Landlord changing parking (with diagram)

[Rhayader]

We live in a block of flats with 6 flats all owned by the same landlord. There are 4 large flats and 2 small flats. We moved in around a year ago and just renewed our lease for another year.

When we moved in, the parking situation was that there were 2 bigger spaces on one side for our flat and another large flat (which is permanently occupied by their camper van) and then on the other side 3 very small spaces for flats 3-5 and then flat 6 doesn't have a parking space.

Flat 6 recently went on the market and im assuming he's had trouble letting it without parking because when i went outside this morning the green space which was shrubbery is being converted into driveway and the workmen told me that it is because its going to be space for 3 cars to give flat 6 some parking.

The issue is, part of the reason for renting this flat was the large parking space. We have a large car as we have 4 kids, including a newborn, so that's going to be a lot of getting kids in and out of car seats in tight spaces! It's not possible to do that if there were three cars, especially if two of them are our 7 seater and a camper van. I've done a quick measurement and it's pretty much exactly 7m across for the three spaces. With mirrors, our car is 2.14m wide and the camper is just over 2.3m.

It's already pretty difficult to reverse through the small gap and round into the space, its going to be more or less impossible going forward... Is there anything we can do about it? AIBU to expect my parking situation to remain the same throughout my tenancy? We weren't informed about this, let alone consulted..

You might do better putting this in legal or property. If your tenancy agreement gives you access to a specific defined area of land (e.g. parking space no. 2), it's possible that he can't just change the size of the space. He couldn't just move a wall in the house and expect you to accept a slightly smaller bedroom or living room. You'd need advice based on your specific tenancy agreement though.

Even if the size of the parking space isn't specified in the contract, I don't see how you can just say that it's still (technically) one parking space, so nothing to complain about.

Presumably, OP originally went to look at the property and was told "This is the kitchen, this is the living room, these are the bedrooms.... and this is the parking space that belongs to the flat" before deciding to rent it, based on all of the offered accommodation and its suitability for their needs.

If they had been swayed by the generous size of the bedrooms or the living room being a nice decent size for a family of 6, absolutely nobody would be saying that the landlord could come and knock through from next door to make their rooms smaller, even though they were still technically above a minimum acceptable size!

Edit: cross-posted with CoffeeCup14.

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld the camper doesn’t move that often. They take it for a spin every now and then but it’s a retro one and can’t go above 40mph so they don’t actually use it to camp.

@CoffeeCup14 @IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta the frustrating thing is that we were given quite an early deadline to sign the contract to extend and the agent was really pushy about the deadline and now I feel like they purposely kept this from us until we had signed up for another year.. perhaps I’m just paranoid though.

Hmm, that does sound deliberate on the part of the agent.

contractually the landlord is still providing a space, unless the dimensions of the space are in your contract which would be unusual I think contractually it’s a you problem. What is to the left of your space? It’s says bins on your diagram, is it open space or a wall?
just because you have a large flat and a garden doesn’t mean you deserve a bigger parking space
its worth asking space 2 to swap with you and speak to your landlord. Ask what dimensions each new space will be, I suspect the campervan will be over, maybe you.
Good luck

I guess the question is whether your contract stipulates any parking and any particular space size.

It's kind of one of those grey areas. For example if a tenant turned up with a giant RV and the contract stipulated "parking" would it be reasonable to expect the parking space to accommodate it ?

I think most people would say no. And there is probably a sliding scale of that from some huge vehicle down to a vintage mini.

I think that if the parking situation is really important to you then you need to get it clarified and clearly defined in advance. Easy thing to miss though.

Well I guess they pay for what was on offer at the time of signing the lease and that included the extra large parking space.
they can’t take away a room in the apartment and say it’s now for the landlord’s storage or remove a garden and say yeah we are turning into another flat. Why should they be able to reduce the parking space

But surely if the contract said ‘garden’ the LL couldn’t later requisition half of the garden and install a storage unit and say ‘well you still have a garden’. Surely the garden/parking space on offer at the time of signing is what you are entitled to.

I don’t see that you have any leg to stand on because really all that’s happening is the car park is being evened up to have 3 spaces on each side - spots 4/5/6 make do so you will have to too.

The camper would annoy me more. Will it even fit in spot 1 now once they add the extra spot - will it be able to pull out?

I think it's quite important you avoid going down this rabbit hole and keep it generic. Look up the regs on parking space size, and look up any planning applications the landlord may have put in. I don't know if it's something that would need planning permission, but I'd be finding out and checking all the measurements of the spaces themselves and the manoeuvring space around are up to spec. Don't be scared to ring up your local planning dept, they are often helpful and quite happy to advise.

Your head is understandably concentrating on the practical details, but trying to convince a landlord not to reduce your parking space because your husband is a scout leader would do you no favours at all. When objecting to planning permission requests there is a list of factors they consider and those they don't, and to put in a credible objection you should object only on the factors they consider. I would apply a similar principle here. You just need to find out what those factors are.

I’m not sure it’s fair to say I don’t “deserve” the bigger space. If the landlord changed all of the appliances for worse ones but we still had a dishwasher and an oven would that be okay? If we were given a different flat in the building but it had a smaller garden but we still had a garden would that be okay? What if we had to share our garden so that everyone had access to a garden because that would make it fair? Our lease might say access to a garden but doesn’t specify “sole” access. There has to be a line somewhere and having a space big enough to actually park the car we have was something we looked for specifically…

a) get rid of the kids and buy a sporty 2 seater...i mean who needs 4 kids🤣
b) set fire to the campervan so they replace it with a sporty 2 seater
c) speak to landlord and ask for a reduction on the rent because conditions changed (and use the money you saved to buy a 2 seater)

Otherwise i dont see other solution. I doubt they will change their mind about creating a 3rd parking space

Would you feel the same if the landlord 'evened up' the space inside flats so they were all medium ones rather than some big and some small?

He can do what he likes before somebody has accepted the offer and signed an agreement, but he can't just decide to start providing less but still charging the same agreed amount. I highly doubt he's planning to reduce the rent to take account of a now much less practical parking space?

A parking space is a parking space. Unless there spec of it is included in your lease then it’s one of those things. To be fair as a landlord other people’s large vehicles most likely wouldn’t be my priority

I expect your contract will just mention allocated parking space and as long as it meets legal requirements I don't think you will be able to say the contract has been broken. Morally it is wrong that they pushed through getting you to sign for another year but I don't think they have broken any rules regarding the space. Would you be able to move and find an alternative place to rent if you were able to negotiate leaving?

I think you need to seek proper advice though rather than what people think.

But isn’t a garden a garden? If he took half of it and used it to put a storage unit that wouldn’t be ok

This. The problem is the camper won't fit in the new space without preventing you accessing your car. Even if you have a "big" car, unless it's particularly wide you should still be able to get in and out if parked next to another car.

I would raise this with the landlord and let them find a solution. Could you maybe swap parking space so you get one on the road instead of the wall?

Can the camper have the space closest to the wall as its presumably not moving often, middle space for the flat 6 then you have the new edge space to give room on one side at least for getting in easier?

In that case the camper won't fit and will have to park elsewhere and they can put their car there instead. Should solve the problem

He is materially changing what you are getting for your rent without notice or consultation. For those who are saying that you still have a 'parking space'; it isn't the same size. Imagine he took a bedroom away from your flat. He couldn't get away with it by saying 'you still have a flat'. Furthermore, your flat is different from the other flats - you don't all have to have the same parking space. You're entitled to keep the same facilities as you have had since you moved in unless he negotiates to change it

Unfortunately it’s walls on both sides 😫

But if it's purely done on the landlord fulfilling their legal obligations, why do people bother going to look at the rental property in the first place?

I hate the way that renters are treated as second-class citizens and expected to just put up with any changes (usually making it less nice) that the landlord wants to make. Especially as they usually pay far more in rent in each month than those of us with mortgages pay.

If you've signed an agreement for a seen and known property for a certain period, the fundamental specifications should not be changed.

The landlord would be able to rent out the flat, but at a lower price than he can get if it comes with a parking space. He isn't creating the new space out of nowhere: a large part of it is being taken from what his other two tenants contractually pay for, thus they will have less space for no less monthly cost to them.

Brushing it off as 'just a bit of excess parking space' sets a precedent and shouldn't be tolerated. OP signed an agreement for a year to pay for the property including a big enough parking space for her family's needs; now it no longer comes with an adequate parking space for them.

I bet, if somebody in OP's family were a wheelchair user and they had specifically chosen a property because it came with a good wide parking space that was suitable for disabled access (albeit not advertised or officially stated as such), nobody would be saying "Well, it's still a legal-sized parking space, so you can just make do with it".

To add, if there had been plenty of space in total in the first place (including the green area) to create three adequate parking spaces, don't we think that it would already have been divided up and arranged that way from the start - considering that there were six flats but only five parking spaces? Nobody would have deliberately left one flat without a space if there had been sufficient room for each flat to have one.

It might partially solve the landlord's problem, but why should the tenants have to do that?

They deliberately found somewhere that came with a large enough space for them to safely park up their vehicle and are paying the agreed rate to include that.

They may well have originally seen other, cheaper flats but rejected them as an option purely because they didn't meet their essential parking requirements.

If they did pay extra specifically to have this facility and are now still going to be paying extra but without the reason why they signed up to pay for the more expensive flat In the first place - and then the added problem of where to now park their vehicle - how can that possibly be fair?

It isn't a favour that they've cheekily been taking advantage of; they're paying for it and are simply using what they've paid for.

But the lease was signed in the basis of what was shown. You surely can’t just take part if the parking, half the garden and any other area and just say it’s fair