Parking charges for parking in my own space

CEBJ

I have received a number of charges for parking in my own space. I wrongfully followed advice to ignore them but am now being chased on one of the charges after trying to appeal it and admitting that I was the driver of the vehicle.

The management company have said that they will contact the parking operator. However, they do not pay the company and have indicated that they are unwilling to cancel the contract. Is there anything I can say to the management company to make a convincing case?

If the management company fails to get the charges cancelled, what is the best next steps. My window to appeal to POPLA ends on Friday 28 July, which is also the date that a Debt Recovery Plus letter states I have to pay or face a court order.

If I receive a court order, can I settle the charge outside court?

Thank you for your help.

Coupon-mad

Which parking firm?

POPLA template wording is in the NEWBIES FAQS thread, everyone is asked to read first.

peter_the_piper

Check your lease/TA to see what it actually says about your own parking space.

The_Deep

If I receive a court order, can I settle the charge outside court?

Do you mean pay them? Why? You almost certainly owe them nothing as your lease/AST gives you the right of "quiet enjoyment" of your property, and this company may well be impinging on that right, an offence under the Landlord and Tenants Acts.

Do some reading, google Parking Prankster, Roger Davies v UKPC, Jopson v Homeguard. These companies are scum, the prey on the stupid and the gullible. Play you cards right and you could be taking them to court.

Loadsofchildren123

search for a thread by hairray
It has precedent LBCs to the freeholder, management company and the parking company.
Are you the leaseholder?
Does the demised property in your lease include the space along with your flat, or do you just have rights to park?
You need to get your lease and look at the definitions and the parking rights, and the freeholder/MC's right to impose new/additional "regulations" and how these are defined.
Most likely they aren't entitled to impose regulations on your right to park in your space (eg a regulation to display a permit), and even if they are this does not extend to granting rights to a third party in respect of it, nor to imposing on you a contractual penalty for breaching it - your only financial obligations in the lease will be payment of ground rent/service charge.
This is an interference with your right to quiet enjoyment.
It is also a derogation from grant - see Saeed v Plustrade, a reported case (google it).
Read hairray's thread and you'll have a better understanding of the issues.

CEBJ

Firm is Spring Parking.

Have read the letter, thanks. What is the success rate of appealing to POPLA with this approach?

waamo

IIRC the forum based appeal has a 100% success against Spring. Look in the POPLA decisions thread the very last one is a win against Spring.

CEBJ

Thank you for all your responses. To answer your questions:

[Are you the leaseholder? Does the demised property in your lease include the space along with your flat, or do you just have rights to park?] Yes, I am the leaseholder. There is a document separate to the lease that sets out the individual parking space but the information is not included in the lease itself so I am uncertain whether I lease the space or have been allocated it. I will double check this evening and will also read hairray's post.

The contract with Spring Parking (inherited from a previous company (ANPR) which they took over states "should a registered keeper not display their permit, they will be issued a charge ticket as normal procedure and will be charged accordingly." If my lease does not explicitly give me control of my space, is this contract valid?

Coupon-mad

CEBJ wrote: »

Firm is Spring Parking.

Have read the letter, thanks. What is the success rate of appealing to POPLA with this approach?

Why not have a look at the end of 'POPLA Decisions'? Today's latest reported win there, is ''your adversary'' Spring Parking bailing out!

You can copy that poster's POPLA appeal and adapt it - hope you never said who was driving? His case was that he was a hirer/lessee, so you can't copy that point of appeal exactly but you can all the rest, pretty much. And if you never said who was driving then I doubt the NTK was POFA compliant (NB: if you did say who was driving you've binned the POFA as an appeal point, but you are NOT stuffed, I predict they are).

Show us your draft, read the Spring win from today (no link, best to get used to using the forum as intended, it helps newbies) and study and copy from post #3 of the NEWBIES thread, where the pre-written POPLA template points are.

I've beaten them myself (tiny little firm) and found them a complete pushover, you would be hard pressed to lose, no-one here ever has lost at POPLA v Spring.

[POPLA template wording is in the NEWBIES FAQS thread, everyone is asked to read first.] I have read this letter. Do you know how successful it has been with POPLA?

You can't have read it then - the POPLA appeal points are NOT not written as a single letter. You want post #3 of the sticky.

Loadsofchildren123

Can you scan and post a link to the document giving you the parking rights. Anonymise it by removing names and addresses

CEBJ

Loadsofchildren123 wrote: »

Can you scan and post a link to the document giving you the parking rights. Anonymise it by removing names and addresses

The lease states the following:

'There is included in this demise the following rights in common with the Lessor and the Association and the lessees of the other flats in the building and (where applicable) their respective agents, servants and workmen that is to say...

the right to use for the purpose of parking private motor cars only the parking space edged in green on the plan'

This parking space is clearly set out on the plan as the site where I have parked my car and incurred the charges.