# Clamping In Apartment Complex



## jumper1 (7 Apr 2011)

Hi,  I live in an Apartment Complex with a Basement Car Park. Can you tell me if it is legal for Residents Comitee or a Management Company to introduce Clamping to force Cars to Park in the Basement . Also is it possible to introduce Clamping for Cars owned by Residents who do not pay Service Charges and force them to park Underground .

Regards, Jumper1


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## alexandra123 (7 Apr 2011)

Once the management committee has received permission from the members on the board then it should be legal. If the residents don't want this then they need to approach the management committee.



It is illegal as far as I am aware for clamping companies to clamp people who have not paid service charges. If the service charge relates to a specific space and that space is available and someone else is parking on it who has not paid their fee's - then I think they can be clamped. 

Would it be the case that the clamping company has a record of who has and has not paid ???as this would be illegal and fall under the data protection act.


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## alexandra123 (7 Apr 2011)

It has also been heard of whereby these clampers are not legally entitled to clamp your car as they are stopping you from using it and they dont have that right. I dont know how they hold up in the court of law. I have heard off numerous people who have taken the private clamps off and left them on the ground to hear nothing further. Although this would not be the case for the Government clamping vehicles.


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## BazFitz (7 Apr 2011)

Some complexes are looking at progressive measures such as this.  I know of one where access to the complex is by electronic fob.  Specific fobs belonging to those who haven't paid their service charges can be deactivated, denying them access to the complex.

There are no data protection issues involved here.  The directors and members of a company are entitled to know who its debtors are.  They can then ask the clampers to clamp their cars.


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## djh (7 Apr 2011)

Our board introduced clamping after taking advice on it. We had several problems

- People parking illegally on double yellow lines and such. These were clamped. 

- People parking in other peoples spaces. These were clamped. 

- People parking in their own space but not paying their service charges. We didn't clamp these as we were told it was a grey area. 

We did introduce a parking permit system and threatened clamping if you didn't have a permit. Permits were only provided if you were paid up on fees. Brought in quote a few non payers. 

Generally people who are behind in their fees are not provided any "service" by the management agent. Ie. spare keys etc. 

Would be very interested to hear how others get on with clamping or the deactivation of keys/fobs in order to get people to pay up. 

-djh


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## shesells (7 Apr 2011)

What does your lease say about parking and access to car spaces. Also what does it say about conditions being introduced by the directors in the greater interest of the development.


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## purpeller (8 Apr 2011)

As I understand it, if your specific car space is named in your lease (eg: Mary Black, space 12) then you cannot be clamped but if your spaces are unallocated but you have the use of one, then you can.  This was the legal advice given to us when we were considering either clamping or a permit system.  We have specific spaces so we couldn't go ahead with the idea.


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## Clonback (10 Feb 2018)

Our Management co has recently introduced clamping and it's very effective.However one owner cut the clamp off.What can be done?


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## JohnJay (10 Feb 2018)

Clonback said:


> Our Management co has recently introduced clamping and it's very effective.However one owner cut the clamp off.What can be done?


As far as I know, this is a bit of a grey area when it is in a private development. If it was on a public road he could be charged for damaging property (the clamp), but this may not be the case on private property.


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## noproblem (10 Feb 2018)

Clonback said:


> Our Management co has recently introduced clamping and it's very effective.However one owner cut the clamp off.What can be done?



This happened on a friends complex, he said  the clamp ended up in the back seat of the car that had the clamp cut off via the back window.


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