Nuisance neighbours - car business in the street

JohnG123

I joined here as my parents have a problem with a house on their street and I hope we can get some advice. The chap who owns this house lives away and his son who doesn’t live there is using the street to store and repair cars and leave large landscaping vehicle which he uses in his landscape business. The street presently has about 8 of the son’s taxed cars bought from auctions, these are often parked in the street for months and even over 2-years, which he will eventually repair and sell on. As you can imagine there is no parking left for residents and many are elderly and/or disabled.

 

There is no evidence of cars being listed for sale in the street although it is obviously a business – and lots of comings and goings and car repairs in both the garden and street. This is hard to believe but it’s been going on for 15-years and the landscaping business is a new thing

 

This weekend there was a large landscaping vehicle blocking the pavement and making it difficult to get into a neighbour’s gate. And an open top caged vehicle full of rubbish also left all weekend. Even more maddening because the son does not even live there. And of course, there’s the 8 or so cars also left in the street. The son leaves the landscaping vehicles and returns Monday morning or sooner if he wishes to do some work on the cars.

There is someone living in the house. One of their friends – the father, son and this friend used to work together. There’s frequent police visits and the son has been in and out of prison. They are not the sort of people you can talk to - one neighbour was met with foul language and the son told another "I'll park more %&## cars in the street now. Happy days!" 

What the heck can we do? The council do not seem interested. There’s lots of noise, comings and goings, large landscape vehicles either side of gates on pavements and no parking for residents or visitors. Their garden resembles a scrap yard with several cars in various states of repair. I’d be grateful for any advice – my parents and others just wish to live on a normal residential street – my parents are even too afraid to go shopping as they know there will usually be no parking space on their return.

m0bov

Try your local councillors, MP, Enviro health, local press. 101 for obstruction. Take photos/videos if needed and diary. Report them for tac evasion as its unlikely they are a legit company.

Speak with local neighbours, try and get everyone else on board.

BOWFER

If they're taxed, there's probably not a lot you can do.
If he's keeping them all taxed, he knows what he's doing and is being clever.
From that angle it could equally just be a large family, or house of students, all owning cars.
You're not entitled to a space.

Bigphil1474

You need to speak to the right part of the council. If it's a council house - speak to the housing office. Doesn't matter if you are a council tenant or not, just whether they are. You can't run a business from a council house without the landlord's permission. Usually the same for any rented property.
If it's not a council house, you need to speak to the council's anti-social behaviour team. They will investigate and determine whether their behaviour is anti-social or not. If they decide it is, they have wide ranging powers to stop him. 
If the council is not doing anything, speak t your councillor first. They can put a rocket up their backside, and will value the opportunity to be seen to doing something good for a number of local residents (particularly when it comes to election time).

Aretnap

If he's actually doing the repairs on the road then that's an offence in its own right, subject to a few exceptions which don't seem to apply

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/16/section/4

As you note, it's also an offence to expose multiple vehicles for sale on the road, unless you can prove that you' re not doing it as part of a business.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/16/section/3

ISTR that at least some courts have interpreted "advertised for sale" to include advertising in places like Auto Trader, not necessarily an advert on the car itself, so see if you can find any of the cars advertised for sale on the usual websites. Then get onto the council. 

If the cars are obstructing the pavements, driveways etc try the police on 101.

Unfortunately there are a lot of scumbags and limited resources to deal with them; be persistent and it might get dealt with eventually. 

coffeehound

Sounds like a residents' parking scheme is needed but I don't know what it takes to get one implemented

scoot65

I had the same problem a couple of years ago regarding a neighbour buying and selling vehicles, using the street has is personal car sales forecourt. We had up to ten cars / vans parked in the street each week.

I spoke to my local council as I thought that the guy maybe breaching trading standards / environmental health etc. I was informed by the council that there was nothing that could be done as long as he kept clear access to other neighbours' properties and he was not trading from his drive way. Luckily (for us) he was renting his property and one day we found out that he had done a runner.

I feel for you, it's very a stressful situation.   

flossy_splodge

I have a similar problem but unfortunately my next door neighbour seems to think 'they're just young' as if that's a justification for causing stress and distress to others.

I was planning on moving house anyway , I'll just speed that process up.

BOWFER

flossy_splodge said:

I have a similar problem but unfortunately my next door neighbour seems to think 'they're just young' as if that's a justification for causing stress and distress to others.

I was planning on moving house anyway , I'll just speed that process up.

Be careful how you declare stuff on the PIF when selling.
You have a duty to declare disputes with neighbours, especially if they've involved official bodies (council etc)
I'm not saying you'd do it at all, but I think it's a good thing people can't just 'hide' problem neighbours when selling now.