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

wizzkid_3

Xbigman you win! LOL! Gosh that sounds absolutely aweful.

Love your guide to life btw.

Thanks to everyone who has posted, I know that most of our problem is getting around the 'change loop' and making it work out OK for everyone in our street. People will be accomodating. It is just SO frustrating to have someone come in who will not be living here making a fast buck and then just moving on. Meanwhile some unsuspecting person buys the house and then realises that during the evenings they find it difficult to get to their off road parking that they have paid extra for.

halloweenqueen_2

Maybe the people who move in would rather use the front? They may have a drop kerb put in and use it instead of going around the back of their property to take the shopping in?

AMILLIONDOLLARS

So inorder to gain access to the rear of his property, he will need to seek the council's permission for a drop kerb as well as right of access. If he just puts in a gate, he has no legal right to expect automatic access to his property, unless you give it to him by letting him have the use unofficially, whereby he will have established a precedent, am I right?

Personally, I would continue to park there until he has gained the necessary permission! Sounds like he is trying establish access before he sells!!

Can you imagine what would happen if every household, whose garden backs onto someone elses road being allowed to install gates into their fence, expecting instant access, pure chaos:eek:

BobProperty

What are you on about?

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

So inorder to gain access to the rear of his property, he will need to seek the council's permission for a drop kerb as well as right of access.

He's got permission.

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

If he just puts in a gate, he has no legal right to expect automatic access to his property, unless you give it to him by letting him have the use unofficially, whereby he will have established a precedent, am I right?

It's on to a public road. What's the problem?

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

Personally, I would continue to park there until he has gained the necessary permission!

It's a public road. That's obstruction.

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

Sounds like he is trying establish access before he sells!!

He's not likely to bother after he sells, is he?

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

Can you imagine what would happen if every household, whose garden backs onto someone elses road being allowed to install gates into their fence, expecting instant access, pure chaos:eek:

Again, it's a public road, not "someone elses". Anyone (AFAIK) can do this. They may well need permission for a dropped curb from the council. Surely, I have the right to put a gate on my property instead of a fence? Or to remove a fence completely?

Rimo2021

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.

That happened in my area. Someone living in a terraced house backing onto a lane bought the lane from the council and is trying to stop people who live in the surrounding streets in flats from parking there. He sometimes puts notes on windscreens but has no right to stop anyone or have them clamped/towed etc even though he owns the lane because of the long established use for parking by the surrounding flats

BobProperty

Rimo2021 wrote:

That happened in my area. Someone living in a terraced house backing onto a lane bought the lane from the council and is trying to stop people who live in the surrounding streets in flats from parking there. He sometimes puts notes on windscreens but has no right to stop anyone or have them clamped/towed etc even though he owns the lane because of the long established use for parking by the surrounding flats

This sounds a rather arguable set up. Are you able to argue that all flatowners have always parked there for over 12 years, or whatever is required in law? I can't see this one getting sorted without a court case or a negotiated settlement by solicitors. Why would he bother buying the lane if he didn't see some benefit in doing so? I can't imagine buying a road for a bunch of strangers to park on.

Mrs_Optimist

I have read this thread with interest. I am going to risk annoying a lot of people but I have to voice my opinion - no-one has the god given right to park on a public road. We had the same problem several years back, we have one car, our neighbours one side have 3 and the other side 2 and a bloody great big truck. We could never park so we bit the bullet and splashed out on dropping the kerb and losing 75% of our front garden to guarantee a space. It cost us a lot of money and wiped out our savings at that time but we were absolutely fed up with not being able to park. We now have the problem of cars hanging over either side of our drive so we still have problems getting in and out. On several occasions we have been blocked in by some moron parking directly in front of our drive and leaving their banger there for the whole night. The probelm in my view is that too many houses own more than one car and expect to be able to park wherever they like I would love someone to bring n a law allowing only one car per household to be parked on one side of the road only, and if you have more than one car - too bad - maybe the council should build residential carparks for second and third car owners and they should pay to park their car. And before anyone bemoans the fact that we pay car tax and so should be able to park on the road I would simply say we that we pay road tax to be able to DRIVE on the road, not PARK on the road. Roads are used as free car parks when they should be used to be driven on only. When we move we will not entertain the concept of living in a house wehre there is no facility to park our one car. In our area the main cause of congestion is cars parking on the road and thereby narrowing the road so two cars cannot pass each other. This should not be allowed to happen. There have been instances of fire engines not being able to reach call outs because of mindless idiots not wanting to walk further than 2 yards to their front doors and so park on the road restricting access for emergency vehicles. We have cars parked on the pavements and when I had young babies and a pram I often had to go out onto the road because the pavement was obstructed. There should be a big crackdown on this type of thing.

Sorry - rant over!

Rimo2021

BobProperty wrote:

This sounds a rather arguable set up. Are you able to argue that all flatowners have always parked there for over 12 years, or whatever is required in law? I can't see this one getting sorted without a court case or a negotiated settlement by solicitors. Why would he bother buying the lane if he didn't see some benefit in doing so? I can't imagine buying a road for a bunch of strangers to park on.

No of course all flat owners have not always parked there for over 12 years. That doesn't matter - in fact it's near the edge of the city centre controlled parking zone so some of the cars using that lane to park will be from further out using the free parking to then walk into the centre.

The point is there has been an established use for over 12 years and this cannot just be changed like that by a change of ownership. The person who bought it has put up 'No Parking' signs but he cannot enforce this. Perhaps he thought the sign would put people off but in my experience people are more clued up to their rights than that - as seems to be demonstrated by the fact that everyone continues to park there at least a couple of years later.

Hereward

Rimo2021 wrote:

No of course all flat owners have not always parked there for over 12 years. That doesn't matter - in fact it's near the edge of the city centre controlled parking zone so some of the cars using that lane to park will be from further out using the free parking to then walk into the centre.

The point is there has been an established use for over 12 years and this cannot just be changed like that by a change of ownership. The person who bought it has put up 'No Parking' signs but he cannot enforce this. Perhaps he thought the sign would put people off but in my experience people are more clued up to their rights than that - as seems to be demonstrated by the fact that everyone continues to park there at least a couple of years later.

The said landowner could put up a gate, with a lock, to clearly mark the start of his property. The owners of cars parked on the lane when the gate is installed would have to get the land owners permission to remove them. One of the car owners would then have to prove that they have parked their car there for the required about of time for the practice to continue.

Hereward

Mrs_Optimist wrote:

...We had the same problem several years back, we have one car, our neighbours one side have 3 and the other side 2 and a bloody great big truck. We could never park so we bit the bullet and splashed out on dropping the kerb and losing 75% of our front garden to guarantee a space. It cost us a lot of money and wiped out our savings at that time but we were absolutely fed up with not being able to park. We now have the problem of cars hanging over either side of our drive so we still have problems getting in and out. On several occasions we have been blocked in by some moron parking directly in front of our drive and leaving their banger there for the whole night...

A dropped kerb only gives you the right to cross the pavement to gain access to your property with your vehicle. It is perfectly legal to park in front of a dropped kerb (it is, however, very frustrating to be blocked in though).

...maybe the council should build residential car parks for second and third car owners and they should pay to park their car...

This is a really good idea.

...We have cars parked on the pavements and when I had young babies and a pram I often had to go out onto the road because the pavement was obstructed. There should be a big crackdown on this type of thing.

I quite agree.