Anyone know anything about private tenancies? Would like advice.

[wonderstuff]

We are looking to renew our tenancy. Our property is part of a cul-de-sac which is managed by our neighbour, he arranges improvements to grass verges, got involved when our roof leaked, I'm guessing he gets ground rent from the properties on the street? He has a committee whose main topic of discussion seems to be our car.

It seems that our flat has a garage and his has a parking bay, but his parking bay is behind our back gate and he has come to an agreement with our landlord that he has use of the garage and we have use of the parking bay. We have two cars, and so will park one on the pavement blocking in the other iyswim. The neighbour is unhappy with this. We got the following email today:

In regards to the renewal of the tenancy.

We have received an email about the parking situation at Your Road, we can not renew the tenancy without written confirmation from yourself that you will use the allocated parking space for your property or the visitors space for second cars, please refrain from parking on the pavement opposite the grit bin as this is restricting the use for wheelchair and pushchair owners.

If you could please reply to this email that you understand to the terms then we can get the landlord's reply on a 24 month contract. Failure to agree to these terms may jeopardise your tenancy.

Any questions please let me know as soon as possible so we can resolve this matter.

Obviously we will park elsewhere, because the demand for houses in our area is higher than the supply and I want to stay in the house. But I want to know if they can actually make this a condition of the tenancy? We are not breaking rules and the pavement and road are not part of the property we are renting. Seems unfair that because we are renting and not owner occupiers we can have our behaviour in the road dictated.

WRT the wheelchairs and pushchairs (because I know people have strong opinions on these) There are no wheelchair users, the only person who uses a pushchair is me, and if we don't park on the pavement then pushchair and wheelchair users will still have to go onto the road further down the street as two other cars park on the pavement regularly. I suspect that it is because another neighbour, who has a drive and a garage likes to park on the street opposite and finds this more difficult if our car is parked opposite his. It all seems very petty.

[ShesAStar]

Hi, sorry to hear you are having stressful times with your neighbours - I don't think your landlord has any right at all to ask you not to park somewhere that it is legal to park in. I am a landlord and at the moment a tenant as well, I cannot imagine under which clause this could come. I can only imagine that the annoying neighbour is giving your landlord such a hard time that your landlord has resorted to instructing the email.

It would not bother your landlord where you park since they don't live there, he or she would not want the hassle of you moving out because then they have the hassle of paying the letting company to find new tenants (and lets face it - any tenant that pays rent on time and respects the property is a gem) so I imagine getting you to comply to the neighbours request via this email is the best solution for the landlord. If it doesn't inconvenience anyone I would be very irritated if I was you! Maybe phone the letting agents and ask which clause states your landlord is allowed to impose this?

[Sunnyshores]

It does seem petty and the Landlord isnt within his rights to have this as a clause, but.....Do you want to argue about the legality of it? Or do you want to rent the house? Causing ill feeling with the Landlord (and neighbours) isnt advisable especially if it really isnt a big deal for you to park somewhere else.

[nocake]

You know that you don't have to renew your tenancy, don't you? If you do nothing it becomes a statutory periodic tenancy.

[wonderstuff]

I know that no cake, but my letting agency is insistent, I imagine the £150 they are charging to renew has something to do with this. In our last house we did nothing when the lease ran out, different agents, suited everyone. I feel less confident in this landlord as well, I'm scared he will sell if it all doesn't run to his tune.

[Sunnyshores]

So just park elsewhere and keep the landlord happy.