Etiquette re parking and storage?

[barshbaz]

My next-door neighbour has just up-graded his caravan to a huge monster (Heritage 640EB).

It is stored on his drive, we live on a open plan estate..

What is the normal etiquette re parking and storage?

Regards

Baz

 

[Icemaker]

HELLO BAZ, your on a very touchy subject. most deeds for houses will have a description of what and what is not allowed to be stored or kept at the premises, a lot depends on the age of the property. eg; my last house deeds stated that every home owner had to keep theire house the same external colour as it was when bought new for ten years, we also could not erect any form of barrier be it fence or hedge to seperate the gardens at all for life, on the subject of parking we where not allowed to park any commerciall vehicle, van, or caravan, campervan, at the property and this was strictly enforced by the developer for the first few years then things started to relax a little and some small vans turned up and one householder did keep a small caravan at home, nobody complained and everyone was happy, although they where breaking the terms of theire deeds.

At my present address my home was built 32 years ago and my deeds for here also state that you must leave the front gardens open plan, although most people have put up small hedges or fences. everyone is happy and nobody complains so all is well. my deeds also state that no commerciall vehicle, or van, caravan, or motorcaravan be kept at the premises. now this is the sticky one, on our estate there are 160 houses of the 160 17 have caravans on the drive (all down the side or back)and well over half have a van of some description (escort to transit size). now imagine if one person complained about mr and mrs x having a caravan on the drive, they would without any doubt ask why they are the only ones being asked to move it, that would then result in all the van owners also being brought in to the spot light and being told to remove the vehicles. the result of one complaint would be a lot of very angry people looking for the accuser. we have learnt to talk to each other and respect what is acceptable and what is not, this way we all live in harmony. the question is do you have a van? if so would you at some time wish to upgrade yours, if not maybee one day you may wish to own one. in my opinion and from experiance it is best to talk to your neighbour and discuss the situation between you theire is nothing worse than falling out over something like this. as i see it the law is on the side of the anti caravanner/van/buiseness owner and one complainer will win but 99% of the housing estate will hate them.

 

[barshbaz]

Hi John.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. My real question was about Etiquette, I think that we have a covenant re parking, but I understand that these are normally unenforceable.

Our neighbour has had a caravan for 5 years plus and it has never really bother me before, this new one is HUGE (http://www.fleetwoodcaravans.co.uk/her_specs.htm) and runs the full length of his drive which is next to my drive and is slightly elevated by about 2 feet at the house end, so it is in your face all the time.

What do most caravan owners do?

Keep it in storage and collect it when going away?

Keep it in front of your house?

Regards

Baz

 

[Icemaker]

I know the van well it was my other choice when i opted for my ace, its the same length as my van but 2 inches less in width. caravanners are all different in theire views as where they like to keep theire vans but i think most would wish to keep the van at home if at all possible, mainly due to the theft problems on storage areas. from my experiance if your neighbour is a caravanner he / she will be friendly and considerate and should be more than willing to come to some compromise. my parents removed theire garage to enable them to get theire van further up the drive so it could hardly be seen so things can be done.maybee your neighbour could lose two foot of his back garden to get his van further up the drive or failling this a tall plant in a pot between the van and your property? anything really as long as you are both happy with the result. if he has only just bought it then he is more than likely looking at a solution anyway as he will not want the van on too much show to our travelling friends. i hope you can work something out as frienships are important and compromise is far better than confrontation. best wishes, JOHN.

 

[VIP2006]

Hi John.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. My real question was about Etiquette, I think that we have a covenant re parking, but I understand that these are normally unenforceable.

Our neighbour has had a caravan for 5 years plus and it has never really bother me before, this new one is HUGE (http://www.fleetwoodcaravans.co.uk/her_specs.htm) and runs the full length of his drive which is next to my drive and is slightly elevated by about 2 feet at the house end, so it is in your face all the time.

What do most caravan owners do?

Keep it in storage and collect it when going away?

Keep it in front of your house?

Regards

Baz

Now this is where the covenant regarding the parking and storage comes into effect. if your neighbour is being unreasonaable in this matter and can't be amicably resolved then the Law will be on your side in the matter.

The cost of and the time taken will put a lot of people resorting to the law and this is what some ignorant culprits bank on that you can't be bothered or can't afford the cost of going to Law.

 

[CaptainKangaroo]

I keep mine in storage so as not to annoy my neighbours but also so that thieves do not know when I am away.

 

[MrsHitchlock]

Hi

I think it is pretty un-neighbourly to keep a caravan on your driveway if it is in very close proximity to your neighbours, or is directly in their line of sight.

We don't keep our 23ft caravan on our drive. It fits on easily enough and is not immediately adjacent to next door, but even I find it ugly to look at!! and would not want my neighbours to feel it was a nuisance to them.

Ours is normally in a CASSOA secure site and is only on our drive now and then.

Having said this, others in our close have ugly commercial vehicles that they leave on their drives or on the street and I wish they showed me as much consideration as I think I show them!!!