Parking hog

AlecEiffel

Hi all,

On our street there is a group of three houses. Each has a section of the shared driveway in which to park a car - they aren't painted with house numbers, but they are outlined on the deeds/boundary map with their respective plot numbers.

There is an additional parking spot which is on the deeds as being within our boundary, but is labelled with a "V" which I assume means it's a visitors spot.

One neighbour has a vehicle parked there most evenings, usually a work van, whilst his Mrs parks her car in their designated spot. He doesn't have a van there all the time - for example there has been nothing there for a few nights now. Got home tonight and the lady had parked her car in the visitors spot. There is nothing in their designated spot other than the bin from earlier in the day which i assume she hasn't been bothered to move and found it easier to park in the visitors spot.

Now this doesn't worry me too much as my and the wife can park behind each other on our part. But when we have a visitor it can be annoying as the neighbours always hog the space.

I assume the space is for a visitor to any of the houses and the fact its in our boundary is just because it has to belong somewhere, but do we have any "rights" over the space? Don't want to start a war as we rarely need the spot despite how useful it would be but its annoying that the neighbour appears to have claimed it.

Fire_Fox

You have used the word assume twice, instead find out exactly what the legal rights to each space are are. Have you asked the neighbours not to park there when you have a visitor, if so were they cooperative? Do your visitors have poor mobility or just lazy-itis? Who is responsible for maintaining this area?

AlecEiffel

Hi. Thanks for the reply (was a bit sarcastic though).

Well the first "assume" is just that - an assumption that she parked in the visitors spot as there was a bin in the main spot, I could be wrong, I just added it as a detail.

Each spot on the boundaries map has the plot number of one of the houses, with one each. So those are quite clear. We have two spots in our boundary - one has our plot number, the other has a V and is clearly a visitors spot. I don't know if this makes it "our" visitors spot, or everyone's spot that we are responsible for. That's why I asked here as someone may have known about such things.

I've not had to ask them to move, and wouldn't want to unless I was sure that in this situation it was our spot. If it's first come first served then I'm happy with that (we've even purposely left it empty many times to accommodate them in the interest of neighbourliness).

Um, none of our visitors have poor mobility, but don't assume that makes people lazy if they've driven somewhere or want to park near (the ones coming next weekend are travelling about 100 miles so I guess that's a bit far to walk - does that count as lazy-itis??). Usually our short stay visitors just park somewhere down the road, we've never kicked up a stink and don't want to, it's just annoying that this one neighbour has claimed the spot for their own.

thegirlintheattic

You need to find out what the deal is with the visitors spot.

AlecEiffel

OK thanks. I'll chase that up.

Bluemeanie_2

Didn't you ask your solicitor when you bought the house?

AlecEiffel

Bluemeanie wrote: »

Didn't you ask your solicitor when you bought the house?

We rent. I can ask the agency, which I plan to do, but they are closed in the evenings obviously and will themselves ask the landlord who will then take some time to reply to the agency.

I have only asked for a bit of general advice/thoughts :sad:

Bluemeanie_2

AlecEiffel wrote: »

We rent. I can ask the agency, which I plan to do, but they are closed in the evenings obviously and will themselves ask the landlord who will then take some time to reply to the agency.

I have only asked for a bit of general advice/thoughts :sad:

Hope you get a conclusive answer.

I assumed you had purchased your home as you had the deeds/boundaries details. But obviously anyone can buy these from land registry.
It sound like it will be visitors spot just allocated to the house you live in to maintain etc.

AlecEiffel

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I should have specified the renting to start with. I will see what the LL comes back with and whether it is a free for all or not! Cheers

G_M

You have referred to 'boundary maps' but I wonder what you mean. Where do these come from?

The only 'map' that matters is the official Title Plan, which you can download from the Land Registry for £3 here.

That will show the legal boundary of the property. If the 'V' spot is within the boundary, it belongs to the property so is yours (well, your landlord's). If it is not then either it belongs to another property, or is public highway, or belongs to a freeholder.

If as well as the Plan, you download the leasehold Title (another £3), you can check if there are any rights of Way etc associated with the property.

For example, the 'V' spot may belong to the property (be within its boundaries on the Plan) but one or more neighbours may have a right of access/right to park. This would be specified in a document referred to within the Title.

AlecEiffel

Yes it is the official Title Plan map. A copy was left in the property for our information though unfortunately there were no notes from the leasehold Title. Will just have to ask!