Access blocked to my garage

[Peter_Moxon]

My neighbour has parked their 2 cars as per the attached photo so that I can not access my garage or park outside my own garage. I own the garage. Legally what can be done about this please?

[ericsbrother]

who owns the land? It may be easier to get them involved rather than take civil action yourself, which will be costly. neighbour disputes never end well regardless of the rights or wrongs of each party.

Now the common areas will normally have its own landowner rather than being shared by the owners of the garage so that is why I ask who owns the land. The deeds of your property will point you in the right direction. If you own the land then you need to put one of those collapsable bollards in so no-one who isnt authorised can access it. that might not stop the inconsiderate git from parking the same way 3 yards further up though

[ericsbrother]

If the inconsiderate neighbour rents then a complaint to his landlord may well have an effect as the LL is responsible and would end up footing the bill if you did decide on legal action. somehting to let them worry about, an injunction will leave them about £8k out of pocket and a possible contempt of court fine as well focuses the mind

[Peter_Moxon]

The garages are privately owned.

[sgtbush]

Ask them to shift the cars.

[ericsbrother]

I know that, but who owns the land in front of the garages. Is your garage part of your freehold?

 

You must read things carefully so as to avoid misunderstanding what is being asked or said

[Peter_Moxon]

The Land Registry file show the attached image as my boundaries

[ericsbrother]

the it is your land. Stick a collapsable bollard in the ground to prevent them from going there.

Now what about the other questions as to who owns the house and garage that is the cause of your trouble, it is the miscreant parker or do they rent? If they rent then get on to ther landlord and suggest they do something about it or you may take out an injunction to stop their abuse of your property and he will be paying the bill and be the one going to prison for contempt if they continue after that.

[Peter_Moxon]

I assume that we all own the land directly in front of each of our garages.

[renegadeimp]

Never assume. Go check.

[Peter_Moxon]

I have checked, and the land directly in front of the garage belongs to me as per the Land Registry document. By parking there what laws are they breaking?

I assume that if I parked behind them and blocked then in they would be within their rights to have my vehicle towed away?

[renegadeimp]

Theyre not breaking any laws. Same as if someone actually parked on your drive way attached to your home. No actual laws are broken. Wait until they move the vehicle, and install a bollard as advised.

 

Theyre likely well aware that theres no law against it. There was a big thing in the media a while ago about it.

 

They certainly cant tow your vehicle in your example, and you cant tow theirs.

[Ethel Street]

Looks like there is a row of 5 garages and only one way in from the street. So if each garage owner owns the freehold of the garage + the freehold of the piece of road immediately in front of it all of you (except maybe the garage nearest the public road) need to cross the freehold of someone else to get to your own garage. The right to do this should be written into the deeds. What does the Land Registry title document say about this?

 

Because you are the last garage no-one needs to cross your freehold to get to their garage so maybe you could put up bollards. But I wouldn't waste money on it, your neighbour could just leave his vehicles in front of the bollards and you'd still be blocked in.

 

Which of the garages belongs to the neighbour?

 

What happened when you spoke to them about it?

[Peter_Moxon]

The issue also with them blocking my garage is that I store a 2 man dinghy in there which I wish to use from time to time. There is no way I can get the trailer in or out of the garage if they park their 2 vehicles so close. Last Saturday I went round to ask them to move one of the cars only to find out that they were away for the weekend. Why is it not deemed as trespassing? There is ample parking on the street 20 yards away.

[renegadeimp]

Trespassing is a civil suit. Not a criminal one.

[Peter_Moxon]

Ethel, yes, there is a row of 5 garages, my neighbour has the one directly next to me. I will get my Solicitor to check whats on the Land Registry. Its crazy that people cannot use a bit of common sense and be more considerate.

The neighbour said she could park "where I f.....g want to" and made a racist comment about my girlfriend. We walked away at that point.

It surely should be clear about access to the garages/right of way and ownership of land. Some posts on here and other sites say people can park where they want, while others seem to suggest an injunction could be obtained to stop her parking there. I cant get my trailer out of the garage as and when I want to which is really irritating.

[Peter_Moxon]

If I install a bollard they could park their cars outside their garage and I'd still be unable to get my trailer past their vehicles.

[Ethel Street]

I don't think anyone was saying there was nothing you could do about it, more that it wasn't a criminal offence so you couldn't, for example, call the police. Obstruction/blocking on the public highway would be a different matter, but this is entirely on private land.

 

Ask your solicitor's advice. The standard advice for all neighbour disputes is try resolve them informally as going to the courts is expensive, almost always destroys neighbourly relationships and you may not get the outcomes you want, or find them hard to enforce. Although it sounds like your neighbourly relationships couldn't get much worse!

 

I assume from you have said that all the 5 garages are used by the freeholders who own them and none of them are let out or owned by a different landlord?

 

 

Don't put up bollards. I'm sure that all that would happen is they would move back to in front of their own garage and you'd still be blocked in. Or even put up bollards themselves to block access past their garage even when the cars weren't there.

[Peter_Moxon]

All 5 garages are owned by the freeholders and the "forecourt is a shared right of way" according to the deeds

[stu007]

Hi

 

Have a wee look at this link: https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax (check the vehicle registrations to see what it says)

 

Something else that I was thinking is you mention Right of Way.

 

The neighbours have no need to access your specific Right of Way (i.e. where they have parked in front of your garage) so this is just my opinion in there actions in doing this they have obstructed your legal Right of Way to access your Garage so this may then crossover into Trespass.

 

Not my specific area so see what others say.

Edited September 11, 2018 by stu007

[ericsbrother]

then you have misled this forum with your copy of the deeds and you cant put a bollard up and they cant park. So, are they the owners of the house or are they tenants? If the latter you give their landlord a hard time as unltimately it is they who will foot the bill for the tenants bad behaviour. If they own the property that has a garage then it will be much harder to resolve this without a great deal of animus as already said.

 

 

The thing about a lot of these private parking thread is to that poeple employ some bandit to maage the parking and those companies dont actually enforce aprking control, they just use it as a licence to make money to no-one other than themselves benefit. As this is usually doen wrong we challenge their right to make money from this. When it comes to people's own land or rights we try and suggest ways fo getting the result that is best for the poster with the least trouble. anyone can sue anyone for anything and it is only whe it gets to court do you know what the actual legal truth of the matter is but there are always costs involved, even when you win.

 

 

 

 

So are the inconsiderate parkers tenants or freeholders?

All 5 garages are owned by the freeholders and the "forecourt is a shared right of way" according to the deeds

[Peter_Moxon]

My solicitor has confirmed following:

 

The land included on the Title plan within the red boundaries belongs to you. You are permitted to park on the land as it belongs to you, and I cannot see any restriction within the Transfer prohibiting this.

The Transfer makes reference in Schedule 2 paragraph 3 to a right over the forecourt coloured brown, which is reserved for all other persons entitled to. This is likely to be the owners of the other garages but without seeing all the title documentation for each property, we would not be confirm the specifics of each person and their right. However, In Schedule 1 paragraph 4, you are granted a similiar right over the forecourt in brown.

 

Each owner can only park within the land they own and should not park within land owned by any other person, or this may be considered trespass.

I hope this clarifies

[king12345]

"forecourt is a shared right of way"

 

Key wording in the deeds.

However they could argue that you still have right of way but not vehicular access.

Full wording of the deeds needs to be looked at, otherwise it's just trespass.

[Ethel Street]

OK, what your solicitor says clarifies the legal position, but what does the solicitor say you can do about it if you are being prevented from using your right of way because access has been blocked?

[ericsbrother]

when are you going to tell us about the status of the inconsiderate parkers, as said their status makes quite a difference as to how you approach this