Two Parking Charge Notices from UK CPM on a residential land (own parking bay)

GoodBoy_2

Hi, I'm a tenant living in residential apartments. I got 2 PCNs in 2 days during the end of May long weekend. I have a valid parking permit but accidentally blown away onto the car seat and went invisible. I haven't used the car for 2 days and found the notices on my windscreen after 2 days. I've contacted the Management company (took my landlord's help as well) requesting to cancel the notices. But they said they won't help me in any way.

After reading the NEWBIE thread, I understand that, in case of an IPC member, it is advisable to wait for a "Notice to keeper" to arrive before making an appeal. Could someone please correct me if I'm wrong? Today is the 21st day from the notice date. Just a bit confused after looking some previous threads, where it was mentioned to appeal before 21 days of receiving notice.

Thanks in advance.

Half_way

Its good to see your landlord is onside, you will need to let us know what your lease/rental says about the parking space.
If you/the landlord has pre existing rights to park ( ie the space is part of the property) then the parking company, and the management company are on shaky ground

safarmuk

You may also be able to escalate to the freeholder if the Managememt Company refuse to help. Who is the MA and do you know the freeholder (or the company who represents them)?

GoodBoy_2

Thanks for the replies.

I think it might be worth adding that the Property Management has employed the parking company starting from 28th May 2018. So the two notices I got are right on the 1st and the 2nd day. I've received the parking permit in a letter from UKCPM few months back. My landlord has forwarded me the email (from Property Management) which states that the Parking patrol will begin from 28th May.

I've copied the below from my "Shorthold Tenancy Agreement" between myself and my landlord which was issued by the rental agency during the start of the tenancy. It does say that I can park the car in the parking space as below.

Cars and Parking
90. To park in the car parking space, garage or driveway allocated to the Property, if applicable.
91. To keep any driveway, or parking space free of oil and to pay for the removal and cleaning of any
spillage caused by a vehicle of the Tenant, his family, contractors or visitors.
92. To remove all vehicles belonging to the Tenant, his family or visitors at the end of the Tenancy.
93. Not to park any vehicle at the Property that is not in roadworthy condition and fully taxed.


We do also have a notice board near the staircase in the ground floor entrance (clearly visible to everyone who enters inside the property). A Parking bay plan/drawing is displayed in the notice board which shows the marking of each parking bay with a flat number. It shows that each slot is reserved against a flat. It includes my parking space reserved for my flat as well.

nosferatu1001

So you have no need to pay attention to a 3rd party company claiming they can offer yo a "contract" to park - as they have nothing at all to offer you, no consideration, there cannot be a contract

Telling them to FRO is a good start.

Coupon-mad

Yep, should have told the MA to get lost. Not joking, they can't impose a nuisance on you/your landlord (out of the blue, with no consensus of agreement or formal variation of his/her Deed) that causes a derogation from grant.

And UKCPM can't offer that parking space to you on restrictive terms because you already enjoy that right. So they have nothing of value to offer = no contract then...

Take a photo or photocopy of the sign on the noticeboard, you will need it when UKCPM sue you. And they will sue you, your visitors, your family, your neighbours, making your home a no-go area for parking, and making your life at home a misery, we see this ALL the time.

You need to nip this in the bud with the Managing Agent. Don't ask, tell them the below facts about their lack of due diligence and derogation from grant. I bet they can cancel a few, so make sure yours are two of them, this week. Sometimes they *can* (as allowed by the scammers) only cancel for the first 21 days or something...

But that's not all, you need to opt out, you have not accepted this variation of terms and not has your landlord. Here are some words from a recent defence, you will need them...and can use the information in a formal complaint letter to the MA (you and your landlord, in fact he's the leaseholder so it's his/her call), opting the parking space out of any useless 'permit scheme':

- The Defendant has owned the flat for more than a decade and has always enjoyed the right to park in the shared spaces. Since there has been no variation of the residents' agreements, a Managing Agent cannot impose this charging regime via an onerous back door method of 'signs and permits' with charges imposed where parking was free, with some bays effectively removed from use by residents.

- Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, for such a variation to have been agreed by the residents, it is the Defendant's understanding that 75% of the parties must have consented and not more than 10% must not have objected to any proposed material change (which this nuisance most certainly is). The Defendant has never been asked about the imposition of any parking scheme and had no idea that the parking bays were now subject to unfair charges and hidden 'contract terms' that were never agreed.

- The Claimant cannot be heard to point to their sparse/unlit signs, as if the Defendant should have known about some sort of purported 'contract'; they could have put up huge billboards with neon lights and still those terms cannot affect and override the primacy of contract of leaseholders in possession.

- The Claimants present a significantly detrimental material change and provide no service that is for the comfort and convenience of the residents; indeed the industry is made up of rogue operators whose modus operandi is to issue predatory, unfair tickets, then sue people under the excuse of the completely different Beavis case. On 2nd February 2018 in the second reading debate about private parking firms, the House of Commons unanimously concluded: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

- For the avoidance of doubt, the Defendant has entered into no contract with any parking firm and no variation of the Defendant's tenancy agreement, nor the landlord's lease rights, has occurred and it will never be agreed for an ex-clamper to cause this level of nuisance on site, suing residents and telling the Managing Agents that they cannot (or will charge to) cancel unfair tickets.

- Bays previously used by residents for many years have effectively been removed from use, if some of the bays are now suddenly for visitors only (or if residents use them, they now face a penalty charge of £100 per day). This is a case of derogation from grant and not something that the Courts can support (Saeed v Plustrade is the authority for this assertion).

- In case number D7GF307F - UKCPM v Mr D - before Deputy District Judge Skelly on 1st February 2018 at Clerkenwell, a similar thin excuse of an argument from a private parking firm inflicting a nuisance on residents was dismissed. When not sitting as a Judge, DDJ Skelly is a barrister specialising in property law. The managing agents were named as a party to the lease, and there was a clause which said that they could make regulations for the 'comfort and convenience' of lessees. However, this could not excuse a change as intrusive and onerous as to override the grant of free resident/visitor parking, effectively restricting and charging for a right previously enjoyed, without the required consensus and deed of variation. The Judge remarked that this would be like the agents suddenly stipulating that residents had to hang a Union Jack out of the window whenever they were at home.

The_Deep

You have statutory right to quiet enjoyment of your propery. Interference with those rights may be an offence under the Landlords and Tenants acts. The MA and PPC may well be out of their depth. Read these

https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/residential-parking/

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2017/01/ukpc-lose-residential-case-charge-not.html

https://twitter.com/ParkingPranks/status/939248992596176897

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

Umkomaas

Let the landlord know that the value of his property will be negatively affected by the presence of a marauding PPC. Their vile signs drilled indiscriminately into walls of the properties are prime indicators to any potential tenants or purchasers (if he decides to sell at some stage) to steer clear.

The MA has a responsibility for the loss in his property's value.

Coupon-mad

The presence of UKCPM would stop me or my family even looking at a flat/house.

GoodBoy_2

Thanks for the replies.

You may also be able to escalate to the freeholder if the Managememt Company refuse to help. Who is the MA and do you know the freeholder (or the company who represents them)?

Pinnacle Property Management Ltd is the management company. The property I live is located in Reading. I don't know who the freeholder is. I will request this information from the landlord.

Telling them to FRO is a good start.

If you don't mind, could you please elaborate, like, what is the full form of FRO and who should I tell them - Management Company? (Sorry, I tried Newbies thread and Google, but couldn't find the FRO)


From your(all) suggestions, I understand that I need to write to the Property Management using some wordings provided and using some information from the links provided. I've also taken the pictures of the notice board to keep them for future use. Anyway, I will write this tonight and will post here for your review before sending them.

GoodBoy_2

I've composed an email to the MA based on the guidance available, using the wordings I can understand. I'm not a native English speaker so you may find my language having less impact and not so powerful. Kindly suggest or feel free to make any changes if you think it needs more improvements.

Dear Management,

This email is regarding the Parking notices received on my Car's windscreen from a Private Parking Management Company, who claims that the Pinnacle Management has employed them to manage the parking spaces owned by the residents of this Property. The Parking Management Company has issued me two Parking Charge Notices of £100 each, when my car has been parked in own reserved parking space.

Firstly, I would like to ask you, on what basis am I liable to pay an external company when I have a valid permit and when I parked my car in my own parking space.

Again, what is the value of the loss or damage does the Parking company or the Property management has undergone, that made both of your companies to expect an amount of £200 when I parked my car in the same space as I'm doing since past 8 months?

What is the motive of the Property Management, in requesting a 3rd party company to issue notices to the residents who have correctly parked the vehicles in their own space without causing any trouble either to the fellow residents or to the Property Management company? Being a Property Management Company of "The Pinnacle" property, you very well know, that the Parking space belongs to me and you also know that I have a valid permit. But even after requesting you with the same information with the copies of the notices, you are reluctant to cancel the notices and encouraging a third party company in making money using a wrong route.

I would like to let you know that I have the pre-existing rights on the parking space reserved to my flat. And it is my statutory right to quiet enjoyment of my property. As a property management, you are interfering with these rights I own and it is an offence under the Landlords and Tenants acts.

You have no right to claim my own parking space, that you can offer me a "contract" to park in my own parking space. I have a right to park in my space and you can't impose a nuisance on me, with no consensus of agreement or formal variation of the Deed that causes a derogation from grant.

I would ask you to cancel both of the parking notices which were issued by the Private parking company employed by you.

I would also like to inform you that, neither I nor my landlord has accepted the terms of variation in my parking rights and hence I'm opting out of the parking scheme, on which name you are causing the trouble to me as a resident.