Neighbour parked on my drive - any advice?

Sheepstar

I live in a row of five houses where the garages are at the bottom of the garden and we access them via a track from a side road. This is not a public road, each house owns the land up to the far edge of the track, but each of us has right to cross the others’ land to get to our own garage (my deeds show this).

Of the five houses, four of us get on very well, are courteous and keep our part tidy. We come together to clear the track when it snows and I am lucky to have three wonderful neighbours.

However, the four of us are in despair due to one neighbour who is causing all kinds of parking havoc.

The middle house of the five is a care home. (How they ever got planning for a business on such a tiny plot of land is beyond me – it was before I moved in.) Therefore, they have lots of staff and they just park wherever they like, blocking the entire track or just parking in front of anyone else’s garage door. (From what I understand from the neighbours who've been there a long time, it’s been going on for almost twenty years.)

I moved in 18 months ago, and have had to ask the staff to move countless times. I have left very polite notices on their cars informing them that they are parked on my land and that they are blocking my access and please not to park there again.

The neighbours and I have spoken to the owner / manager of the care home separately on many occasions and asked him to stop his staff parking on my land, but they persist.

I can’t put a chain up because that would block everyone else. I really don’t want to stoop to parking across his garage, because then I feel I would lose the moral upper hand and they’ll just do it even more “because I do”. It would be setting a dangerous precedent. I take photos of each occasion as no doubt I will be accused of being a nuisance neighbour who makes things up(!) As far as I can make out from the police and council websites, parking on private land is a separate issue from parking enforcement and so I can’t get them ticketed.

My question is what can I do to enforce this or stop him and his staff parking on my land?

Do the council or police have any authority to enforce something on private land? I doubt the neighbours and I make a joint complaint to get his licence to run a care home revoked? I could go to the expense of putting signs up, but they will be ignored.

THANK YOU for any help you may be able to offer, and many apologies for the long post!

OddballJamie

I would've thought blocking access to your garage would have been breaking some rule. Have you tried printing warnings out and slipping them under the windscreen wipers?

Jack_Regan

They commit an offence when they prevent your access to the highway.

There will be a department within the council that monitor whether businesses are complying with their planning permission. I would have thought parking would have been a consideration when this was granted.

Jack_Regan

OddballJamie wrote: »

I would've thought blocking access to your garage would have been breaking some rule. Have you tried printing warnings out and slipping them under the windscreen wipers?

Not under the road traffic act. But access from the garage is the issue.

fivetide

Why can't you put a chain up? Maybe you and the neighbours share the cost and have a key each...

The issue would be having to give on to the care home but they'd need to get lots of copies made.

Is it the same cars each time?

Sheepstar

Thank you so much for the responses so far

Printing out many notices is a good idea and will save me writing something out each time. I've left plenty of hand-written notes on windscreens, but they're ignored. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

The chain would be pointless as the care home would have to be given a key, so just leave the chain open all the time, or open it, park across someone's garage and then close it again, I'd have thought.

I'd say there are probably 4 or 5 cars who are persistent offenders. None of them actually live there, they're just staff who come and go.

They mainly block people when they return home from work, but my neighbour missed an early morning doctor's appt last month because they took so long to move their car, so the point about blocking her access to a public highway may be worth investigating further. Thank you for that.

I will try to investigate with the council planning dept what a business must do to comply with planning consent. Thank you for the tip

Strider590

Well if they're blocking you, can't you just park blocking their cars?
I'm pretty sure come end of shift they're gonna want to get their cars out, so why not conveniently go for a nice long walk?

TBH though, how did you not see this problem before moving in?

Jack_Regan

Strider590 wrote: »

Well if they're blocking you, can't you just park blocking their cars?
I'm pretty sure come end of shift they're gonna want to get their cars out, so why not conveniently go for a nice long walk?

TBH though, how did you not see this problem before moving in?

Good idea but that would mean the op committing an offence of obstruction and the law would be on the side of the other party.

Sheepstar

Strider590 wrote: »

Well if they're blocking you, can't you just park blocking their cars?

I already said above, I don't want to stoop to their level and don't want to do anything which might get me into trouble.

Strider590 wrote: »

TBH though, how did you not see this problem before moving in?

Because they weren't parked there on the many times we viewed the property.

Maybe I should have made my OP clearer - it's not every single day. Probably once or twice a week, but enough to be a nuisance to everyone.

Thank you for the advice, though

fivetide

Sheepstar wrote: »

The chain would be pointless as the care home would have to be given a key, so just leave the chain open all the time, or open it, park across someone's garage and then close it again, I'd have thought.

you'd be amazed how idle some people can be though. I can't see the manager wanting to go down and hand over a key every morning or each time someone wants to get out.

As it is different people, there is no point them getting a key cut either because they'll only use it once.

Could be a legal but pain in the backside move for you all. Does have a cost implication though and would of course mean you and the neighbours unlocking/locking the thing each time so not ideal!

Would certianly get the message over though.

colino

If this really is a care home, go and see the owner and tell him assertively that you are about to call both the Local Authority (who often foot the bill for residents) and the Care Quality Commission, who oversee all regulatory requirements of the sector. Restricted ambulance and fire access to such places is a no-no and if he wants to keep his licence he has to be a good neighbour.