Conflict in Deeds (parking space)

Castle12345

I bought a house which was sold with the remaining land highlighted in red on the image below. Whilst the neighbours have rights of access to my land to gain access to their house, only two properties have written in their deeds and also shown in green on the image below, the right to park a vehicle within said green area. 

My question is, are the neighbours allowed to park a vehicle on my land that is enclosed in red without my permission? And can i refuse them from doing so etc clamp a car if necessary?
If you require further information please ask i will give more background to the situation to help explain the solution. 

Thanks

Davesnave

If your neighbour who parks there has no right in the title documents to do more than access their property, i.e. 'pass and re-pass' you can exclude them from parking there, but it could be unwise to clamp or otherwise impound their vehicle. Such entrapment  is not viewed in a kind way by the police, who will have no interest at all in the deeds or other rights and wrongs in the situation arising.

AdrianC

Can they park in the red? No, not if they only have a right to cross the red, with a right to park within the green.

Can you clamp or tow? No. Absolutely not, any more than your local retail park can. POFA2012 banned clamping and towing. You can only issue a parking charge invoice, providing all the signage requirements are met. Lots of people think even that is absolutely terrible and unfair, and there are forums (even a sub-forum here) dedicated to helping selfish parkers avoid the only legally allowable consequence of their self-centredness.
http://www.knowyourparkingrights.org/News/faq#3

Castle12345

Thank you for your quick replies. 

Something like a parking post that i can raise and lower would be a suitable means to preventing them from parking that space then?
Davesnave said:

If your neighbour who parks there has no right in the title documents to do more than access their property, i.e. 'pass and re-pass' you can exclude them from parking there, but it could be unwise to clamp or otherwise impound their vehicle. Such entrapment  is not viewed in a kind way by the police, who will have no interest at all in the deeds or other rights and wrongs in the situation arising.

mrschaucer

As long as the parking post doesn't stop those who have access/passing etc rights doing whatever they have the right to do.

Castle12345

mrschaucer said:

As long as the parking post doesn't stop those who have access/passing etc rights doing whatever they have the right to do.

 As all neighbours would still have rights of access over the space, but it would just limit their right to park on a non authorised space, i guess this is the only option that fits. 

Thank you 

princeofpounds

Hi Castle - what Adrian has said is broadly right. They have no right to park outside of the green areas (if what you have related to us is accurate) but that unfortunately is not the same thing as actually being banned from parking in the red areas.

Parking enforcement is a total mess in this country. I totally understand why the clampers had to be, well, clamped-down upon, because many of them were little more than criminal outfits. But the problem is that the government left no real effective method of controlling parking. As someone who lives on a private road with parking issues that we can no longer solve, I don't really understand why the politicians were content to leave the situation as it is, but clearly it's not a priority.

What can you do?

The main recommendation now for controlling parking is controlling access to the site. Barriers, gates etc. are still legal as long as they are permanently fixed features, unlike clamps. The problem you have is that your neighbours have a right of way, so they cannot be excluded from the area; which is the main flaw for many of us suffering from these problems under the current legal regime.

However, you would be allowed to create physical obstacles to parking on your land, as long as it does not interfere with their right of way. So, for example, if you were trying to defend a space on the opposite side of the courtyard that they would never need to access in order to exercise their right of way, you could put in a collapsible bollard, for example. In between there will be a grey area around narrowing their access route more generally - if, for example, they historically use a wider area to reverse in and out of the space then you probably cannot constrain that. 

The ability to actually enforce a parking charge invoice is hard, and the legal and practical effort required totally disproportional to any result. It also looks a bit ridiculous in a residential setting. It can work well to deter casual parkers but that's about it.

Depending on the circumstance, you may be able to rely on nuisance laws around obstruction. The law gets a little bit complicated on private land, but I think the following points might be correct (do your own research!)

- The council won't be interested as it's on private land.
- The police can issue fixed penalty notices for obstruction where it is preventing someone from accessing a public highway (i.e. trapping them on their drive) even if the land is private. However, it may be a different matter actually getting them to do it! The average copper has no interest and probably won't understand the law anyway.
- Your best bet might be an injunction, but that will require time to build a case and money for a lawyer. 

If I were you, I'd think hard about two things:
1) Can I shut down some of the parking by installing obstacles in areas that do not infringe their right of way?
2) Can I make use of some of the rest of the space for my own parking, forcing them to either stay away or commit obstruction? Then if they do obstruct on a regular basis, do I have the appetite to engage the legal route to prevent it?

Castle12345

princeofpounds said:

Hi Castle - what Adrian has said is broadly right. They have no right to park outside of the green areas (if what you have related to us is accurate) but that unfortunately is not the same thing as actually being banned from parking in the red areas.

Parking enforcement is a total mess in this country. I totally understand why the clampers had to be, well, clamped-down upon, because many of them were little more than criminal outfits. But the problem is that the government left no real effective method of controlling parking. As someone who lives on a private road with parking issues that we can no longer solve, I don't really understand why the politicians were content to leave the situation as it is, but clearly it's not a priority.

What can you do?

The main recommendation now for controlling parking is controlling access to the site. Barriers, gates etc. are still legal as long as they are permanently fixed features, unlike clamps. The problem you have is that your neighbours have a right of way, so they cannot be excluded from the area; which is the main flaw for many of us suffering from these problems under the current legal regime.

However, you would be allowed to create physical obstacles to parking on your land, as long as it does not interfere with their right of way. So, for example, if you were trying to defend a space on the opposite side of the courtyard that they would never need to access in order to exercise their right of way, you could put in a collapsible bollard, for example. In between there will be a grey area around narrowing their access route more generally - if, for example, they historically use a wider area to reverse in and out of the space then you probably cannot constrain that. 

The ability to actually enforce a parking charge invoice is hard, and the legal and practical effort required totally disproportional to any result. It also looks a bit ridiculous in a residential setting. It can work well to deter casual parkers but that's about it.

Depending on the circumstance, you may be able to rely on nuisance laws around obstruction. The law gets a little bit complicated on private land, but I think the following points might be correct (do your own research!)

- The council won't be interested as it's on private land.
- The police can issue fixed penalty notices for obstruction where it is preventing someone from accessing a public highway (i.e. trapping them on their drive) even if the land is private. However, it may be a different matter actually getting them to do it! The average copper has no interest and probably won't understand the law anyway.
- Your best bet might be an injunction, but that will require time to build a case and money for a lawyer. 

If I were you, I'd think hard about two things:
1) Can I shut down some of the parking by installing obstacles in areas that do not infringe their right of way?
2) Can I make use of some of the rest of the space for my own parking, forcing them to either stay away or commit obstruction? Then if they do obstruct on a regular basis, do I have the appetite to engage the legal route to prevent it?

Thank you for your reply. 

I think the collapsible bollard is the best solution, as it still gives them the rights of access over the land covered in red, but just restricts a vehicle being on the land. I am only concerned with the spaces that cars are parked and not the middle of the red area which is used as turning circles/space to reverse into to be able to leave the courtyard. 
For further clarity a section about the rights of way pulled from the neighbours TP1 deed can be seen below. I am the owner of the "Retained Land". Along with a copy of their plan which is the final page of their TP1.

loubel

The areas edged in green are owned by other people (owners of numbers 2 & 5) who have a right of access to these. That doesn't mean the other home owners don't have a right to park in the other spaces (which would seem likely). You need to read through all of the title documents to check if you are unsure. What was said in your solicitor's report?

getmore4less

With 7 3 bed and 2 2 bed  on the development how many have access to the courtyard?
looks like 1&2 have garage access from outside the courtyard.
I suspect  it is going to be a never ending problem with parking spaces for residents and visitors.
eg  No 3 on that plan is for sale, one of the 3 bed with access to its garage
do they have rights to park in front of their garage doors on the hatched area?

on google maps No. 4 has a car park in front of their garage.

Nice places for £200k loving the basement area

Not clear which bit you are trying to stop people parking on.

Castle12345

loubel said:

The areas edged in green are owned by other people (owners of numbers 2 & 5) who have a right of access to these. That doesn't mean the other home owners don't have a right to park in the other spaces (which would seem likely). You need to read through all of the title documents to check if you are unsure. What was said in your solicitor's report?

2 and 5 do have a space each i am not denying that. But the space between household 2 and 5 is allocated to me from my understanding of which i require use of due to the amount of vehicles under my household. 

For example though, House number 3 currently parks a car outside their house in the 'yard' but their deed states below they have access to their house via the first access ways with or without a vehicle and by foot only on the second accessway excluding the right to park on the accessway and the yard. 

To me that means they have no right to park on the yard. So you can see where i am coming from..