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HELP NEEDED!! - Builders Covanent re Caravan on drive
evetsnworb
Posts: 5 Forumite
Hi all
We are currently having problems with neighbours in our street who have recently objected to the parking of my caravan on my private driveway. I have lived in the house from new which we bought almost 31yrs ago, we have owned a touring caravan for approx 27/28yrs and have parked a caravan on our driveway for approx 25/26yrs. We live in a semi detached town house with an elevated living room directly above the garage. Our caravan is parked on a sloped driveway which cannot be seen by neighbours unless you are standing looking out of the window. The caravan is a modern and clean van and is not obstructing the highway or path.
The neighbours who have recently had a solicitor letter sent to us, stating we must move our caravan within 14 days otherwise the issue will be taken further and a court action will ensue. one of the neighbours in question have lived next door to us for 31yrs and the second couple have lived in the street for approx 22yrs and neither of these have objected in this way up until now. One of the couples have had a caravan parked themselves on their drive which seemed fine at the time for them. Now all of a sudden they are objecting to our caravan.
We did not realise the builders covenant mentioned caravans in the deeds of our house which we have just recently recieved from the building society, however the document states
"Caravans" not caravan which implies that more than one caravan cannot be parked on the driveway
Does this mean that if it states caravans, that we are not breaking the covenant by only parking 1 caravan on our drive???????
Since we have parked the caravan on the driveway for over 26yrs without anybody complaining, do you think this will be taken into account if it was to go to court??????
Can a covenant expire or not?????
The neighbours have previously said before that the caravan is de-valuing their house, however there are milk float vans and commercial vans with ladders parked on the path outside of houses which are more slightly than our caravan.
Also would the neighbours have a case trying to push this to court, when its the actual builder who sets the covenants "Would it not be him that needs to enforce it?"
Its causing a lot of tension in the street which we don't want, we hope we are not breaking the covenant but not sure.
Any information or comments on this issue would be greatly appreciated as its causing great distress to my family.
I can always type exactly what the covenant states if needed!
regards
Evet
We are currently having problems with neighbours in our street who have recently objected to the parking of my caravan on my private driveway. I have lived in the house from new which we bought almost 31yrs ago, we have owned a touring caravan for approx 27/28yrs and have parked a caravan on our driveway for approx 25/26yrs. We live in a semi detached town house with an elevated living room directly above the garage. Our caravan is parked on a sloped driveway which cannot be seen by neighbours unless you are standing looking out of the window. The caravan is a modern and clean van and is not obstructing the highway or path.
The neighbours who have recently had a solicitor letter sent to us, stating we must move our caravan within 14 days otherwise the issue will be taken further and a court action will ensue. one of the neighbours in question have lived next door to us for 31yrs and the second couple have lived in the street for approx 22yrs and neither of these have objected in this way up until now. One of the couples have had a caravan parked themselves on their drive which seemed fine at the time for them. Now all of a sudden they are objecting to our caravan.
We did not realise the builders covenant mentioned caravans in the deeds of our house which we have just recently recieved from the building society, however the document states
"Caravans" not caravan which implies that more than one caravan cannot be parked on the driveway
Does this mean that if it states caravans, that we are not breaking the covenant by only parking 1 caravan on our drive???????
Since we have parked the caravan on the driveway for over 26yrs without anybody complaining, do you think this will be taken into account if it was to go to court??????
Can a covenant expire or not?????
The neighbours have previously said before that the caravan is de-valuing their house, however there are milk float vans and commercial vans with ladders parked on the path outside of houses which are more slightly than our caravan.
Also would the neighbours have a case trying to push this to court, when its the actual builder who sets the covenants "Would it not be him that needs to enforce it?"
Its causing a lot of tension in the street which we don't want, we hope we are not breaking the covenant but not sure.
Any information or comments on this issue would be greatly appreciated as its causing great distress to my family.
I can always type exactly what the covenant states if needed!
regards
Evet
0
Comments
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evetsnworb wrote: »We did not realise the builders covenant mentioned caravans in the deeds of our house which we have just recently recieved from the building society, however the document states
"Caravans" not caravan which implies that more than one caravan cannot be parked on the driveway
Does this mean that if it states caravans, that we are not breaking the covenant by only parking 1 caravan on our drive???????
I've no idea but I'd think it meant any caravan, it could be argued that caravan means only one particular caravan - have you had the same caravan for 26 years, if you've had more that would be caravans.
If a road sign says 'no cars' would it be OK to drive down the road in a car?0 -
Have a look at this thread- it may help you:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=296431&highlight=covenants0 -
The Section of the covenant states :
The Forth schedule:
section 3
Not to use or suffer to be used any unbuilt on part of the property hereby conveyed for any purpose except as and for a garden and to keep such garden tidy and free from weeds and rubbish and not to use or permit or suffer the same or any part thereof to be used for the keeping of poultry or bird nor for the parking of caravans.0 -
evetsnworb wrote: »The Section of the covenant states :
The Forth schedule:
section 3
Not to use or suffer to be used any unbuilt on part of the property hereby conveyed for any purpose except as and for a garden and to keep such garden tidy and free from weeds and rubbish and not to use or permit or suffer the same or any part thereof to be used for the keeping of poultry or bird nor for the parking of caravans.
Oh dear
Be glad you got away with over 25 years of doing it before this came up0 -
Maybe you could build a tarmac road down the side of your house & keep it in the back garden.
Would this be acceptable to them?
You could hide it with trellis or fencing or something?0 -
The document states: - "nor for the parking of caravans"
Am i not right at thinking that is plural? where the form is usually represented orthographically by adding -s to the singular form therefore meaning more than 1 i.e.
Caravan
> Caravans
The caravan cannot be parked in the rear garden nor to the side of the house0 -
You are being a bit silly with this plural.
If the sign says NO DOGS, you can't bring in just one.
If it says NO CARS, It means none, not even one!
Can't you speak to them & see if they would agree to overlook you hiding or disgusing it around the back.0 -
The schedule says "unbuilt on part of the property"and specifically mentions this as garden . As the driveway could be considered 'built on" as it has been tarmacced/paved then it is not garden and you can park the caravan on it.
My interpretation is that you can not park a caravan on the garden (unbuilt on part of the property)This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
My first question: "Why now?" If this has been going on for 25+ years why start complaining about it now?
Next IANAL so all this is IMHO:
Biggest problem of all is the neighbour's right to take action against you. The owner of the land has to enforce the covenant, it is not your neighbour's job to do so. They (the neighbour) may be able to force the owner to take action but that would involve another court case, I would have thought.
You can't argue the plural part. No judge is going to go for that.
After 25+ years there is an argument that it is no longer valid because the covenant has not been enforced.
If, and it is a big if, the neighbour takes only you to court, you could argue that this is "frivolous" or "vexatious" (it's something like that) as your neighbour hasn't done anything about it for years and is only picking on you for some reason.
The silly solution is to get a lorry trailer that your caravan fits in and keep that on the drive.
A house isn't a home without a cat.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others.
I have writer's block - I can't begin to tell you about it.
You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception.
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.0 -
I thought that was a possibility but the clause says and not to use or permit or suffer the same or any part thereof to be used for the keeping of poultry or bird nor for the parking of caravans.The schedule says "unbuilt on part of the property"and specifically mentions this as garden . As the driveway could be considered 'built on" as it has been tarmacced/paved then it is not garden and you can park the caravan on it.
My interpretation is that you can not park a caravan on the garden (unbuilt on part of the property)A house isn't a home without a cat.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others.
I have writer's block - I can't begin to tell you about it.
You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception.
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.0
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