SUCCESS – CPM – Residential Car Park – Complain to Property Management

wowwwooo

I just want to share my experience of successfully getting a PCN cancelled. This forum really helped me, and I hope my experience can help others. I’ve copied my complaint email below, for anyone who may want to use it as a starting point to write their own. Half of this email was from another post in this forum, which I used as my starting point but I can’t find it now (sorry to the author, should have given you credit here…)

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Some details for those who want to see how relevant this case is to their own:

Location: London NW9

PCN issued by: CPM (UK Car Park Management)

Car park type: Residential car park. A marked parking bay, no allocated number. I was visiting a friend who lived in that residential development.

Property developer: Fairview (who didn’t respond to the complaint)

Property management company: Crabtree (who kindly responded to the complaint and got the PCN cancelled)

Job title of the problem solver: Property Manager. She responded from the property management company's site specific mailbox.

Signage in car park: Yes, 3 big ones in the small car park. But it didn’t say exactly in which bays visitors are allowed to park their cars.

Visitor permit: Scratch card type, clearly displayed in windscreen.

My mistake: On the Visitor Permit, it did say ‘USE IN BAY: PF’, but the ‘PF’ didn’t really mean anything to me at the time. Later we found out that it meant visitors should only park in bays that are marked as ‘PF’. We didn’t see any bays marked as ‘PF’. There wasn’t one in this car park, but there were a few in another part of this residential development, about 100 metres away.

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Background

I went to visit a friend who lives in a new build flat in a residential development. My friend gave me a visitor permit. I parked the car in the residential car park next to the building, had the visitor permit clearly displayed. A few days later, my wife (registered car owner) received a PCN from CPM (UK Car Park Management) for a £100 charge, with the reason ‘Not Displaying a Valid Permit’.

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Actions taken

1. I appealed to CPM online, within 28 days, using the standard template from this forum. No response, I wasn’t waiting for it anyway. (Note there’s no web address on the PCN for appeal. Google is your best friend.)

2. At the same time, I wrote a long email (see below) and got my friend to send to the property developer and the property management company separately. I thought they would care more about a complaint from him than one from me as a random visitor. In terms of the recipient's email address, I found a mailbox of the developer from their website, a mailbox of the property management company’s customer experience team from their website, a mailbox of this particular site my friend lives in, and an outlook email address of the property manager of this site (the latter two were found in a leaflet my friend was given when he moved in).  

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Result

A few days later, the customer experience team responded first and said they can't help, you have to take up with the car parking company. She also said your [xxx] property manager (xxx is the name of this specific site) will explain to you why you have been charged so you don't make the same mistake again. At the end of the email she included an "over to you" note to the site mailbox. 

The property manager of the site then replied from the site mailbox, apologised and said she would get CPM to cancel the PCN. 

10 days later, I received an email from CPM confirming PCN cancelled.

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Email to property management company

(I sent the same email to the property developer but they didn't respond.)

From: my friend who lives in that residential development

To: the property management company

Subject: FORMAL COMPLAINT ABOUT CPM AS YOUR AGENT 

Email text:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am the owner and resident of [full address]. I am writing to make a formal complaint to you because the action of your agent, UK Car Park Management Ltd (CPM), is unfair, upsetting and intimidatory.

On [date], I invited my friend to my flat. My friend was driving, so I gave him a Visitor Permit (see attached photo of the permit used on that day). A few days later, the owner of the car received a letter from CPM purporting to mimic a parking ticket (PCN Number [xxxxxxxx], see copy attached), and claiming “Not Displaying a Valid Permit”. As you can see in the second photo on the PCN, the Visitor Permit was clearly displayed on the dashboard.

This is extremely frustrating, because on that day we tried very hard to make sure the car was parked correctly and the permit was displayed and clearly visible from outside. We walked around the building, looked very carefully and found a marked parking bay that didn’t have a number – I knew those with numbers were allocated to other residents. None of parking bays were marked as specifically for visitor parking, we did try very hard to look for one, but there wasn’t one in sight. We also read the text on the parking sign very carefully. While the text was confusing, we read twice, it did NOT say cars with Visitor Permit were not allowed to park there.  Then my friend parked the car in that parking bay and displayed the Visitor Permit on the dashboard.

My friend travelled a long way to visit me. As the host, I am very embarrassed and feeling increasingly angry about what happened. I did get a Visitor Permit for my friend, and we used our best efforts to find the right place to park the car and clearly display the Visitor Permit. Now the car owner (not even my friend himself, which makes it even more embarrassing) has to deal with this aggressive third party private company (CPM), who she has no dealings with, no contract with, and this company is demanding a lot of money from her.

I have researched this matter online and found that CPM has terrible reputation and is one of the worst and most litigious parking companies, they are suing innocent residents and visitors without referral to their clients, like yourselves, who may still naively believe that their agenda is ‘parking management’. Having spoken with a few neighbours, obviously I’m not the only one, many residents have had issues with CPM. I am very upset that such an aggressive agent has been appointed to manage parking here and have free reign to intimidate residents and residents’ visitors for their own profit. 

I would welcome your own view on this harassment and hope you see fit to ensure that CPM cancel the PCN immediately. My research about this matter has revealed that you have the authority to make sure CPM cancel these PCNs, as they are your agent. My friend has advised the car owner to not pay the PCN, and he’s preparing for court, knowing that CPM will take the car owner to court soon. I sincerely hope you can help with this matter so it doesn’t have to end up in court.

Thank you.

Umkomaas

Well done in getting UKCPM scraped off the bottom of your (or your friend's) shoe. You have done some excellent research and clearly from the contents of your super email, you have this scam well and truly sussed. Nice one. 

However I rather suspect your skirmish with UKCPM is only the start. You and your visitors will be treading on eggshells, dodging PCNs, until such time as your estate is rid of any third party private parking firm. Work with other freehold/leasehold residents to force the management company to show them the way out the door!

Coupon-mad

Very good example of a complaint.

Could you post about this also, in the thread called 'Successful Complaints About PPCs' that is the first thread linked in the first post of the NEWBIES thread?  That will get seen more and help people.

wowwwooo

Umkomaas said:

Well done in getting UKCPM scraped off the bottom of your (or your friend's) shoe. You have done some excellent research and clearly from the contents of your super email, you have this scam well and truly sussed. Nice one. 

However I rather suspect your skirmish with UKCPM is only the start. You and your visitors will be treading on eggshells, dodging PCNs, until such time as your estate is rid of any third party private parking firm. Work with other freehold/leasehold residents to force the management company to show them the way out the door!

I'm the one that got the ticket. My friend is the one that lives there. He's reluctant to get into any conflicts, probably more due to language barriers than anything else

wowwwooo

Coupon-mad said:

Very good example of a complaint.

Could you post about this also, in the thread called 'Successful Complaints About PPCs' that is the first thread linked in the first post of the NEWBIES thread?  That will get seen more and help people.

Done, added to that thread

D_P_Dance

Well done, now read this.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/