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CPM / BWLegal small claims court PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL PARKING HELP!

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Hi all,

I need help as I am being taken to court by CPM for a private parking fine. I used to live in a residence where there is a gated car park managed by CPM, and the residence offers 50£/month parking permit, though there is no mention of parking in the lease. There is also no detail about temporary parking for reasonable access to the property, although a few times I emailed my landlord company, who added my reg on the system for 24 hours for free.

This time I could not give them sufficient notice as this was a rental car, and I also wasn't expecting that there would be no parking space around the property. I had to drop off my elderly mum from the airport with her suitcases, and in the few minutes I was upstairs, a ticket warden issued me a fine. I have explained the situation to all parties involved, but they refused to take into account what I explained.

Could you please advise on the defence letter?

Facts

-            I was the tenant of a flat at the property the XXXX

-            I rented a car from XX on 11/05/2023

-            I picked up my mother, who is elderly and had a broken elbow, from Manchester Airport on the same day

-            My residence has a number of parking places in the courtyard which can be rented for £50 a month

-            There is no pay-per-hour machine or application enabling temporary parking

-            However, I have managed in the past to have my licence plate cleared on the system for free 24h parking by providing the registration number in advance

-            In this occasion I could not give any notice as this was a rental car and the rental company refused to give me the licence plate in advance

-            There was no space available in the streets surrounding the property where I rented a flat

-            I needed to drop off my mother and her luggage at my flat, which is on the second floor of the building, with no working lift at the time

-            Due to her broken elbow, she was unable to walk long distances or to carry her own luggage

-            I enquired with the local staff if I could park temporarily on one of the many vacant places in our residential car park, which they approved

-            I tried to phone the number on the signage to enquire about temporary parking but there was no answer

-            I assumed that I had received the necessary authorisations to park the car temporarily

-            Our key fobs give us entry to the parking lot by opening the car gates, whether you have a parking licence or not, which I also assume was another indication that temporary parking was acceptable

-            I was not notified of what CPM is, and it does not appear in my contract

-            I parked the car for a very limited amount of time in one of the parking bays

-            I helped my mother take her suitcases into my flat, and promptly removed the car afterwards

-            I appealed the fine but the company refused to take into account extenuating circumstances

-            After my second appeal process, the fine had not been reissued and so was at the higher tariff of 100£ instead of the reduced tariff of 60£

 

 

 

Defence

-            The Shorter Oxford Dictionary has the following: “To leave a vehicle in a carpark or other reserved space” and “To leave in a suitable place until required.” The concept of parking, as opposed to stopping, is that of leaving a car for some duration of time beyond that needed for getting in or out of it, loading or unloading it, and perhaps coping with some vicissitude of short duration, such as changing a wheel in the event of a puncture. Merely to stop a vehicle cannot be to park it; otherwise traffic jams would consist of lines of parked cars. Delivery vans, whether for post, newspapers, groceries, or anything else, would not be accommodated on an interpretation which included vehicles stopping for a few moment for these purposes.

-            The notice makes no reference to any rights which the occupiers of premises on the estate may have had by virtue of their leases.

-            My tenancy agreement contains the following articles about parking (and only these):

o   Not to park any van (under 5.5 metres long), motor car, motor cycle or moped anywhere at the Property, the Building and/or the Estate other than where it is roadworthy taxed and insured and provided it is parked in any:

§  private garage granted as part of the Property (if any);

§  designated parking space (where these exist) that we have given you specific or implied consent to use; or

§  shared car park (where these exist).

o   That the lawful occupiers or your visitors will park with due care and consideration to other road users and pedestrians without obstructing any roads, garage forecourts, service roads, footpaths, greens, verges, access routes, driveways or other parking spaces on the Estate.

o   your parking obligations (clause 4.32 to 4.35) (such Works may include removing your vehicle)

-            There is no mention of the regulations regarding the car park and how residents may have access to the car park

-            All key fobs provide access to the car gate

-            When this situation was explained to CPM after it had submitted a claim for money to me, it refused to rescind the charge. Furthermore, the claimant was not prepared to explain to the court why, in the circumstances, it would not withdraw its claim to this charge. The claimant’s stance appeared wholly unreasonable, but this does not, of course, affect a disinterested analysis of the legal position.

-            My argument is that this is not a simple case of parking without permission on somebody else’s property having seen a notice imposing financial conditions for doing so (as in the recent decision of the Supreme Court ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] 3 WLR 1373.

-            I argue that I had a right-of-way to enable my to access the property, and that the right to stop for a few moments or minutes to put down passengers or unload awkward items was a necessary incident of this easement. The position was analogous to the right to unload which was the subject of Bulstrode v Lambert [1953] 2 All ER 728. The right of way in that case was: “To pass and re-pass with or without vehicles…for the purposes of obtaining access to the building…known as the auction mart.” Upjohn J said at 332: “I am quite satisfied that on its true construction the plaintiff is entitled to bring on this yard…vehicles and to transport from those vehicles…furniture or other chattels…into the auction mart.” He continued, having dealt with some geographical questions: “Is he entitled to halt on the yard while the vans…are unloading, an operation which takes a half-hour to an hour? If the right which the plaintiff has under the deed of covenant does not include that right, then the right-of-way is virtually useless to him… The whole object of the reservation is for the purpose of…obtaining access… The plaintiff can…bring goods in vehicles to his auction room. If he is entitled to do that, then he must of necessity be entitled to unload them… he right…may be described as ancillary to the easement, ecause without the right he cannot substantially enjoy that which has been reserved to him.”

-            My case could also be put in another way. The purported prohibition was upon “parking”, and it is possible to draw a real and sensible distinction between pausing for a few moments or minutes to enable passengers to alight or for awkward or heavy items to be unloaded, and parking in the sense of leaving a car for some significant duration of time.

-            Whether a car is parked, or simply stopped, or left for a moment while unloading, or (to take an example discussed in argument) accompanying a frail person inside, must be a question of fact or degree. A milkman leaving his float to carry bottles to the flat would not be “parked”. Nor would a postman delivering letters, a wine merchant delivering a case of wine, and nor, I am satisfied, a retailer’s van, or indeed me, helping my frail mother carry suitcases up the stairs. Any other approach would leave life in the block of flats close to unworkable. I am quite satisfied, and I find as a fact, that while my rental car had been stationary or more than a minute and without its driver for the same period (whatever precisely it was), while I helped my moither access my flat, it was not “parked”. Accordingly, for that reason too, I was not liable to the charge stipulated in the respondent’s notice.

Comments

  • Le_Kirk
    Le_Kirk Posts: 24,665 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Also look at Jopson v Homeguard - loading/unloading is not parking!
  • I know someone who works in an office that has staff parking outside. A private company has asked them if they can fine people who park there without permission and the office could take a cut of the fine.

    This company has a list of all the car reg nos of the staff that park there and then they fine whoever isn't on that list!

    Seems literally as simple as that to set up a car parking fine company - If this is a similar situation, surely this does not stand up in court?

    Maybe someone can advise...
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