Motorhome parked on the street

[Hibernatingtilspring]

Curious if people know if there's anything we can do about this or just have to live with it. Neighbour across the road seems to have acquired a motorhome, and it's parked on the street. Tbh we'd been hoping it was a temporary thing, eg that he perhaps he had had it in storage and was going away, but it's not shifted in two weeks so I'm guessing not. The motorhome is enormous. I'm not very good at guessing size, but it has six wheels and it's really tall. Its longer than the width of the house it's parked outside.

Our street is old terrace houses, and it's narrow so there's only parking on one side, parking is tight at the best of times. It's always a bit annoying when there's extra vehicles added to the mix, but buying a vehicle this size just seems bonkers when there's little parking. Tbh I'm amazed he even got it on the street, as it's tight T junctions at each end, the bin lorries can't always make it!

I had a look online and can't see anything about restrictions for parking, only that vehicles can't be slept in. I thought local restrictions on parking large vehicles was a common thing, but seems maybe it's covenants on newer estates? Is it something we're just going to have to get used to?

Im trying not to be 'that' neighbour, but it doesn't help that the person who has bought this isnt someone we particularly like - they're quite anti social, eg they'll store junk outside the house, park their car where someone's tried to reserve a spot for a skip delivery, that sort of thing. And this thing is particularly ugly! It looks quite old and not in the best condition. I feel sorry for the neighbour whose house it's directly outside!

How does it affect me? Because it's more likely that I have to park on another street because one neighbour - who lives alone- is now taking up the equivalent of six parking spaces. And because if anyone double parks, which happens, there's less chance of our bins being collected. And the residents who do double park, if they're not able/willing to park on another road, can only do so if they park right up on the pavement meaning that pedestrians have to walk in the road.

Though you could have known that if you'd been bothered to read my posts instead of coming here just to make a snide comment. Feel better now do you?

To add, I don't object to them on the road, or in campsites. Just parked at beauty spots, blotting out views for everyone else. It's like parking a massive great truck somewhere beautiful for hours and hours or overnight.

There's a terraced street not far from us too where another motorhome parks. Maybe they live in the street. But i wonder if they obscure their own windows with their giant white metal and plastic bulk?

These things didn't used to be on our roads, but i recall them from when we lived in america in the nineties - RVs. There though they kind of fitted better with the massive wide roads and streets.

I couldn't see any rules online for our area. We're not a destination town so I guess it's not something that has been an issue enough for it to be put in place, its not particularly affluent so I would expect parking permits would be unpopular too.

If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating about the size of this thing, it's a older style Kon tiki.

@AuntyDepressant people pay higher prices, property value and resale value are affected by yards, views and street appeal. So yes where neighbors park, where they store their bins and how they maintain their yard matters.

I would definitely still explore with them. There may not be anything you can do but the fact is lorries/coaches are not allowed to be parked up on residential streets so there are rules somewhere about what is and is not allowed to be parked. It might be weight/size related so worth just enquiring to see if something that large is over the limit.

As others have said if it's taxed with MOT and insurance he's entitled to park it and use it on the road like everyone else.
Some new housing estates have covenants about not having motorhomes or caravans parked there, even on your own property!

Thanks @Drfosters I will see if I can find anything.

We had this on our street. It was a camper converted from an old mobile library bus of the councils. We are really short of parking on our row of terraces and it messed with the whole ju ju for months. Eventually the guy who owns it moved it into the official parking for the council flats they are in but he had to get everyone to move their car out of the car park first before he could get it in. It’s been there motionless since, rotting to bits, undriven for years. No idea what he was thinking buying it! My cat slept in it for ages, I’d see his face poking up as I walked past.

I don’t think there’s anything you can do.

See, this is interesting as local councils are so short sighted then this ends up happening.
In France for example nearly every village and certainly town has an 'aires de camping car'. An area for motorhomes which could be just a basic car park but with water and often waste drop. You can overnight but no camping activity ie you keep to the foot print of your van.
The whole premis is to get campers staying then using the local facilities even if it's just a baguette in the morning.
It's fantastic and safe.
Over here councils are obsessed with stopping or making life hard for campers. Some councils are sensible eg Powys and in Scotland and do have overnight schemes. Just think even charging £10 for overnight how much more money councils could make.

@Titasaducksarse oh there’s no shortage of camping spots round here (Cornwall). Especially in the summer, when farmers are allowed to open up the odd field for a limited time. Plenty of permanent sites too. But no.. these behomoths (which must cost a pretty penny) prefer to hog the views rather than pay an extra few quid for a campsite.

A street near me parks an enormous horsebox on a terraced road and I always think how selfish that is. There’s nothing you can do though.

@Titasaducksarse this is the other aspect, I genuinely don't understand why people use motorhomes in the UK - I get the idea of wanting the freedom, but as you say there are very few sites and those with facilities require advanced booking so there's no real spontaneity. Plus weather wise theres less opportunity to use them. If you're traveling in the US or Europe the experience would be much nicer!

Here its a PITA for the neighbours, if there was an obvious benefit to said neighbour I'd understand but I really don't know what that would be. It's far too big for one person. It must cost a fortune in fuel and I don't think he's particularly flush. He can be a bit of a hoarder and I can't help but think he's been offered a deal on it and hasn't got a plan yet.

To be fair they were correct in their summary of what you wrote.

Just let people live their life and you live theirs. It’s been two weeks. I don’t understand the problem.

We have a neighbour who brings home his actual full semi trailer truck, including the trailer and parks it on the entrance road to our newish estate. Amazing how people do things like this

Furthermore we also have a fairly normal dual lane artery road onto our estate and whilst people do have assigned parking spaces off this road, there is one block of 8 houses about 100yds in plus a small apartment building who choose to park in front of their property creating just a single track in and out.

Complete nightmare which is just getting worse and with a further 200 houses being built, traffic will just be increasing. It’s an accident waiting to happen - impatient drivers manouvering this single track, including building site trucks on and off the new part of the estate and there’s also kids playing out and a play area across from this parking nightmare

We are all BEGGING the council to line the artery road. There are literally hundreds of people inconvenienced daily for the selfish behaviour of just a few. There is not one other area on the estate that this occurs, it’s only these people who do not use their spaces - which are roughly 20-30 seconds walk from their house

Unfortunately OP, there’s very little that can be done about it

On an even further note, we live where this street parking abuse ends and guess what, we could actually do the same if we were selfish - our house is right on the roadside - but we instead park in our spaces

Im actually hoping one day someone drives down and knocks all their wing mirrors off - I do think this is quite literally the only way to get them to use their assigned spaces

It would drive me absolutely potty, too. Not only the eyesore aspect of it, but the complete disregard for anyone else on the street when they try to park their cars.

It is anti social and uncaring about others.

I particularly feel for those houses on the same side as it must block their outlook and light.

Unfortunately, some people just don't care about others.

We had a similar issue with staff cars from a very high end hotel. Four cars with parking for one, in a small private courtyard. Tried the tenants, tried the hotel, provided covenants contained in the copies of the deeds, shared photos of a stuck ambulance that couldn't access a neighbours child.
All to no avail.

It would have been on me to seek and pay for legal advice and court.

Fortunately with enough ‘poking’ of the hotel, everytime we had a delivery, everytime we were blocked in, the hotel withdrew their tenancy agreement and the owner sold.

Look at the weather forecast
book a cheap site
its easy. I think you are misinformed about the difficulty

there are areas that are short of pitches especially if visiting cities and towns, and the north coast 500 ( whoever had that bright idea ).

Visits to towns and cities should be made easier as that’s where people can spend money more easily so it always seems daft that’s difficult. Well done Nottingham for having markets on the only park and ride they open to motorhomes ( that’s sarcastic ). That lost the city £.

but really many people manage to have lots of breaks in their campers and it’s cheaper and more flexible than booking a cottsge /b&b.

the hatred is like hatred of cyclists and such - tribalism and othering rather than objective ( yes you get twats and the inconsiderate parking sounds twatish to me but you get twats having regular flying holidays too )

but if a fire engine can’t get through because of the parking then you can report it

We had this issue for years outside my mums house when I lived at home. We struggled to park on our drive because of it. We phoned the council they come out and did some measuring and said we have just the legal required space to get out the drive they won’t do anything. As long as it’s taxed then nothing can be done. I feel your pain because it’s a massive eye sore and stops the sun on the garden.

There’s wild camping. That’s what they use them for.

If l go into the National Park near me, they are parked end to end on lots of the roads, or even on the land.

I don't think you can do anything about it. Even the suggestion of going to the council about restrictions along the road won't necessarily work as whatever they might suggest might not be what the residents favour. We have an issue at the end of our road, yellow lines only go so far and people park on the areas which they don't cover. A lot of cars speed round this corner, not knowing whether someone could be driving down (as the view is blocked) or children playing/crossing the road to get to the play area. Despite a number of people agreeing something needed to be done about it and stopping other people parking there to go into town, when the options came back to either extend the yellow lines or to make it a residents only zone for which a permit would need to be purchased pretty much everyone backed down as it seemed it was a lot of the residents also parking in these spaces (and still do) and they didn't want to lose them or have to pay to park there!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow wild camping is walking into a remote spot with a tent and a trowel. Parking a motorhome in a lay-by and ruining everyone else's view is not wild camping.

Sorry if I misunderstood what you meant. But I bet some of these motor home drivers kid themselves they're wild camping 😂

France is massive that’s why they can have these.

England is small and full.

I'm aware that camping is a thing. I even go myself! However these types of homes aren't allowed to be parked overnight in car parks, and wouldn't fit to park on rural roads. The nearest area to us that people would go camping is very hot on parking, they ticket and have started towing vehicles that are parking on verges due to the volume of vehicles causing obstructions.

As I said, other neighbours have converted vans and that makes more sense to me as although its not technically allowed, I can see that they would have more chance of getting away with doing so, given they look like a regular van.
I have friends who have caravans and tell me that decent sites require advanced booking.

I have friends who have travelled in Spain in a van and it sounds a totally different and much more worthwhile experience - lots of relatively wild places to park, but with facilities to get rid of waste, top up water etc.

Regardless though it isn't about the lifestyle it's about the parking issue. I don't know why one person needs three vehicles, let alone one that is bigger than their house.