Help with wording my own LBC to Landowner, Housing Management, and CPM's Sadstones solictors

Kid.Kadoo

Hi all,

I am looking for help wording an LBC. I need to send one to my housing managers, as well as the landowners, and I suppose also to the Parking company themselves (or their solicitors?). I need some guidance as to who I need to be telling I will be suing for what- or will all the LBC's be the same? I have provided details below. Hopefully this is enough to come up with something.

Following my 3 parking fines received at my place of residence for not displaying a permit, and an LBC from the parking company's solicitor, I have checked the the terms of my lease. It allows me the right to park in any of the residential carpark spaces without stating the need for a permit. The clauses that the solicitor states gives them the right to fine me for parking at my own home, are as follows-
"Comply with and observe any reasonable regulations which the Company may consistently with the provisions of this Deed make to govern the use of the Property and any part thereof such regulations may be restrictive of acts done on the Property detrimental to its character or amenities and any costs charges or expenses incurred by the Company in preparing or supplying copies of such regulations or in doing works for the improvement of the Property providing services or employing gardeners porters or other employees shall be deemed to have been properly incurred by the Company in pursuance of its obligations under Part IV of the Schedule hereto"
AND
"The Company may at its absolute discretion provide maintain or install in or about the Property any services for the comfort and convenience of the Lessee"

I believe that these clauses do not give them the right to charge me £60-100 for parking without a permit at my own residence as it would constitute a derogation of grant and if this clause allows lease variation, then it can be shown to be to the significant detriment of the lessees. It also infringes upon my right to peaceful enjoyment of my own property. 

In Pace v Mr N [2016] C6GF14F0 [2016] as well as in Link Parking v Ms P C7GF50J7 [2016] it was found that the parking company could not override the tenant's right to park by requiring a permit to park.

If the parking company's charges are deemed to to be valid, then I would also be likely to counter-claim for breach of data protection laws and ask for compensation of £750 for stress caused by this, as in the case of Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd [2013] All ER (D) 199.
Additionally if the parking company are deemed to have no grounds to issue me the charges I would also seek to sue for trespass to the tune of £150 for damages, as shown in Davey v UKPC.
Additionally if I need to take time off work to actually physically go to court, my day rate as a self-employed person is £165 per day, so lets add that in too??

I'm not exactly sure how to word it all, so any help would be greatly 

KoalaMSEF

Who is the solicitor? Your conveyancer? Or your MA said that their solicitor says so?

Has anybody said to you that it’s landlord condition for permit parking?

The clause they gave you did not give them a blank check for what they do, parking without permit is in no way to be “detrimental”, charging £100 for parking without permit is in no way for the “comfort and convenience” of the leasee. The solicitor needs to read and have some common sense, which they don’t have because their common sense has been paid off by the money.

The major issue here is the breach of the lease. Parking for £100 is a substantial variation of the lease, which must be reflected on the lease. The lease is between you, landlord, and MA. Parking company is an unconnected third party and they are in no place of the lease. The primacy of contract I.e. lease means that it overrides any commercial contract, if there is any. The second issue is gdpr violation for an agreement between landlord and the parking company that allows them to trespass and take your personal information. But I would argue the key is the breach of the contract. 

Please check the Newbie thread and look for links for parking prankster. There are good templates on Scribed, which you need to register to be able to download. 

I’ve written one for our particular case based on that template. It’s quite long. Get the details solid before dropping the court decisions. My experience - solicitor working for developers, MAs and parking companies will find all things to deny the relevance of court decisions if that’s the only thing you have. Webs of details will land in a solid case that can help people to see the problem. Worse case scenario, it helps with WS if court is inevitable. 

Please check the parkingprankster link. 

KoalaMSEF

Oh I see, the solicitor is the parking company. Why do you speak to them? What is the situation? Did you agree to display a permit before but the permit falls, did you just move in with no knowledge about the permit? Have you sent a strongly worded complaint to the landlord and ask if it is their condition to charge £100 for parking without a third party permit? Is it allocated parking? 

daveyjp

The lease is using 'sweeper clauses' to try and let landlords do whatever they please.  They are more commonly used for service charges to try and get tenants to pay for whatever service the landlord deems fit to supply.

Courts and and tribunals have found them to be unacceptable.

Coupon-mad

daveyjp said:

The lease is using 'sweeper clauses' to try and let landlords do whatever they please.  They are more commonly used for service charges to try and get tenants to pay for whatever service the landlord deems fit to supply.

Courts and and tribunals have found them to be unacceptable.

As has the Court of Appeal, who found against what they called a 'carve-out clause' and held that any ‘alteration or development against which the exclusion is tested…must be grounded in reality’.

The Supreme Court have refused an application to appeal the below case in 2024, so it is BINDING case law now!

I just posted this in the threads by @KoalaMSEF and @ItayD

It looks to me like a possible 'silver bullet' for most residential parking cases when cited correctly.

Looks relevant for you to read carefully, Kid.Kadoo 

Could even be used to support counterclaims to help residents fight back:

I think this 'landmark' case could also be useful to you. I found it yesterday when randomly Googling to read about Newman v Jones (an unreported case).

DUCHESS OF BEDFORD HOUSE RTM COMPANY LIMITED & ORS V CAMPDEN HILL GATE LTD [2023] EWCA Civ 1470

It reaffirms residential parking rights using not only a fair interpretation of the lease but also section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925.

It's a Court of Appeal authority (the Supreme Court refused an application to appeal it):

https://www.edwincoe.com/blogs/main/the-supreme-court-has-effectively-confirmed-the-approach-of-the-court-of-appeal-in-applying-the-rule-in-newman-v-jones-and-on-how-to-interpret-lease-clauses/

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/6576d76952aae60ac079d0bd?utm_source=amp&target=amp_jtext

That case reaffirmed leaseholders' rights under section 62 to use 'first come first served' bays in a car parking area at their estate:

"The residents of Duchess of Bedford House are relieved and delighted at this decision. After having had their right to park restricted by parking tickets and even clamping for periods over the last 30 years, they can park in the road outside their flats with full confidence in their right to do so."

Even Shakespeare Martineau blogged about it:

https://www.shma.co.uk/our-thoughts/duchess-of-bedford-house-case-have-we-gone-parking-mad/

Kid.Kadoo

@KoalaMSEF do you have a link to the lbc on scribed at all?? I was searching for this last night to help me but couldn't find it again. I know I've seen it before

Kid.Kadoo

@KoalaMSEF I took over ownership of the flat after my mum passed away and had been using her permit all this time, which the housing management had been informed of and that was fine. However it's been 6 years now, and the permit was no longer sticky. I tried to purchase a new one, but after being unable to find my particular flat block area on the website, I emailed with the housing managers to ask which one I needed to select to buy, to which I received a confusing email which seemed to state to me that I don't need a permit. I had checked my lease at that time which concurred that I don't need a permit, so I didn't purchase a new one as there wasn't the option for my flat on the website for permits. 

That's how I got into this mess as I received 3 fines through the post- 2 I think on consecutive days, which were cancelled as they did not arrive within the 14day period they are required to. And the 3rd everyone is refusing to cancel.

KoalaMSEF

Kid.Kadoo said:

@KoalaMSEF do you have a link to the lbc on scribed at all?? I was searching for this last night to help me but couldn't find it again. I know I've seen it before

Here is the link -https://www.scribd.com/document/348759691/LBC-to-Landowner

For the full version, you will need to register with a card, but remember to cancel within a month, it will cost nothing. There are also versions for LBC to MA and to PPC. 

Kid.Kadoo

@Coupon-mad ah! That's perfect! Thank you! I'll take a look at your posts too. That's extremely helpful also