Buying house - homeless outside

[Whatinthedoopla]

Hi,

I'm buying a house, and opposite the garden is the community car park. Area is lovely, people are lovely. However, I've noticed thpere has been a van parked right outside the garden (obviously in a parking space), and has been there for weeks. I thought nothing of it, then saw they they open the door and it looks like people live in it! And they look homeless, I saw they legs popping out of the van.

The house has now been emptied, and I'm worried that the homeless people are going into the garden to get water from the tap outside.

My partner isn't worried, but I am, or AIBU?

What should I do?

What should you do?

Count yourself lucky that you are able to afford a secure roof over your head, unlike the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who can't.

That's what you should do.

What should you do?

Count yourself lucky that you are able to afford a secure roof over your head, unlike the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who can't.

That's what you should do.

Report the van.

For what?

For living in a van.

What's a community car park. Do you mean council car park.
Report them, and they ll be moved along. Get your garden fence re-done and made sturdy
Ignore the bitter reply (first one) above.

Report it to who? It's not illegal

In what way was my reply "bitter"?
Personally, I'm securely housed.
Thousands of people in this country, through no fault of their own, will never be in our position.
But let's just make the already difficult lives of homeless people- who haven't done anything wrong- even more difficult, shall we?

You do realise that some people choose to live in a Van. Look at the FB group Van Life Community - give you a good view of their world.

So I would need to pay for their water usage as otherwise it's unfair on them?

It's just convenient they chose a house which they know is empty. I'm worried they may go in and become squatters

Yes this

But you aren't allowed to park there overnight

Does it explicitly say that?
because we have abandoned vehicles parked on our councils car park that apparently haven’t been abandoned because a notice is served on them every 14 days and every 14 days the owners get in touch to tell us that the cars have not been abandoned and despite the fact that they are near the tax no MOT because they are on private property i.e. council land rather than the highway they are not moved or impounded

Could you speak to the vendor/estate agent and get the tap turned off at the stop cock?

I live in a seaside area and we have lots of van lifers and house boaters OP. We've never had any trouble with them at all - they mostly seem to be quiet folk just living off grid.

Squatting isn't legal in the UK any more so you can just get people removed, if they live in a van they might ask you if they can have water from your outside tap. Or they might already have a supply.

Do the signs / council website have details of what to do if someone isn't following the parking rules? If you report overnight campers on council land where they aren't permitted they'll be asked to move on.
Have you exchanged? When do you complete? Is the house secure? Is there a garden gate?
If it makes you nervous about the carpark it may be better to pull out of the offer though? Will you feel at peace living there in the future?

Not really sure why this is a problem. It’s only a bit of water and if they’re in a van they’ll likely move on soon anyway.

Yes it says it, and it says that they would remove vehicles. But they obviously don't

I love the house and garden, but this has just made me worry a lot. I have little kids who will be running around in the garden, not sure if these people may be peeping through the gate, getting water at night.

Sometimes people live in cars in the week if they work away, are they there all the time, they may not be homeless if they are not.

As PP have said - for your peace of mind get a good strong fence, perhaps a Ring doorbell to monitor who comes/goes.

But also people living off grid tend to not want trouble, will probably leave you alone & respect your space.

If you don’t own it yet why would you be paying for the water? Just ignore it until you move in

So.. theres some people living in a van.

They're in the carpark overnight which is not allowed -you can report that, though likely the council are already aware.

Asides from that, you're actually unaware of any other wrong-doing, everything else is assumption.

I know lots of people who live in vans or have, or plan to (and those who live on boats). They would not consider themselves 'homeless' (house-less, yes, homeless, no) and do not peep through peoples gates or steal water (or anything else).

Van lifers tend to try to park where people won't notice them and moan - so that might be why they've parked near an empty property (and is much more likely why than 'to steal water' - most would assume an empty property has had the water cut off).

If you like the house, buy the house. The chances of them still being there by the time you've bought and moved in is pretty low.

IF it turns out someone is peeping through your gate or stealing your water, deal with it then. It is normal to deal with crimes/offenses/unpleasant behaviour WHEN it actually happens... not before!

If you look on Amazon you can buy a lock for an outside tap.