I want to fine unauthorised cars in my car park

gfagbemi2

First of all I am not a monster.
Very often I've returned to my parking space (which is assigned to my property) and someone has parked in it. I have put up a notice to say "no unauthorised parking", but this has yielded little change. A neighbour told me about UK Parking Management and Enforcement Ltd ,who through their website are will to provide a service which, after signing up, will allow me (as the property owner) to contact them about any illegally parked car and they would issue a fine to the vehicle owner. The service they provide is called "Self Ticketing".
Can they legally do this? Does this expose me to any risk of court action? Is the company legitimate?

Thanks

martinthebandit

This
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Streetwize-Folding-Down-Security-Post-Parking-Post-complete-with-Lock-/222048079351?hash=item33b318cdf7:g:yGwAAOSwh-1W4EM4
or similar would be a better option

gfagbemi2

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.
I already have this and it has helped with people not parking in my bay, so now they are parking in such a way to block access to my bay.

System

Seems like spam to me.

People asking for advice like this rarely mention a company name. Doing so raises the issue of self-promotion.

The OP might want to pre-empt any action by contacting the guides and asking them to remove it - or by removing any specific company names.

gfagbemi2

Hi IamEmanresu, you are entitled to you opinion.
I want to make sure that if I go ahead with this company I don't get someone coming after me in court. I am looking for both positive and negative comments. I mention the company's name in order that anyone who has used them can advise me if they ran into any difficulty.
Sceptism is all well an good, but when it stops me getting the answers I want, then you are being obstructive to me.

Herzlos

Here's a fairly quick summary:

The invoices generated by any of these parking companies will be totally unenforcable - they might put a few people off but that's about it. Expect nothing to change except any of your visitors getting hassle when a neighbour dobs them in for the £10 bounty.

They are legitimate in that their grey area of the market hasn't been shut down yet.

If you're blocked *in* you can get the police involved. Are people parking on the road or in a car park, such that you can't get parked?
Are they random people abusing parking or residents/visitors on site?

beamerguy

gfagbemi2 wrote: »

Hi IamEmanresu, you are entitled to you opinion.
I want to make sure that if I go ahead with this company I don't get someone coming after me in court. I am looking for both positive and negative comments. I mention the company's name in order that anyone who has used them can advise me if they ran into any difficulty.
Sceptism is all well an good, but when it stops me getting the answers I want, then you are being obstructive to me.

Stay away from parking companies, they ignore the rules and you will get egg on your face.
Self ticketing is dangerous because if you are seen, chances are
high that you will get a bloody nose.
Remember you will be responsible for your agent and that means
yes, you could be included in court. Plus any reputation you have already will be shot to bits employing scammers

Think it out again, never allow scammers to be within a mile of you

gfagbemi2

Thanks for your response.

OK. I'll stay away from parking companies. But what can I do to prevent people illegally parking their cars in my bay or blocking me from accessing or getting out of my parking bay. Do I simple sit and take it? Do I just remain the 'happy victim'.

Teapot55

But what can I do to prevent people

illegally parking their cars in my bay - maybe get one of those posts as mentioned in post number 2 of this thread

blocking me from accessing my parking bay - ask your local council to paint the white line thing |

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| that means entrance - doesn't stop people from ignoring it, but might put people off who hadn't noticed it was an entrance

getting out of my parking bay - if they are stopping you from leaving your land you can call the police on 101 - don't know how quick they would be though

Ruurb

You may have an argument for nuisance which would usually attract an injunction or the other option is trespass to land - both of which requires you going to court, and obtaining their details via the DVLA.

In cases of trespass to land, nominal damages are normally awarded unless actual damage has occurred (Courts have determined nominal damages from £10 up to £100 and more so it is not consistent). Obviously if the person parking the car has been persistent in doing that then you might be entitled to aggravated damages too. Injunctions can also be applied for if damages is not an adequate remedy. Even if there is no damage other than the fact that they have parked in your space, you could still argue that the person who has parked the car has made use of your land and you should be entitled to be paid for that use e.g. along the same lines of those who charge for parking, for example those who park for 12 hours or more £20.

Alternatively you could put up a trespassing sign and those who trespass without permission will be charged X each time - you might have to be specific with the wording. Or the courteous thing to do is to find out who it is or drop a note on their windscreen and kindly ask them not to park the space is exclusively reserved for you and permission is not given for them to park their car. If they continue to do so then you will consider issuing a claim for trespass.

One other option is that provided you've given notice to them you can have their car removed from the space but you need to be careful not to damage it - I wouldn't recommend doing this option but it is available.

It depends how nice or aggressive you want to be really.

gfagbemi2

Thank you so much, Ruurb. Yours appears to be the most help response.