where do i stand on this

[littlelucy44]

Hi everyone ,just after some advice really concerning my landlord ,guinness trust . we have lived quite happily in our association house for 20 yrs without any problems untill recently . my 19 year old son is a mechanic and like most boys likes to tinker with his car and occasionally does repairs on ours ,nothing major just changing brake pads ect , now twice in as many months a woman from our local office (5 miles away) has apparently just happened to drive past and seen him repairing his /our car ,1st time she told us would let it go as we are not allowed to do repairs on our driveway and if caught again then matter would go further , but we desperately needed our break pads changing last friday so son on his day off changed them and this lady again was just driving past and caught him doing this ,had a right go at my son and said final warning was being sent by letter over wkend .Now im not sure of my rights here ,are we allowed to do minor repairs to our cars on our driveway that is next to our house or is she right that we cant , we have always had a car and always done any repairs needed without any problem at all ,now this woman has been at this office for about 9-12 months and is very pally with our neighbour who is a bit nosy and caused no end of problems on our street in the 4 yrs she has lived here,got a feeling as soon as toolbox comes out she rings her up and thats why she catches us but cant be certain that is the case , any input would gladly be appreciated on this as ive no idea whos right .

[mariner51]

ll44 I think you need to read your T agreement carefully for any exclusions.

I would say it should allow for routine servicing to family vehicle but prob prohibits operating a repair service for others, on your drive.

[littlelucy44]

thank you mariner , will have to dig out tenacy agreement .

[Ed999]

My comments only apply if the premises are entirely within England.

 

Only a Court can decide what the legal effect of your tenancy agreement is.

 

 

Will you please provide the essential information requested in the "sticky" thread Questions for new posters.

 

 

If you have a Housing Association tenancy granted in the 1990's, chances are it is an Assured tenancy, granted under the 1988 Housing Act. Such a tenancy can only be terminated if you break one of the terms and conditions set out in the tenancy contract.

 

You will need legal advice in order to understand the meaning of the contract document, so take it to the Citizens Advice Bureau or to a Solicitor.

 

The landlord can't just evict you. It must first obtain a Court order, so it will have to prove to the satisfaction of a judge that you are actually in breach of the contract. For example, if the contract simply bans you from running a business at the property, this would NOT be broken if you are simply repairing your own car.

 

If the contract bans you from causing a nuisance or annoyance to your neighbours, you will need to see a Solicitor to discuss in detail what the legal phrase 'nuisance or annoyance' means. It can be almost anything, if it has an impact on the visual amenity of the street. In a run-down neighbourhood, it will take something quite bad to become an annoyance; but in a smart, posh neighbourhood even something quite trivial might amount to an annoyance.

 

The court will not evict you lightly; so you might get away with it if the judge looks on the breach as purely trivial, unless you repeat the breach on a number of occasions.