Dream Cottage but parking challenges

lisssa

Hi 
Hope someone can provide some advice or point me in the right direction of someone who can ...
Today we viewed a beautiful cottage which we could really see as our ‘forever home’ but and it’s potentially a big but there could be issues with parking . 

The front of the cottage is almost directly on the street and there is no specific parking , however as it’s a village it is v quiet and people clearly park directly outside their houses which doesn’t seem to much of an issue and there are no restrictions . However we desperately want some off road parking . 

With the cottage there is a large garage  but that is accessed at the bottom of the garden via a lane . The estate agent advised that whilst you have ‘right of access’ to the garage you don’t have right of access to park in front of it . 

So my question is , would there be any restrictions if we wanted to totally remove the garage and also use a small amount of the large garden ( which wouldn’t be viewable from the house) to park two cars . 

I’ve attached a copy of an aerial view of the property ( provided by the estate agent).  The large black arrow denotes from where you gain access
To the garage and the smaller arrow denotes where the current garage is and where we would be looking to park .
Does anyone see any issues with this idea -or  who could we check with to 100% confirm if it’s feasible - we wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time or money if it’s a non starter . 

Thanks in advance ! 

robatwork

I can't see any reasonable grounds for objections from your neighbours, but this is based on a blurry internet picture.
You could look into a planning application or even pre-planning even though you don't own it. The pre-planning apps can go through quickly.

Davesnave

If it's not in a conservation area, listed or had normal permissions removed, I don't think permission is needed to remove a garage. The right of way is a separate matter that your solicitor should advise upon.

Like everything else in house buying, you should expect to spend time verifying things you are told. Don't regard such enquiries as 'time wasting.'

pramsay13

I don't think it will be too big an issue but surely it would just be easier to park in front of the house.
If it's dark, cold, wet etc having to drive around and park and walk through the garden would be a bind in my opinion.
If everything else was perfect that definitely wouldn't put me off.

PasturesNew

Generally speaking, if there's a garage, you could take it down to create parking... or you could just leave it and replace the door with an electrical one to get in/out more easily. 

I know of somebody who had a big old garage at the bottom of their garden like that, they removed it, created a wide parking space and put up a new fence behind the parking space.

The main issues would be what changes would that make to the neighbours, are you creating more parking space and what noise/nuisance might that cause and are there any issues with fire/proximity to other houses. 

At the moment, the main thing is you have access to the garage... which means that you have no rights at all to stop/park in front of it.  Once you're fully over your boundary 99.99% of people wouldn't care what's there.  The main point is you must never park on the access lane, or use the access lane for anything other than accessing your garage.  The lane is not yours and you cannot use it because you want to, for any reason, except to drive along it, drive over it, to get to your land. 

lisssa

Thank you for all your responses really helpful !! X

Davesnave

pramsay13 said:

I don't think it will be too big an issue but surely it would just be easier to park in front of the house.
If it's dark, cold, wet etc having to drive around and park and walk through the garden would be a bind in my opinion.
If everything else was perfect that definitely wouldn't put me off.

Depends on the road, the restrictions, if any, and what you drive. My DD is forever having damage to her vehicles left in front of the house, as there's nowhere else nearby. One of the joys of owning a period property in a fashionable area, instead of something sensible....but would I tell her? What do you think!

Johnhowell

You may need planning permission to demolish the garage.  Check with local planning department.

Davesnave

Johnhowell said:

You may need planning permission to demolish the garage.  Check with local planning department.

Have you read the rest of the thread? My advice is to have as little to do with the council's planning department as possible and  work through a good local solicitor, who will know when or if approaches in that direction need to be made.