Help! Can a builder just come in and do this?

wizzkid_3

Hi, I do hope that someone on here can help us. I don’t know if I am posting in the wrong place or even if this is allowed.

We live at the top of a cul-de-sac in a Victorian terraced house. Very few of us in the street have off road parking and so we use the street. The end of the cul-de-sac is a fence from the back garden of a house that has its address in another street. It has room for 2 cars to park in front of it and two cars to park side by side at the side of it if they dropped the kerb. Currently there are 4 parking spaces at the back of this property that have been and are continuing to be used by the residence of our street as there is not enough room outside each of our houses to park.

The house has been bought by a builder, and he has been doing it up for a few months. Occasionally he has asked if we can move our cars so that he can take some ‘stuff’ in the back of the property though one of the fence panels. We have always obliged.

A couple of weeks ago he announced that he was putting a gate in the back so that the property would have off road parking round the back. This is major for out little street. I have been to the council and they say that he is able to do this, and once he has done it, if we continue to park cars outside his gate (where people have been parking for the last however many years people have owned cars up here) then he is able to report us to the police for obstruction and have our cars towed away. He has even started to threaten this already even though we are parking up against fence panels. He has offered to drop his kerb at the front if we pay for it. £1000!!!

My question is, what can we do about this? Can he really just do this and suddenly we are breaking the law and have our homes drop in value. We have an appointment with a local solicitor in about 10 days time for their 30 min free slot, but it would be good to know what we are able to do asap.

This is going to make parking up here more of a nightmare than before, and we are hoping to move as soon as we can afford to as we have a 3 bed house and 5 kids. This will be an added thing that will put people off moving here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help you are able to give us.

star1_2

Sorry to hear about this grief you're getting - I've heard about this sort of thing happening before ....

Basically, obstruction of a private driveway is not a civil or criminal offence (beleive it our not), the police are powerless to act in these sort of matters. The only type of obstruction that counts as being illegal, is when a public highway is being restricted or blocked (particularly to prevent access to emergancy vehicles). Check with your solicitor on this one .... but I think the guy is just issuing idol threats on this one ....

As regards making you pay for the "dropping of the kerb", this is a definate "no-no", he has to foot the councils bill for this work, only after their assessment of the suitability of this being done (from a saftey prospective - ie. is there clear/safe clearance for vehicles turning in/out of the new driveway).

If I was you ....

a) take up the free 30min consultation with the solicitor to seek their opinion
b) visit your local authorities Highways department and re-assure youselves by discussing this "kerb dropping" matter with them .... they will tell you the onus is on him to apply and pay for any works to be assessed and done. (only if they approve it), otherwise if found to be an "unacceptable" new access, he might be prevented from "creating his new gate"....

PS - I guess the road you are talking about is council owned? (as you're refering to coucil involvement regarding dropping te kerb) - if it was private this would be a totally diffrent matter!

Good luck

Bennifred

If there is a curb owned by the council across the back of his garden, he will need to have applied for permission to access his property across it, and if he gets that permission then HE will have to pay for the dropped curb to be fitted. It's worth checking with the council whether he has applied for/been granted legal permission for this access.

clutton_2

go onto Land Registry site - it will cost £2 - and get the map of the exact boundary of his property - this will tell you if he has legal access at the cul de sac or not.

seven-day-weekend

He is allowed to put a gate in his fence without any sort of permisssion, assuming it is a privately owned house. If it is rented he will need the permission of his Landlord.

The dropped kerb he may or may not need planning permission for: from how you describe the cul-de-sac I would say he wouldn't need it. But HE must pay for it. He may however need the Highways Department's (of the Council) permission to cross the footpath.

wizzkid_3

Hi, thank you for all these replies, it definately gives us something to go on.

The kerb that would need to be dropped is at the front of his property and is not an issue to us at all! This is where we would love him to have his vehicular access. The back of the property literally ends with a fence onto a tarmac-ed road, v. unusual aparently but no path or kerb to contend with there. So all he needs to do is replace an old fence and put a gate in, no pp required. He has even got a certificate from the council to that effect.

How do I find the land registry? Are they online, or do I go to an office somewhere in town? Sorry I must sound really dumb on this one!

Thank you again for your help, you have cheered me up!

Bossyboots

The Land Registry are online. http://www.landreg.gov.uk/

this situation may not be as simple and the council and the builder are making out. If the householders in your cul de sac have always used the area for parking, you may have acquired parking rights there by usage. You need to try to find out how long that space has been used by residents for parking. If long enough (12 years I think it is) then the right to park there has been established and while he is entitled to put his gate in the fence, it does not give him right to clear access and nor does it grant him parking rights.

Please make sure that the solicitor you are seeing is not just all rounder and is experienced in this sort of dispute.

Debt_Free_Chick

Bossyboots wrote:

If the householders in your cul de sac have always used the area for parking, you may have acquired parking rights there by usage.

I read it as though they were actually parking on the road i.e. public highway, in which case I don't think adverse possession applies ... or does it?

star1_2

Bossyboots wrote:

The Land Registry are online. http://www.landreg.gov.uk/

this situation may not be as simple and the council and the builder are making out. If the householders in your cul de sac have always used the area for parking, you may have acquired parking rights there by usage. You need to try to find out how long that space has been used by residents for parking. If long enough (12 years I think it is) then the right to park there has been established and while he is entitled to put his gate in the fence, it does not give him right to clear access and nor does it grant him parking rights.

Please make sure that the solicitor you are seeing is not just all rounder and is experienced in this sort of dispute.

The situation you are describing (access over or use of land) relates to private land and not a council road. Although you're correct with the time scale for this - the precident for this was set in the rulling in a landmark case (Railways and someone - I can't remember the name from my studies - sorry!). Best you take advantage of your 30mins to see what the solicitor says (as BB mentioned, make sure they are versed in land / property law / legislation).

Good luck

Debt_Free_Chick

wizzkid wrote:

The kerb that would need to be dropped is at the front of his property and is not an issue to us at all! This is where we would love him to have his vehicular access. The back of the property literally ends with a fence onto a tarmac-ed road, v. unusual aparently but no path or kerb to contend with there. So all he needs to do is replace an old fence and put a gate in, no pp required. He has even got a certificate from the council to that effect.

It sounds like he has had confirmation that he doesn't need planning permission or that what he intends to do is "permitted development". As part of this, I would have thought that the County Council Higways department have also been consulted and that they are happy that the movement of vehicles to & from the road via this access does not constitute a hazard.

I have to say, I think you are getting your knickers in a twist in a fit of NIMBYism! Sorry if that sounds rude - I hope it doesn't put you off reading the rest, as it sometimes helps to try and see things from the other party's point of view.

Imagine you are in his position .... it doesn't seem at all unreasonable to create access, from the road, to the rear of the property. I think most of us would do it, if we could (and we could afford it) - especially if he is creating off-road parking, as most of us would jump at the chance of that!

Yes, his plans inconvenience you and your neighbours, but it's just that - inconvenience. You have been fortunate to have the use of that part of the road, but it's a public highway (assuming the road is adopted) and no-one has any right to claim any part of the public highway for their personal use. He is not claiming it ... just getting access to it from a property he legitimately owns.

Parking difficulties are one of the things you take on with a Victorian property as all were built before cars were invented. Any future buyers should be prepared for this too.

I can see you would face problems, but to be honest, you have just been lucky to have found a space in the past

Sorry, but I really don't expect you to get anywhere with this. I hope the Solicitor consultation is free - but expect him/her to want to do more work, that you'll have to pay for. And it's stuff you can already do for yourself, including what you've done. All the Solicitor can do is to check that he has the relevant permissions in place. There is no law against anyone gaining access to/from their property onto the public highway. The only issue is one of public safety, which the Council Highways department polices and is concerned with satisfactory sight lines for those vehicles exiting the property and other vehicles travelling along the road.

Now ... if I am wrong, you will be delighted and I certainly won't begrudge you that. So please let us know how you get on.

If I'm right ... just move on and find something more positive to put your energy into otherwise this will drive you bonkers for years to come!

silvercar

This happened in a cul-de-sac I used to live in. The first we knew of it was when the owner in another street put in a gate across his back garden. Luckily for us his garden backed onto unadopted land and the council refused to get involved. We all continued to park in front of his gates and hegave up in the end. I guess he took legal advice and found he had no rights.