Hello. I am the owner of a residential apartment, which I use as my main residence, which is managed by a property management company, to whom I pay a monthly service fee, and a residents management company, of which the PMC is one of the directors. The freehold of the land is owned and managed by a separate company to whom I pay an annual ground rent fee.
I have been suffering from a chronic back injury for around six months, having sustained a torn lumbar muscle and a trapped / inflamed nerve, which causes significant issues to my mobility / flexibility. To make matters worse, I am self-employed as a photographer, which involves mostly standing, crouching, squatting, lying on the ground and lugging heavy equipment around.
I live on the second (top) floor, and there is no lift. On a near-daily basis, I lug a bag of camera gear and several cases of lighting equipment down the stairs, and load them into my car (and unload / take them up the stairs again afterwards). I have been parking my vehicle in a visitor's parking bay, which is sensibly located 15m from the only entrance / exit to the block, rather than my allocated space 200m away, in attempt to minimise the stress placed on my back. This is not causing a tangible issue as there are 8 visitor spaces, one of which is in permanent use by a resident with two vehicles in their household, and the others which remain largely unused - simply put, there is never a problem with availability of parking.
I have been subject to what I now consider to be harassment from the property management company and one of the directors of the residents' management company for around three months because of this. Rather than having a normal conversation with me, the resident / director began placing passive-aggressive, printed notes on my vehicle, in my postbox and under my door, commanding me to move my vehicle. I responded by writing directly to the management company, stating my expectation that this action stopped immediately, and explaining, as above, my reasoning, which I consider to be a reasonable explanation; at the end of the day, it's my livelihood and personal comfort at stake.
I have offered what I deem to be a reasonable resolution, of returning to park in my allocated bay as and when I have returned to full fitness (I'm 33 and have previously been very physically fit, so I don't consider it likely to be a debilitating long-term condition), which has been dismissed without reasonable justification, of "because I said so", direct quote, from the PMC representative.
The PMC continued by disavowing themselves of the resident's decision to start sending me notes, and refusing to do anything about it. They have since, however, supplied this individual with my personal email address, to allow him to continue harassing me via email. This was disclosed to him without my consent, and when I complained to the PMC, they insisted that they were acting in full compliance with GDPR by allowing him my contact details and that he was "entitled" to them. I take issue with this, as I don't believe it's a legitimate interest, and I believe my reasonable expectation of privacy overrides any legitimate interest they may feel they have. The ICO were unable to advise specifically without investigation, so I have made a SAR to the PMC in order to start an investigation.
This subsequent communication received from this direction has consisted of threats of legal action on grounds of breach of the lease (without referral to a specific clause in my lease) and without stating on what grounds legal action would be pursued - I haven't caused any loss or damage through my action, and as I understand it, any pursuit of forfeiture / s146 would be laughingly dismissed by a court due to the draconian pursuit of property forfeiture over a parking dispute.
The hypocrisy of this individual director in question is also, admittedly, a factor in my refusal to comply; he spent an extended period parking in the visitor bays when his wife was unable to walk a great distance after surgery (which I have absolutely no problem with, seeing as I consider personal comfort of greater importance than stubborn adherence to arbitrary rules). He has also seen fit to remove my For Sale signs from the main road entrance to the development twice, stating that it was against the lease to put signage up; the signs were in a piece of grass owned by the council, who had given me permission to erect them (and in fact, seemed completely perplexed as to why I was even asking them). He's a belligerent piece of work who has harassed me in the past in pursuit of damages to communal areas actually caused by another resident (I had a complaint upheld by TPO following this incident), and seems to have a personal issue with me which sees me having the rules applied to me more equally than others.
I'm basically looking for some guidance as to if the PMC are, in general, legitimately allowed to dole out my personal email address to someone I have reported as having a problem with me, as well as what potential legal action the PMC could take against me. They don't actually own or manage the freehold so I'm bemused as to what action they think they're entitled to take.
At this point I'm digging my heels in, but I'm keen to learn more about what my rights are in this case; my comfort, pain management and career are my only priority here, to be honest.
I have been suffering from a chronic back injury for around six months, having sustained a torn lumbar muscle and a trapped / inflamed nerve, which causes significant issues to my mobility / flexibility. To make matters worse, I am self-employed as a photographer, which involves mostly standing, crouching, squatting, lying on the ground and lugging heavy equipment around.
I live on the second (top) floor, and there is no lift. On a near-daily basis, I lug a bag of camera gear and several cases of lighting equipment down the stairs, and load them into my car (and unload / take them up the stairs again afterwards). I have been parking my vehicle in a visitor's parking bay, which is sensibly located 15m from the only entrance / exit to the block, rather than my allocated space 200m away, in attempt to minimise the stress placed on my back. This is not causing a tangible issue as there are 8 visitor spaces, one of which is in permanent use by a resident with two vehicles in their household, and the others which remain largely unused - simply put, there is never a problem with availability of parking.
I have been subject to what I now consider to be harassment from the property management company and one of the directors of the residents' management company for around three months because of this. Rather than having a normal conversation with me, the resident / director began placing passive-aggressive, printed notes on my vehicle, in my postbox and under my door, commanding me to move my vehicle. I responded by writing directly to the management company, stating my expectation that this action stopped immediately, and explaining, as above, my reasoning, which I consider to be a reasonable explanation; at the end of the day, it's my livelihood and personal comfort at stake.
I have offered what I deem to be a reasonable resolution, of returning to park in my allocated bay as and when I have returned to full fitness (I'm 33 and have previously been very physically fit, so I don't consider it likely to be a debilitating long-term condition), which has been dismissed without reasonable justification, of "because I said so", direct quote, from the PMC representative.
The PMC continued by disavowing themselves of the resident's decision to start sending me notes, and refusing to do anything about it. They have since, however, supplied this individual with my personal email address, to allow him to continue harassing me via email. This was disclosed to him without my consent, and when I complained to the PMC, they insisted that they were acting in full compliance with GDPR by allowing him my contact details and that he was "entitled" to them. I take issue with this, as I don't believe it's a legitimate interest, and I believe my reasonable expectation of privacy overrides any legitimate interest they may feel they have. The ICO were unable to advise specifically without investigation, so I have made a SAR to the PMC in order to start an investigation.
This subsequent communication received from this direction has consisted of threats of legal action on grounds of breach of the lease (without referral to a specific clause in my lease) and without stating on what grounds legal action would be pursued - I haven't caused any loss or damage through my action, and as I understand it, any pursuit of forfeiture / s146 would be laughingly dismissed by a court due to the draconian pursuit of property forfeiture over a parking dispute.
The hypocrisy of this individual director in question is also, admittedly, a factor in my refusal to comply; he spent an extended period parking in the visitor bays when his wife was unable to walk a great distance after surgery (which I have absolutely no problem with, seeing as I consider personal comfort of greater importance than stubborn adherence to arbitrary rules). He has also seen fit to remove my For Sale signs from the main road entrance to the development twice, stating that it was against the lease to put signage up; the signs were in a piece of grass owned by the council, who had given me permission to erect them (and in fact, seemed completely perplexed as to why I was even asking them). He's a belligerent piece of work who has harassed me in the past in pursuit of damages to communal areas actually caused by another resident (I had a complaint upheld by TPO following this incident), and seems to have a personal issue with me which sees me having the rules applied to me more equally than others.
I'm basically looking for some guidance as to if the PMC are, in general, legitimately allowed to dole out my personal email address to someone I have reported as having a problem with me, as well as what potential legal action the PMC could take against me. They don't actually own or manage the freehold so I'm bemused as to what action they think they're entitled to take.
At this point I'm digging my heels in, but I'm keen to learn more about what my rights are in this case; my comfort, pain management and career are my only priority here, to be honest.
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