Anonymous letter re restrictive covenant on property

[Shad2021]

Sorry in advance for the lengthy post, but I'm hoping to get some advice.
My husband and I have lived in our house for 8 years and during that time, he has always owned a van for work (he's a courier) and we have always kept it on the drive at our property.
Today, we have received an anonymous letter that has been posted to us with a copy of the restrictive covenants for our property and one is highlighted saying that no vans are allowed to be kept on the property, unless they are in the garage. We can't fit the van in the garage as it is too tall (it's a transit size van). There was nothing else in the envelope and the letter was addressed to the owner/occupier so we have no idea who sent it.
I'm so upset that someone has sent this to us anonymously as I thought we had a really good relationship with our neighbours , I have actually been round to all of our immediate neighbours this evening to see if anyone had any concerns about the van and what we could do about it, but no one has any concerns.
I really don't know what to do, we live in a cul de sac of about 45 houses and having had a quick look today, at least 5 have vans on their drive. I know a couple of these so have been round to see them to see if they also received a letter and they didn't so it is clearly just us that they whoever has sent the letter has a problem with.
I'm not naive - I know a van being parked on our drive could be seen as unsightly by some but my husband needs the van and doesn't have any business premises so we literally have no option but to keep it on our drive.
I was wondering whether anyone had experienced anything similar, and what they did about it.
Should we just ignore it, or go down the route of applying for the covenant to be removed which may not be granted, which would then mean we would have to move house.
Out of interest too, our estate road has been adopted by the local authority and I can't see anything anywhere that would prevent us parking the van on the road outside our property - does anyone know any reason why this wouldn't be legal? We don't have double yellows and are at the end of a cul de sac.

To be honest, the way I'm feeling now, I'd be happy to move as receiving this anonymously has really upset me, I'd rather someone had come and spoken to us but obviously that's not an immediate solution.
Any advice greatly received.

The covenant is an estate one, so rather than a historic one on the land, the benefit sits jointly with all your neighbours' land. I used to do the legal set up for developments and it was a common one. Along with no drying in the front garden and no satellite dishes on the front elevation.

Used to be particularly contentious when we sold affordable housing to HAs. I'm not surprised they were annoyed. It's very unrealistic. If we didn't have vans we wouldn't have tradespeople or deliveries.

Although it may be technically enforceable (through a mechanism in the drafting of the transfer) it's very unlikely anything will happen. I think your neighbour is very rude - if they wanted to say something being anonymous isn't the way to do it.

Ignore it.

But keep your ears open for neighbours who have grown up children who live in the town on the postmark.

@LanaDelBoy

I assume you own the property? Was the covenant pointed out to you when you bought it? Not that I think you need to worry about it, just interested.

We do own the property. Ridiculously, we don't have a copy of the deeds so I can't say whether we knew or not, I don't recall being told anything as I am sure I would remember as my husband had been a self employed courier for more than 15 years!! I did contact our mortgage company to get the deeds this afternoon but apparently they no longer hold them and I need to contact Land Registry for a copy. Think I might do this so I can write a list of who is breaking which covenant to prove that they are completely pointless. One of the ones on the page they sent us was that your front lawn should remain as turf and not be replaced with gravel or any hard material and half the houses have turned their front lawns into gravel (we haven't broken this rule!!

I can't see anyone spending cash to enforce this covenant. Don't worry.

There are various covenants on my estate, one of which I unwittingly broke when I had my fence replaced.
Apparently it should've been all wood not concrete posts & removable panels as my irritating neighbour smugly informed me. As quite a lot of other neighbours had put in similar fences I hadn't noticed it & I hadn't paid attention to it in all the paperwork

He wasn't happy when I pointed out that any replacement external window frames & doors had to be a dark wood colour & the front door had to be as close to the original as possible - an intriguing style that was very early 80s like the estate.
He had redone his house with white uPVC windows & a very different front door.

The covenants dated back to 1983 so people tend to stretch them a little bit but the overall integrity of the estate's style remains the same (apart from the occasional white windows...).

My neighbour also hadn't paid notice on the deeds to which fences were his & had paid for a new fence that actually belonged to his neighbour who had very wisely kept her mouth shut....!

I would say the likely culprit is the house facing you as they are the ones who have to look at the van. How would it be any better if you parked on the street? That's the bit that doesn't make any sense to me.

Invite all his courier freinds to park outside your house too. I've an old flowery camper van. I'll come and camp outside too.

@Pumpkinsonparade

Keep the letter.

December send every single neighbour a Christmas card. Await the return cards and compare the handwriting.
Then you will know who is probably envious of you..
And feel smug!!

This is so clever . Also if you have not received back also points red flag to that neighbour. Trust me most likely the chances will be your immediate neighbours. I had that experience but on tree trimming matter but council did not do anything

Our cul de sac was built late 70s . I looked at the deeds Inc. Covenant two I recall were no caravans in drive well that's been broken and no poultry . Haven't seen a chook yet

I keep hens. You'd be surprised how many people do, in spite of the covenants.

Get a cockeral, if you want to flush the culprit out. 😁

No idea how but I managed to post this on a similar post from DIY/ property 🤣

I've never heard of a ban on vans. Caravans, yes but not vans people need to use for work I'd ignore the letter and wait for someone to try enforce it.

When I worked in litigation years ago I remember joining my boss for an initial meeting with three neighbours who wanted to take action against another who had a caravan. A day later, having thought about the fee estimate of thousands of pounds, two of the couples dropped out. The final couple asked us to send a letter to the caravan owners warning they were in breach of a covenant and that we'd take further action if they didn't move the caravan. No idea what happened after that because they didn't want us to actually do anything as it was too expensive.

I live at the end of a cul de sac with few drives . The girl opposite has a boyfriend with a huge van which he parks on the road . The annoying thing is that he takes up two spaces when parking is already very tight but there are plenty of spaces further down the street . The man in the corner parks his big vehicle outside mine as he wants to be able to see it from his window . He has a garage ffs! New neighbours have a car and a monster truck . Why would you buy a house with no parking?? The spaces are marked out but not allocated and people park in the designated turning space . If they had drives I would have no objection to a van but the current situation is turning me into Victor Meldrew ! Just ignore the letter OP .