Leasehold Parking Advice

Abbie1989

I wondered if anyone could help me at all with a query around a leasehold property and a long on going parking dispute - sorry in advance, it is a long one!
Myself and my partner brought a shared ownership property 5 years ago from our local council with the property (building, maintenance etc) managed by the local housing company. The property is a flat and comes with two parking spaces - in total there are 4 flats in the block and every flat has 2 spaces allocated (8 in total, no visitor spaces).
We pay monthly to have access to the car park which is part of the agreed leasehold with buying the flat.
The flats used to be a site with garages on, so of course some local houses lost their additional parking. To the side of the flats are council rented houses and one of the houses gardens, runs down the side of the car parking allocated to the flats.

Over the past year the issue has become regular in that the house next to the flats has been receiving garden deliveries to their property and lifting the fence to receive in the deliveries. This is fine, but on two occasions they have left the building material in the car park which has resulted in mine and my partners spaces being blocked. We have spoken to them previously and they pretty much dismissed that they are in the wrong and said they would move it - within 2-3 days it was moved, but this to us is not the point. We both agree that if there was a conversation with us before hand we would have been completely understanding, but there never has been.

A few of the owners of the flats have contacted the housing company and it has pretty much fallen flat with any help. They have rejected any request for signs to be put up saying it is a private car park and only once have they sent someone out to help (in June this year), to encourage the neighbours in the house to move their building items, for me to be told that 'I can access my space, they will move it in a week'. I admit, I could access my space on this occasion, but only if I reversed in and did a 10 point turn to gain access which it in my view, still blocking a space. I was not able to drive into the space and reverse out!
One neighbour has left a number of notes and has asked them to move the items due to it being private property to which they are either dismissed or thrown away.

The most recent incident is involving a car which is now parked in the corner of the car park, not in a space at all - again, blocking our spaces. 
There are roadworks on the road outside the property and the houses have lost their parking. We didn't receive anything about the works and due to the heatwave, it has overrun. The last two days the vehicle has been left in the car park - again, the same neighbour has left a note on the vehicle and the owner provided a reply which said - for us to complain to the council, they are registered disabled, there is no where to park due to the roadworks and it is not private property it is owned by the council, they are not blocking anyway, we are harassing them, to knock on their door next time (but there is no house to confirm where they live) and they will call the police if we touch their car again.

I just want to add, there was no badge within the vehicle confirming this, there is no disabled bay on the road with the roadworks so I have no way on confirming which neighbour this is, the road used to access the car park has plenty of free parking spaces which is much closer in walking distance to the houses in question and there is no way we are harassing them in my view. 

Can anyone help provide any advice as to where we stand on the property being leasehold and yes, owned by the council, but we are paying for access.
I don't understand how the owner can assume they have any right to park there because of a blue badge or because the council 'own it'. They wouldn't be able to park on a business premises if it was rented from the council so where do we stand with the car park?
I have again complained to the housing company, I wasn't sure whether to take this further and complain to the council to see if they can help. I have mentioned to the housing company that I am willing to seek legal advice because this is on going and we just want access to our parking spaces with no issues. I have also provided them with sections from the lease agreement which confirms that we must not park in anyone else's spaces and we must not block anyone else's spaces - but this person clearly is and is not paying for access to start with.
Since I mentioned legal advice, they have said they will review with management and come back to me - but I don't hold much hope.

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you

Marky4040

If the parking spaces are outlined on your title plan (for your lease) then they are for all the reasons that matter private land. It does not matter it is a local council which is the land owner and in fact, as the land owner (landlord) they have to resolve this dispute.
When councils are the land owner they are often reluctant to do so because it means paying legal fees to send letters threaten court action etc. If they are not discharging their duties under the lease, you can take legal action against them to compel them to comply with it. 

An easy solution to get their attention is to install those drop down parking bollards to block off access to the spaces for anyone who is not legally entitled to use them. They are easy to install and a quick fix if nothing else will get the attention of the landlord (council) when the neighbours complain. 

m0bov

Your legal action is against the freeholder, the council? Its a private car park, from experience, its better to roll up your sleeves and get things done yourself. Get on ebay and buy some No Parking signs, or Private etc.. type signs, Put them.

Get a dummy CCTV camera or 3, put that up.

Get a post as mentioned, get that installed.

Got legal cover with insurance? Get them (or right yourself) to freeholder and insist that they take action against the neighbour taking good in from the fence. You have a binding contract (lease).

For abandoned cars, again from experiance, get some parking numpty stickers from Amazon or ebay, they are tough to remove and break into lots of pieces. Put one or two on the SIDE windows of the car(s), not windscreen.

Keep us "posted"!

eddddy

As you know who the culprit is, you can give them written notice of the rental terms for your parking space.

For example.. "If you wish to store materials in my parking space, the cost for doing so will be £200 per day, or part of a day. Storing any materials in my parking space will imply acceptance of these terms. If you do not agree to these terms, do not store any materials in my parking space."

Make sure that you give the notice to them personally, and/or post it to them, so they cannot claim they haven't received it.


An agreement like that should be enforceable through the small claims court. Essentially, it's using the law in the same way that parking companies use it to charge you £100 or whatever, if you park in a private car park.

m0bov

eddddy said:

As you know who the culprit is, you can give them written notice of the rental terms for your parking space.

For example.. "If you wish to store materials in my parking space, the cost for doing so will be £200 per day, or part of a day. Storing any materials in my parking space will imply acceptance of these terms. If you do not agree to these terms, do not store any materials in my parking space."

Make sure that you give the notice to them personally, and/or post it to them, so they cannot claim they haven't received it.


An agreement like that should be enforceable through the small claims court. Essentially, it's using the law in the same way that parking companies use it to charge you £100 or whatever, if you park in a private car park.

You need signage, plus agreement from Freeholder to sub let the space, tax etc.... Please don't go down this route!

Abbie1989

Thank you all so much for the advice!! And great to know we do have rights over this. I was a little concerned as it was leasehold, but after going back to our agreement the spaces are outlined that they are ours to use and have access to - plus we are paying for them! 

I’m happy to consider all options, from signs to parking posts etc. We just really want to get this resolved.

I will definitely keep you posted! 🙂

doodling

Hi,

If the trespassing item isn't a car then I don't believe that signage is required providing that the person making use of the land has previously been notified in a way that can be evidenced.

Without going through the labyrinthine detail of parking law, it is not clear to me, if it was a car trespassing, whether personal notification in the form of a letter would be an adequate substitute for a sign (you would think that it would be but the law is not always obvious and in this case it would have been framed on the assumption that it is an stranger unlawfully occupying a space rather than someone you know and have sent a letter to).

Whether or not permission to sub-let is required is determined by the lease for those spaces - none of us can see that from here.

Yes, tax would be an issue but declaring x hundred pounds of additional income isn't going to be too stressful - in the best case it is a phone call, in the worst you have to spend an hour filling in a tax return.

Abbie1989

We aren’t looking to sublet the spaces, we are just trying to simply resolve the issue of parking, but thanks for the advice! 

michelle09

Blocking a car in (and so stopping it from accessing a public highway) is against the law and the police will deal with it. If the owner won't move then the police can have it towed at the owner's expense.

Weirdly it's not against the law for them to block you getting back into your space, but I would try to avoid telling them that!

eddddy

m0bov said:

You need signage, plus agreement from Freeholder to sub let the space, tax etc.... Please don't go down this route!

That's not correct - you don't need signage. You've given the neighbour a copy of the contract terms in writing in advance. 

(You're probably thinking about car parks where 'strangers' park - so you haven't given them a written copy of the contract terms in advance. So you have to write the contract terms on a sign instead.)


The goal is to stop the neighbours using the parking space, by saying it will cost them a lot of money. Hopefully, those contract terms will deter them from doing it again.


But if they do use the parking space again, you're correct, you would probably be breaching the lease, and the freeholder might send a letter telling you to stop - and charge you a fee of, maybe, £40 for sending the letter. So you should definitely terminate the contract at that point.

But by this time, the neighbours will owe you a chunk of money - so you have more leverage over them. You can tell them that if they continue to use your parking space, you will make a claim in the small claims court, but if they stop you'll waive the fees.

If you waive the fees, no tax is due. If you do claim, and win - you're correct that the income will be taxable.


Does that address all your concerns?

NameUnavailable

Someone has fly tipped 'rubbish' in your parking bay..........get it removed to landfill!