UK CPM - new infestation on private estate

_IH8_UKCPM_

Hi guys,

UKCPM have been introduced by the management company on our private estate and begun ticketing whoever they can with no logic or easily understandable rules. I have read the newbies thread and weighed up my options for two PCNs I have been sent by post by UKCPM and feel confident in proceeding with guidance all the way to court.

My question at the moment (as I understand it is best to just ask questions when needed in this process to not clog up the experts valuable time) is do I just appeal with the basic template without any editing it or adding supporting information? Am I understanding correctly that with UKCPM and IAS that it will likely be rejected anyway so I assume it is just a waste of time to add any specific info to the template to try and convince them and I should just wait until court to do that? Or do I need to have outlined my appeal to them in their appeals process should it go to court?

Thanks!

Fruitcake

Plan A is always to complain to the landowner, MA, and your MP.

Read thoroughly your lease/AST/property rental/ownership agreement that will have primacy of contract over anything an unregulated parking company has to say.

See what it says about parking, permits, PPCs, PCNs, paying charges, and court. What it doesn't say it is equally important.

If you are a tenant, then look at the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 that prohibits changes to property a agreement without a ballot and a majority in favour.

Use the appeal template as is but add comments about the contents of your lease etcetera, and do use the expression, primacy of contract.

Warn the MA that they are jointly responsible for the actions of their agents, and they will be required to attend court if the PPC decide to issue a claim.

Get together with other residents and get both the MA and the PPC booted out.

_IH8_UKCPM_

Thanks for your reply.

I own the property freehold. Have complained to management company (presume that is what you mean by MA - management agent?) Plan to write to local MP. Not sure who landowner is where is that info likely to be found in documents I will have from house purchase?

When I complained to the management company they sent over a TP1 form signed by the first owners (we are second owners of the property). Looking through that there is no mention of parking fines or enforcement or provision to bring it in. They mention restrictions on visitors parking only being allowed for a total 23 hour period in a 24 hour day. There are no visitors spaces on the estate anyway and now with UKCPM enforcing we won't be planning on having many visitors anymore as nearest unrestricted parking is half a mile away. It also mentions restrictions on parking things like commercial vehicles or boats etc. Only thing relating to where to not park is:

not to - "permit any vehicles of any description or any articles to park on or obstruct any part of the Maintained Area nor at any time to obstruct or deposit any matter or thing of whatsoever nature thereon"

Since the estate over was built over 5 years ago people on our road have parked their second cars next to their allocated/owned spaces in a way that would be impossible to obstruct other drivers unless they were planning on driving through a house/someones front door or another car. They have not been blocking the road or preventing through traffic or blocking big things like bin lorries. The UKCPM enforcement is now preventing parking in these places albeit only for those that are getting ticketed or paying attention to fines, many seem to be unaffected but perhaps they haven't got any fines in the post yet.

Much more I could go into on the unfair enforcement but I guess I need to review appropriate agreements from the house purchase and verify the landowner?

Thanks.

Coupon-mad

Write and tell the MA that they stand in breach of the Landlord & Tenant Act and are interfering with your existing rights and causing a private nuisance with these PCNs.

This is a clear derogation from grant and you suggest the MA ends/suspends the UKCPM agreement immediately (at their own expense if a fee to end the contract with this aggressive ex-clamper firm arises) and that the MA seeks urgent legal advice on what they have done to the leaseholders and freeholders without due consultation and consensus.

A lease (or rights under freehold title) cannot be altered without a ballot of all owners, pursuant to Section 37, Part IV of the Landlord and Tenant Act:
Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (legislation.gov.uk)

No MA (nor even the site landowners) can allow a notorious, unregulated bulllyboy parking agent to rock up with a bunch of signs which override the rights and peaceful enjoyment of the leasehold and freehold title owners. They cannot impose a permit scheme with a risk of daily £100 charges to park, unless it there has been a lease variation approved by at least 75% of the leaseholders with no more than 10% dissenting.

I think you need to call an extraordinary meeting of residents and get the other leaseholders and freeholders on the same page as you on this, and get UKCPM kicked out, sharpish, because this will ruin your lives and you MUST NOT be seen to acquiesce by accepting a permit.

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

Here's a letter that worked when a MA tried the same thing with PCM:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5997200/pcm-company-introduced/p3

_IH8_UKCPM_

Thanks so much for the replies you guys are amazing.

Does the Landlord and Tenant Act apply if we are freeholders of the property?

As far as I am aware no consultation took place with owners or leaseholders or tenants who live on the estate. If it did I was not aware or involved (owned the property nearly a year and a half). The MA wrote to end of last year to advise they were planning to introduce restrictions and wanted us to send them our numberplate details, presumably for some sort of permit system. I emailed them back asking how it would work for visitors and also that we didn't think we would need permits considering no one has ever tried parking in our spaces out the front of our house and we have no issues or complaints in the time we had lived there. They replied saying they weren't implementing it at the time anymore and that the member of staff in charge of the estate at that time was only looking after it on a temporary basis and the new manager would being assigned soon and would pick it up.

Next thing we got was letter in post about 2 months ago from UKCPM advising of the incoming enforcement. We actually also received the letter intended for the same house number but the next road over through our letterbox so presume they weren't properly informed. The letter only mentioned one restriction "no parking on roadways at any time" although there signage they have erected has more conditions on it. A month on from that they began enforcing it and sent a warden round who wasn't actually there to give tickets but was speaking to residents. I only happened to get the chance to speak to the person as I went out to walk the dog and my neighbours said "by the way this guy is from parking company if you want to speak to him". I spoke to guy and asked him to clarify where I could and couldn't park outside my property as there isn't a painted bay or any sort of boundary line or features clarifying where the "parking space" of our land ends. He said if you park in your car port it would be ok as obviously that is designed for parking (😂 wow genius never knew that mate) but couldn't clarify about parking next to it (as I've mentioned is in no way blocking the road parking there, old owners used to park a car twice the length there without any issues). He said he was unsure and I should contact MA. Spoke to customer services, they gave me estate managers email. Emailed them, never got any response.

Fast forward a month, tickets start arriving.

Umkomaas

If that parking space is part of your freehold, do a Google search on 'Roger Davey QC parking UKPC'.  Read what is possible as an addition to the Landlord and Tenant Act you might be using. 

Coupon-mad

My advice has not changed.  You need an URGENT meeting of leaseholders and freeholders and a letter like the one I linked.

As a freeholder you have title and rights.

flower77g

Regardless of how bad UKPCM is, the approach to take will differ if the car is (a) being parked on freehold land owned outright by IH8 or (b) land that is not part of the freehold but used because IH8 is paying an annual management fee to the MA.

If (a) IH8 might have a claim against UPCM for slander of title which could be very expensive for them

_IH8_UKCPM_

To clarify, the boundary of our freehold includes 1 parking space, and our car parked there has been ok no tickets. Second car was parked next to it although probably partially on our owned land as well technically as it is parked close to the other car. There is no boundary line or paint marking signify where our land ends and shared land begins that we can use to verify (unless we got tape measure out every time we parked).

As mentioned other properties next to us with same layout and same boundry with 1 space do have theirs painted on. When the second is parked there it is not obstructing anything and parked in the same manner as our neighbours have been doing - literally directly infront of our own front door, we have no pavement or even a doorstep infront of our property just what they deem the "roadway".

Coupon-mad

How many years have cars been parked there by residents (including the owners before you)?

_IH8_UKCPM_

I believe from when the houses were built in 2015. When we viewed the property they mentioned we could park out the front and the estate agents listing said allocated parking. Google streetview image support this showing their much larger car parked out the front in the same place. No evidence the bay was ever painted. Other neighbours have been doing the same parking two cars out the front for as long as we have lived here and I believe one of those has been there since built in 2015.