Is this illegal?

['mad-as-hell']

Hi there, I have just joined your forum and have some questions.
I live in a small private Close consisting of 18 properties. We all own a share of the freehold and have a Residents Association. The self-imposed 'Chairman' of our association, who has never been voted in by anyone has taken it upon himself to imploy CPM Parking Management to undertake parking restrictions in the Close. He has opted for the 'stealth' tactics, whereby, he takes a photo of the vehicle, sends it to them and they issue a ticket. He earns £10 for any paid ticket which goes into his own pocket. I have written to CPM to say that the other residents are against this and 11 of us have signed a petition to get it removed, but have had no reply to any contact. I personally have received 20 + tickets because I refuse to put the permit in my car. I have lived there for 25 years and this man knows my car. How can we get this parking restriction removed?

[mystery1]

Re: Is this illegal?

The big question is, does he have any right to sign a contract for you or not. If he doesn't get the police involved as he has deceived everyone, including the scumbags, for his own gain.

M1

[Openlaw15]

Re: Is this illegal?

Hi there, I have just joined your forum and have some questions.
I live in a small private Close consisting of 18 properties. We all own a share of the freehold and have a Residents Association. The self-imposed 'Chairman' of our association, who has never been voted in by anyone has taken it upon himself to imploy CPM Parking Management to undertake parking restrictions in the Close. He has opted for the 'stealth' tactics, whereby, he takes a photo of the vehicle, sends it to them and they issue a ticket. He earns £10 for any paid ticket which goes into his own pocket. I have written to CPM to say that the other residents are against this and 11 of us have signed a petition to get it removed, but have had no reply to any contact. I personally have received 20 + tickets because I refuse to put the permit in my car. I have lived there for 25 years and this man knows my car. How can we get this parking restriction removed?

Where do the residents normally park? How many parking spaces are available, how many cars do the residents have? Is this private land that they're parking on. Is this part ownership of freehold and part rent, so you're tenants too, etc? Is there a covenant that says use parking spaces responsibly, ie fair use? Has the Association warned that parking restrictions will start apply and measures taken if there is non compliance?

[nemesis45]

Re: Is this illegal?

Has this person he can't I think unilaterally take " charge" over the whole road in this way.
Especially as he only one small part of the freehold as do the other residents.
I'd be inclined to seek advice from a local solicitor and get a letter to this arrogant OIK.

nem

[teaboy2]

Re: Is this illegal?

Have a read of your freehold/tenancy documents, see what they say about parking spaces etc.

Also this man can not unilaterally appoint himself chairman of an association like this, their has to be a vote. And regular residendant association meetings, he also can not keep any funds paid to him by any parking company, it most go into a bank account set up specifically for the residents association. Hes basically comitting fraud so i would report his actions to the police. Also write to the parking company advising them that the person they made the contract with was not authorised to do so by the association as he self appointed himself as chairman, yet no vote or meeting was held to discuss or vote on who should be chairman and any monies should be paid direct to the resisdents association not to an seperate legal entity (i.e. unilaterally self appointed chairman wanna be)! Oh and have all the other resident association member sign for it.

An other route is to call an meeting of the residents association, have your solicitor attend too, and hold a vote to remove this person as a member of the association as a result of abuse of democratic process (i.e. unilaterally appointing himself as chairman without a vote) and fraudulent use of the Associations name in order to make a personal profit, by way of entering the association in to a contract, again without holding a vote, with said parking company, whilst money for his own personal use, when it should have gone to the association itself! You will also need to vote for a new Chairman at the same meeting, as well as secretary too!

This will give you an idea of how a association should operate - http://arma.org.uk/downloader/f18.pdf - Pay attention to the financial aspects too! Basically you need to bring your associate into line with whats stated in the link!

['mad-as-hell']

Re: Is this illegal?

Thanks for your input. We are having a residents assoc. meeting Sat. 30th Jan. so hopefully enough people will attend to make him listen. I challenged him about the fines and parking restrictions yesterday and he denied all knowledge of sending tickets or seeing a petition. As with most bullies, he's a coward when confronted and can only act in an underhand way. Unfortunately one third of the properties are rented out and the landlords aren't too bothered about what happens as long as they get their rents paid. I'll let you know the outcome! Many thanks

['mad-as-hell']

Re: Is this illegal?

Residents park in the Close when there are spaces, or out on the cul-de-sac outside. We have been trying to get some more spaces allocated as there is a large expanse of grass in the Close. Currently, there are only 7 spaces available although we each have a garage. He uses 4 of these to store his building materials. The land is private and we each have a share of the freehold. Nobody was notified of the Parking restrictions being applied - the first anyone knew about it was when the signs went up.

[Openlaw15]

Re: Is this illegal?

Residents park in the Close when there are spaces, or out on the cul-de-sac outside. We have been trying to get some more spaces allocated as there is a large expanse of grass in the Close. Currently, there are only 7 spaces available although we each have a garage. He uses 4 of these to store his building materials. The land is private and we each have a share of the freehold. Nobody was notified of the Parking restrictions being applied - the first anyone knew about it was when the signs went up.

Why is he occupying 4 garages to store his building materials?

['mad-as-hell']

Re: Is this illegal?

Hi, thanks for reply!
He runs a building company with his father and they often have their two large vans parked outside the garages, blocking the way. He owns one, his father another and his brother, who sold his flat several years ago, didn't sell the garage with it (is that legal? the lady who bought the flat wasn't told that a garage existed) so he owns three and rents one. He also tries to buy up any that he can .

[des8]

Re: Is this illegal?

Lots of residential properties are burdened with a restriction that one may not run a business from them, and does the rating dept know about the business use?
There's more than one way to skin a cat!

[teaboy2]

Re: Is this illegal?

Thanks for your input. We are having a residents assoc. meeting Sat. 30th Jan. so hopefully enough people will attend to make him listen. I challenged him about the fines and parking restrictions yesterday and he denied all knowledge of sending tickets or seeing a petition. As with most bullies, he's a coward when confronted and can only act in an underhand way. Unfortunately one third of the properties are rented out and the landlords aren't too bothered about what happens as long as they get their rents paid. I'll let you know the outcome! Many thanks

Tenants are able to be members of a residential association too, its not something that is specific to just those who own properties in the building, neighbourhood etc. You should consider asking those tenants to join the association for a slightly lesser fee than those who own properties. Lesser fee in order to encourage them to join and because, given they have rent to pay (it irrelevant if their landload is a member or not), reduces the financial burden of paying for rent and paying for membership too.

[teaboy2]

Re: Is this illegal?

Lots of residential properties are burdened with a restriction that one may not run a business from them, and does the rating dept know about the business use?
There's more than one way to skin a cat!

I like your thinking [MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION] - If his vehicles are blocking other peoples accesss, then thats a certainly a right of access issue, and may even be trepass if parked in front of other peoples garages - Though depends on the boundarys or land belonging to each garage and if the land in front of a garage comes as part of the land owned by the garage owner!

['mad-as-hell']

Re: Is this illegal?

He has added a ' vote by proxy' form to the agenda. Does this mean that if a landlord gives signed permission for his tenant to vote on his behalf, their vote is valid? In the past, he has said that 'if you're not at the meeting, you can't vote' Surely another lie?

[ostell]

Re: Is this illegal?

Ask for a copy of the contract with the PPC. See who is getting what.

[Openlaw15]

Re: Is this illegal?

Hi, thanks for reply!
He runs a building company with his father and they often have their two large vans parked outside the garages, blocking the way. He owns one, his father another and his brother, who sold his flat several years ago, didn't sell the garage with it (is that legal? the lady who bought the flat wasn't told that a garage existed) so he owns three and rents one. He also tries to buy up any that he can .

conflict of interest, nepotism....bias.....unreasonably abusing limited storage space. Is there a parking easement in the covenants...if so easements must be used fairly for parking. If the vehicles are regularly blocking access to private property it could be trespass issue too.