A parking one!

[qwertyuiop098]

We have recently moved to a terraced house with limited residential permit parking on our street. We have permits but as there is almost never a space on our street we are often forced to park in a street coming off ours where there are no parking restrictions.

We do our best not to park in front of anyone else's house as we appreciate it will be annoying for them. I have a small car and it has had a note left on it requesting that I don't park there in the past. I have responded by letting them know I only parked there as I couldn't in front of my own house, I will do my best not to park there in the future but legally I can park where ever. Since then I've parked elsewhere and it's been fine.

The problem now is that my partner is a mechanical engineer and has been parking his commercial van in a street going along the side of a house - not in front of their front door and they have no windows coming down that side.

He has had a note on his van to say that residents have been turning a blind eye to his parking but now it's been going on too long as there is a covenant in the deeds of the houses on the estate forbidding the parking of commercial vehicles. This is despite at least two white vans being parked outsides people's houses, one for a small gardening business.

I do understand that it's frustrating for people to see a van but what other option does my partner have when we can't park outside our own house? We now don't know whether to ignore it (as it seems online it's unlikely to be enforced) or to respond to the note-writer.

Our covenant requires work vehicles to be parked in closed structures. You can’t park them on the street or on your own drive overnight. Violators face fines, but generally a letter from the estate board takes care of the situation. These rules are presented when you buy a house and you can’t buy a property without signing them.

if there is an estate rule, surely you have a document somewhere listing the parking regulations. I’d just take a look at what it says.

Update! We’ve had another note on the van today. Liebherr is DP’s company name.

Well he shouldn’t be parking that close to junctions but other than that just keep ignoring the letters!

Surely any covenant only applies to the residents?

I'd ignore all notes and covenants. They do not own the road.

Only the parties to the deeds are bound by the covenants. As you have a terrace I assume you’re not actually on that estate and if they’ve been adopted by the highways you can ignore anyway.

It would depend whether it’s private land (and if so, whether you have agreed to the covenant) or a public road. If it’s a public road the you should be able to park freely. If it’s private land then different rules may apply.

I’d be speaking to the council for clarification.

Also, are you parking too near junctions? I can see why residents would be getting annoyed generally if you are.

If there are parking restrictions, there would need to be signs to inform people of said restrictions? If there are no signs then there won't be parking restrictions surely?

Are parking spaces at a premium on this estate? Where we live (an estate of flats) the car park often has vans parked overnight that do not live here - really pisses us off as spaces are in short supply but as there are no signs saying resident parking only there's nothing we can do. Are you annoying more than this one person do you think? Could you move your car there when he gets home so he can park his van in your space ? Not ideal....

You are clearly just annoying people with your parking....it does annoy me when people have huge cars/vans without a thought of where they're going to park them.

As PP have said, a covenant about commercial vehicles isn’t uncommon on new estates, but only applies to the homeowners. Provided the road is adopted by the council and he is parking legally (I.e. not too close to the junction) there is nothing they can do. If you want to be certain you could ring the council (not sure if it would be planning or highways) and check about the road.

Might it be easier if the OP and her partner swapped so that his van is outside their house and her small car is in the next road (but obviously not too close to the junction)?

I can understand why people are getting annoyed about commercial vans , They are littering our estate . We have a bloody great highway maintance truck , that parks way to close to the corner , parcel delivery vans etc, I dont blame the people , I blame the local authorities and government for allowing it to happen .

Never should have engaged after the first note OP- these people are twats, where do they think tradesmen live? As for the parking outside your house, the solution there is to buy a house with a driveway, otherwise tough to you and your neighbours!

I blame the local authorities and government for allowing it to happen allowing what to happen, people working?

@Russell19

You are clearly just annoying people with your parking....it does annoy me when people have huge cars/vans without a thought of where they're going to park them.

But if it's a company van or a tradesman's van that's for work?! They don't usually buy vans just for the fun of it, it's because they need it

My estate (late 80's) has covenants. No commercial vehicles allowed on driveways also no towed vehicles of any kind on the estate. You have to pay to store your caravan elsewhere basically. It's quite a premium priced area. Everyone abides. It's lovely here.

I visited a friend in a nearby estate much newer maybe 5 years old. By god the roads were much narrower, the houses crammed in and there were cars everywhere. On the pavements, up to the junctions. A real emergency access disaster. I cannot believe town planning allows such places to be built.

If he is illegal on the junction then I would be yelling at the van owners company about that. If he is blocking emergency access then I would also be mad.

I think your note writer makes a valid point and you need to address your parking issues because they are yours and not the note writer.

The Covenant surely only applies to the owner of the house of which the covenant applies? What does it say in your deeds? How on earth would Jo Public know the covenants to each house on each road? I'd ignore. If he's paying his road tax. He can park where he likes! Without signposted road restrictions etc.

I bloody hate these covenants. While I appreciate people are stupidly precious about vehicles not bringing down the "tone" of the estate ( very Violet Bucket) the state of the jobs market these days mean there must be thousands of people, self employed, shitty contracts with employees, screwed over by these covenants.

I say this as someone who HATES how car centric new developments are. Even ones with nice landscaping and good looking homes have swathes of land dedicated to parking the numerous cars the average household has. We keep one car in our garage and one on our drive so as not to take up visitor parking as there is a covenant saying no cars should be left in those for more than 23 hours - funny how our neighbours with a garage full of junk and two or three cars are less keen to enforce that one!).

Maybe one day well say no cars to be left on estates at all - that look much nicer bjt I'm sure once that starts causing problems for the naice officer workers there'll be kick back on these stupid covenants

"Do not park within 10 metres of a junction" lolwut?

Estates are weird and estate people weirder still.

The estate I live on is not public land it is owned by a company in which each home owner has a share. No commercial vehicles are allowed overnight in the covenants and the management company rigourously enforce those including taking legal action against a non-resident who continually parked his car transporter on our estate.
Ours maybe an more unusual situation as our grounds are listed due to originally being laid out by capability brown, but if the estate is privately owned they can enforce this if it has been set up correctly.

@sbhydrogen read your highway code.

Do you have a parking permit for the work van for your street?

It sounds like he's doing his best by parking it somewhere where there are no windows. He should make sure he's more than 10m from a junction as the note writer is clearly trying to use this against him.

I'd just keep doing what you are doing. You can't park anywhere else or you would do so.

We've lived in a house with parking dramas, it's just awful.