There is an interesting seventeen year-old thread entitled Parking and Trespass. This post is to give a case study of a similar situation.
We own a seaside apartment that has an ungated private car park. Airborne sea spray destroyed every gate mechanism we tried, so we resort to sternly worded signs advising drivers that our parking spaces are on private property and are for the exclusive use of residents.
On sunny weekends the beach is packed, and we are tormented by day trippers filling our car park, causing residents to drive some distance to find the nearest space on the road.
We have come up with a new approach, which is to leaflet offending drivers with a notice saying that by temporarily depriving the management company of a parking space, we suspect that they have committed the offence of Theft of Service, contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001, adding that a person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment.
The notice will give drivers two options. The first is to respond within 21 days (or longer if they ask) to give an explanation to the management company why we should not make a statement to the Gardaí, for example they may have been visiting a resident, either professionally or personally. The second is to give drivers the option of avoiding court by making a modest donation to the management company, which is of course a non-profit organisation.
I will post updates as we roll this out over the coming weeks. In the meantime I would welcome your comments and questions.
We own a seaside apartment that has an ungated private car park. Airborne sea spray destroyed every gate mechanism we tried, so we resort to sternly worded signs advising drivers that our parking spaces are on private property and are for the exclusive use of residents.
On sunny weekends the beach is packed, and we are tormented by day trippers filling our car park, causing residents to drive some distance to find the nearest space on the road.
We have come up with a new approach, which is to leaflet offending drivers with a notice saying that by temporarily depriving the management company of a parking space, we suspect that they have committed the offence of Theft of Service, contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001, adding that a person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment.
The notice will give drivers two options. The first is to respond within 21 days (or longer if they ask) to give an explanation to the management company why we should not make a statement to the Gardaí, for example they may have been visiting a resident, either professionally or personally. The second is to give drivers the option of avoiding court by making a modest donation to the management company, which is of course a non-profit organisation.
I will post updates as we roll this out over the coming weeks. In the meantime I would welcome your comments and questions.