all & any! - Car parking abuse

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 11:05
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Smileyman

As part of my wider work duties I look after the company car park.

Recently an unknown person has been using one of our visitor bays as a free all day car park. I’ve left several messages on the windscreen to advise it’s a private car park to no avail.

I have not been able to speak with the driver – he/she arrives before I do in the mornings and leaves after I’ve left for home at the end of the day. Can’t box the car in either as it would block the car park entrance.

We don't use a parking management company, it's unusual that someone is so brazen to totally ignore A4 flyers.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestion of legal options? Thanks.

Edited by Smileyman on 17/08/2016 at 11:06

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 11:09
all & any! - Car parking abuse - jc2

Buy a clamp

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 11:36
all & any! - Car parking abuse - RobJP

Buy a clamp

A stupid suggestion.

Clamping a car to prevent the lawful owner from using it - even if it is on private property - would be a criminal offence. The only people permitted to do so are police, DVLA, and local authorities.

Putting a barrier and locking it across the entrance to the car park would be legal, however. If you decided to do that, then ensure that the barrier / lock is monitored by CCTV, as if the person then damages the barrier/lock to get out, then they would commit the offence of Criminal Damage.

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 11:52
all & any! - Car parking abuse - FP

As the driver arrives very early, would it be possible to place a temporary obstruction on their favoured space, so that they are forced to park somewhere where you could box the car in at the end of the day?

Failing that, what about a notice on the windscreen to the effect that a barrier is about to be erected at the entrance and that, to avoid inconvenience, it would be best not to be on the wrong side of it?

Final step - a barrier, which coud be fairly simple (a chain?) depending on the site.

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 19:24
all & any! - Car parking abuse - oldroverboy.

A friend had a similiar problem a few years ago.

2 pallet trucks with a couple of pallets to get the height right and moved over onto some double yellows.

saw and said nothing when driver complained about his ticket.

another time a forklift driver picked up an offending vehicle and moved it, but again none of us saw anything...

If you can move the vehicle without damaging it you'll be fine.

The other option is to go in early one day and block the entrance with your car and not let him in...

Edited by oldroverboy. on 17/08/2016 at 19:26

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 21:49
all & any! - Car parking abuse - galileo

Let a tyre down, then do it again a week later if he/she hasn't taken the hint.

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 21:56
all & any! - Car parking abuse - gordonbennet

There is a downside to the removal of the clamp deterrent.

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Thu 18 Aug 2016 17:30
all & any! - Car parking abuse - oldroverboy.

Let a tyre down, then do it again a week later if he/she hasn't taken the hint.

When I lived in Geneva, close to the railway station, private parking spaces were like hens teeth, but i had one, and an italian gentleman used to park in my spot, so one day i let all of his michelin td tyres down, (the metric ones ) and his power steering couldn't move the car a renault 25 to turn, so he had to take each wheel off and roll them to s filling station to inflate them.

He was very very angry, but didn't use my space again.

It was only a problem for a while till we got security gates.

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Mon 22 Aug 2016 14:11
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Gibbo_Wirral

Let a tyre down, then do it again a week later if he/she hasn't taken the hint.

No, let down two. That way they can't just change to the spare if they don't have a pump in the car.

Even if they do, those tiny ones take an age to pump up a completely flat tyre.

They'll get the message after spending half an hour a day pumping up their tyres.

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 21:58
all & any! - Car parking abuse - TedCrilly

The sensible (and legal) answer is to simply turn up early or wait late and speak to the owner directly. Inform him its a private carpark and that he is in effect trespassing and that if he persists you will take things further.

If however you are prepared to venture into such realms it would be far more amusing to let a tyre down every day while the owner is away. I am sure by the end of the week the message will have got across.

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Wed 17 Aug 2016 22:39
all & any! - Car parking abuse - RaineMan

Write a note on a self adhesive address label and stick it on a rear side window so it does not interfere with vision!

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Thu 18 Aug 2016 00:43
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Smileyman

thanks for the comments ...

I'd considered the wheel clamp but am aware that it's illegal so won't be doing this - unlike the issue of the letting the air out of a tyre, but I don't want to give any excuse for staying longer, or to create a road safety danger if the car was innoncently driven onto the public highway.

Can't use a chain without agreement from landlord and shared tenant (not their car, I've checked).

I stuck more notices (and photos of the car) under the the windcreen and rear window wipers today, time will tell if they get message.

Ideally I'd use a set of runners and wheel the car to the public highway, not going to harm the car so no liability for damage caused .... easier said than done.

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Thu 18 Aug 2016 14:43
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Brit_in_Germany

How about putting up a private parking notification which meets the requirements for sending them a PCN?

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Thu 18 Aug 2016 15:21
all & any! - Car parking abuse - craig-pd130

We had a similar situation at our previous offices, which had private car parking spaces allocated to employees, which were clearly marked as such.

For a few days a car that didn't belong to any of our staff was repeatedly taking a space, but we never saw the driver. We left several messages sellotaped to the windscreen asking them not to park there, but these were ignored.

The next time it happened, I was travelling to London by train and staying overnight, so I simply parked my own car 3 inches behind the offending car, took some photos on my phone of how the cars were parked in case any damage was done, and left it there for the 24 hours or so I was away (there was a wall at the front of the bay, and other cars either side).

The car never parked there again.

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 17:32
all & any! - Car parking abuse - concrete

SWMBO had a similar problem where she worked. Notices were ignored so eventually they installed pop up posts. They are easy to install and when unlocked they fold down onto the floor and you drive in. You can even pop them up again once the car is in position for security. Give your colleagues a key each and the job is done. If someone leaves the post down and a rogue gets in again, tou can trap them in with the pop up post. Simples.

Just thought on, your landlord may need to give permission for this but may also contribute as it is an improvement to the facility. He may simply agree to install a chain barrier with keys for tenants. Good luck.

Cheers Concrete

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 18:48
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Falkirk Bairn

If the premises cannot have barriers etc do what I did.

Young lads, 17-20 yr old, trailing through my garden as a short cut home from the pub - saves about 200 yards but breaks my plants and they leave the gate open at the front.

Covered the top of the fence with dog faeces............. hands, trousers etc etc - no problem after that - worked in the first week.

Similar approach would be to cover all the door handles with dog pooh....

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 19:58
all & any! - Car parking abuse - nortones2

As a student in the halcyon days of the 70's I worked for a local hospital as a "gardener" in the holidays. One of the tasks given to the gardeners was to deal with cheeky parkers in the consultant's spaces. Sticky labels provided to cover the windscreen, not just a little bit, which might have been ignored, but the whole thing. It worked. Might be a little different now, but it only cost time, and ridicule from passers-by.

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 20:26
all & any! - Car parking abuse - skidpan

A former boss of mine did a similar thing to discourage "inconsiderate" parking at one of our large college sites. Problem was the glue used stuck so well it was impossible to remove in the car park and driving with the sticker in place would have left the drivers liable to prosection if caught, not difficult to spot when it looked like a bright orange newspaper stuck on the screen.

Staff were actually despatched to assist the drivers but it was impossible to remove all the glue on some cars. The college paid for professional valleters to finish the job but a couple of cars actually needed new screens.

I suspect that in todays world some may have taken the matter further.

One good thing came out of it, a few weeks later boss left and I got his job.

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 21:55
all & any! - Car parking abuse - focussed

I've seen this done in a company car park behind a busy warehouse.

"Foreign" parkers got a coat of white emulsion paint on the windscreen.

No harm done-it comes off with a pressure washer -

Notice is stuck to the driver's window- it reads:-

Don't park here again - the paint on your windscreen can be removed with a pressure washer.

The warehouse supervisor has one - he charges £5 for the service.

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Sat 27 Aug 2016 20:47
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Bilboman
IIRC letting the air out of a car's tyres is actually a criminal offence ('interference with a motor vehicle' or similar). The best solution would be a non-damaging, fairly dramatic one-off deterrent. Clamping is illegal, but what about getting a quick, reliable local brickie to build a wall round the car? Murphy's law dictates that the offending parker is likely to be a lawyer, but my guess is that it would take a few months to take it to court to establish that walling-in is equivalent to clamping. Worth a punt?
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Sat 27 Aug 2016 22:39
all & any! - Car parking abuse - Doc
my guess is that it would take a few months to take it to court to establish that walling-in is equivalent to clamping.

But parking other vehicles so close it could not be moved would not.

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