Permit not clearly displayed even though it was

[b789]

@SDC.99, there is one additional point I would make if I were you. In parallel with the initial appeal to Countrywide, you should make a formal complaint to the landlord/housing association.

The point is not simply “please help me with a parking ticket”. The point is that the landlord/housing association introduced or permitted a third-party parking contractor to operate on residential land where you already had long-standing tenancy/estate parking arrangements dating back to 2007. They cannot simply appoint Countrywide and allow Countrywide to impose a new £100 contractual liability on an existing tenant unless there is a proper legal basis for doing so.

I would frame it along these lines:

Dear [Housing Association / Landlord],

Formal complaint: Countrywide Parking Management PCN issued to long-standing resident

I am a long-standing tenant/resident at The Chapel Estate and have lived here since 2007.

I have received a Parking Charge Notice from Countrywide Parking Management Ltd, your parking contractor/agent, despite the vehicle displaying a valid resident permit. Countrywide’s own photographs show that the permit was displayed in the windscreen and that the essential details, including the permit number, location ID and green area identifier, were visible.

My tenancy and associated resident documents from 2007 already dealt with parking arrangements at the estate. Those documents refer to resident parking, permits and estate parking controls administered through the landlord/housing association arrangements. They do not state that a third-party private parking company may impose a £100 contractual charge on a resident for an alleged permit display issue.

Countrywide is your contractor/agent. If you have authorised it to operate on the estate, you remain responsible for ensuring that its conduct does not interfere with existing tenancy rights, residential parking arrangements, or the tenant’s quiet enjoyment of the property and estate facilities.

The appointment of a parking contractor cannot lawfully be used to override or derogate from an existing tenant’s rights. Nor can a later sign-based parking regime simply create a new financial liability against a tenant unless the tenancy or estate arrangements have been validly varied or otherwise made subject to that regime by a binding mechanism.

Please therefore confirm:

1. Whether you instructed or authorised Countrywide Parking Management Ltd to operate at The Chapel Estate.
   
2. The legal basis on which you say Countrywide may impose £100 parking charges on existing tenants whose parking arrangements pre-date Countrywide’s scheme.
   
3. Whether there has ever been any valid variation of my tenancy or estate parking arrangements permitting Countrywide to impose such charges.
   
4. Whether any consultation or formal notice process was undertaken before changing from the former resident permit/clamping arrangement to the current private parking charge regime.
   
5. Whether you will now instruct Countrywide, as your agent, to cancel this PCN.
   

For the avoidance of doubt, I require you to instruct Countrywide to cancel this charge. If Countrywide proceeds with the matter and issues a county court claim, I reserve the right to rely on this correspondence and to consider whether the landlord/housing association should be added as a party to any counterclaim or related claim arising from the actions of its authorised agent, including interference with tenancy rights and the imposition of an unauthorised parking charge regime.

Please treat this as a formal complaint and provide a substantive written response.

Yours faithfully,

[Name]

That should be enough at this stage. The purpose is to put the landlord/housing association on notice that Countrywide is their problem, not just your problem. If they authorised Countrywide, they should be told to instruct their agent to cancel.