Looking for some advice/opinions before I call the council. Our neighbour directly opposite us appears to have set up his own building company. He has converted his garage into what looks like an office and he runs two sign written vans (normally being stored in his driveway with his car out on the street. We are getting fed up with the traffic, vans coming and going, parkedright outside our home, unsighlty rubbish being left on driveway, van leaking oil wherever it is parked (monblocked street). I am sure in our deeds that commercial vans cannot be stored at any property (houses only 3 years old, estate relatively new) Where do we go from here?
Firstly, the Council will be unable to do anything about what is contained in your deeds, unless of course it is a council owned estate, which I doubt. The next issue is whether or not there has been a material change of use. If there has, then planning permission would have been required. However, you could speak to a lot of planners and get a lot of differing responses because this is a bit of a grey area. Mr personal opinion is that the conversion of a garage into a home office would not necessarily need planning permission. However, if the comings and goings of the commercial vehicles throughout the day is of a sufficient scale to result in harm to your general living conditions, by reason of noise, disturbance and parking issues, and he is storing building materials at the property, I would be inclined to say that the business has resulted in a material change of use and therefore planning permission should have been sought. I'm assuming no permission has been sought. You should phone your Council and ask to speak to the Planning Enforcement team who will carry out a site visit. If your Council agrees that there has been a COU then they could ask for a retrospective planning application, upon which you will be invited to comment. Or, if they consider that it is highly unlikely for such a change to be acceptable in a residential area, then they could start Enforcement proceedings. Do not expect instant results - this process takes a long time.
Thanks for the advice, called the council and they can tell me that he has not applied for planning permission at that address, they are passing it on to be investigated and have given me a ref no. I am not in any way against people running businesses, its just that you don't pay a fortune for a house (well it was a fortune to us) to live on an industrial estate
Another avenue is to look at the original planning permission for when your house was built.The council may have put in a clause to say the garage can only be used for storing a vehicle and not converted. Also check your deeds, invariably on modern developements they state that no trade or busines can be carried on at the property, that there must be no nuisance to neighbours and that garages can't be converted, if this is the case complain to the person with the benefit of the covenant either the original builder or the ground rent collctor.
Latest from the council is that they are happy for this neighbour to continue doing what he is doing as they support a 'work from home' policy and therefore as long as he does not have customers calling at all times of the day eg. a car salesman, then no planning permission is required. When I mentioned I had checked our deeds and it states that no commercial vehicle etc should be parked in the driveway/area, he said that that was a 'land' issue and nothing to do with the council. With regards to the dripping oil from the van wherever he parks it (including in front of our house) he said that I could contact Environmental Health who would investigate.....I don't see how they would be interested though....
so seems he can get away with making our street look like a tip.....any advice?
How about approaching your other neighbours to ask them to sign a letter complaining to the offender and if that dosen't help then sending it to your freeholder.Will the council be happy if somebody slips on the oil and then sues them for allowing a nuisance to continue? (they probably wouldn't succeed but councils do seem to respond better when there is the possibility of being sued.) Put your complaint in writing to them and keep a copy. Is it no use approaching your neighbour direct and telling him that he is being a nuisance?
I think I will contact the councillor from our area, see if they can suggest anything, I believe he may actually stay in our estate somewhere (fairly new build area with some 800 or so houses).
To be honest I would rather not approach the neighbour at this point as he does not look to be the most approachable person and he could make things worse for us if he gets wind of anything coming from us.
Some of our neighbours have actually started to parks their cars outside their houses on the street to stop him parking his vans in front of their homes....why should we have to do that though...
It is unfortunate that some people do take the michael about working from home. But before you go any further, please approach him directly. Builders do tend to look, well, physical - that's the nature of their game. You've got to try talking first of all. He may be so focussed on earning a crust he simply hasn't thought about the impact his business has on this neighbours.
The restrictive covenant about commercial vehicles (other examples are running a business, no caravans or boats, no fences in the front, no for sale signs, etc) is very common on new developments as the developer wants to keep a nice homogeneous appearance to promote sales. During the development phase, the developer will often enforce these covenants to protect their interests. Once the development is finished and the developer has moved on, they may not be so keen to get involved, and they cannot be forced if they don't want to take action. You could ask the developer, but I doubt they'd be interested. It has nothing at all to do with the council.
Where the council may get involved, as you have discovered, is if planning permission is required for a change of use of part of the property. Many councils do take the line that unless the business involves frequent visits to the property, it is reasonable use. The reason for this is that in some areas the local economy is highly dependant on such low level entrepreneurship. My own area is a good example: in my road, which is in a residential area, 11 out of 55 properties host a business. Some of them do park commercial vehicles outside. By the way is it van or vans? There is a significant difference in this context.
With regards to the oil on the road, try the highways department at the council. If the oil constitutes a hazard they will take action (if the road is adopted).
It is vans at times, he has two for the business, he has one that is always there and then the person who has the other van often leaves it outside the house overnight and will come back for it in the morning.
Mr. drives a work van that is his responsibility day/night/weekend whenever. What exactly would he be expected to do with it if we moved into a newish build area? I don't really like new-builds for reasons such as these covenants, like my sister has dictations on what she can plant or build out front. If I bought a house and wanted a little wall or fence outside, I'd want it.
Similarly, I can't say that much that a couple of vans parked across from me would bother me. We have Mr's parked outside our house and I've never thought about it. Obviously the oil spillage would need looking at but I'm not sure how anyone would go about dictating how much traffic another person on their road is allowed to receive.
I think a fair point of Spampman's is he is trying to make a living. He may not be able to afford a big detached with workshop, office, parking for his vans etc. I'd much rather have that situation than a person abusing benefits and a load of bangers parked up.
Still, good luck because it does sound a bit of a tricky one to deal with.
Pumpkin - i would approach it the same way you intend to - via a third party. Simply because if the chap does take it the wrong way, he could make it worse for you! For instance, ensuring a van is parked outside your house every night, just because he knows his annoys you!
Sorry, but as a self employed person i think you are being way over the top with this. A garage converted to an office with 2 vans on the drive and a car parked on the street hardly comprises an "industrial estate" now, does it?
"so seems he can get away with making our street look like a tip.....any advice?"
when you say "our" street, you really mean 'your' street don't you?
I can understand your reluctance to confront him. The trouble with living in built up areas is that you have to accomodate other people as they have to accomodate you. You could always move to the countryside.
The upshot is, what choice does he have. He probably has a mortgage like you. Give him a break. As for your neighbours parking their own cars on the street so he can't park in front of their houses is unbelievable and petty in the extreme.
As for your neighbours parking their own cars on the street so he can't park in front of their houses is unbelievable and petty in the extreme.
Unfortunately, i have found this in a couple of houses that i've lived in, even when its got nothing to do with the someone parking a van (trying to run a business etc).
I once lived in a house, where the neighbour used to park his motorbike outside his house, his wife used to come home, beep the horn he'd come out move the bike so she could park directly outside. Then the next house we moved to, if anybody parked slightly over "next doors space" (the public space in the road outside their house), they would come home and park so far up to the car, you wouldnt be able to open a boot in say an estate car etc. A bloke a couple of doors down to us, removed his front garden wall paid the council £600+ to drop the kerb outside his house, just so noone else could park there, he openly admitted it - he didnt even park on his drive!
I totally understand/agree that people should be able to run a business, if need be from their home, but not when it interferes with other peoples lives, its, i assume, not just someone who drives a van coming home from work, it must be like a neighbour having an extension built permanently! Our neighbour had an extension last Spring, builders coming and going all day, parking everywhere - didnt bother me, but was that because i knew it was short term - the builders said that the people they used to fall out because people didnt like them parking outside houses all day for weeks at a time when they were working on a neighbours property!
