Car Parking Problem

Noopti

Hi,
Any advice/info on a little problem I'm having would be great:

Moved into apartment almost 1 year ago. Lease states that we have a car parking space, but were told by landlord/letting agent that we can park anywhere you want. No problem so far.
Until 1 month ago, when we got a car and started getting notices to move the car from certain spaces etc. So contacted management company who said that the spaces ARE assigned. We asked about our space and he could not tell us what the space allocations are.

Cut to one month later and multiple phones calls, emails etc to management company, letting agents etc and we are no further along. Basically they cannot seem to figure out what space is for who, and whenever we ring are being basically fobbed off "we will ring you back" (they never do), "We still are not sure about spaces", "we are going to contact landlord", which they did and he says we have space 6. But apparently he cannot confirm this, even though he is the guy who developed the apartments.
We are still jumping from space to space, and being told to move.

Now, if it says on our lease that we have a space, and no-one (landlord, letting agents, management company) can tell us which one, where do we stand regarding the lease? Have they broken the lease?

We are close to telling them we will not pay the full rent on the lease until this is sorted, seeing as our lease says we have one and we practically don't at this stage.

Any advice on this would be great.

Thanks a mil

dame

Sounds to me like the landlord/letting agent/management company or somebody has let your parking space to someone else because they thought you weren't using it.

dudara

Noopti wrote: »

We are close to telling them we will not pay the full rent on the lease until this is sorted, seeing as our lease says we have one and we practically don't at this stage.

Continue to pay your rent, because you may be left in a legally exposed position if you don't hold up your part of the lease.

However, I would contact the PRTB and ask for guidance in this issue. Tell the landlord/management company that they have a certain period of time (ie 1 week) to sort it out, otherwise you will be escalating the situation.

How Strange

If there is a specific car park space assigned to the apartment it should be listed on the landlord's lease documents (his official documents not your lease for renting). Afterall, he legally owns the space - wherever it is.

The management co may not know who owns what space so its an issue for your letting agent and landlord.

Jo King

How Strange wrote: »

If there is a specific car park space assigned to the apartment it should be listed on the landlord's lease documents (his official documents not your lease for renting). Afterall, he legally owns the space - wherever it is.

The management co may not know who owns what space so its an issue for your letting agent and landlord.

If the landlord has a lease the management company should have the counterpart. The landlords copy may well be lodged with a bank or building
society. The tenants lease should also deal with the parking situation. This would have been drawn up by the landlord or letting agent.

Noopti

Thanks for the advice, everyone.
I am going to contact the letting agents today and basically tell them that the car parking space should be on the landlords lease, and that we want it to be sorted by Monday otherwise we will be getting in touch with the PRTB about the issue.

TBH, at this stage we are so sick a calling various agents etc for the past month (especially when most of the time they never bother to contact us) and getting nowhere, that we are seriously considering moving out. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it will be the final card we play.

How Strange

Jo King...If the landlord has a lease the management company should have the counterpart. The landlords copy may well be lodged with a bank or building society.

The management company would rarely have a counterpart lease for individual apartments; they would generally have a copy of the lease which mentions the management company as the MC has obligations under the lease as well.

The builders/developers solicitors issue the leases so the MC would only have what the solicitors gave them.

IMO, this is an issue for the landlord or letting agent seeing as the landlord is paying them to manage the property. Yes, most likely the lease is being held by the bank or building society where he/she has the mortagage.

jubi lee

the managment company own all outside areas. the landlord would have recieved a map of the car park indicating his space, if they were given out to each apartment. Are the numbered?

if your landlord says space no 6 is yours, then find out who is parking in it and tell them that you have been told by the developer that it's your car parking space and that they need to go talk to the letting agency/managment company if they too are renting. if they are owners then they should be able to get a map of their parking space which will at least eliminate that space for you. what no apartment are you in? they are normally numbered to match your apartment number.

MysticalSoul

It would be listed in the Title Deeds of the property, which generally would be held by the Landlord's Solicitors or his bank.

Noopti

Just a quick update.

Apparently the Management Company & the Landlord are meeting today. However they have been "meeting today" since last Friday, so I'm taking all of it with a grain of salt.

On a side note the lack of professionalism of the management has shocked me. From never returning our calls, to the person looking after this only twice taking our calls in the past month, every other time getting someone else to say "he is busy" "he is in a meeting" "he is on the phone" "He said he will call you back already" (never does). To actually getting angry at US on the phone, saying "we are sick of hearing about this", even though it is their job to sort it out and they haven't done so yet.

All we want is information, and when you are constantly being told that you will be called back and never are it becomes very frustrating.

jubi lee

go down to their office...

Jo King

How Strange wrote: »

The management company would rarely have a counterpart lease for individual apartments; they would generally have a copy of the lease which mentions the management company as the MC has obligations under the lease as well.

The builders/developers solicitors issue the leases so the MC would only have what the solicitors gave them.

IMO, this is an issue for the landlord or letting agent seeing as the landlord is paying them to manage the property. Yes, most likely the lease is being held by the bank or building society where he/she has the mortagage.

The freehold for the block is vested in the management company once the developer hands over. The management company needs to have the counterparts to the individual leases. how can they enforce the covenants or indeed prove their lease if they have to sue the apartment owner. I think the o/p is referring to the letting agent when he refers to the management company.

How Strange

Jo King...The freehold for the block is vested in the management company once the developer hands over. The management company needs to have the counterparts to the individual leases. how can they enforce the covenants or indeed prove their lease if they have to sue the apartment owner. I think the o/p is referring to the letting agent when he refers to the management company.

I've never seen counterparts to individual leases. The management company have a lease similar to what the owners would have and it lists the MC on it as the MC has obligations under the lease and it may also detail on one page the name of the owner for each apt number.

When new apts are sold, the developers solicitors inform the MC and transfer the service charges paid into the MC bank account. That is how names/apt no's are collated. After that, the onus is on the owner to inform the MC that the property has changed hands otherwise the MC can sue that owner for unpaid charges etc.

Noopti

Well it turns out, that after a month of phone calls, angry emails, etc etc that we do not have a space after all. So it seems like they broke the lease.

Needless to say we will be looking for a new apartment. One that does definitely have a space.

dame

Did you pay higher rent for that place than a similar place believing there was a car parking space attached? Do you have documentation (the ad you replied to or rental agreement) saying there was a parking space with the apartment?