Parking contention and garage usage

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Tue 2 Feb 2021 13:44
Parking contention and garage usage - Bluezdep

I'm not one for complaining about the subject of parking, but my road has become a centre for neighbourly disputes about the increase in vehicles per property over the past few years. I've only the one vehicle where others have two or three and have seen a few rows brew between households. I just wanted to see what thoughts may be made of the below scenario.

I've applied for planning from the local council to build an extension to the home, and part of this was to also check for potential Party Wall matters with the detached 2011 build next door, which I found and advised that there were no notifiable works to the property adjoining owner. The neighbour has a drive and garage, and two vehicles. One of which is parked on the drive that they use regularly and the other they have taken a space on the road, encroaching two spaces, where they have ample room to park over their drive.

Unfortunately this neighbour has become unreasonable and inconsiderate.

During the review of the neighbours development plans to see if there were any potential Party Wall issues with the foundation depth, I came across the initial planning application for the 2011 build, the recommendation to decline the new build development, and various residents correspondence to objecting to the proposed build due to a 3 bedroom house taking up valuable parking spaces on the road. The developers then added a drive and garage to the proposals, and therefore, the council agreed to the new proposals with an explicit condition that the driveway and garage be used, and no parking by the household would take a space on the road.

As far as I'm aware, the neighbour only uses the garage for storage. Both vehicles are small hatchbacks and the garage is wide enough for one.

Is the condition the council set out something that could be enforced by the council if the matter escalated due to the neighbours behaviour?

TIA

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Tue 2 Feb 2021 14:09
Parking contention and garage usage - Middleman

The developers then added a drive and garage to the proposals, and therefore, the council agreed to the new proposals with an explicit condition that the driveway and garage be used, and no parking by the household would take a space on the road.

I really cannot see how that could be enforced.

As far as I'm aware, the neighbour only uses the garage for storage.

It can only be in the UK where a homeowner stores £200 worth of old furniture in the garage whilst his £30,000 new car sits outside in the road.

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Tue 2 Feb 2021 16:39
Parking contention and garage usage - daveyjp

Have a look on the local Council planning portal and look for the decision notice for the development.

If the Council wanted the garage to only be used for the parking of a vehicle it may have placed a condition which can be enforced, but that doesn't mean it stops the owner parking on the street!

We have a similar issue on our cul de sac. A few large properties have been converted from family homes to flats, Where a family may have two cars, 3-4 flats can mean 6-8 vehicles and despite there being plenty of parking nearby (less than 30m!) all of them expect to be parked by the back gate of their property.

Edited by daveyjp on 02/02/2021 at 16:43

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Tue 2 Feb 2021 17:34
Parking contention and garage usage - skidpan

When we lived at the old house we had 3/4 cars and could park them all on the drive or in the garage/car port. Never left a car on the street, it was only just 2 cars in width, sorting dents is not cheap as many found.

The people who bought the house had 2 cars but shortly after moving in the teenage daughter got her own and her boyfriend was a regular visitor (think he had move in in reality) also had a car.

So space for all of them but when we have met up with the old neighbours in town it seems that only one goes on the drive, the rest stay on the street.

But there is nothing anyone can do, there are no restrictions on parking so its a free for all.

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Wed 3 Feb 2021 12:27
Parking contention and garage usage - Gibbo_Wirral

It can only be in the UK where a homeowner stores £200 worth of old furniture in the garage whilst his £30,000 new car sits outside in the road.

Have you not seen the size of modern cars compared to old garages? My house was built in the 80s but only a Pug 206 sized car will fit in the garage.

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Wed 3 Feb 2021 13:00
Parking contention and garage usage - Middleman

Have you not seen the size of modern cars compared to old garages? My house was built in the 80s but only a Pug 206 sized car will fit in the garage.

I agree that's a contributory factor. Though I have neighbours near me with double garages full of junk. That said, perhaps people should give more though to the cars they buy. They might consider buying a car they can properly accommodate on their property rather one that is as large as you describe only to expect to dump it in the street outside somebody else's house. There are plenty of small cars available.

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Wed 3 Feb 2021 13:28
Parking contention and garage usage - Bromptonaut

There are eight detached houses in the cul de sac where I live. All were built c1998 with at least a single garage, the biggest houses have a double garage.

The retired 70+ year old divorcee over the road from us, house identical to mine, uses her single garage but compared with its 2010 predecessor her 70reg Audi A3 is a tight fit. Another who used to leave his two cars on his drive with junk in the garage has downsized to one car and now garages it.

We've never used ours for the car, too many push bikes.

Two other houses have converted all/most of the garage to additional living space.

Parking's not really a problem though. Most can get three cars on their drives so even if there are adult offspring at home there's no contention for space.

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Fri 12 Feb 2021 15:59
Parking contention and garage usage - glidermania

There are eight detached houses in the cul de sac where I live. All were built c1998 with at least a single garage, the biggest houses have a double garage.

The retired 70+ year old divorcee over the road from us, house identical to mine, uses her single garage but compared with its 2010 predecessor her 70reg Audi A3 is a tight fit. Another who used to leave his two cars on his drive with junk in the garage has downsized to one car and now garages it.

We've never used ours for the car, too many push bikes.

Two other houses have converted all/most of the garage to additional living space.

Parking's not really a problem though. Most can get three cars on their drives so even if there are adult offspring at home there's no contention for space.

Live in a simialr set up. Have a double garage and at one point we had 3 cars. 2 were always in the garages overnight, 1 on the drive. Only one other household put their car in the garage. All the others just have a load of crap in their double and single garages. They park the cars all over the cul de sac.

One even took to 'parking' on my side lawn leaving big tyre gouges! Installed some small boundary posts to find one knocked down almost immediately and others uprooted from time to time.

In a cul de sac behind us, one elderly resident called the police after repeated issues with one family who had 5 cars between them, started parking on her drive and blocking her access!

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Wed 3 Feb 2021 13:27
Parking contention and garage usage - skidpan

Have you not seen the size of modern cars compared to old garages? My house was built in the 80s but only a Pug 206 sized car will fit in the garage.

Our current house has 2 garages, one built in the late 50's and one built in the late 70's. The older one is actually slightly wider but is loads longer since the coal storage area was incorporated into the main garage at some point.

Superb fits into both with no issues.

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