Parking on private road help

[misterh]

I live in a rented property on what I assume to be a private road. It is a new build and at the time we moved in the road was, to my knowledge, unadopted.

I've been made aware through whispers that the road is now owned by a private company. I have received no letter or other communication about this from the landlord (company) that owns the house, the builder or the company themselves. Nor are there any signs up detailing the terms and conditions of parking on the road, except the words "Private Road" under the road sign at the start of the road.

Our rental agreement mentions nothing about restricted parking on the road.

Recently we received a letter from the landlord stating "clauses" in our contract, saying that we cannot park anywhere on the road basically. Upon searching, these clauses are not present in our rental agreement or anything else we signed.

It has also come to my attention that other residents of the road, particularly those who bought their house, were sent "parking agreements" with their paperwork which they were required to sign to say they agreed to no on-road parking. We, and our neighbours who are all rentals, did not receive or sign any such documentation.

Everything has been fine until recently when the last house on the street was bought, the residents of which have taken to hassling other people about parking, taking photos, and even commiting criminal damage by supergluing a photocopied letter to someones windscreen that was visiting a neighbour.

Today I have learned that apparently the company are to set up a "ticketing system" in their words where they will be sending a warden round and anyone on the road will be ticketed.

My concerns are obviously where do we stand with this? Do we have no choice but to pay up? I have disabled people in my family that are physically unable to park on a different street and walk up, and if any of this was in my original rental agreement I would not have signed and moved in.

Sorry for wall of text, I would appreciate any help you can provide!


TLDR; Moved into new build rental property on unadopted road, road has recently become private. Ticketing system to be implemented imminently. Want to know do I have any rights as this is a bit of an ambush, or do I have to suck it up and explain to my family and friends they are to be fined every time they come to visit.

[mystery1]

Re: Parking on private road help

What does your lease say ? What does the landlord say ?

M1

[misterh]

Re: Parking on private road help

The landlord is housing association.

When we moved in we had nothing about this, in fact they said it was unadopted for the time being but would be taken by the council.

However a few weeks ago we had a letter from association detailing "clauses" where we signed to say we wouldn't park, but that was the first we heard of it. There is nothing we have signed to abide by this and nothing in our tenancy agreement either.

[mystery1]

Re: Parking on private road help

As long as they stay away from your land to which you have occupational rights then it's really just arguing with the HA about it. I guess there could be a case for escaping the lease based on misrepresentation or something but that seems very much a drastic and complicated route to take when there are merely concerns at present.

M1

[misterh]

Re: Parking on private road help

And can the parking company take me to court (and win) if I don't pay the charges given the circumstances?

[misterh]

Re: Parking on private road help

And about misrepresentation, since we wouldn't have moved in had we been told about this.

If I cannot safely ignore the parking notices then I may have no choice but to move.

[mystery1]

Re: Parking on private road help

And can the parking company take me to court (and win) if I don't pay the charges given the circumstances?

Potentially, yes. They need to have clear signs, plenty of them, clear meaning in the signs to create a contract, a contract to operate etc

I would talk to the HA who may issue some permits.

M1

[amphiprion]

Re: Parking on private road help

Have you asked them to provide a copy of the non parking agreement they allege you have signed. That would seem to be a sensible place to start. Perhaps you either didnt realise thats what you were signing with all the other paperwork, or the housing association has made a mistake. Either way you need to know which it is!

[misterh]

Re: Parking on private road help

Sorry about the delay with this.

Basically no, they don't have a copy of the non-parking agreement. We didn't sign one nor can they provide one. However this may be due to us being HA tenants (although there is nothing in our rental agreement regarding this), as there are homeowners on the street that were given paperwork to sign re: parking on the road.

So I would suggest that everybody that bought their house new from the developer went through some sort of process about this, but rentals did not. So bearing that in mind, finding out my legal position is the outstanding issue; is it business as usual or do I have to abide by these new restrictions because signs have now gone up?

There was a meeting between residents and the estate management company (in charge of parking) in the Autumn. It was heated to say the least, so they agreed to hold a "vote" on whether the residents wanted these parking controls. A few weeks later they communicated to all residents that the vote was overwhelmingly against the parking restrictions, and that they'd respect the vote and return to remove all signage. Well, at least 4 months later no signage has been removed, but the anonymous reports to the parking enforcer seem to have calmed down, so I can only hope this is the end of it!