Please help with parking fines

Lewiieeeg

Hi all, I hope you can help me!

Firstly apologies, I have tried to read through similar cases and the newbie guide but I have got a bit lost with it and am starting to panic!

I moved into an estate in 2019 and there were no Parking permits etc needed. In 2023 our management company gave the rights for the parking to Parking and property management LTD and since then they have been a nightmare. We are allocated one bay which my partner uses as we have small children. I park on the road. Estate houses roughly 300-400 people and there appears to be 24 'visitor' bays marked with white lines. 

They created some white parking bays and marked some of the roads with double yellow lines. I had been parking in a parking spot that was not double yellowed, but also did not have a white bay in it. Fast forward 10 days and the company had sent me 9 PCN's on the same day. They had been taking the pictures in the early hours of the morning so our estate were not aware, and then holding the tickets to send in bulk. If I had received one ticket I would have known better about parking where I did. 

Stupidly, I tried to ignore the letters and did not keep copies. I have just received a letter from a legal company saying they may take us to court if we do not pay the money. I have not yet responded to this either. 

I was hoping for some guidance on next steps. 

LDast

What does your lease say about parking and permits? What it doesn’t say about it is equally important.

If you can show that the imposition of the PPC and any requirements to display permits or anything that fundamentally affects your quiet enjoyment and/or derogates from what you are permitted in your lease, then it is clear that the terms of your lease have been breached.

If any terms in your lease have been breached, you need to inform the managing company that contracted the PPC about their failure to follow the requirements of the Landlord and Tenants Act 1987, Section 37 5(a) or (b).

As the contractors of the PPC, the management company are jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents. Tell them to get the PCNs cancelled. Let them know that if your lease has been breached by the unlawful actions of them and their agents, you data has therefore been obtained unlawfully by the PPC and both they and them wil be liable for a compensation claim under the Data Protection Act 2018.

What does your lease say or not say about parking?

DE_612183

We'll need more details - are there signs? can you provide photographs of the bay you parked in?

Have you complained to the management company and asked them to cancel the PCNs?

DE_612183

LDast said:

What does your lease say about parking and permits? What it doesn’t say about it is equally important.

If you can show that the imposition of the PPC and any requirements to display permits or anything that fundamentally affects your quiet enjoyment and/or derogates from what you are permitted in your lease, then it is clear that the terms of your lease have been breached.

If any terms in your lease have been breached, you need to inform the managing company that contracted the PPC about their failure to follow the requirements of the Landlord and Tenants Act 1987, Section 37 5(a) or (b).

As the contractors of the PPC, the management company are jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents. Tell them to get the PCNs cancelled. Let them know that if your lease has been breached by the unlawful actions of them and their agents, you data has therefore been obtained unlawfully by the PPC and both they and them wil be liable for a compensation claim under the Data Protection Act 2018.

What does your lease say or not say about parking?

Not sure this is a lease situation - this is a residential estate with a management company which I think is different ( but happy to be corrected ).

LDast

DE_612183 said:

LDast said:

What does your lease say about parking and permits? What it doesn’t say about it is equally important.

If you can show that the imposition of the PPC and any requirements to display permits or anything that fundamentally affects your quiet enjoyment and/or derogates from what you are permitted in your lease, then it is clear that the terms of your lease have been breached.

If any terms in your lease have been breached, you need to inform the managing company that contracted the PPC about their failure to follow the requirements of the Landlord and Tenants Act 1987, Section 37 5(a) or (b).

As the contractors of the PPC, the management company are jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents. Tell them to get the PCNs cancelled. Let them know that if your lease has been breached by the unlawful actions of them and their agents, you data has therefore been obtained unlawfully by the PPC and both they and them wil be liable for a compensation claim under the Data Protection Act 2018.

What does your lease say or not say about parking?

Not sure this is a lease situation - this is a residential estate with a management company which I think is different ( but happy to be corrected ).

I beg to differ, especially as the OP has stated that there were no parking restrictions or requirements for permits when they moved in/signed their lease. We constantly see these issues on residential estates where PPC vermin have been brought in my badly managed management companies who show their ineptitude by not knowing or following their legal obligations.

DE_612183

LDast said:

DE_612183 said:

LDast said:

What does your lease say about parking and permits? What it doesn’t say about it is equally important.

If you can show that the imposition of the PPC and any requirements to display permits or anything that fundamentally affects your quiet enjoyment and/or derogates from what you are permitted in your lease, then it is clear that the terms of your lease have been breached.

If any terms in your lease have been breached, you need to inform the managing company that contracted the PPC about their failure to follow the requirements of the Landlord and Tenants Act 1987, Section 37 5(a) or (b).

As the contractors of the PPC, the management company are jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents. Tell them to get the PCNs cancelled. Let them know that if your lease has been breached by the unlawful actions of them and their agents, you data has therefore been obtained unlawfully by the PPC and both they and them wil be liable for a compensation claim under the Data Protection Act 2018.

What does your lease say or not say about parking?

Not sure this is a lease situation - this is a residential estate with a management company which I think is different ( but happy to be corrected ).

I beg to differ, especially as the OP has stated that there were no parking restrictions or requirements for permits when they moved in/signed their lease. We constantly see these issues on residential estates where PPC vermin have been brought in my badly managed management companies who show their ineptitude by not knowing or following their legal obligations.

Yeah, I get your point - would be good if the OP can clarify if they bought the property or are just renting, and what they signed ( whether there was a lease or not - nothing in their post suggests this is anything apart from a management company taking over the day to day running of the site ).

Lewiieeeg

Sorry all, I did not expect to have responses so quickly! You guys are awesome. 

I could not see anything in the contract about our parking situation other than that we are allocated one parking bay which my partner uses. There does not appear to be anything about parking on the estate, and we were free to park where we wanted up for 4 years, up until about a year ago. 

I will try to get some pictures of where I was parked, but essentially it was just on the road without any markings whatsoever. They have white marked bays, yellow lines and then some areas with no markings at all. My thought was that if there was no yellow lines, it would be fine. (Naively!)

There are signs dotted around the estate, and at the entrance, albeit I do not believe there are any in the immediate vicinity of where I parked.

I bought the property in June 2019. The estate is a new build property on a fully new build estate. 

I hope I have answered everyone's questions, and thank you to everyone that has commented with help so far. 

Coupon-mad

I bought the property in June 2019. The estate is a new build property on a fully new build estate.

There does not appear to be anything about parking on the estate, and we were free to park where we wanted up for 4 years, up until about a year ago.

Why did the leaseholders agree to (or acquiesce to permits) and allow this scam regime to infest your estate?

Nobody needs a parking firm or permit scheme, rendering your quiet and perfectly OK home car park into an aggressively run commercial business seeking to penalise residents and visitors at £100 per time you stop.

Are you a leaseholder or a freeholder?