Can you legally park a boat outside your house??

sebdangerfield

Okay OP. I've had a good look into this and here's the definative answer..... I hope!

The boat does not need insurance as has been posted previously as It's not a motor vehicle and doesn't need any.

However, if a caravan is parked on the road certain criteria must be met to make it legal and I'm certain that some of these apply here. It must be parked so as not to cause an obstruction. This is subjective and not just 'making it difficult to get onto my drive' It must be a real and physical obstruction. A caravan must also be lit at night and the lights must correspond with the direction of traffic, for example it must be parked with it's nearside against the pavement so the rear lightboard faces the oncomming traffic on the same side of the road (I didn't know this). Obviously, this may not apply to a boat, I don't have the legal definitions to got through for you but I'll try to find them and report back.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q629.htm

The winner however is this piece of legislation;

Ss143 & 149 of the Highways Act 1980

It's used to give powers to local authorities when something on the road or highway is causing a visual nuisence rather than a physical obstruction (which would then be criminal matter for the Police). Apparently it's not used much as it can be costly to enforce but councils can be savy and send out warning letters which invariably do the trick. I must point out though, this part of law is not my forte as I'm geared toward criminal law and therfore this is not even something I've come accross before so I could be totally wrong, It's just something I've found in a few books I have about the office, there will be plently of lawyers on here who work in the civil side of things who will be better poised to comment, I'm sure there will also be plenty of people with training at all who will also have an opinion! I do know that parts of the new traffic management act superceeded parts of this act so the law may not be relevant any longer, I'd be surprised if it was totally changed though as local authorities need to keep little acts in thier back pockets for such a matter.

Happychappy

Moses got away with it, typical, one law for one and one for the other ; )

blued

wellygogs wrote: »

The boat IS the problem - it is an eyesore - instead of having a nice view from their front window, all they see is the boat.

ok so now we have the real reason - they dont like looking at the boat. Why didnt you say that in the first place instead of saying it was causing other cars to make it difficult to get in and out of their drive?

Sounds like the neighbours have a hobby and enjoy a bit of fishing. They've taken the boat home to do some work on it and will no doubt take it back to the harbour when they're finished. It sounds like you're making a big deal out of very little. How often do they realistically sit and gaze out of their window anyway?

wellygogs

sebdangerfield wrote: »

Okay OP. I've had a good look into this and here's the definative answer..... I hope!

The boat does not need insurance as has been posted previously as It's not a motor vehicle and doesn't need any.

However, if a caravan is parked on the road certain criteria must be met to make it legal and I'm certain that some of these apply here. It must be parked so as not to cause an obstruction. This is subjective and not just 'making it difficult to get onto my drive' It must be a real and physical obstruction. A caravan must also be lit at night and the lights must correspond with the direction of traffic, for example it must be parked with it's nearside against the pavement so the rear lightboard faces the oncomming traffic on the same side of the road (I didn't know this). Obviously, this may not apply to a boat, I don't have the legal definitions to got through for you but I'll try to find them and report back.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q629.htm

The winner however is this piece of legislation;

Ss143 & 149 of the Highways Act 1980

It's used to give powers to local authorities when something on the road or highway is causing a visual nuisence rather than a physical obstruction (which would then be criminal matter for the Police). Apparently it's not used much as it can be costly to enforce but councils can be savy and send out warning letters which invariably do the trick. I must point out though, this part of law is not my forte as I'm geared toward criminal law and therfore this is not even something I've come accross before so I could be totally wrong, It's just something I've found in a few books I have about the office, there will be plently of lawyers on here who work in the civil side of things who will be better poised to comment, I'm sure there will also be plenty of people with training at all who will also have an opinion! I do know that parts of the new traffic management act superceeded parts of this act so the law may not be relevant any longer, I'd be surprised if it was totally changed though as local authorities need to keep little acts in thier back pockets for such a matter.

Thank you very much! I really appreciate you, and the other people who've replied, taking the time to look into this for me. I really didn't have a clue where to start. I will pass all the above info (well, most of it:() to my sister.

wellygogs

blued wrote: »

ok so now we have the real reason - they dont like looking at the boat. Why didnt you say that in the first place instead of saying it was causing other cars to make it difficult to get in and out of their drive?

Sounds like the neighbours have a hobby and enjoy a bit of fishing. They've taken the boat home to do some work on it and will no doubt take it back to the harbour when they're finished. It sounds like you're making a big deal out of very little. How often do they realistically sit and gaze out of their window anyway?

I came on this site for advice, not a cross-examination. Yes, the boat is the problem - so are the cars that are parked in front of my family's house.

Actually, you're obviously either in a rotten mood with me, or you're not having a good day. I'm not going to say any more.

alleycat`

Not sure if this comes under the same catergory but i asked a similar question of the local plod about a horsebox that was left (with a clamp on) at the side of the road (quite busy).

I waited 3 months before i asked about it (benefit of the doubt an all that).

My concern was not that it was on the road but that it forced traffic onto the wrong side of the road on a "blind" turn from a mini roundabout (due to overhanging bushes).

Plod basically said that:-

"Strictly speaking a trailer should be displaying lights when parked on the road during darkness but then so should any vehicle parked on the wrong side of the
road, or within a certain distance of a junction."

He didn't do anything about it as in his opinion it wasn't dangerous even though it was about 15 feet from a roundabout (we paced it out together)....

I believe that Someone else must have complained to the council as they put a move it or lose it notice on the box a few weeks later (it was gone 4 days later and has never returned).

So to sum up (assuming this boat is on a trailer)...
It should be attached to a vehicle if left on the road.
It should be displaying lights on a night.
Plod probably won't care

O and check your deeds - Mine specifically state i can't store a boat or caravan at the front of the house.
Although i'm not sure that would apply to a road(?)

blued

wellygogs wrote: »

I came on this site for advice, not a cross-examination. Yes, the boat is the problem - so are the cars that are parked in front of my family's house.

Actually, you're obviously either in a rotten mood with me, or you're not having a good day. I'm not going to say any more.

Just because I'm not telling you what you want to hear doesn't mean I'm in a rotten mood with you and I'm having a perfectly normal day. However I am not scared to say what I think. If you live in a neighbourhood with other houses all around you then you have to be aware that these things can happen. Imagine you owned a boat and spent time out on the water at the weekends with your family and then it needed maintenance so you took it home and left it outside your house while you did this? Next thing you know a neighbour has decided they dont like the look of it (or have a bit of the green eyed monster) and look for ways to get the police involved. I find this totally unreasonable. If you're worried about how long it might be there why not take a walk by when they're working on it and show an interest in what they're doing, ask some questions? You might find that your neighbours are more approachable than you think!

The only way to avoid this sort of thing is to live in the middle of nowhere without neighbours.

alleycat`

blued wrote: »

. If you're worried about how long it might be there why not take a walk by when they're working on it and show an interest in what they're doing, ask some questions? You might find that your neighbours are more approachable than you think!

Devils advocate: Wouldn't it be reasonable of the neighbour to have explained they needed to do a bit of work on the boat and it would be there for x weeks (in advance of dropping it at the side of the road).

Also that if anyone was causing a parking issue due to the boat that they would do their best to deal with the problems / come up with a reasonable solution?

Neighbouring does go both ways...

blued

Yes that would be reasonable but unfortunately in reality it doesn't happen very often.

Perhaps the neighbour finds the OP's sister equally as unapproachable! There is always 2 sides to a story!

alleycat`

I'll take that - nothing like fierce agreement to end the working day