Van lowers the tone of the area

[travellinghopefully12]

I live in a lovely complex of flats with my DP and his best friend. We rent.

DP has just bought his own place for very little money in a less well off area of town. It's a gorgeous flat but in no way livable in. We are doing it up, and eventually DP and I will move in, while our friend goes travelling.

Anyway - last week a friend asked DP if he would look after her piano in his new flat until she has her own place. I was delighted as I play, and haven't had a piano since I was a teenager.

We were stumped as to how to transport it though, as we don't own a van. A friend of a friend volunteered, and on Friday we had an adventure carrying a piano up four flights of winding stone stairs. The new neighbours came out to help, and we lovely. (It badly needs tuning now)

Afterwards we went to the pub and friend of friend mentioned she has nowhere to park her van, and moves it about places every night and often pays for parking.

We have a parking space which no one uses in the flat we rent in the 'nice' area, and DP said she can use it. She was really grateful, but she'd just driven a piano across town and lugged it up four flights of stairs, refusing to take money - all we were able to buy her was a pint of coke.

She came on Sunday and parked the Van. It's a big blue beaten-up thing, she's driven it through europe and stuff and she's a bit of a cool hippy chick, and the van has that vibe.about it

Anyway, we got an anonymous note from a neighbour last night saying 'Sorry but no commercial vehicles allowed in parking bays as they lower the tone of the area, per title deeds.'

It's not a commercial vehicle, in that she doesn't use it commercially, but DP looked up commercial vehicles, and apparently the size of it might make it legally a commercial vehicle. There is a vodafone van, a black cab and a few other 'commercial vehicles' in the area, but they are not beat=up, as it were.

The van fits perfectly into the parking space and is in no one's way.

DP was swearing about how fucking petty it is, but thinks we have to ask her to move it as the neighbour's will report us to letting agents. (We have already been reported once for 'Heavy Walking and Toilet Flushing at Night' - Yes, really.)

So - what the hell do we do?

OP, in answer to your Scots Law question, if you are on an estate there are likely to be common requirements that they can enforce but they will need to be very close by and show that they are actually affected by them. (This is quite a high bar to meet). As someone has already said, they don't have the power to enforce this against you - the occupier - they will need to go through the owner as this is a title deeds thing.

Basically, you are very unlikely to get actual legal trouble between now and February. But that doesn't stop people trying and you may just get letters. I would ignore them but if it is going to cost your DP sleep then maybe just easier to move the van.

James Gibb are our factors too. They seem pretty useless at doing anything about anything so I wouldn't worry.

Snobby twat neighbours.

Please don't give in to this. I can't actually tell you the s**t we've been through with our snobby neighbour's...it would take too long and I think people would think we were making it up
I used to be like you and give two hoots. After kids, I do not. If their sad, empty lives are taken up by consuming themselves with the state of a vehicle parked in their area, leave them to it. It will wind them up more to be ignored IME.

Isn't it normal to want your street/living area to look nice, we have endless programmes on ' Location, location'.
I have chosen to live in a small home, in a lovely area.
If it was your van that would be a different matter, but it's not and its unfair on your neighbours.
Can I ask if your radio was on loud? Are you going to play your piano loudly when you move into your new home, you will be unpopular from the start if you do, you can't have a piano in a flat, unless it is electric with headphones, it's not fair.
My poor mother had a woman move in under her who was an opera singer, it made my mothers life hell, ( and the other tenants) this woman moved after 6 months, thank goodness, a neighbour said that she moves all of the time, why she didn't move to the country I don't know?? ( yes she had a car)
You sound to be a very kind person, but this is where YOU live, give her 2 months, then ask her to move it, that's enough for payback.

I'm going to go against the flow now. You say your flat is in a naice area. So your Neighbours (and presumably you too) are paying over the going rate to live there, because it's important to them to live in a naice area. That means, among other things, looking out of the window and seeing trees, lawns and flowers- not Del Boy's shitty old van. So the lease has been written to include things like that, in the interests of preserving the nature of the block and its surroundings. If you don't like it, and you don't share those values, save yourself some cash and move somewhere cheaper where your Neighbours are more easy-going. But if you ignore what you are being told- that you are breaking the terms of your lease- you are in the wrong.

While I think your neighbours are BU, you need to have a think about moving the van. It isn't yours, and the favour your friend did by using it to move your piano isn't sufficiently big for you, your DP and friend to have this amount of stress over it.

Ignoring the van issue but....heavy walking and toilet flushing????

I can't wait for the update once the neighbours have enjoyed your piano playing for a week or two

This was a clause in the lease of my old flat but loads of people ignored it. Managing agents sent a letter, maybe 2 in about 5 years.
Didn't bother me in the slightest but I was in ground floor flat right next to car park & if there had been a van outside it would have blocked the light to my lounge quite a lot, especially if I had been a middle flat with no dual aspect.
I would ignore until you get formal request to move tbh - by the time they get round to doing something you'll be moving anyway & agree piano playing likely to be worse!
Is there no parking space at the new flat to use instead?

Good grief people are weird. If you live in a flat you put up with other people's reasonable noise. This may include playing the piano or singing opera and as long as it's not at 3am that's fine. If you can't handle the noise you are the one who should move to the country. And car parks are not an attractive view regardless of what's in them, who gives a fuck if it's a car or a van? Genuinely don't get it. Ignore the note if there's nothing on your tenancy agreement.

Okay, so we hear nothing for a few days, but confirm with friend that van insured as PGV not commercial

then today, friend gets this on her windscreen and is now really upset. The anonymity of it is what freaks her out, though I am sure I know who it is. There is a taxi and a vodafone van in the area, btw

Photocopy it and leave it on the Vodafone and taxi vehicles to stir things up a bit.....

But...the Vodafone van people are probably lovely?

I am sure they are, but if the person who left the note is insisting on no commerial vehicles then that means no commercial vehicles.

A few pissed off neighbours will help bring this to a swift conclusion!

Christ, some people are so unpleasant.

I'd leave the van where it is until someone official tells you to move it and then I'd move it. Anonymous notes should always be ignored, if they don't have the balls to talk to you directly then their opinion isn't worth the paper it's written on.

If you have to speak with the letting agent.

Suggest that you think the anonymous person might be taking this view because the owner of the van is a woman (if the Vodafone van person is a man) and the toilet flushing is because you need to use the toilet at night because of a medical problem. The letting agent would probably hate any suggestion of taking such an anonymous complaint seriously then.

at update note.

This would tip me over the edge into rage/action. Do you have any idea who the other commercial vehicles belong to? If not, perhaps put a very polite note, with your details on asking for them to contact you as anonymous note writer (attach photocopy) is reporting you to factor and you will have no choice but to mention them in your defence. That will set the cat amongst the pigeons and is less sinister than copying the horrid note to them without explanation.

I would also be googling really ugly old banger options to park up if you do end up moving it.

Never parked in a visitor space ever?
Bloody hell, hope that person member needs a plumber. Or electrician. Or cable tv. Or in fact anybody with a trade as they're clearly not good enough to be seen around your flat.

The anonymous scribbler is unhinged. Whatever happened to friendly chats as a way of airing grievances?

I like the idea of transferring the note to the other commercial vehicles though lol

I still vote to ignore until someone official tells you to take action. Horrible neighbour - some people really need to get a life.

Is the parking space specifically allocated to your flat, I.e yours?

Could you pay for the van to be parked elsewhere for a while?

That note would have me hunting for the shittiest, rusting heap I could find to park in the space

Hold your nerve, OP.

I have lived in a building just like yours. They may have a leg to stand on in terms of the vehicle not being yours. But the commercial vehicle crap is a total red herring. They really can't do anything about this, and the fact that they are being so threatening underlines that.
You sound lovely and I hope the works on the new place go well. Soon you will be out of that building and these busybodies will be a distant, amusing memory.

I kinda agree with carabos and the poster just before her though. I'd leave the van there long enough to prove a point (perhaps with the letter left in the windscreen, torn in two just so the author knows it's been read and ignored) and then get the van moved. Your friend has had some breathing space, now she can carry on as before.