Hi
Moved into a new build at the end of last year.
The estate is 'open plan' in that there are no pavements as such, the driveways are at the same level as the roads (no kerbs) and the front gardens are open plan with no hedges/walls, leading straight out onto the road.
We live in a detached house on a corner, it is clear that the area in front of our house is a private driveway, the drives are all monoblocked in a different coloured brick from the road.
There is a detached house next door but because of the design of the estate, our front lawns join together with no division between them (ie it is a large expanse of grass which goes straight across the front of both of our houses), there is no dividing wall or trees etc.
We were told when we moved in that due to 'covenants' we would not be permitted to change the look of the front of the house by building walls or planting hedges etc, so as to keep the estate looking uniform (I suspect at least until work is finished on the estate which might be at least another 2 years). It is clear however, that they own the part in front of their house, and we own the part in front of our house. There is a lamp-post in the road that is exactly halfway between our houses so this is the kind of 'line' that we have always taken to be where our garden ends and theirs begins.
They are having work done in their back garden just now, and have their driveway full of landscaping equipment and materials which is fine, however, it means that the vans/trucks that the builders are using cant be parked in their driveway. For some reason, they have decided to park right in front of our front garden, not in front of the neighbours house? Which now means that the builders are trekking wheelbarrow loads of rubble etc across my front garden in order to be able to get to their truck to dump it! So saving the neighbours front lawn but wrecking mine. There's no reason they can't park 5 metres down in front of the neighbours garden. They've also left tools and equipment on my front lawn and are constantly walking across my front garden in front of my living room window, so much that I've had to shut my blinds.
I am on my own just now and don't feel comfortable going out to talk to them as there are about 6 of them, using very loud and bad language and they are pretty intimidating.
Would I be unreasonable to get my DH to park his car in front of our garden tomorrow instead of the driveway, so that they can't park there for the remainder of the garden work? After only 1 half day of work (in the rain) my front lawn has tracks of wheelbarrow and skid marks all over it. I think they think that because there is no real division of the lawns that they have the right to trek anywhere they want. I have spent a lot of time and effort making my garden look nice and I don't want it ruined.
The builders (not to mention other neighbours in the road) also used our own driveway to reverse into to turn their truck when they left. Other people do it all the time as we are on a kind of corner and they like to reverse into their own drives which means them driving into ours so that they can get turned. When our car is not parked there, they actually reverse right up into our driveway fully to the front of the house! It's very annoying as our driveway is getting a lot of traffic and I'm worried the monoblocking will show wear and tear much sooner than it should due to all the people using it. I don't know how to stop it as we are not allowed to 'change the estate' by putting up walls or gates etc. We have even had people drive across the end of our front lawn and ruin the grass as they have been so close when they are turning their cars.
Don't know what my AIBU is but I just wanted to rant. Wondering how I can get around restrictive covenants by somehow dividing the front lawns in a non permanant way. And keep people out of our driveway,
Anyone else on a stupid new build estate dealing with similar issues?