Vehicle Control Services

BarryRiley

Hello, a bit of background - I rent a property from a landlord which comes with a parking space as stated in the original contract which I signed with them. Recently the letting agent which manages the property decided to use VCS to control their land. I despise the company and know of the underhand tactics they use to extort money from people and so refused to use the badge they sent me through the post. I do not wish to engage with such a company, which I feel is my choice since nothing about displaying such a badge was included in my original contract for the property and I only ever park in my clearly allocated space.

VCS have since ticketed my car every single day and sent me threatening letter after threatening letter. I wrote to them (foolishly as I feel I should have ignored them but anger got the better of me) as they can clearly see that the details they are getting from the DVLA match up with my registration details meaning the space is clearly mine to park in. They replied stating that the contract that they have with the landlord by proxy applies to myself as well since they sent me a badge and their signs clearly state the rules. The letter finished by stating that I now owed them £1560 for not displaying their badge despite having a contract which clearly states that the space is mine to park in.

So, my question is, what are the chances of them taking me to court and winning. I do not want to give in and display their badge. They are scum who play by their own rules and have no interest whatsoever in 'parking control' - they just want money through whatever means they can get it.

Thanks for reading

s_b

send the bills to your landlord to pay
i assume he didnt give you fair warning he was changing your lease terms and you saw it as a reason to break your lease? in which case you are in the process of moving premises

you only mention original contract see

Tobster86

I admire your attitude, but expect that some people on here won't.

The ridiculous amount they've stated is a penalty which is not enforceable under civil law. Their liquidated business losses, that may be enforceable under law, are £0 since it doesn't cost anything for you to park there.

What I would do though, if you plan to continue parking there, is affix visible notices to your vehicle which contractually oblige anyone who affixes a clamp to your vehicle to agree to it being destructively removed, and buy a cheap angle grinder. Clamping doesn't officially become illegal until October last time I read. Lidl & Aldi sell 240v ones that will do the job for usually under £30!

BarryRiley

Thanks for the replies.

There was no notice of ammending the lease terms. They just sent me a disc to display. As far as I'm aware the lease terms have not been modified

vax2002

can you find your lease and post up what it says in regard to the parking space .
You may have a claim for damages for harassment against the parking company.

BarryRiley

vax2002 wrote: »

can you find your lease and post up what it says in regard to the parking space .
You may have a claim for damages for harassment against the parking company.

All it says in the lease about parking is 'Parking Included'. There is a tick next to this and then the bay number is given. That's the only mention to parking I can find anyway. Therefore surely the parking space is mine to use as I wish. Seems pretty clear to me

I don't want to claim damages - I don't want their money

EDIT: This can be moved to the parking charge area if any mod is reading. Apologies, I didn't realise there was another part for these issues