Neighbour denying responsibility for his visitors trespassing

[Duckdbours]

Hi

My first post here. After some advice on what to do with our nuisance neighbour.

His visitors are parking on our property. He initially claimed that its his right as he has right of way. After clarifying this with the builder that no parking is allowed with that, he changed his stance to "I can't tell my visitors what to do". I bought the house with a private front so we don't have to deal with public parking in front of the house. Unfortunately, thats exactly what's happening on a very regular basis.

I want to do something so the neighbour stops these games. I do not want to go after his 20 visitors individually. I spoke to some of them and they were even worse. Claiming that is not even my property. Is he not really responsible for his visitors' trespassing?

To be clear, the front is very spacious and the visitor's cars don't block the driveway. It's the plain rudeness and blatant claims that its not my property making me to not let this go. On top of that with 2 additional cars parked there regularly making it look like a parking space for public.

You might be able to put up cctv to capture anyone parking there and then send them a private parking ticket. Like petrol stations etc do for their parking areas. . there might even be a company that would manage it for you. You'd have to get the legal stuff all spot on but it would let you privately enforce the park parking rule.

Do your deeds specify who has the right to enforce the terms? Is it actually highway or private road?
If it's for fire engine access then ring the local station and talk to them. Not 999.

I'd imagine that this is a private driveway. And therefore that area may be conveyed to you by way of the red line plan but it's actually pretty standard for it also be considered a visitor space for all on the road. Your red line plan shows it that way just for convenience for the builder/conveyancing really.

If it's not a private road then if it really is that width looks like it may ultimately be used as a road access for future development

Difficult to say without a more detailed / Google maps plans really

The big issue you have is that, even though you own the land, you have little control over it due to access right.

You can control the parking close to your windows by putting bollards/fence/plants.
You are going to struggle to stop anyone from parking on the Brown part of your diagram.

Tbh I’d go grey rock as much as possible whilst stopping the most outrageous behaviour (like parking right in front if your house). My experience is that it often works better than trying to pull those people up on their behaviour.

Can you put like some sort of sign up to sya your number or something so they know its yours?

Park your car there

Or something you could move if having a lot of people round but day to day you wouldn't really bother moving

Whilst you're not wrong OP, I think you've maybe been a little naïve in thinking that people wouldn't park in what seems to be a logical space on an access road.

Yes, I hadn't realise the laws in UK were so weak that you can't even protect your own property. Nothing preventing this type of behaviour. Infact anything, still reasonable, you do to protect is easily punishable. I'm not British, for context.

Erect a clear ‘No Parking’ sign at the area in question so they cannot say they haven’t been warned.

There are ‘No Parking’ stickers you can get online with strong adhesive. They come off without leaving any damage but they are tricky to get off. Place one or two of these on the windscreen obstructing the driver’s view. You may choose to give people a verbal warning first and only resort to the stickers if they transgress on a further occasion.

The annoyance caused by the difficulty in removing the sticker will be ‘passed on’ to your neighbour, who will likely start warning his guests to avoid parking in that spot.

There's a turning circle on our road - public highway - there's a sign that says 'NO PARKING IN TURNING AREA' it seems to work.

Is there a sign already that they're ignoring?

So the road and turning circle is on your property, but there is an easement for access.

As it is your property you could investigate how to legally give people fines for parking there. There are companies that provide this service for property owners.

Does your cheeky neighbour have the right of access? If not got try to get the neighbour with right of access to allow you to fit a gate at the edge of your property across the access road. Depending on the wording of the easement you may not even need their permission to fit a gate.

I'd block any car that park there with my own and wouldn't open the door when they come knocking. Every single time until they get the message. I class their behaviour you described as harassment and wouldn't accept that.

Block them in. Every time. And don't move till the next day.
In an ideal world I would try to get a towing service and use it after they'd been there 15 minutes.

We did this with a work parking space.

When people in the adjoining offices used our space (they had their own) we stuck printed A4 papers with prit stick to their car windows. It was a pita to get off, and they stopped using our spaces pdq.

Seriously?

Blocking someone in would almost certainly be illegal.

And what "towing service" would contract with you to move a vehicle you don't own and have no lawful authority to move?

Install a toll gate

They have the right to use the road/path to get to their house. A toll gate would be illegal

They do
But what about their many guests?

Or it would get back to NDN and would antagonise him and make the whole situation 100% worse

The OP, I assume, wants to be able to enjoy her property. Not constantly having to deal with repeated ‘offences’ (from them parking right in front of their windows, to edge issues, noise etc etc).
The NDN isn’t one that will happily accept he needs to make an effort….

Of course their guests too! It’s access To the house, not restricted access only to them as owners….

The neighbour sounds like a proper arsehole, so any action is likely to wind him up and make the situation worse. Unfortunately some people are just like that, and they’re very difficult to deal with.

Bollards or boulders in the area they're parking in is the best option

@StBrides They have a right to use the road as well.

There are private roads near me with different levels of access.

If you are visiting someone you are allowed on the regardless of the roads restrictions. Some of the roads don't allow parking on the road and they randomly enforce it, while on others as a guest you can park on the road.

Interestingly the roads with turning circles are actually all adopted. People - normally householders park on the turning circles but you can still go round them in a car or van. It just stops HGVs using the roads.

MIL and her neighbours don't like people parking outside of their houses, even if not blocking their driveway, they've gone to putting huge rocks outside of their houses... it works most of the time.

I would buy remote lockable bollards that they need to pay you to deactivate. You push a button and they bzzzzz up under the front wheels of the car and the car is fucking stuck there until they pay you the £750 parking fee. Byeeee nuisance neighbours.

Ask the council to paint double yellow lines. They have made such a difference to my estate.