Man’s van trapped in car park for two years because of ‘mechanical fault’ costing him £40,000

The owners of a family run business have had their van trapped in a car park in London for more than two years.

The problem has left co-owners Steve Davies and Mark Lucas, of HCS Furniture in Buckinghamshire, £40,000 out of pocket.

They parked their electric Vauxhall van at Rathbone Square, a building complex near Oxford Street, in December 2022.

It is a mechanical stacked car park – which means cars are parked on top of each other, using mechanical lifts to save space.

The system was installed by KLAUS Multiparking, CBRE manage the building and Double Parking Systems carry out maintenance and repairs.

When they returned to their van, they were told by a concierge they could not get it because of a ‘mechanical fault’.

They were reassured that the van would be returned so spent £8,000 on a temporary hire van.

In January 2023, they were told new parts were needed and that this would take 40 weeks.

They were then told a year later that the repairs were unlikely to take place before May 2024 but more than two years later there has been no update.

‘Weeks turned to months and months turned to years,’ Steve told Metro.

‘We can’t believe the van is still just sitting there. The mechanical fault must have been fixed by now.’

The small family run business in High Wycombe has suffered losses as a result of this incident.

Steve said: ‘The communication has been sporadic and not forthcoming.

‘We are suffering. We have lost money and after a couple of years we decided we couldn’t do this anymore.

‘We have had to take out another loan to buy a second van and I think we are around £40,000 out of pocket.

‘The economy and cost of living crisis is bad enough as it is right now so this has hit us hard.

Steve and Mark are unable to claim insurance until a party is found for overall responsibility of the incident.

Steve added: ‘We would have done things differently if we thought it was going to take this long.

‘It has just kept getting delayed until we are at this point two years later now, it is just stupid.

‘We want our van back and reasonable compensation for our money lost.

‘Anytime we tell this story to somebody we know, they say this is unbelievable and how can it be possible.’

Double Parking Systems says it carries out maintenance and repairs and that the system is fully operational and has been repaired.

It says it has told the building management company to contact Mark immediately.

CBRE said it was unable to provide a comment.

KLAUS Multiparking and Rathbone Square has been contacted for comment.

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