Damned Caravan

[DerbyBoy]

My neighbour has decided to winter his caravan on his drive instead of putting it into storage. He has fitted it with a ugly green cover so instead of putting up with the eye-sore for only about 8 months of the year it now looks like being a permanent fixture. It looks ugly and obstructs my view when backing off my drive.

The deeds of our properties state that caravans cannot be left on the front of the properties (as well as saying we can't keep chickens)

I don't suppose I can do anything about it though (other than arson). Any suggestions will be welcomed. (Angle Grinder considered - but the noise would attract his attention)

Regards

[Tim Watts]

I recommend just living with it. Out of all the cardinal sins of neighbours, it's hardly that much of a capital offense and it is a caravan - at least it's not a luton van/shipping container/pile of rusty metal/asbestos shed/etc...

He may have a good reason anyway - such as doing some work on it this season.

My deeds say all sorts of things, like no caravans, no trades to be conducted except medical or law (and one or two other "respectable" trades), no fairground rides.

I ignore those (as does everyone else) and just stick with being mostly reasonable :) The estate who have an interest in the covenent probably don't care anyway, even if they still exist.

[charles]

check with you local Planning Dept - there might be a by-law against this sort of thing.

[Mr Pounder]

I should hope not. It is the guys driveway after all.

>

[Roger Mills]

I guess a lot depends on how well you get on with your neighbour, and whether or not you're worried about maintaining diplomatic relations.

If there are any local bye-laws[1] banning caravans on drives, you may be able to get the local authority to act - without it being totally obvious who reported it - but the neighbour will probably guess!

If the covenant was imposed by the builder who built your house and the neighbouring properties, you would probably have to get him to enforce it. Chances are, though, that he won't be interested - even if he still exists - because many of these covenants have the sole purpose of making the estate look more attractive so that the builder can sell the remaining houses more easily. Once they're all sold, no-one gives a damn any more!

[1] I believe that places like Solihull had used to have bye-laws to that effect - don't know whether they still do.

[Gazz]

well, it is his drive, he could move the caravan for you, and put in it's place a rusting dilapidated old wreck of a car or 2, or a trannie tipper full of crap in the back, or he could dig the drive up and plant leylandii's by the dozen.

if you really can't live with it, let him know you keep seeing pikeys driving slowly down the street, and the other day when he was out one of them got out and had a good look under the cover, and gave the thumbs up sign to his mate in dodgey looking transit with chains hanging off the rear bumper where a tow bar would go.

[Jules Richardson]

Rats, I started reading and the immediate thought was, "well, they usually burn pretty well," but I see you've already thought of that.

I wonder if it's left unlocked? Throwing a dead pig in there might ensure that it doesn't happen again.

[Huge]

Or failing a pig, a couple of bags of prawns.

[Owain]

Turn it into an asset - ask if you could use it when your M-i-L comes to visit over Christmas.

Owain

[hugh]

In message , DerbyBoy writes

Just because he has put a cover over it doesn't mean it's going to be any more permanent than normal. That's probably why he has left it on the drive.

As for covenants, unless it states otherwise, yours only applies to you. They can I believe only be enforced by the original developer.

[John Rumm]

That's actually quite sneaky ;-)))

[Jules Richardson]

Good idea. Easier to throw, too.

[Davey]

You hope that KT54's computer is not an RISC OS running v5.16?

[Tony Bryer]

When you sell IIRC there's a question about whether you have had disputes with neighbours and it might work against you to have to answer 'yes'

[Tony Bryer]

Note necessarily if the properties are part of an estate

[ARWadsworth]

And easier to buy!

[Ian]

Or a dead fish . Preferably in the ventilation intake (if it has one!)

[Dave Liquorice]

Who for the MiL or the OP? I suspect you mean the OP... B-)

I do like the wheeze about saying that you've seen some "up to no goods" eyeing it up.

[David WE Roberts]

Checked out something similar before we bought a house - there were covenants against caravans etc. We wanted to make sure we could park our camper van outside.

We were advised that these covenants were usually imposed to prevent traveller encampments and the like (as in Dale Farm) and to make sure the land sold to the developers was used for building normal domestic housing and not for other uses.

It is very rare that the covenants from the original land owners to the initial developers are still held by any body interested in doing anything about it. Especially as they were not intended to prevent house owners parking stuff on their drives. '50s and before, owning a caravan for leisure was quite rare and not thought to be an issue.

'70s onwards estates may still have covenants about not having hedges and fences at the front, and parking caravans - to maintain the open plan design and make it look as though the houses have more garden than they actually do.

However, as posted elswhere if a caravan on the front drive is the biggest problem, you are lucky with your neighbours (and hopefully they are too).

Cheers

Dave R

[Andy Champ]

There's a covenant on ours preventing us from parking boats on the drive. That can't be for encampments.

(As I race sailing dinghies I noticed this. So I put the boat in the garage and leave the car outside.)

Andy