Large VCS claim received for residential space

lucere · 9 August 2018 at 3:03PM

Hi all,

Firstly thank you in advance for any help provided in this thread !!!8211; I can see many people freely offer their time and expertise and that is very kind.

I received a county claim on 31st July and have done an AoS via MCOL. (I previously ignored the LBC as I was uninformed about the whole thing, oops..!)

Before I post a draft of my defence, I have a few questions.

Background
I rent a flat in a large complex with numbered bays and gated entry, and parked for two years in my allocated space before the site management introduced VCS to police the site. I received PCNs between Sept-Dec 2017 for "no permit" on a near daily basis and the claim against me is now around five thousand pounds. (Should I be worried that they will focus more effort and resources on this "big" claim?)

Tenancy Agreement / Lease
My principal tenancy agreement was for 6 months from October 2014. Do I need to secure copies of the supplemental agreements (extensions, basically) to prove that I was still resident at the time of the PCNs? I do not still have these supplemental agreements but I assume I can request them from my lettings agent

This is what the principal tenancy agreement states about parking:

THE TENANT WILL:
7.10 To use the car parking space(s) if one forms part of the Tenancy Agreement for the parking of a private vehicle(s) at the Property only.

7.11 To park in the space allocated to the Property as set out in the Particulars of the Agreement.

7.12 To park in the garage or driveway to the Property if applicable.

(7.13 & 7.14, some stuff about cleaning up oil spillages and removing vehicles at end of tenancy)

7.15 Not to park any vehicle at the Property which is not on a road worthy condition and fully taxed.

Is it a problem that the AST is so general and non-specific? Nowhere does it actually mention if a space forms part of the tenancy agreement or what number space that is. Should I obtain a copy of the landlord's lease for the property, and do I have time to do this through the Land Registry? (Defence deadline I believe is Sunday 2nd September.) In the property handbook/folder given with the tenancy there is a photocopy of the conveyance plan of the basement car park with handwritten notes and shading added to show which is my "proper allocated space". I'm not sure this could hold up as evidence..?

I have also found in AST:
DURING THE TENANCY THE LANDLORD WILL:
11.3 The Tenant paying the Rent and performing and observing the obligations on the Tenant's part contained in this Agreement shall peaceably hold and enjoy the Property during the Term without any unlawful interruption by the Landlord or any person rightfully claiming under, through or in trust for the Landlord.

Is this the point that relates to my peaceful enjoyment of my parking space? (If indeed the parking space forms part of the Property in the lease)

I'd really like to get my evidence for authority to park/primacy of contract nailed down !!!8211; I'm not sure if what I have is enough.

Obviously I plan to include other sections from template defences !!!8211; can I deny that I was the driver of the vehicle when I am the only named driver on insurance and this was over an extended period of time?

Should I write to the site management company threatening to involve them in the claim and try and get them to cancel the tickets? They are notoriously unhelpful and inefficient, however, and wouldn't do anything to help me when I initially received the PCNs. I have no idea who the actual Landowner is.

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated. I will begin drafting my defence

Quentin · 9 August 2018 at 3:14PM

They will definitely focus more effort on a £5k claim than a £175 one!!

(The court fee they have paid out already for issuing the claim is substantially higher! They won't be getting that back or any other subsequent court fees unless you end up paying them)

System · 9 August 2018 at 3:18PM

Did you always park in the designated spot?

Can you get a copy of your landlord's lease either from the landlord, or from another (similar) property or from the Land Registry. For the latter use form OC2 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-copies-of-documents-registration-oc2) but be warned it may cost £50 ish but you will need it to rebutt VCS.

Your evening reading is now

Pace v Noor, VCS v Laird, Link v Parkinson and Link v Blaney. All are relevant.

The Laird one is the most recent but is a good example of VCS winging it and the defendant not being arsed to do the work. Blaney is similar while the Noor and Parkinson case are examples of the defendants doing the work.

To win you have to avoid losing first so read the Newbies thread and stick to the timings.

Umkomaas · 9 August 2018 at 3:19PM

As you are likely to be making quite a bit of input to this thread over the coming weeks, please switch off the Smart Punctuation on your iOS device to get rid of all the !!!8211; and the like, as every apostrophe and some other punctuations convert to exclamation marks and numbers.

It will remove anything similar from any future posts you make, but unfortunately copy and pastes of other people's inputs will still carry the fault and will need to be tidied manually.

Go to 'Settings' > 'General' > 'Keyboard' > 'Smart Punctuation' and flick the switch off.

Switching off seems to have no detrimental affect on any other use of the keyboard.

bargepole · 9 August 2018 at 3:31PM

lucere wrote: »

Obviously I plan to include other sections from template defences. Can I deny that I was the driver of the vehicle when I am the only named driver on insurance and this was over an extended period of time?

Your strongest point of defence is primacy of contract. This works far better if you, the tenant, were also the driver, so I would leave out any references to POFA / keeper liability.

Your defence is basically: I have a right to park, I parked in accordance with that right, now jog on.

Here are the sort of clauses you should be including, as the opening paragraphs of the defence (amend as appropriate):

1. Under the terms of the Defendant’s tenancy, a number of references are made to conditions of parking motor vehicles. [INSERT CLAUSES FROM TENANCY AGREEMENT HERE]. There are no terms within the tenancy requiring lessees to display parking permits, or to pay penalties to third parties, such as the Claimant, for non-display of same.
.
2. The Defendant, at all material times, parked in accordance with the terms granted by the tenancy. The erection of the Claimant’s signage, and the purported contractual terms conveyed therein, are incapable of binding the Defendant in any way, and their existence does not constitute a legally valid variation of the terms of the tenancy agreement. Accordingly, the Defendant denies having breached any contractual terms whether express, implied, or by conduct.

lucere · 9 August 2018 at 3:36PM

IamEmanresu wrote: »

Did you always park in the designated spot?

Yes, I've only ever parked in my designated space in the 4 years I've been here.

Can you get a copy of your landlord's lease either from the landlord, or from another (similar) property or from the Land Registry.

I can ask a neighbour who owns their flat to see their lease, but I assume I can't actually use this in my defence? The Land Registry says £7 fee per document for form OC2, will there be multiple documents? I'm happy to pay £7, I'm just concerned about timescales/turnaround..

Thank you for the reading suggestions!

Umkomaas · 9 August 2018 at 3:36PM

Peer-to-peer confirmation that bargepole is a highly trusted contributor here and most certainly knows exactly what he is talking about.

Any input from him to your case will be gold dust.

lucere · 9 August 2018 at 5:03PM

bargepole wrote: »

Your strongest point of defence is primacy of contract. This works far better if you, the tenant, were also the driver, so I would leave out any references to POFA / keeper liability.

Your defence is basically: I have a right to park, I parked in accordance with that right, now jog on.

Here are the sort of clauses you should be including, as the opening paragraphs of the defence (amend as appropriate):

1. Under the terms of the Defendant’s tenancy, a number of references are made to conditions of parking motor vehicles. [INSERT CLAUSES FROM TENANCY AGREEMENT HERE]. There are no terms within the tenancy requiring lessees to display parking permits, or to pay penalties to third parties, such as the Claimant, for non-display of same.
.
2. The Defendant, at all material times, parked in accordance with the terms granted by the tenancy. The erection of the Claimant’s signage, and the purported contractual terms conveyed therein, are incapable of binding the Defendant in any way, and their existence does not constitute a legally valid variation of the terms of the tenancy agreement. Accordingly, the Defendant denies having breached any contractual terms whether express, implied, or by conduct.

Thank you Bargepole, that's what I thought - and some really helpful paragraphs to get me started. I wish I could just tell them to jog on in my defence though!!

I've just been in touch with a neighbour in the building and in his signed lease it states:

1.7 The exclusive right to park one private motor vehicle on the parking space (or each of the spaces as the case may be)(if any) shown edged yellow and numbered on Plan 1 with the number of the Apartment

The Plan 1 is present with his lease showing the designated space. This sounds like good news to me.. I will get in touch with my landlord to ask if he has his lease and if not get from Land Registry. Together with my tenancy agreement, these seem like very solid pieces of evidence?

System · 10 August 2018 at 6:33AM

these seem like very solid pieces of evidence?

That is exactly what you need.

In many cases people fail to bring along evidence which support their version of events which leaves judges in the difficult position of having to find against them for want of paperwork. Some judges will bend the rules slightly to help people but you should not rely on telling the judge simply it is "your space". You have to back everything up.

The_Deep · 10 August 2018 at 7:51AM

Can you involve your landlord?

If this happened to one of my tenants I would move heaven and earth to get this parasite thrown out, Their actions not only impinge on tenants' legal rights to quiet enjoyment., but could affect rental values. If they are ticketing cars, they may also be committing trespass.

The_Slithy_Tove · 10 August 2018 at 8:04AM

Take a look at this Residential Parking/VCS thread on Pepipoo:
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=120695

Large VCS claim received for residential space

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