Caravan Parking issue

[Swiftchallenger530]

I stay in a small town in Scotland, we stay in a residential area in a detached house but sadly without a drive. We park the caravan in the layby in front of our house to load and wash,clean etc before we make any trips, we have nothing but a barrage of complaints from neighbours, who have called us all sorts from gypsies to being sworn at about the caravan and its mear presence.

Its all rather come to a nasty head when just arriving back last night with our newly bought caravan, when a close neighbour came out and said to me "I hope your not going to leave that F*****g there as its an obstruction. This lead to a lenghly conversation on the caravan parking issues in residential areas and how my neighbours in there infinite wisdom feel that nobody has the right to park caravans in the Street.

On chatting to my neighbour about this and explaining that we only ever bring the caravan to our house to load and check over before departing on trips away, and explaining that someone recently had reported us to the local council about our van, they had told me that as long as the caravan wasn't causing any problem to A. predestrians and B. other road users, there was nothing anyone could do. The neighbours begged to differ and didn't believe my story. I proceeded to mention about the carpark at the end of our street and the fact that it was a dumping ground for trailers, horse box lorries and company work vans, and he said thats fine after all the pay road tax and you caravans don't.
It has left us feeling very upset and stressed about the attitudes of neighbours and their opinions about what other people around them are doing. My wife has googled about parking issues of caravans in Streets etc and as I have stated it seem that as long as its not a problem to and other road users ect nothing can be done.
I would however like some more advice on this matter as I feel there may be alot of grey areas?

Has anyone else had any problems like this I would really like to hear from you. We're not bad people and I'm starting to think its jealousy with people and they are just moaning for the hell of it.

Mr. & Mrs. D M Wilson
Scotland

 

[Dustydog]

I'm very sorry you are having these difficulties.
I live in a small cul de sac and I and a friend both bring our caravans back from storage for preparation before a trip. We asked our neighbours if they minded and no problem . I have left it outside for a couple of weeks once as we were going away again and I couldn't be bothered with storage.
A long shot but have you tried to reason with them or at least understand why they don't like it?
Do any of them usually park their own vehicles in this lay by?
From what you say I'd be make sure the caravan is fully insured for damage and of course third party liability risks.
It's a very sad day when neighbours can't get along in harmony.

Maybe a house move is on the horizon

 

[Parksy]

Helo Mr & Mrs Wilson and welcome to the Practcal Caravan forum. I'm sorry to learn of the problems with the neighbours and would agree that the problems may stem from jealousy. You are not allowed to cause an obstruction to either vehicles or pedestrians with your caravan and you have to comply with the following:
Do not park your caravan:
• where it may cause an obstruction
• at night on a road without lights
• in street parking bays as some local laws forbid this
• at a parking meter, as caravans are not permitted
• unless securely braked or chocked to prevent movement
There is more on this issue Here
Are the problems with just one neighbour or with several of them? If you are simply leaving your caravan outside your home to load / unload it's hard to see what their problem is and you could get everything ready to load so that the caravan was parked for a minimum length of time. It's not up to your neighbour to decide who can and who cannot park in the street regardless of the road tax requirements, as long as your caravan is legally parked there is nothing that the neighbours can do about it. You need to be careful that this spiteful neighbour doesn't damage or vandalise your caravan, can't you load it up and check it at the storage site?

 

[Swiftchallenger530]

Duplicate Post

 

[Swiftchallenger530]

I don't fear the caravan may be damaged, but the one sad thing is the complaining neighbours are elderly. It has continued this morning and the caravan is nolonger outside our home its back in storage, however they have persisted in chatting about it in the street and how it was obstructing thier view and how self centred we are in parking it in the layby. We have paid a visit to the Council HQ this afternoon and the chap in charge of these matters said that there is nothing anyone in our street can do.
I have approached one of the said neighbours this afternoon and explained what the Council Offical said and its cleared the air alittle bit. I haven't been able to speak to the other person in question and I doubt we will, and she will continue to cause trouble as long as we live in the street.

I really can't wait until we go away for our 3 week holiday in sunny Devon, to have nice fellow caravanners as neighbours.
Darren Wilson

 

[susanswift]

hi everyone,

i`m actually very knowledgable on this area but it does depend on the area you live in. In South Wales for instance you cannot park in a car park with 3 sides with kerbstones. Result council put stickers on your caravan to move it. As happened to my friends
You cannot park out side your home on a council estate as its in the deeds you will not do so. Result caravan gets taken away, my mate didnt notice for two days it had gone.....!!!!
You can park in a carpark without 3 sides covered with kerbstone as long as you want. No problem

Where I live at present, I live nr huddersfield. Its in our deeds that we do not park on the road, but we can park on our drive.

So check your deeds.....it will be on them.

Councils do offer advice but it changes from council to council and also depends whos in the office and how they interpret the rules.

Also elderly neighbours do complain as they do not like change and like to see everything that goes on in the street, its not jealousy I dont think, I think its about them not liking change

 

[RegandPat]

I was under the impression that if you have a caravan attached to your car it becomes a unit and can park any place a car can.
So if this is correct just keep it hooked when loading unloading.
I may be wrong.
When we first had our van we asked every one in our square if they had any objections to the van, I do think this helped.

 

[Beachball]

Hi Mr & Mrs Wilson We brought a new house 3 years ago and told them we have a caravan no problem but the same thing happen to us we got a letter cannot park caravan so we rang Barratt new homes up and told them we only bring it out of storage overnight to clean it and load it ready for and early start next morrning and they said that was fine . ( But some do abuse it on here and leave it for a few nights longer )

 

[forestgump]

i do all my cleaning and packing at storage but i woul be worried if it was me that some one may take a dim view and damage it i dont bring it home as the storage is on route to main road so it would be a trip back and forth it is only 12mins to storsge for me.

 

[Gagakev]

Like you have said it's only to load and get ready for your trips. you have tried to speak to your neighbours and they wont listen, Personally I would just keep on doing what you are doing and just ignore the lot of them, it's them with the problem not you.
Life's just to short for nut cases like them. They are proberbly jealous

By the way welcome to the forum, keep in touch and let us know how you resolve the problem.
One last thing are you sure you are going to Sunny Devon, I live down here and saw the sun today for an hour, and before that about 5 days ago

 

[ValA.]

Buy them a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates when you've brought the van home, and bring something back from your holiday for the troublesome neighbours. It worked wonders with an elderly couple who complained to us several times about our van (in similar circumstances to your) - but their attitude has now changed completely and they have become very helpful.

 

[Martin24]

One neighbour we had, used to park his works van if he knew we were going to get the van out of storage, so that we had room to park outside and ran out to move it as we turned round then stood so no one else could pinch our space. All this despite his wireless doorbell being on the same frequency as our motor mover. He used to hid the receiver behind the toaster so it didn't go off at 4am when we hooked up! Having recently moved checked the deeds carefully and caravans are allowed after 5 years from building and to change the garage door colour after 10 so we were okay. If the drive was only a foot longer we could keep the van at home but to fit on we can't open the garage door! Despite it being clear in the deeds we did get a lot of looks especially when it sat on the drive for 5 weeks after returning from our Easter hols and couldn't move as I'd been rushed into hospital on return.

Good luck with it all, I know it's not much help but hope it helps you see that not all neighbours are the same

 

[Swiftchallenger530]

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied in response to my head ache regarding caravan parking issues. Aren't people who just don't understand caravaners so difficult yet sadly funny. I was telling a work collegue who is also a caravaner the problems we've had in the 2 years we've been in this narrow minded town, and he said they need to get a life and starting talking about something new.
Keep the reply's coming its interesting to know I'm not the only one with anal neighbours.

Darren & Rachel

 

[thursdays child]

Swiftchallenger, it is such a shame you have had these problems and I know some people have to complain about anything out of the norm. This has very little to do with any inconvenience issues it is usually just down to "shouldnt be allowed" syndrome. We are most fortunate in that we keep 2 vans at home and our neigbours are always very interested in our coming and goings.To such an extent that while we are away they keep a car parked on our drive to make it look as if the house is occupied and we do the same for them if they are away.Life is so much more pleasant when folks can get on and help each other,it just takes a little give and take. We have made it clear that should a problem arise we are quite happy to put the vans into storage but so far the reaction has been"dont waste your money"Luckily we do have a very large driveway and the vans are parked in their own space off the drive also we live in a tiny village out in the sticks and there is a lot of farm traffic. I think you have to be a bit more laid back to live in this environment and this makes for a tolerant approach to life. Those of a different attitude soon leave for a more suburban lifestyle. Live and let live say I.As long as it doesnt frighten the horses do as you like!!!
Thursdays Child

 

[haggarj2]

Hi I park my in the off road layby right outside my house unless were away with it or it is in winter storage.Never had complaint yet and dont care if they do.As for blocking your neighbours view codswallop if they live in scotland as I do the planning and building control of the local council will tell them that No one has a right to a view only a right to light ie, daylight entering their property through a window and thats LAW!
However if my neighbours did complain I would move it then park the biggest and largest amount of taxed and insured vehicles I could in its place.