AIBU to complain about neighbours turning adjacent land into a lorry park and bonfire?

[Redmistdecended]

Long time lurker, first time poster, please be kind.

We moved into our new property about three months ago. It’s a lovely house, and to the right-hand side is a large patch of grass. When we viewed the house, I was already imagining spending hot summer days out there with my DD, as we don’t have a front garden.

On moving day, however, there was an 18-wheeler parked on the land. The owner came over and rather gleefully informed me that he’d bought the land and was turning it into a car park for his monster trucks.

I honestly feel like we should have been told about this before buying the house, but obviously that’s water under the bridge now. What I wasn’t prepared for was quite how much of an impact it would have.

Over the first couple of weeks there was a huge amount of work done. They’ve created a large mound of earth, which now blows dust into our house, put up what I think is pretty ugly Harris fencing and planted a load of trees, which have subsequently all died. There are now large vehicles parked right up against the edge of our drive, to the point that my view when pulling out is becoming obstructed.

They’ve also damaged/removed part of the fence at the back of our property. They’ve repeatedly said they’ll replace it, but it’s been weeks and nothing has happened.
The whole thing is now a complete eyesore, and I’m genuinely worried about what it’s doing to the value and enjoyment of our property.

Then last night was the final straw.

It was the hottest night of the year, and they decided to have a fire in their back garden. At first I assumed they were just burning a few bits and thought it would be over fairly quickly. But at around 11pm, when I was getting ready for bed, I looked outside and there was smoke absolutely billowing towards our house and directly into my two-year-old’s bedroom window.
I completely lost my temper.

I went through the broken section of the fence and confronted them. I was absolutely furious and, I’ll admit, I was swearing and called them disrespectful pricks. Not my finest moment, but after weeks of putting up with everything, seeing smoke pouring into my child’s bedroom at 11pm pushed me over the edge.
I’m now concerned that this isn’t a one-off, either. They’ve got a large pile of material next to our house and it looks very much like they intend to burn more of it.

So, what do I actually do here?

I’m thinking about contacting Environmental Health because of the smoke/dust, and I also want to find out whether the car park/monster truck use, earthworks, fencing etc actually have the necessary planning permissions.
I’m also wondering what, if anything, I can do about the damage to our fence and the effect all of this is having on our property.
I know I’ve been extremely emotional about it, and I’m probably too close to the situation now, so I’d really appreciate some practical advice about what avenues I should be looking at.
Am I completely overreacting, or is this something I should actually be taking up with the council/planning/environmental health?

And if there is any recourse with my solicitors regarding this eyesore, any help much appreciated.

AIBU - To start a war with my neighbours?

You now have to take this very very seriously. Ensure that the land owner complies / council enforces any non-compliance.

And get on to your local councillor.

If you do nothing, what happens next is much worse. You are tacitly agreeing to the change of use to a truck parking lot, I've you've never complained about it - then it gets planning approval.

This is why your solicitor didn’t say anything

No formal application has been made so there was no paperwork for them to look at

You need to complain to Planning immediately

Who owns the land? Let them know as well.

As others have said, it's a change of use. I'm still looking into buying a house with a few acres of paddock and will put in an application even though I just want to make some ornamental/rewild and the rest an orchard. Obviously what they've done is a more serious change.

Ask the council to fine the owner

Make sure they are the owner and it’s not title less land they are attempting to claim

Youll have to check on the land registry and ask round neighbours

Well that’s something. In the current weather if they hadn’t you would have to call the fire brigade. Not worth the risk of it getting out of control and your house burning down.

What have the council say they will do? Surely there is an investigation and a planned visit and your best bet is to submit as much evidence as possible?

OP, my advice would be to make an appointment with someone at the Citizen's Advice Bureau, they will be able to tell you all the right steps to take. It's great that people on MN are doing their best to help, but unless we know exactly where you live etc., we could be giving you totally wrong information and wasting valuable time during which you may need to be taking action.

Did the council say who the owner is?

Is the council going to contact the owners?

Can you work out who the owner is - ie is the land attached to a property nearby to yours?

You should be able to access planning applications online via your council’s website. Have you looked and if so what does this show?

Can you draw a rough plan so we can see what’s going on exactly?

Following on from an earlier post, look up The Traffic Comissioner

If its a Large Commercial Vehicle they need various approvals to base it with them and the Traffic Commissioner can take action

Its quite technical so better talk to them.

Oh yes, and the Fire Brigade

Speak to your local councillors & get them to take up your concerns. That is their role, to guide you through the council bureaucracy.

Whilst I sympathise you are about to get the biggest crash course in U.K. planning law. You need to read and understand every detail of residential planning law in your borough. FGS find out NOW who are the councillors in your ward and start leaning on them HARD. Make a formal complaint to the council planning enforcement team. Copy this in to all your ward councillors, chase this up fortnightly.

inform your local MP.

strap in. You need to man yourrself with knowledge and persistence.

oh and find out if the solicitor missed anything but they are so damn slippery I doubt you’ll catch them out.

Planning should now start enforcement action but as they are so under resourced keep pushing them. Also if it is HGVs being parked you need permission to park them there (an O license IIRC). Doesn’t sound like the kind of area where they would get planning or permission for the work they are doing, including the land raising.

This 100%, although I would agree that you are unlikely to get much satisfaction going after your conveyancer. A good councillor will be very useful.

This is not helpful advice. A fine isn’t the remedy for breach of planning, nor for nuisance, so what exactly were you thinking they would be fined for?

Edited to say sorry just read your update

Check he has planning permission. I’d be amazed if he does because I can’t see the council allowing industrial activity so close to residential housing .

Op if they start a fire again then 101 or 999 .

They sound utterly terrible.

I work in a field related to this, and they definitely need planning permission. This would come with many conditions about surfacing due to water runoff and potential pollution from oil leaks. From your description, if it’s a residential area without nearby industrial sites or warehouses, it’s unlikely they’d get approval. You can’t just set up a lorry park anywhere.

Yanbu at all

Consult a lawyer.

Isn't it ilegal now to have bongfires in virew of all the damage casued when they get out of control? I think you're supposed to reportt it to the authorities!

I wish PP would stop saying it's the conveyancer's fault.Searches and checks are only done on the land you're buying unless you specifically ask. There is a wider planning permission search but obviously that's only valid for the date it was done.

The questions involved in conveyancing are fairly standard.

perhaps a new one is needed, are the neighbours twats?

OP

Have you complained to The Council, Fire Brigade and Traffic Commissioners yet?

Also whose fence did they remove as if its yours you need to take action to get them to replace it and depending on who owns it it may be a Police and not a Civil matter.

Also it may be worth asking if there have been any previous complaints as were these not declared it may give you a claim against the vendor.

Has he applied for any planning permission to change its use and put hardstanding down? You may never have had any right to access it as a field but he can’t just use it as a carpark either. Check council planning website online first.