'My van's been trapped in car park for two years'

The owners of a small family-run business say they have been left £40,000 out of pocket after their van became trapped in a mechanical stacked car park in central London more than two years ago.

Mark Lucas, co-owner of HCS Furniture in Buckinghamshire, parked his electric Vauxhall van at Rathbone Square, a building complex near Oxford Street, in December 2022.

After being unable to retrieve the van because of a "mechanical malfunction" in the car park, he was told in January 2023 that new parts were required by engineers but 26 months on, no update has been provided.

The BBC has approached Rathbone Square and the car park installer, Double Parking Systems, for comment.

A stacked car park is a system where cars are parked on top of each other, using mechanical platforms and lifts, in order to save ground on space.

"It was about six o'clock that evening, we went back to the concierge and said, 'can we have the van back?' To which he said, 'we're very sorry, but you can't, because the stacking system has malfunctioned'," Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas was reassured his van would soon be returned, so he and company co-owner Steve Davies decided to temporarily hire another van at a cost of £800 a month.

Mr Davies said: "We were told it's just a bit further away. So we carried on renting, expecting to get the van back, but it never did. We get the occasional update, but we call them constantly to say, 'what's the news? what's happening?' And we get little or no response."

The High Wycombe-based company's costs continued to mount as they hired the second vehicle while also paying off the monthly loan for the trapped van.

Mr Davies said: "After a couple of years of renting, we decided we can't afford to do this anymore, so we gave the hire van back and took out another loan to buy a second van. In total, I estimate we are currently about £40,000 out of pocket."

Initially, the delay to the repairs was blamed on engineers needing new parts and in January 2023 the head concierge at Rathbone Square said this would take 40 weeks.

A year later, Mr Lucas was told the repairs were unlikely to take place before May 2024 but that any losses would be recoverable from the party found to have overall responsibility for this incident.

However, until this happens, the business owners are unable to claim back any money through insurance.

"I was very upset, we had a six-month-old van that we no longer had access to. I've been quite frustrated with a lack of communication," Mr Lucas said.

He added: "While we're trying to grow the business, we can't, because we have all this, this money tied up, how can you plan for anything when you don't know what is going to happen in in the near future'?"

Double Parking Systems, which designed and installed the car park, said it could not publicly comment as it had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

The BBC has also approached the management for Rathbone Square.

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