AIBU to report neighbour for running a business?

[bookstearocknroll]

It's lockdown, everyone's having a hard time in one way or another and the last thing I want to do is add to anyone's struggles...but my neighbour is pissing me right off.

He's some kind of handyman/mechanic and for years, has had at least five cars parked along our street, often so close to my drive that it makes it almost impossible to get out.

For the past couple of weeks, the number of cars has gone up, he's out on his driveway working on them all through the day and it's fairly obvious he's running a business from home. Right now, there's a windscreen repair van literally parked right across my driveway with two men fixing a windscreen with the table set up at next to their van. I've asked them to move as my partner's due home any minute with a week's worth of shopping and the neighbour's cars are parked all along the road taking up the rest of the room and they say they'll be done in 20 minutes but have made no effort to move despite me saying they have to.

My partner asked the neighbour directly if he was running a business, told him that we didn't mind him messing on with cars a few days a week as a hobby but if it was going to be banging and drilling throughout the day every day as it has been, it's a business and it's not fair on us with regards to noise (we have babies and both work from home, so it's not like we can easily escape it). Neighbour said he wasn't running a business, his garage had closed and he was just finishing a few MOTs - he got pretty arsey about it.

This latest escalation has been going on for a few weeks - would you report it or cut him some slack given the lockdown situation?

To avoid drip feeds, he's got form for being a bit of a cheeky fucker in other respects too so I'm not convinced of his explanation.

I wouldn't report him...yet.

But I would ask him that no one blocks your drive ever going forwards. If they do, then report him.

@Nanny0gg Correct. I've actually got a clause in my tenancy that states I can't do mechanical work to cars on the front drive.

A neighbour of mine got arrested for running a car repair business in our street and it was in the local paper as a serious breach of health and safety. What if a petrol tank exploded. This is why it isn't allowed.

In an ideal world I'd report him for causing a disturbance I'm not sure if it is worth it.
Someone will soon enough.

So the bloke up the road to me (who doesn't have a drive) shouldn't have replaced his engine??

I'd expect one guy doing his engine to get away with it TBH - not least because, by the time the average council get round to doing anything, it would probably be finished anyway

However someone going on and on doing the same thing is a bit different

Keep a diary of your neighbour starts and finish, noise level etc. May be worth looking up your local council on advice as to what to do next. Bear in mind if you do report your neighbour , it may make life very difficult in the future.

@PenguinIce

Op, I have exactly the same problem although I don’t think I would call what my neighbour is doing a business. Not sure how spending approx 10 hours a week fixing cars (all that are worth £200 max each) can equate to a profitable business. Cars are parked all over the street and don’t move for months at a time. My car that was parked on my own drive was damaged as they were using a grinder on a car parked on their drive which is adjacent to mine. My drive is constantly blocked and even when it is not they park so close to the edge of my drive that it is still a nightmare to get out. Oh and to top it all off my house is now unsellable due to all the scrap cars parked everywhere so I am stuck living here. I don’t know what the solution is, but if you find one op please let me know.

Report the scrap cars to the local council as abandoned vehicles. If they're just left in the same place parked up for months on end then they have technically been abandoned really.

" What if a petrol tank exploded. This is why it isn't allowed."
No, it really isn't. If we had to worry about petrol tanks randomly exploding how would we all manage maintaining our own vehicles?

I'd report, not only is this against planning rules for good reason - how is he disposing of the oil, asbestos brake pads and general old parts from the repairs he's doing?

I'd report to planning enforcement at your local council. They should rope in environmental health as well. It's one thing helping out a friend of two, but completely different when it's day in day out and disrupting your home life.

Leave him alone, this might be the only way he can put food on the table. I'm so bloody sick of mumsnet stasis
Well how about if it's the chap next to you, who burnt down his garage and set fire to next door neighbour's garage when doing a spot of welding for a mate.
But that's Ok, I'm sure his public liability insurance paid out - not

This sounds like a horrible situation to be in. If you take a note of the registration numbers of the cars he is working on, you can look them up on [www.check-mot.service.gov.uk]. this will tell you when they were MOTd and when the MOT is due. This will help you work out if he is telling you the truth. If he is fixing cars that have recently failed their MOT then the website above will tell you. It has been mentioned above but it's quite difficult to do an MOT on your own (otherwise everyone would be doing it). You can also check on www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax to see if the cars he is working on are taxed. If not a quick report to DVLA will send someout out to clamp the offending car. If you want to build up some evidence, you may also want to check he isn't pouring oil down the drain or throwing commercial waste like car parts in the bin. Saying all that, you do need to live next to these people so perhaps cut him some slack for a little while as this might be the only way he and his family can survive right now. Who knows, if your car doesn't start tomorrow you might be grateful that you have a mechanic next door. I really do get how frustrating it is but reporting should be the very last resort. Perhaps ask him if he can maybe start a little later in the morning and leave access to your driveway clear? Do you have any other neighbours? are they equally annoyed?

Mutunus
It's shocking isn't it. There are people who genuinely seem to think that following rules is optional at the moment and laws only apply if they feel like it.

I'd love to know whether they'd be crying "mind your own business, stasi" if someone wanted to report someone getting into a car after having a drink, or scamming people, or any other number of offences.

I hate shit like this. Report him to the council, take down all the license plate numbers, and call the towing company if he still doesn’t move the cars.

Can see both sides . He must need to warn a pound or two. But it shouldn’t be a bloody inconvenience for neighbors. I personally would give him a week to sort his shit. Stop hogging the parking and breaking Covid rules or ask council for advice.
But neighbor disputes have to be disclosed to new buyers if you are thinking of selling.

Earn ! Not warn... or he does need a warning

This would piss me off no end, especially the fact he has loads of cars parked and it is blocking your access. What happens if one of your children falls ill and you need to rush to the hospital? Or any other emergency? People who block driveways piss me off no end.
However as others have said, if you report him he will pretty much know it is you. But on the flipside to that, if he ever confronted you, you'd just play dumb and pretend you have no idea what he is talking about.
Not sure really what the solution is to this one - can you not approach him? Non-confrontational?

LolaSmiles
Fortunately no one was hurt and it did stop the car repairs.
I wouldn't mind if these things were done sensibly, legally, and didn't cause neighbours any grief. It's like the couple who lived locally and decided to start "dog breeding" from their house in a quiet suburban street. One or two dogs - fine but 8 left outside to bark all day. The neighbours got together on that one.

Are you the same poster who posted about a neighbour doing this at the start of lockdown in March/ April?

In those particular circumstances I probably would report. Sounds really annoying and selfish.
However, I imagine that he'll realise it was you, is he likely to do anything?

This did actually happen on our road - bloke at the end ran a repair shop. We reported it to the council who didn't do anything and a few months later, a car caught fire in a welding incident (he got too near the petrol tank).

Unfortunately because it was a residential setting, terraced houses in London on a cul de sac (the car that caught fire was in the U bend of the cul de sac if you see what I mean), the fire spread really quickly to neighbouring cars and a house caught fire. The elderly man in the house died and 4 houses were burnt down because when the fire brigade arrived, they would not go anywhere near it because they didn't know how many other welding gas canisters were there (they explode on heat).

The street was closed off for 48 hours until the fire brigade could be sure any gas canisters would have cooled down. They only removed the body then.

Working from home is fine - carrying out an activity that could potentially be dangerous to a residential area is not and you should report it. The fire brigade were furious the council had done nothing - the council denied ever having received information that he was running a business

You can report to HMRC (if it is not a registered business) or you could call them for some advice?.They might even have council contacts from planning land use changes. I think you can report pollution to the water company if pouring oil down drains

You've tried to speak to him about it and he was a twat, and is happy to block your driveway. I would report if I were you, because maybe then he won't block your driveway anymore.

I'd report without hesitation. What a cf pisstaker.

Mutunus
It must have been awful for all concerned.

Three weeks after we moved into our first house the man next door started running a scrap metal business from his back garden. After months of noise, day and night and fumes from burning rubber he reversed his fully laden lorry over our lovely green 2CV (it was a long time ago) and my patience snapped. After I called, the council sent an 'enforcement officer' who asked if he could take photographs from our back garden. I asked if he was gathering evidence for the 'enforcement' but he told me no, he was giving a lecture the following week on public nuisance and since this was the best example he'd seen, he wanted to include it. My neighbour continued to run his business for some years until the bottom fell out of the scrap market and he began breeding dogs out there instead. I think the council were impressed by his entrepreneurship.
So good luck OP, you have my sympathy.