Batshit Neighbours - how would you respond to this message?

[carolinesfrog]

This message is from the neighbours of a rental property my Mum has.

Neighbours HATE the tenants, who are perfectly lovely people. Neighbours like to complain a lot. Neighbours have sent this message.

How would you reply?!

Home hairdressing or beautician.

Seems like a they have concerns about a business being run from a domestic address, which seems fair enough.
Are the tenants allowed to run a business from home and who owns and pays for maintenance of the shared drive?

Of course it’s an unreasonable request, it’s nothing to do with your mum if a third party has hit a cage of stones. If the neighbour has a problem they should talk to the person that hit the stones, your mum isn’t their keeper.

I think they want your mum to pay to fix the Gabion cage as they've provided the size of it.

I think so too, but no way is this anything to do with OP's mum. The most I would do is ask the tenants to ask their visitors to drive carefully when leaving.

I’m a landlord. It is standard to have a clause not allowing tenants to run a business from home. Your mum should check this and insist the gabion be moved in such a way that it is a) not encroaching on her land and b) visible from a car, therefore a stacked height. Failing that, it needs to be removed completely. Any racist, vile comments are completely separate from these issues.

For the sake of neighbourly relations, I think it would be wiser to agree with the neighbour to erect a small boundary fence part way between the properties and agree in writing to maintain this 50/50. Or allow them to erect one at their expense and with your mum’s agreement to the appearance, placement, height, length etc.

but the land might be owned by both houses?

Not read the full thread, but IMHO OP needs to -

(1) Find out what the business is and whether there are any legal issues with it.

(2) Consider whether there are any covenants in the title documents that are relevant (there probably aren't, but presumably it is possible that no-one other than the occupant and guests have access rights over shared driveway - customers do not.)

(3) Consider whether the rocks some sort of obstruction that the neighbour has no right to place (title docs again)

(4) Consider whether to advise the tenants' customer to seek compensation for damage to car from "illegally" placed rocks.

(5) Ignore and block if appropriate.

You'd have to pretty much write off a car to damage a gabion cage, so surely there can be nothing that needs paying for in that regard.

I’m a landlord. It is standard to have a clause not allowing tenants to run a business from home

Such a standard clause sounds completely unenforceable post covid. But even before covid there would have been lots of people working from home, both as employed workers but also running their own businesses (whether legal consultancy, book-keeping, graphic design, web design). I know such a clause is there to prevent someone turning the house into a scrapyard or something but to be enforceable it would have to be specific.

I am a permanent homeworker, see no clients, and just work from a spare bedroom on a computer. I even had to inform my insurers and the council tax people about this when we moved here

I think there are an awful lot of people working from home who've done neither of those things. This is quite useful: www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates/working-at-home

I would have thought that insurers wouldn't care if you are working in a home office. In fact it's better you are there than going out to work because you less likely to be burgled if the house is occupied.

As for running to the OP and MN, maybe the mother has a good relationship with the OP and you know, talks to her about things?

The neighbours have done you a favour here and alerted you to the fact of a business being run without permission. I'd be thanking them! Could it invalidate your mum's building insurance? Not lovely tenants at all.

IANAL

Re: running business from home. My understanding is that there is absolutely NOTHING WHATSOEVER to stop you from running a business from home. Landlords cannot stop a tenant from RUNNING a business from home, neither can planners. Neither can they stop the tenant from doing admin and desk based work from home.

BUT, and it is a big BUT, there are things which may not be possible that (dependent on the business) mean that you can't OPERATE the business from home. Noisy things, smelly things, things involving dangerous chemicals, things that involve regular visitors (customers and or staff) could well be in breach of planning or AST.

I am especially keen to make explicitly clear that Landlords are fully entitled to put whatever nonsense that they wish to into an AST, but that does not make it enforceable.

My ex batshit neighbour finally moved away a few months ago. I really hope she hasn't moved to your mum's place OP!

Its the same accusations of imaginary businesses being run from home (no, I was wfh due to lockdown and was getting deliveries of online stuff like she did). Do the texts come at night, just when you're relaxing after dinner? My batshit neighbour complained about me using my own drive to drive my own car on, apparently I caused more wear and tear because I owned a car and she didn't. I own the drive and she only had a right of access over it.

She complained to the neighbouring farmer about him using fertiliser and other chemicals on his field and demanded he stop, and about him using tractors late at night to bring in the harvest. He put a crow scarer pretty close to her bedroom window in revenge, to be fair.

She complained about our neighbour's horses neighing in their field. She also complained about them using their part of their own drive for their horse truck.

When she moved out, she had to replace her septic tank because the rules have changed, and she told all the contractors that I had "made her life hell" despite the fact I stopped talking to her and blocked her number Never been so glad to see someone move away. You never knew when your relaxing evening was going to be disturbed by yet another text of complaint.

If your batshit neighbours are actually putting obstacles on the right of access then I strongly suspect they are the troublemakers.

I'd want to check with the tenants if they are running a business or where this idea that they are has come from.

And a photo of this gabion on the driveway, as it would appear part of it is on your mums drive obstructing parking.

Without that info, we really can't tell if they're batshit or not.

This isn’t quite right. A tenant cannot just set up a business from home because they want to.

As a ll, I cannot unreasonably refuse my tenant to run a business. But they should seek permission and I can stop them for example if their running a business is contrary to the terms and conditions of my mortgage, if they wish to trade from the property or if the business would become the main use and residential as secondary, both of which would need planning permission.

Tenants can of course ask. Rather like they can ask for a pet, which again I cannot unreasonably refuse. I would therefore reasonably refuse someone to run a massage therapy business or similar as I would need to both change my mortgage from residential to business and the property would require a change of use to part residential, part business. An AST would not cover this so I’d also need a different business contract.

Running a business is really not the same as wfh or being self employed.

@godmum56
It does sound as if the land is potentially owned by both. If that is the case, I believe the neighbours need permission to put anything on the land at all. It gets a bit tricky with renting as the tenants will expect unrestricted access to the land up to the end of their half of the path. We don’t know either way, which is why I was suggesting things op’s mum may be willing to allow or agree to.

I live in a house with similar circs but we are all owners. Some of the drive is owned equally by all three of us and we all have a right of way over it and some of it is owned by individual owners. It works because we are all reasonable people and all of us have the same vested interest in making it work....but I would try and avoid it next time.

Is neighbour putting the stones on the boundary to try & stop your tenants having visitors knowing they’d get hit if are in a place where it would be difficult to miss them?
If they share a boundary parking wise he maybe doesn’t have the right to put them there though?
And check if any business being run.

Not necessarily batshit- if the tenant is running a business which is disruptive, and already someone has hit rocks (although depending where the rocks are they could be seen as a hazard) it's worth your mum gaining some more information. If there is no issue with the terms of the tenancy, then your mum would need to tell the neighbours that.

Does the tenancy agreement prohibit the tenants running a business

I'd want to know the type of business, it will affect your public liability insurance (standard home & contents policy does not cover a business with visitors). I'd also get the tenant to pay for the damage, agree what use of the drive is appropriate for their business (wear and tear etc) and remind them to be considerate of the neighbours.

I'd want to know the business in case it places me or a neighbour at risk. A hairdresser or beautician is very different from selling physical goods.

The racism of the neighbour should be challenged as well.

Not sure why it’s a batshit message. The neighbour is concerned about multiple vehicles coming to the property and not being careful when entering / leaving the house. I’d just reply to say that you will have a word with the neighbours to advise them to speak to their clients as they leave to advise them to take care. Maybe the neighbour can get a ring camera if he’s worried and if the car is damaged he will be able to see the reg plate etc

I can sympathise with the neighbour a little. It is frustrating when you can’t get off your own drive because someone is parked outside your driveway, blocking you in. My neighbour runs a business from home, they buy stuff at auctions, boot sales, etc and then sell it on eBay/ Facebook. ‘Buyer to collect’.
Our house is the middle house of three, on a shared private road, (an unadopted road) each householder is responsible for its upkeep.We each have our own driveways too but It’s effectively a cul de sac.with one way in and out. We have to reverse off the drive on to the shared road.
“I’ll only be a minute” or “I didn’t see your car parked there” (I told one man he should go to Specsavers then). “ Oh I didn’t realise it wasn’t a through road” ( What? you missed the double garage, face on,as you drove in?) Through road or not you’ve still blocked me in.
If we ever move from here there is no way we’re sharing a drive or private road ever again.

That is if the car owner does stop and contact the neighbor. He is concerned that there are so many cars in and out, and no way to hold anyone accountable. He isn't being UR at all. In fact he was very reasonable to bring this to your attention first. Are they running a business and do they have permission?