To explain further; We live in England My neighbour's tenancy is an Assured Tenancy which he took up in Feb 97 My tenancy is a regulated tenancy taken up in March 88 (the other neighbours in adjoining blocks & flats will be a mixture of both depending on if they moved in prior to Jan 89). Both my neighbour's and my own gross rent is split into 2 parts consisting of the actual rent and a service charge. He has no problem with the actual rent charged for his flat, his dispute is with a specific item on his service charges. His rent is regulated by the HA, my rent is a registered rent set by the Fair Rent Tribunal. Both our service charges are dependent upon the services used, for instance, we both pay a proportion of the costs for the cleaning of the common parts hallway and the cleaning of our own property's windows. These are discretionary services and can be discontinued if all the tenants in the block take a vote to do so and choose to do it themselves. We both have to pay a proportion of the costs for the electricity used to power the common parts hallway/stairway lighting (basically used every time we switch the hallway lights on via the switches outside our flats). We can ask to change the actual supplier if we feel the cost of the electricity is too much but we have to pay for the electricity we use. We both have to pay a management allowance of 15% on top of the actual cost for each service which is paid to the HA for their "management" of the services. We cannot change this (despite the HA's continued refusal to explain what it is they actually "do" to be paid the extra 15%). He has now been charged for a new "Service" listed on his service charge sheet as "Maintenence Contract Service Charge". I and other neighbours in adjacent blocks do not have to pay this despite being under the same maintenence contract as his block. This "Maintenence Contract Service Charge" is £3 per week per flat (there are 3 flats in his building so £9 a week) and it is being levied to pay for the "maintenence" of the common parts hallway/stairway statutory emergency lighting and smoke alarms. From what we have observed this "maintenence" is the once yearly statutory check on whether the alarms and lights work - basically a man comes around and switches off the mains power to the common parts hallway/stairway, the battery powered emergency lights then cut in and he allows the battery to run flat before restoring the power which recharges the batteries in the emergency light fitting. he then presses the test button on the smoke alarm to see if it beeps. The man does the same in my own and adjacent blocks. This yearly statutory check was previously done by the HA without cost to the tenants (my neighbour has been there 19 years, myself I have been in my property for 28 years and we have the service charge sheets for all of those periods, none of them have any reference to costs for upkeep of emergency light/smoke alarms). We believe the HA is now attempting to charge the tenants for the cost of the maintenece it has a statutory duty to do. It states in our tenancy agreements that the HA is responsible for the upkeep and maintenence of all common parts hallway/stairway lighting fixtures and fittings, we believe that includes the smoke alarms and the emergency lighting. The Rent Services Manager says that the statutory emergency lighting and the smoke alarms are now a "service" and he believes the HA can charge for this as a "service" charge.

As stated my neighbour is in dispute with the HA, he holds an assured shorthold tenancy. If at a later date (as we suspect) the charges are going to be applied to his neighbours in adjoining blocks (ie myself and others) then we will also be appealing the same decision. The majority of us hold regulated tenancies. If we fight the decision for him and win then the HA will not be able to apply the same charge to the other tenants in adjoining properties.

My neighbour and myself are both long term tenants of the Housing Association with a tenancy agreement, his tenancy is an assured shorthold tenanacy (post 15 jan 1989), my own is a regulated tenancy (pre 15 Jan 1989) It took them 10 months before they finally acknowledged that he had made a complaint and that was only because he had was witholding the disputed service charge (which he is allowed to do according to our HAs Tenant's Charte) and after I wrote a second formal letter on his behalf (prior to that he had just spoken to various HA officers either via email or via telephone). I was lucky to be able to retrieve most of his emails from his email account and the replies of the HA officials however he did not record many of his telephone conversations as he believed that it would all be worked out if he just "had a word with the right person" (he is 70). I now help him with all his letters and hand deliver them to the HA's office in order to get a signature (they have already pulled the "Sorry we didn't get that letter" routine with him on a couple of occasions, the last of which led to the HA serving him the initial papers for repossession). We have already applied for a subject access request for all the relevent documentation that we thought we had a right to but we have received nothing yet. I can see form your list that we have missed others which I did not know we could ask for. Thanks

Hello all, I am looking for advice on the following: In March of last year my next door neighbour noticed a new "service charge" had been added to his weekly service costs by our Housing Association. This charge was labelled as "Maintenence contract service charge" and was for £3 a week. He also noticed that a charge of £3 was also being levied as a deficit for the previous year. This meant his total service charge had increased by £6 a week. He queried this amount with the HA and was told that the charge was for the maintenence of the common parts hallway smoke alarms and for the emergency lighting that is installed on the hallway stairs. Apparently sometime in 2014 our HA entered into a contract with an outside contractor to maintain these items and has now told him and the 2 other residents in his block that he will now have to pay these ongoing costs as a "service charge". As well as this because the contract was entered into in 2014 he is being charged an extra £3 retrospectively to cover the deficit. The contract was brought in with no consultation with the residents. As he is a pensioner he is the only one who actually pays this amount (from his pension) because the other two residents have their housing benefit paid for by the state and they are not interested in fighting this because one is moving out and the other wears a tinfoil hat and believes that if he kicks uo a fuss he will have his tenancy revoked. My neighbour has lived in his flat for over 19 years, during the whole of that period the smoke alarms and the emergency lights were maintained by the HA without a charge being made on the tenants. His property is part of a terrace of buildings which the HA also owns and none of the residents in those blocks (including me) have to pay this service charge despite the fact that we are all under the same maintenence contract (although that may change in March when next years service charges are published!). Our position is this, in our tenancy agreements the landord is responsible for the maintenence of the fabric of the building and the common parts fixtures and fittings such as lighting, front door security intercom, decoration etc. and therefore we believe that the HA is responsible for the costs of maintenaing the installed smoke alarms and emergency lighting. We have a residents handbook that describes what the tenants are responsible for and nowhere in this booklet does it say anything about the tenants being responsible for the maintenence costs. My neighbour has started a dispute process with the HA and has witheld the disputed amount from his weekly rent and service charge payment as per his right according o our Tenant's Charter, this was the only way he could get them to address his concerns but it has taken over 10 months and the threat of his tenancy being repossessed (now fotunately held in abeyance after we appealled the decision) before they have acknowledged his complaint. He feels that because of budget cuts the HA is bringing in "stealth" maintenence charges for what had previously been its responsibility and he wishes to have an adjudication into if they can actually charge this cost to the residents. Unfortunately he has to exhaust the HA's own complaints procedure before he can exercise this option. He and I (as concerned neighbour and spokesperson for other residents in the neighbouring properties) had a recent meeting with the HA as the first stage of the complaints procedure (although we were not aware of this fact at the time - we thought it was just an informal chat at which we could get the charge dismissed amicably). At this meeting we were suposed to discuss the matter with the HA's own Housing Manager however because she cried off sick at the last moment the man who we actually met with was the one responsible for imposing the so called "service charge" (the Rent Services Manager) and he was the only person that we were allowed to talk to, needless to say after 90 minutes of him parroting his own decision we said we would have to take our complaint further which means we either get "lawyered up" with all that means about costs or we can get evidence that the HA is abusing its position and applying the law incorrectly. Researching on his behalf I have been told that the fire regulations for common parts hallways in houses of MMO come under "The Housing Act" (2004) and "Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order" (2005) (although there is a school of thought that states that as all common parts hallways come under the description of places of employment for employees of the HA they are therefore also covered by "The Health and Safety at Work Act" (1974) and thus their employer (the HA) is responsible for the costs of providing and maintaining any safety equipment like fire alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting etc. in their places of work) Because these pieces of legislation are quite complex could anybody point myself and my neighbour to the actual parts of the legislation covering our situation or indeed help with their own experiences as we believe that the Rent Services Manager (who has previous form for trying this sort of stuff on (and failing) is trying to impose these charges illegally, but if we don't challenge him by helping our neighbour he will impose the charges on us all. Thanks for any help and advice in advance.

Sailor Sam, nobody was let off, the loading exemption is there for that reason. The ticketing officer either didnt know the rules himself or issued the ticket thinking I'd be stupid enough to just pay up and not to research the charge on a website like this. As for your comment in the original post, well I didnt ask for your opinion, I asked for advice, and my own comment was supposed to be taken as a lighthearted riposte against taking too pessimistic a view of things, however I'm not going to get in a flame war over it, the matter stands as it is and the ticket was challenged on advice from other contributors who appear to be a bit more knowledgable, whether I deserved to be "let off" is again your opinion and is not needed. Once again, thanks to those who did a bit of digging for me

Well gang, managed to get it disallowed on the loading and and unloading rule. Thanks for the advice once again G&M Well done. Sailor Sam, Re your 9th July advice, thats twice now your advice has been a bit too pessimistic, maybe time to take a leaf out of G&M's book and dig a bit deeper in the rule book, remember...... Nil Carborundum.

A Liverpool man, David Bayne, received a £150 fine for taking too long to eat his fast food at a KFC in Rock Ferry on the Wirral Peninsula Liverpool Echo - News - Liverpool Local News - KFC £150 fine for dad who stayed in Merseyside restaurant too long Maybe someone should have told him about the fantastic work the parking ticket gang at CAG do

Hmmm bit confused here? the wording is such that surely that legislation only refers to TfL and Mr Johnson's little empire, how about outside the great metrolop*ss....?

Not too sure about the courier thing, been reading about bike couriers getting tickets all over london despite several rulings both for and against in various bits, same also applies to pavement parking... see here http://www.motorcycleparking.com/parking_tips.shtml "Non commercial vehicles If your vehicle is not a commercial or collection vehicle (including multi-drop and courier), then the loading / unloading must be necessary not convenient. It would be deemed necessary if you are loading / unloading heavy or bulky items or if you have a large number of items. However there is no exemption for shopping (unless the goods have been pre-purchased - which may allow you to be exempt). The vehicle must be moved immediately the loading / unloading has finished." also here http://www.motorcycleparking.com/footway_pavement_parking.shtml and here for more info http://www.parkingticket.co.uk/sh.html any more advice would be greatly appreciated (great idea about hiding your plates though, anyone done it and got away with it........?

bump

Have a look at this PenaltyChargeNotice.co.uk: Parking: 02: Parked or loading/unloading in a restricted street... and this PenaltyCharge Notice.co.uk - Parking - Parking Adjudicators Decisions which contains the "Jane Packer Flowers" adjuication and others good luck

BTW how do I get my pictures to be bigger, I can hardly see the writing on the picture of my PCN?

I have found this site which looks helpful PenaltyChargeNotice.co.uk: Parking: 02: Parked or loading/unloading in a restricted street... and it refers to some appeals on loading and unloading PenaltyCharge Notice.co.uk - Parking - Parking Adjudicators Decisions I'm looking at it now and wondering if dropping off your cousins washing counts as loading and unloading.....?

After 6pm the bollards go down and vehicles often park up in the pedestrian area, I have also seen deliveries taking place during the day to the shops along the road. I have parked there several times before in the same place and never had any bother. The pay and display area also loses its restrictions after 6pm when you can park free till 8am.

Hi gang, I was dropping off my cousin today at his flat in the city centre and was away from my bike at his front door for a couple of minutes while it was parked outside on the street. His flat is up two flights of stairs above a shop on the street in question and we were carrying heavy rucksacks containing his washing. It took us a couple of minutes to climb the stairs to his flat and then drop off his washing. When you go upstairs, the front door to the hallway closes automatically behind you. When I finished saying goodbye I went back down the stairs and opened the door and found I had been given a council PCN for code 02 "parked or loading/unloading in a restricted street while waiting and loading/unloading restrictions are in force", the observed time was less than 45 seconds (13:26:59 to 13:27:43). I was probably away from the bike for about 5-6 minutes tops. The bike wasnt actually on the road, it was parked on the pavement next to a set of bollards that seperate off the street from a nearby pedestrian area (in such a way as to not obstruct people on the pavement). The only signs I could find to do with parking was a pedestrian area sign opposite which marked the pedestrian area and its end. The road has double yellow lines. On the other side of the bollards the road is a pay and display area which I believe comes under the city inner controlled zone parking rules which do not allow motorcycles to park in pay and display areas. I think this is a long shot but does anybody think I have a chance of appealing it bearing in mind I wasnt actually on the road itself?

WOOHOO!! Well after a 6 week long wait I finally received a reply from the city council today informing me that they had cancelled the PCN. Letter reads as follows: Dear Sir, Further to your recent representation to the City Council: The PCN was issued because your vehicle was parked in a residents' or shared use parking place or zone without clearly displaying either a permit or voucher or pay and display ticket issued for that place in Canning Street L8 on the 03/04/2010. It was first observed at 10:33 and the notice was issued at 10:38. After careful consideration of the content of your representation the City Council has on this occasion, decided to exercise it's discretion and cancelled the PCN. However, the above decision does not set a precedent for any further Penalty Charge Notices you may receive. The reason the PCN was issued to your vehicle is due to the fact that the incorrect date was on your permit; the date on the permit was the 4th of April, 2010, this can be seen in the enclosed photographs. It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure that the correct date is on the permit and that a valid permit is clearly on display in the vehicle. Please keep this in mind for future reference. Yours sincerely, Susan Taylor Parking Services. Enclosed with the letter was a sheet of paper which had 2 digital photographs on it (which I take to be the requested photographic evidence I asked for), the first showing the vehicle with the PCN on the windscreen and the voucher beneath it and the second a shot of the voucher on the dashboard which clearly shows all the voucher details (including the wrong date). Obviously when I appealed they looked at the CEO's photos and then realised that the PCN was incorrectly issued as a 12s when it should have been a 19s (note they never admitted this). They then cancelled the ticket. I would like to say thank you very much to G&M for his help and advice in this matter, without his initial post I wouldnt have looked further and my GF would have handed over £25 for nothing. Thanks as well to other contributors. :D:D:D

hence the intended formal appeal detailing the 19s defense do keep up at the back please.... : )

Hello again, Well I sent in an informal appeal using the following template Dear Sir / Madam, Please find attached a copy of PCN LV83234203 issued outside my home in the resident’s parking bay (K zone), on 3 April at 10:38 am. I wish to make representations against this PCN on the statutory ground that "the contravention did not occur". This is because there was in fact a K Zone Parking Voucher present on the dashboard of the vehicle in a position that could be easily seen from the pavement, contrary to the alleged contravention. If there is photographic evidence opposing this assertionor written notes taken by the issuing CEO at the time I wish to be given a copy for further investigation. So I've set the ball rolling, obviously they will dismiss it out of hand and will then provide their evidence for this in an explanatory letter before giving me another 14 days to pay the £25. As per G&M's logic once they tell me what they have (and if it is indeed down to a wrongly dated ticket) then I will send them a copy of the photograph of the ticket and its position on the dashboard, a witness letter to back it up and then formally appeal on the "invalid ticket" 19s defense and see what happens then. I'll keep you posted

Anybody else's experience using this type of defense (or similar) would be greatly appreciated.

I have drafted this letter as a quick reply, I havent posted it yet as I am waiting for my witness to send me his letter so any improvements would be greatly appreciated Dear Sir / Madam, Please find attached a copy of PCN LV83234203 issued to a visitor who had parked outside my home in the resident’s parking bay (K zone), on 3 April at 10:38 am. I wish to informally appeal this PCN on the basis that there was in fact a K Zone Parking Voucher present on the dashboard of the vehicle in a position that could be easily seen from the pavement, contrary to the alleged contravention. If there is photographic evidence opposing this assertion or written notes taken by the issuing CEO at the time then I would like to be given a copy for further investigation. I wish to be contacted at the above address with further information as to the progress of the complaint. Blah Blah Blah....

Dear G&M I have a photograph of the PCN under the wiper and with the visitors voucher clearly seen underneath it (with the date in the corner of the photograph) plus I have the address of a passerby who has stated he would be quite happy to write a witness letter to the effect that he saw the same. Is there anything else I could do, maybe there is a template letter on the site somewhere? regards

In answer to Jambersons query, the visitor permit shown is the one we are given for our visitors, I use the same ones every time my GF calls around, it's just on this occasion I scratched out the wrong number in the date box

So would I be right in writing to them with an informal challenge stating that a visitor permit for the correct zone was in fact on display then wait for them to write back saying that they have disallowed the challenge as the ticket was incorrectly dated. once I have received that letter do I then tell them that they've charged me under the wrong code and wait for them to reply or should I just go with that from the beginning?

I have just found this information Parking - Contravention Codes 10 to 19 Parked in a residents or shared use parking space without clearly displaying either a permit or voucher or pay and display ticket issued for that place Contravention Code 12 – Suffixes rstwxy A CAN may be issued if a vehicle has nothing on display at all, which would allow it to be parked in the particular space. The ‘for that place’ part of the contravention is important so for example, handwritten notes or residents permit for a different area would be classed as nothing displayed as there would be no circumstances when what was displayed would mean that the vehicle was legally parked. Similarly, visitors vouchers or pay and display tickets used in residents only bays (where such vouchers or tickets are not permissible) would count as not having anything on display for that place. and further down: Parked in a residents or shared use parking place displaying an invalid permit, an invalid voucher or an invalid pay and display ticket Contravention Code 19 – Suffixes irswxyz A PCN may be issued where some attempt has been made to park lawfully within a bay but what is displayed in the vehicle is incorrect (e.g. the pay and display ticket has expired or the voucher has been incorrectly scratched out).

Dear Green and mean, surely they will have a photograph or CEO notes to show that a voucher was indeed on display but had been incorrectly dated. I would guess they would then issue a correctly worded PCN in replacement?