Apartment Parking

fg1406

I live in an apartment block which is at the back of a housing estate. The apartments are part of the estate which is very upmarket (houses are 4 and 5 bed and sell at minimum 550k). Now we are having a problem with our Parking. There are 30 spaces to 20 apartments. That is fine. It's pretty much full on any given day but there are no issues with us apartment residents. Where we are having issues lately is thr residents of the houses have started keeping cars in our car park. At the moment there are 6 cars which are belonging to other residents of the estate. We initially didn't know who owned them and one of the neighbours reported them to the police as they haven't moved in about 3 months and thought they were abandoned. The police checked out all the registration plates and they all came back as registered to various houses in the estate.

My question is can we ask the residents to use their actual driveways? We don't have the luxury of driveways. We also pay for the landscaping and upkeep of our car park ( we have trees and flower beds) which we pay for with our management fees. Has anyone else experienced this issue where they live?

davindub

fg1406 wrote: »

I live in an apartment block which is at the back of a housing estate. The apartments are part of the estate which is very upmarket (houses are 4 and 5 bed and sell at minimum 550k). Now we are having a problem with our Parking. There are 30 spaces to 20 apartments. That is fine. It's pretty much full on any given day but there are no issues with us apartment residents. Where we are having issues lately is thr residents of the houses have started keeping cars in our car park. At the moment there are 6 cars which are belonging to other residents of the estate. We initially didn't know who owned them and one of the neighbours reported them to the police as they haven't moved in about 3 months and thought they were abandoned. The police checked out all the registration plates and they all came back as registered to various houses in the estate.

My question is can we ask the residents to use their actual driveways? We don't have the luxury of driveways. We also pay for the landscaping and upkeep of our car park ( we have trees and flower beds) which we pay for with our management fees. Has anyone else experienced this issue where they live?

Management company can get in clamping and permits. Works!

JillyQ

davindub wrote:

Management company can get in clamping and permits. Works!

+1 on this. Get the management company to introduce permits or designated parking.

testicles

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the_syco

Check with the clamping company if they'll tow them after X number of days of the car being clamped.

fg1406

We don't have a clamping company in the block as we didn't want to go down that route (i.e. Visitors having to text to park etc) and it would also increase the fees we pay. But it looks like If it continues we may have to engage the services of one. It's just very frustrating that people who have actual driveways on their own private property think that this is ok.

the_syco

Then perhaps get legal advice about being able to tow cars cars that don't belong to people in the apartment block? Is the carpark accessible only with a fob?

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fg1406

Contacted the Gardaí and to be fair to them they did investigate as much as they could. The cars are in a car park of an apartment and as such not on a public road so they cannot do anything about them re: discs etc. I didn't realise that a clamping company could come in to the estate unless we signed a contract with them. I'll definitely bring that up with the management company

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fg1406

Wow I didn't realise you could get a warning for an innocent question! Thanks again for the advice.

Michael D Not Higgins

Mod: if you want to discuss your warning, take it to the help desk. It's clear to anyone who can click on the card you received that it was for illegal advice not for any innocent question.

Muahahaha

OP in the first instance would you not leave a note under their wipers asking them not to park in apartment designated spots? Not saying all six will take heed but if half of them did it would be a start.

the_syco

OP; do the cars ever get moved, or have they been abandoned?

From;http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/traffic_and_parking/parking_fines_and_vehicle_clamping.html

Private car parks
Private car parks are not regulated by the Government in any way. That is to say, they are privately owned and revenue earned from parking in these car parks goes directly to the owners and not your local authority. The prices charged in private car parks vary from place to place, ranging from about 80 cent to €2.50 per hour. Prices are determined by the car park owner. Prices charged by a local authority in its car parks will be decided by the authority itself.

I wonder would it be legal to have only cars with permits allowed, and any car that is there longer than a week without permit gets fined and/or towed?

Ensuring only cars with permits are allowed, may allow you to see if the car spots have been rented to the locals by a non-resident landlord.

Caliden

If the Gardai can't do anything you're only route is to keep at the management company. That's what their fees are for afterall; the upkeep of the apartment building which includes the car park.

seagull

Would it be possible to gate the parking for the apartments and have it only accessible by fob/code?

ssaasas

If the houses are part of the same estate and they pay management fees and the car park doesn't have assigned spaces then they have as much rights to park there as you do.

CeilingFly

Mark each apartment space "apt 1" "apt 2" etc etc.

Possibly get a "apt parking" disc / sticker made (quite cheap) for putting on windscreen of apt owners cars.

Put sign up saying that designated apartment space are for relevant apartments only and other users may be clamped.

Some of the clamping companies offer a "clamp on call" service instead of a monitoring service. Its a lot cheaper.

Another option is to have a clamp notice and every now and then put a clamp on a visitors car with their agreement - the house dwellers won't know that its a ruse, but its one hell of a visual deterrent. Worked extremely well in a location in Killarney that had issues which prevented trucks from delivering to a particular premises.

ssaasas

More then likely the houses are paying management fees for the estate too, they will know the signs are fake as the management company didn't put them up.


OP's estate layout is the same as our estate the car park is the estates is not just the apartments we pay the fees for it too and we and our guests are free to park where we want on it as is anyone one in the estate.

CeilingFly

ssaasas wrote: »

More then likely the houses are paying management fees for the estate too, they will know the signs are fake as the management company didn't put them up.


OP's estate layout is the same as our estate the car park is the estates is not just the apartments we pay the fees for it too and we and our guests are free to park where we want on it as is anyone one in the estate.

You will find that the service charge for the apartments are a fair bit higher than for the houses and more than likely the planning will show a set number of spaces for the apartments.
Once each apartment has one space the rest can be marked "visitor"

A proposal to the management committee and adoption of that proposal is all it takes.

Remember, most people are decent, its the few numpties that cause all the problems for everyone.

ssaasas

With ours we pay the maintenance of all external areas of the estate the same, apartments have extra charges for maintenance of their blocks and we maintain our houses.

At ours apartment people complained like OP and said they paid more maintenance so it was only for them but it was explained the external maintenance was the same for all so they where shot down.

OP only way to do it is ask the management company, if the houses pay external maintenance the same as you.