The Lemon Fool

We have a right of way across a car park to an area which is defined but does not have any parking bays on it.

The landlord is insisting on the registrations of the two vehicles that will be using this parking right. In fact he is threatening court action if he does not have them within 7 days. Parking is an issue in the location as there are many people jockeying for space.

The reason it is a defined area and not parking spaces is probably because large vans and small trucks were in use when the right of way was given - 1984.

The landlord appears to us to be assuming they can dictate that it is cars and he can have the registrations. Is this legal? Obviously when the ROW and parking was granted there was no ANPR etc.

Any Lemons have a take or experience of this?

You have a legal right of way over his land. Who owns the "area"? Do you have a right to park there?

If you have both a ROW over the land and a right to park in said area then he can demand nothing!

He might simply be helping you protect your parking area and issuing fines if someone parks in "your" spot.

In reality all he would have to do is watch the parking space for a few days and take note of your registration. He could then enter those numbers into his ANPR computer.

Presumably you mean a right of vehicular access? A "right of way" most commonly applies to people rather than vehicles. House I once looked at had a garage but no right of access to it for wheeled vehicles!

Best all round if you can deal with it amicably, yesno? What have you discussed? Who is being reasonable? On a scale from:


"Please let us know your numbers so we can exempt them from being sent penalty notices by our automated processes"
"No"
"This is a big headache. Can we discuss it? Do you have any alternative ideas?"
"Sod off"

to ...

"We need to know your numbers by [date]"
"Erm, why? It's not that simple: we do have guests from time to time!"
"We need to know your numbers or else!"

It is not unusual to ask for your vehicle to be identified for a shared parking area. I know of two cases where a resident has to do that - one is in a care home and the other where the parking is a council-run "pay and display" car park. In both cases it is transferable but only one car at a time.

The owner or operator of the car park is entitled to take steps to ensure that only residents are parking there and not anyone else, in my view. And to ensure each home only takes one parking space.

Another idea is to issue some kind of card that can be displayed on the windscreen.