CCJ issued for PCN's in Secure Residential Parking

D_P_Dance

HAs often have charitable status.  If yours is one, consider complaining to the Charity Commissioners.

JoeBloggs321

Ok, so I have written up a draft letter, which I will add here. Any tweaks or extra information to add, please let me know, as I will be sending the letter tomorrow about noon.

Thanks for your help guys, as a complete novice in this area, it is most appreciated!

I acknowledge the letter you sent to me, dated   May 2021, outlining the results of your investigation into the complaint I have made, into the circumstances which led to me receiving a CCJ, whilst a resident with HA, at the address listed.

After taking further advice on how to proceed, as the CCJ resulted in action by your agents 'Parking Company' - 'PC', both HA and 'PC' are jointly liable should I need to take further action through the courts. It would therefore be more advantageous for HA to contact 'PC' regarding my complaint and work with them towards a joint resolution.

Should I need to escalate my case before the courts, I give notice now that I would need to call your local housing officer for the building ***** as a witness to this case.

The first point of your investigation I wish to bring up personally is that you clarify that:

“Customers with vehicles are able to supply HA with their registration details in order that PCN’s are not issued prior to the DVLA updating address details.”

I can confirm that on the day of signing my tenancy, I did indeed give my registration details to your local housing officer ******, who was the person who informed me of the need to send my logbook into the DVLA, to get a residents parking permit.

You then go on to say that I did not receive any PCN’s until some 4 weeks after my move in date, which is correct; I received 9 PCN’s on my vehicle in the following 3 week period.

It is either the case that from a move in date, sending in and waiting for the DVLA to update the vehicle logbook, no PCN’s are to be issued, as you stated in 1 part of your reply, or that there is seemingly only a 4 week grace period, after which PCN’s can and will be issued, which was not emphasised at any point, but given as an answer within the same paragraph.

Either way, It would be unreasonable to expect someone whose belongings are all packed away to send the logbook off immediately to the DVLA on the day of moving. It would also assume that a logbook could be ‘turned around’ by the DVLA, received and given to your housing officer in just a 4 week time period.

 

However, the above points are mainly mine regarding this situation I am now in. The more legalised advice I have received is to state the following:

On the lease I signed with HA, it does not mention any need for permits. It was never updated or changed during my entire residency.

In fact and law: Unless a ballot of all residents and landlords has taken place in accordance with Section 35 and 37 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, and the relevant majority in favour, and the minimum number of dissenters not exceeded, a tenant's lease cannot be varied.

Since no such ballot took place, then the lease as written and agreed by the tenant has primacy of contract over anything an unregulated third party agrees with the HA.

The resident's rights as per their lease has been breached, and their data obtained and processed without reasonable cause. This is a breach of the GDPR 2018.

As an aside, the lease contains an illegal clause as it requires a disabled motorist to display a disabled badge in order to park in a disabled bay. A disabled badge is not the only indicator of a disability, and the Government Blue Badge scheme does not apply on private land. Requiring a disabled person with protected characteristics to do something that an able bodied person does not have to do in order to obtain reasonable adjustments for their disability is a breach of the Equality Act 2010.

The HA are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and are therefore jointly breached my lease.

On this point alone I can apply to the courts for a set aside on the CCJ and ask for compensation to be awarded by both HA and 'PC', due to the harassment and stress caused to me in this case.

As 'PC' using the details of my logbook alone would only have access to my previous address; the question of how they received information on my new address to issue PCN’s by post is clearly subject to a breach of the GDPR 2018, facilitated by HA agents, and illegal.

Court cases pertinent to my case: In Pace v Mr N [2016] C6GF14F0 [2016] it was found that the parking company could not override the tenant's right to park by requiring a permit to park.

In Link Parking v Ms P C7GF50J7 [2016] it was also found that the parking company could not override the tenant's right to park by requiring a permit to park.

Another valid point: If the Housing Association can add vehicles to an approved list and the car park is protected by a security fob, what's the point of the permit?

Given the above, I would urge HA to liaise with your agents, and work towards setting this CCJ aside, especially given you have a charitable status with the HA foundation, and should it be necessary for me to proceed with a court action, I will make a complaint to the Charity Commissioners over the way residents have been treated.

Finally, your other point: I can confirm that the postal services do have the access codes required for the building. Whilst this may be so, the individuals acting as couriers do not all have this, which can be easily verified by other disgruntled residents, who have lost many items.

I await your response,

Yours Sincerely,

It has to be polished, and forgot to add the point by Fruitcake on ' the lease will also mention something about a right to quiet enjoyment as well, which will also have been breached'.

Otherwise?!

JoeBloggs321

I will also collate and send to local MP tomorrow, so that he can add extra pressure

Umkomaas

I've only skimmed it, largely because my eyes were glazing over with all the detail. If it were me, I'd trim it down substantially in case it has the same effect on its recipient. There's almost 1,000 words in it; you need it to be punchy rather than leggy. But, I recognise that that's me, and, at the end of the day, it's your letter so you need to go with what you are comfortable. 

Fruitcake

Use the term, registration document (V5C) the first time, not the out of date term, logbook, and use V5C thereafter.

Explain other acronyms the fist time you use them. Remember anything you wtite or say could end up being followed by the words, your honour (well Sir/Madam in County Court), but you get my drift.

Don't ask questions, make statements.

Trim it down as advised above. Omit the parts about the EA 2010 for now as they are not relevant to your case, but you may want to include them in future correspondence.

I don't think you have explained very well how the DVLA will continue to supply your old address to the scammers until the V5C has been updated, so even if you did it on day one, you would still garner dozens of PCNs for weeks until the DVLA have done their update. 
All that was necessary in a gated community where only residents have access, is for the PPC to be given a resident's VRM to add it to an exclusion list. That would negate the need for permits (except perhaps for visitors), and reduce admin time and costs to all concerned.

You also need to be prepared to follow up your "threats" by going through with legal action.

The scammers themselves are used to hundreds of thousands of threats knowing most of them are empty and never followed up. You need to go through with whatever yo say you are going to do just to show you mean business, and not a pushover.

JoeBloggs321

Thanks, I will trim it down, as suggested

Fruitcake said:

You also need to be prepared to follow up your "threats" by going through with legal action.

I have already discussed taking it through the courts with my friend, and will absolutely follow it through

JoeBloggs321

Ok, I cut the letter by a third and sent to CEO and Complaints manager by email.

I also sent email to MP asking for help.

Just a case of wait and see again for now.

Thanks guys

JoeBloggs321

So yesterday evening my MP wrote to HA, and they sent a reply back within an hour!

My MP has forwarded the response they got from the HA:

It begs the question, if there was no time limit on their white list, as they claim, why on earth was any PCN issued in the first place?!

Fruitcake

JoeBloggs321 said:

So yesterday evening my MP wrote to HA, and they sent a reply back within an hour!

My MP has forwarded the response they got from the HA:

It begs the question, if there was no time limit on their white list, as they claim, why on earth was any PCN issued in the first place?!

That is a question for the HA.

JoeBloggs321

I just double checked the information I received from the PCN companies solicitors, and it clearly states the PCNs were issued for not showing a valid permit:

I can't help but feel a lot more confident in getting this CCJ removed now!

My friend is also wondering, if they can charge excessive fees for the harrassment and stress caused to my friend, is there a case for asking for compensation? If so, what sort of amount should be mentioned?

Although removing the CCJ is the main priority, it would feel a little bit better making them pay out after all this!