This is my first post so apologies if if this has been covered - i've looked through the forums but couldn't find a situation similar to mine.

Me and my housemates rent a house which is on a private road. Our garage is accessible from the public street, but the front of our house is on the private road.

For the past few months we have parked on the private road outside our house. The landlord's notes advise us that there is space for three cars there - we park 2 and another neighbour parks one. However, the next door neighbour has complained that us parking there means that he now has to do 2 manoeuvres instead of one to drive out - his garage is not blocked and our cars are always parked well before the kerb drops away for the entrance to his garage.

These neighbours have become more and more petty, resorting to getting their son to park his van in front of their garage access so that we cannot get both cars into the space we normally park. When they have done this we have simply parked in another space in the private road which has made them more incensed.

To cut a long story short we received a letter stating that controlled parking will be enforced from the start of next month and that any unauthorised or incorrectly parked vehicles will be issued a penatly, which will be enforced by a licensed operator.

In conversations they have previously stated the rights to the private road are owned by a number of houses, but not ours and as such we have no rights to park there, despite this being the part of the road directly outside our house.

So my question - if tickets are issued, I have read the ways that you can argue against paying these. However, if we intend to continue parking there regularly, which I assume would lead to numerous tickets, what is my legal position then? Can I then still ask them to prove I was the driver of the vehicle? What is our position anyway with regards to parking there? Has anyone been successful in similar situation?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is becoming a real nightmare. We are leaving the house anyway in September but that still leaves 2 months of controlled parking to deal with.

Cheers.

Speak to your landlord and clarify the position. He will find it much harder to let the property out if a parking scheme is introduced, which doesn't allow his tenants to park outside the house...

But he (as the owner) should be able to find out (from the deeds etc) whether he has "ownership" or usage of that private road.

Parking is a big problem down my girlfriends (public) road, due to similar neighbour actions. The woman next door INSISTS she has a God-given right to park her car in exactly the same spot at all times (there are no markings on the road) and she religiously parks her car so the rear bumper is aligned EXACTLY with the edge of her property, regardless of how the other cars are parked in the road. This either blocks in my girlfriend's car (!) as she doesn't allow room to manouvre the car out OR takes up 2 car parking spaces.

She's been doing it for 10 years, and if you are parked PARTLY in "her" spot, and then return to your car and go out, she will come out and reposition her car WITHIN TWO MINUTES OF YOU LEAVING. That's how petty and stupid she is.

The fact of the matter is, on a public road (or a private one for which you have permission to park) where there are no markings to allocate bays, parking is on a first-come, first-served basis. Providing the cars are parked legally, the neighbour can't have a complaint.

*MY* neighbours on the other hand - we have a line of car ports at the rear of the house. If I leave my car sticking out from under the car port (still fully on MY land, but not fully underneath the "roof") they whinge at me, as they claim it makes it harder for them to park. Honestly, they're a joke. They've not realised that, if the use my land to swing their car in/out, they are potentially committing trespass.

Thing is, cars are easy to damage "anonymously"... We strongly believe it was my girlfriend's neighbour who keyed her TT a couple of years ago, for the "crime" of being parked outside the neighbours house. Just a warning that things can sometimes get nasty...

Sorry to go off on one... to repeat my advice, talk to your landlord ASAP. If they are bringing in such a scheme, either he knows about it (and can advise) or he NEEDS to know about it, if he's advising tenants that they can freely park there.

Oh, and regarding "tickets", you *should* be OK not to pay these... but usually local parking schemes aren't "ticket" based, but operated by private clamping companies.

There's no arguing with them, unfortunately - you can only pay and TRY to reclaim, as I'm doing for parking outside my OWN house at the moment...

Thanks Jampot,

The landlord is aware, but is siding with his neighbours who has lived with for 20 odd years. He has advised us through the letting agent that we no longer have rights to park there. I've checked the deed and the boundaries do not include the road, only the house. So either he has never had rights, and therefore can't take them away, or DOES have rights, and is reducing the terms of our letting - which was taken on the basis of 3 parking spaces, of which we only use 2.

Help!

Do the terms of your letting EXPLICITLY state that the property comes with a certain number of parking spaces?

If so, a polite word to him to say that he cannot change this might be beneficial. It is a shame that the road doesn't form part of the "property" as there is no way he can stop you enjoying peaceful use of it... that said, the road COULD be said to be "communal facilities", and as such, you may have rights to continue to peacefully enjoy them.

Regarding any proposed ticketing scheme, its hard to comment on what could/would happen without knowing how they intend to enforce it.

However, if the landlord himself (and not just the neighbours) is infringing on the rights of your tenancy, you may be better starting something in the Landlords / Tenants section of this site, where there are a number of very well-informed people who can help.

You are fortunate that this is a fixed-term problem - it may take the neighbours some time to bring in (and enforce) a permit system, by which time you may have already left.

Theres nothing in the terms of the letting, but he left us a book of information about the house which states there is parking space for 3 cars at the front of the house.

The most annoying thing is that our cars aren't inconveniencing ANYONE where they are - they're just doing it now because they dont want to feel like they've lost

Neighbours can be totally crackers on parking issues and it is best not to get on their level, although I appreciate that is easier said than done.

Also, as Jampot said cars can be easily damaged and have a big financial impact on you. Take some satisfaction on how pathetic these sad people are, they must have very empty lives.

I know this does answer your question but I hope it helps

personally, i dont even think its worth bothering with if you are going.

use the spaces you have and maybe just use one on the private road.

tell you what i would do, go around and see the neighbour concerned.

and make the peace with them, its only a car parking space! not worth it!

it will prob make them look rather small minded and you never know, you might get a compromise.

dx100uk

Neighbours can be totally crackers on parking issues and it is best not to get on their level, although I appreciate that is easier said than done.

True words. Speaking from personal experience, these issues are a minefield. It's up to you if you want to be bothered fighting it or not, but it could escalate.

We have a neighbour like this who insists that he, and only he should have access to not only our private back lane, but the public parking bit at the front of our houses. He is such a sad arse that he has even set up a camera and if anyone else can't get parked out front and takes their car round the back, he will move his for badness and block it in. He has had words with everyone on the street, nobody likes him. Things escalated with the guy who lives directly next door to the point of a near punch up.

I suppose what else can you expect from someone who powerwashes the front of his house at 11pm on a Saturday night (bear in mind here, the front of his house is on a public footpath, we don't have front gardens). Some people really need to go and get a life.

I tried looking into rights of way etc, but didn't get much help off local councils or the roads service. I could have pushed it, but really couldn't be bothered for the likes of that.

Just bide your time. One of these days you might be able to help him out but won't bother. Our lovely neighbour recently got caught for being on the sick and working full-time. Wasn't me that reported him, I know who it was though! Apparently the DSS were sitting in a car at the end of the street watching his comings and goings. Never noticed them though, must have been looking the other way or something.

An update on this one. I posted a letter to all houses which are said to own the forecourt explaining that their penalty notices were illegal as per the sticky at the top of this forum and that if they continued to put notices on my car they would be leaving themselves open to prosecution for fraud and harrassment.

I have since been away for 2 weeks - upon my return I have found that they have continued to apply FPN to my car.

What is my next course of action?

I sent the same letter to the PPC itself but have so far received nothing from them, no reply, nor demand for payment for the initial fine.

What do I do next? Wait to hear back from the PPC? If I do I will continue to accrue fines...