Who is responsible for enforcing parking restrictions – the landlord or the freeholder?

Here is a question to the blog clinic from Helen (not her real name) who is a landlord

I am a landlord and have been receiving complaints from the chair of the residents association about my tenant and his visitors’ parking in the wrong place. Most notably in the emergency access bay.

I have spoken to my tenant numerous times about this and he has said that he often gets back and finds people parked in his space. He has also said that he’s not the only one parking in this emergency access space but seems to be the only one this chair is complaining about.

I feel as though the chair is suggesting I shouldn’t renew his tenancy agreement but from my point of view he is a reliable tenant.

Who is responsible for enforcing parking restrictions? What is the best resolution to this situation?

Answer

You are responsible to the freeholder under the terms of your lease and the tenant is responsible to you under the terms of his tenancy agreement.

So when you are renting to a tenant a property which you own on a long lease, you need to be sure that your tenancy agreement includes all the things which you are bound by in your lease.

This is often done by providing the tenant with an extract from the lease, and putting a term in the tenancy agreement referring to it and stating that the tenant is bound by the terms in it.

But this is not the real problem here. The problem is that other tenants are parking in your car parking place.

Practically perhaps the best thing to do is for your tenant to take a photograph (one which is dated) every time he finds another car parked in his place, making sure that he gets the license number, and also take photographs whenever he sees someone else parking in the emergency access bay.

Then you can raise a complaint on his behalf to the residents association and ask them to speak to the people who are using your parking bay without permission.