent you the id & password so allowing you to post yourself from India
Short working hours in India, eh? :rolleyes:
... and you didn't think to say you were not the same person as who had created the thread, despite using the same id?

And you were still posting at 12.05am BST, 4.35am India time. Whats up? Can't you sleep or something?

Is this parking space under a rickety old bridge by any chance?

Out of interest premier why do you think someone would be making this up?