No parking of commercial vehicle - TP1

Jeepers_Creepers

The reality is, it's very hard to enforce - even if someone wanted to.

Having said that, if it's a large commercial vehicle, then good chance it's going to cheese off some neighbours, and I wouldn't necessarily blame them. Caravans and large hi-sided vans and trucks are pretty ugly, and just affect the overall scene; they dominate house frontages and are impossible to avoid visually, so if it's on an estate where most folk make an effort to keep the place neat and tidy, then almost certainly it'll annoy some folk. 

My in-laws lived on an estate - built around 1996 - which had a covenant against parking caravans outside the properties, even on their own drives. A new neighb - who had asked about this before purchase and was told the facts - nevertheless bought and then parked their sizeable caravan on their drive, the towing hitch which could be argued protruded a couple of feet into the shared drive entrance. The neighb refused to move it. 

In-law's Legal Protection also wouldn't touch this as a case, even tho' it would appear to be pretty clear. Fortunately quite a few other residents also found it unacceptable, so it was this pressure that finally made them put it in to storage. 

Sis-in-law lives on a different estate, and someone's recently taken to parking their window-fitting company van in communal area. This van is big, tall, flat-sided and with racks along the outside. It dominates the view, but also makes is more awkward to drive around - fortunately for sis it doesn't really affect her. It's all become a bit nasty, tho' - a few on the estate planted notes of complaint on the windscreen rather than try and approach the owner directly, and the wife of the van's driver reacted pretty badly and wrote a very tetchy letter in reply - and posted it to every house in the estate...

So, again, what can be done to sort it? Usually very little. But what effect does it have on neighbs? Potentially a very bad one.

AnotherJoe

Soot2006 said:

We had this, forbidding any vehicle that one could sleep in. Parked horsebox with bed (under 3.5t) on drive and a neighbour complained. So I legally parked it outside their house on the public road instead.  Funnily, it's now on the drive without further problem1

LOL. yes its crazy you can park on the road but not your drive.

millie

We have a covenant on our 1950s house stating no thing higher than the garage. We have had our caravan parked on the drive for 15 years. We did have it in storage until it was vandalised and several windows broken. It took 7 months to get them replaced so we had no choice but to leave it on the drive the windows were covered with polythene to protect the inside. It has been there ever since and there are lots of them on our estate. If anyone told us to move it I would tell them to get all the others moved first.

diggingdude

I don't have an issue with vans so long as they are not parked anti-socially. There's a few by me that park on the pavement because their owners are the sort of people whose knuckles drag on the floor. 

Caravans often look aweful though, especially when they are not maintained. One a few roads away is covered in moss etc, if I was the neighbour I would be hoping someone pinched it but who would.....

amandacat

Our estate was finished about 2005 and it specifies not on the drive as well, we have a similar covenant on ours, as well as several others including not being able to use the house for a business. 
There are caravans parked on two nearby driveways and have been for years. There is a large work van parked two doors down and another across from me. There are also two houses operating as businesses near me. We are also not meant to get extensions without permission but my neighbour has two extensions that he built about 12 years ago and he admitted he never got permission. 
No one is following the covenants and nothing seems to be done. I don’t know if anyone has complained, I doubt it. 
The only instance I know of someone complaining was due to a huge delivery lorry constantly parked on the estate. Lots complained as it was obscuring access but the company who set the covenants just said it was being used for private use and not work purposes so no action was taken. It was clearly a removal business. 
Like others have said, drive around (weekend or evening best) and see if other houses have broken these covenants to get a feel for if it is being enforced. 

newsgroupmonkey_

We have this covenant and we have someone from another street who insists on parking his large highways agency truck in an inconvenient place on the road (the covenants cover the road too). However, the covenant was put in place by the Parish Council and they have no wish to enforce it.

There are quite a few people who park round here with works vans (which isn't an issue), which is why generally I'm trying not to make a fuss.

AdrianC

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

We have this covenant and we have someone from another street who insists on parking his large highways agency truck...

How large is "large"? If it's above 3.5t (large van), the location it's kept overnight should be covered by an Operator's Licence.

moneysavinghero

AdrianC said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

We have this covenant and we have someone from another street who insists on parking his large highways agency truck...

How large is "large"? If it's above 3.5t (large van), the location it's kept overnight should be covered by an Operator's Licence.

And bear in mind that 

• emergency service vehicles (including those used by gas, electricity, water and telephone companies)

are exempt from needing an operators license. So if its an highways maintenance vehicle it may be exempt.

newsgroupmonkey_

Interesting point - I forgot about that. It is a 3.5t - it's an open truck and basically as big as you can get in that size, so no, doesn't need an operators licence.

AdrianC

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

Interesting point - I forgot about that. It is a 3.5t - it's an open truck and basically as big as you can get in that size, so no, doesn't need an operators licence.

So just a LWB Transit/Sprinter/Ducato type pickup?