Problem with neighbours car

[GeorgeandAde]

Hi.
We have a problem with my next door neighbours daughter,consistently driving up to (and touching) the rear bumper of my company van.
I pointed this out to her(and her father) last week but was met with a lot of abuse.
Basically,he tells me that he can do what he wants and if I didn't like it......tough(or words to that effect).
He says he needs her to park that close so he can get his car out of the garden.
They are council tenants and im sure(without the councils permission) they cannot park a car/caravan or trailer in the front garden.

Anyway.....no damage has been caused yet,but was wondering where I legally stand.
Bought our house in 1984 and have had no problems until these people moved in😔

Sorry.....just realised I should have posted this in "Chit Chat"🤭

 

[Woodentop]

Hi.
We have a problem with my next door neighbours daughter,consistently driving up to (and touching) the rear bumper of my company van.
I pointed this out to her(and her father) last week but was met with a lot of abuse.
Basically,he tells me that he can do what he wants and if I didn't like it......tough(or words to that effect).
He says he needs her to park that close so he can get his car out of the garden.
They are council tenants and im sure(without the councils permission) they cannot park a car/caravan or trailer in the front garden.

Anyway.....no damage has been caused yet,but was wondering where I legally stand.
Bought our house in 1984 and have had no problems until these people moved in😔

Sorry.....just realised I should have posted this in "Chit Chat"🤭

Er, complain to the council housing dept?

 

[GeorgeandAde]

I suppose as they are the councils tenants, this may work but after complaining to them before due to another matter with no response from them, I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks anyway Woodentop.

 

[Damian]

Could you ask your company to fit a towbar to your van................

 

[GeorgeandAde]

Ha ha......nice one Damien but I've already thought of that.
I've got one of the best bosses in the world.
Because its only 4 miles to work and the Santa fe isn't the most economical around town not to mention the possible probs with the dpf on the short journeys, he's letting me use the van.
I won't go into details about our neighbours but we moved here in 1984 and for the first 30 years its been heaven.
Until the new neighbours moved in.
As I say,won't go into details but the anger and frustration has built up over the last 6 years because of "unmentionables" and its now got to the point where we are contemplating moving house.

 

[Damian]

I know what you are feeling and it is so frustrating when everything that had been fine for so long is thrown into the situation you now find yourself.

I had a similar situation some time ago where a certain person thought it was a good idea to move my van a few feet down the road with his car, but failed to appreciate the effect of the heavy duty rear step on the van, which just happened to coincide with his radiator.

I stood and watched as he kept running into the back of the van and smiled, which did not go down too well when steam appeared from his car bonnet.

He moved shortly afterwards.

 

[Hutch]

I did think of the HD step being fitted, I have massive petrol head, as I am , across the road two cars in the garage, two on the drive and a hill climb car, in the far side of the front garden then the two daughters, cars. which park on the road way. We both have caravans which we happily reverse onto our driveways.
Thankfully we all get on, , in our Cul de Sac. Thats Posh for Dead end.

 

[JezzerB]

We have the same issue with neighbours and parking since ours in our close bought a horse box , they now park opposite our drive and make reversing out tricky. It's a private road and the other neighbour parks to annoy them so we are pig in the middle. I went round and had a word, one has changed but horsebox owner still does it. It is in the deeds that is a turning space not parking but I don't think I can do much. Council may be your way to go but sounds like agro and ill feeling. I feel v sorry for you.
We are thinking we're moving house.

 

[Beehpee]

I have every sympathy with anyone who has neighbour problems, fortunately it’s not a position we have ever been in, we have lived where we are now almost 5 years and it’s been great, unfortunately our next door neighbour who is great has a terminal condition, we are both devastated it’s not treatable but it also means new neighbours at some point, I have a friend who had difficult neighbours and the mate is a big beefy strapping guy you would cross at your peril but the neighbour dispute he had reduced him to tears at times so I’ve seen first hand how it can affect people, good luck to any poster on this topic who has problem, I have nothing but sympathy for you.

BP

 

[Beachball]

The neighbour often park opposite my drive and sometimes he leave plenty of room just depends what mood he is in . but when we brought the caravan home he is now more considerate, he always make sure i have plenty of room .. I feel sorry for anyone who has problems with neighbours ..

 

[otherclive]

We live at the end of a close with the turning point outside. Our neighbours have five cars but cause no problems. Opposite the Nissan GT R that used to rattle windows at 0545 ish has moved but since Lockdown 1 he had worked from home and it was rarely used. We were pleased when we heard that a retired widow was moving in. That was only partly correct as the house now has three generations with three cars, and the SIL S class sits on the road. Not really a problem although it means the delivery trucks have to back towards our drive and many have long overhangs. At times they come quite close to the back of one of our cars even though there is about 2.5m of free drive space. If the S class is parked when I want to drive the van away I might have to ask him to move it down. Putting the van on the drive is not a problem as I use the mover. If the S class owner isn’t around to move it if we need an early start I will just use the mover and put it on the road pointing in the intended direction of travel, and blow the delivery trucks. They can hone their reversing skills or wait.

 

[woodsieboy]

Can you park your van a foot further forward thus negating the need for her to park so close to your van and still leave room for the neighbour to get out,or failing that park the van a foot further back so there is no room for her to park behind you,will expect to see you all on 5stare nightmare neighbours soon.

 

[GeorgeandAde]

Thank you for all your replies👍

I can't move the van up any further as it will be difficult for the wife to get her car out the drive.

If I move it back,then we will be on the receiving end of a lot of abuse.

The best part is.....he claims that the space where is daughter normally parks,is his "land" when in actual fact....its a public highway and no spaces are allocated unless its a disabled space.

If I make a formal complaint about this(and a number of other problems) if we did decide to move,I would have to disclose the complaints on the solicitors paperwork which would obviously put off any prospective buyers.
If I don't disclose it, I could find myself in court in the future.
Thing is.....over the past 6 years or so,we've financially helped our 2 sons to get on the property ladder so were not exactly flush with funds to move unless we found a property around the same price as ours.
We paid our mortgage off about 10 years ago and at 62,don't want to have to take another one out.

Anyway.......we have a big decision to make so may possibly be on "Nightmare Neighbours" 🤔

 

[Dustydog]

Amazing how many of us live in Cul de Sacs. We are lucky. Only five houses. So the general advice Ade is get a bloody big tow bar or bull bars fitted to the van. On the other side can her car be blocked legally?
a great shame when you get this junk having lived somewhere for so long.

 

[otherclive]

Thank you for all your replies👍

I can't move the van up any further as it will be difficult for the wife to get her car out the drive.

If I move it back,then we will be on the receiving end of a lot of abuse.

The best part is.....he claims that the space where is daughter normally parks,is his "land" when in actual fact....its a public highway and no spaces are allocated unless its a disabled space.

If I make a formal complaint about this(and a number of other problems) if we did decide to move,I would have to disclose the complaints on the solicitors paperwork which would obviously put off any prospective buyers.
If I don't disclose it, I could find myself in court in the future.
Thing is.....over the past 6 years or so,we've financially helped our 2 sons to get on the property ladder so were not exactly flush with funds to move unless we found a property around the same price as ours.
We paid our mortgage off about 10 years ago and at 62,don't want to have to take another one out.

Anyway.......we have a big decision to make so may possibly be on "Nightmare Neighbours" 🤔

I know how difficult it can be with a neighbour dispute. When we decided to move I went around to the lady whose house adjoined the bottom of our garden to ask if she could trim a couple of foot off of her Leylandii , as they could put off potential buyers at 12 ft tall. She had only been living there a couple of years and the previous owner was A1. Despite the fact we had never spoken when she opened the door I got a full broadside. “I know who you are and why you are here, and I am not going to cut the trees as I like my privacy “ On it went I was speechless which is rare. I told her I would write to her. Now I knew her house had just gone on the market so my letter was polite but focussed. She came around two days later and gave my wife a blast too. She wasn’t going to be harassed by old people and no the trees were not being trimmed.

Now we were quite relaxed about putting the house on the market so I copied the letter to her estate agent. Wow did that get a response. She emailed me telling me she was a solicitor and checking on LinkedIn she was. Then her parents came asking me to ask me to drop the issue. This is a for a woman in her late thirties! It dragged on and looking at Zoopla I saw her viewing were right down and so then dropped her asking price by £35k.
She refused my offer of mediation which is a prerequisite for making an official complaint to the council under tree legislation. So I was set to submit the forms and told her so. But I asked if she would accommodate my suggestion to resolve it. So I then became the owner of a brand new high reach profession hedge trimmer at her cost, and looped 3 ft off and chucked the stuff her side. She said she wanted nothing more to do with me and by precedent I had accepted responsibility for the hedge. New one on me that one. I told her I may require beneficial access to her garden in order to maintain the joint fence. She didn’t even know it was joint. Anyway I wrote to her formally dropping the complaint. She dropped her price yet again, but we had got a buyer and were moved out way before she had sold her house. I sold the hedge trimmers to my estate agent as one owner, used once. When we moved into this house in April 2019 my wife and I agreed to live with our Leylandii to see how we felt.


The picture below is the outcome and was a Lockdown1 project.

Your dilemma is infinitely more difficult than ours was.

 

[Dustydog]

You lost me Clive. You were both selling at the same time? She wanted the trees left? You chopped them down officially? Who removed the debris? How come her price kept dropping? Have you now moved to quieter pastures?👍👍

 

[otherclive]

You lost me Clive. You were both selling at the same time? She wanted the trees left? You chopped them down officially? Who removed the debris? How come her price kept dropping? Have you now moved to quieter pastures?👍👍

No she put her house up for sale that gave me the lever to ask for her Leylandii to be trimmed as we were getting our house ready for sale. I eventually won the argument abd she bought me a very expensive trimmer to reduce the height of her trees. When I’d done that I withdrew my complaint. We sold our house and the complaint had to be disclosed but by then it was resolved and Ms Difficult had moved away leaving her vacant house to be sold.
Our new house came with Leylandii which we lived with from April 2019 until March 2020 when out they came, as per the picture. Hope that makes sense. We also spoke to our new neighbours before bee cut them down. They welcomed the move and even offered half the cost of the new fencing, which was a nice gesture.

PS edit Her price kept reducing as firstly it was over priced and secondly she had a job transfer to Exeter. Amazing what you can find on Zoopla and LinkedIn.

 

[Dustydog]

So you like Leylandis in old and new houses🤪🤪

 

[otherclive]

I was even thinking of seeking a price reduction when buying this house on account of the Leylandii. But hadn’t got the heart as they were the vendors pride and joy. And to be fair they were well maintained, but after trimming them in summer 2018 I thought I really can’t be seeing myself doing this when I’m 90. So out they came.

 

[GeorgeandAde]

Dustydog....
Unfortunately,if I parked the other side of her car,it would completely block their drive where one of the fathers car is parked.
To try and give some idea of the families "goings on".....the father works 18 hours a week,he runs 2 suv's,1 the daughter with 4 children drives,the other one has been modified in the back to carry all his tools and does cash in hand work almost every day,his 3rd car is a 6 litre twin turbo Bentley parked in front garden and a Honda Gold Wing in the shed.
Most of the neighbours here know whats going on.

 

[Dustydog]

Not good . Sorry to,hear all that .

 

[Parksy]

.....his 3rd car is a 6 litre twin turbo Bentley parked in front garden and a Honda Gold Wing in the shed.
Most of the neighbours here know whats going on.

And this guy still lives in council property? 😳

 

[woodsieboy]

I suppose you have to weigh up the aggravation of moving and the cost, against the aggravation of staying, in the hope that the neighbors will move on. If they are upsetting other people as well it could well be worth investigating whether you could make some sort of group complaint to your local councillor,is there a residents commitee or group you could approach?

 

[Dustydog]

Ade, HMRC are red hot on tax dodgers? Maybe put the bubble in that quarter 😉

 

[GeorgeandAde]

Thanks.
I've contacted HMRC twice in the past 2 years.......nothing😡

There's no way they will be moving after all the work he's done in that house.Council approval first before any work(apart from re decorating) is carried out.....no chance."I can do what I want"is the normal response.

Upstairs,3 bedrooms converted to 4 bedrooms.
Knocked through the dining room wall and installed a conservatory which has now been turned into a bedroom.
Blocked off the back door with kitchen cabinets and worktops installed.
Installed a toilet and washbasin at bottom of the stairs.
Admitted about 5 years ago he has never or any intention of buying a tv licence(maybe thats why they have the front room blinds tightly closed 24/7).

Nope....they won't be going anywhere soon.

But we might have to🤔

Oh.......3 cctv cameras on the front of the house.Seems like he might be expecting trouble😂