bernie-woman
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enforcing deedsThink I need some legal help here - 
I need to know if you can ever revoke conditions set in property deeds and/or if you can ever enforce those conditions
It might help if I explain the situation. My parents next door neighbour has just bought a huuuuge camper van and parked it on his drive alongside his two cars. This guy has a huge and very wide drive but he has chosen to park this van acoss a window on the side of my parents house blocking all light out of the corridor which runs the depth of my parents house.
My parents who have always got on really well with all of their neighbours (this guy has lived there about 5 years and him and his wife keep themselves to themselves but they always exchange pleasantries) asked whether the van could be moved away from their window and at once this guy got very defensive and started telling my parents how beautiful his camper van was and how they shouldn't have a side window anyway (despite the plans for the window being passed in the 1970's) - he has moved the van about a foot away from the window but it is still blocking a huge amount of light from the corridor and as a consequence the kitchen.
My parents had a look at their deeds which clearly states that no work vans, caravans or mobile homes should be left on the drives of the houses however, the deeds also state that no cars should be left on the driveways after 11 at night (virtually everyone down this road leaves their cars on the drive)
They mentioned in passing that the deeds said this to their neighbour, which appears to have been a huge mistake as he is now saying he will only move the van if everyone puts their cars away, which he knows many of the houses would be unable to do as many have single garages and two cars and he spent some considerable time on Friday night taking photos of everyones driveways whether they had cars on them or not (are people allowed to just take photos of your home without permission)
My parents now wish they had never mentioned the deeds and are worried that he is going to make everyone down the road put their cars away at night and/or do nothing about moving his van.
He is being very unreasonable as this guy has a massive driveway which could probably fit 5 or 6 cars but he says that he cannot move his van to the other side of the driveway (which was all my parents wanted) as his wife would have to reverse at an angle off the drive - I am feeling very cross with this guy as quite a few of the neighbours feel quite intimitated by him taking photos of their houses and driveways.
Anyone got any advice on a way forward with this????
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Frewen
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Is there a mediation service that your parents and this neighbour could use? I don't know about enforcing deeds (sorry). I know they can be revoked but have no idea about how you would go about it. I guess the land registry would be the people to talk to.
My experience with neighbour disputes has shown me that trying to keep the lines of communication open dramatically improves the chances of a resolution.
Sorry to hear your parents are having problems
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dougal
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The legal processes involve the courts.
A Court can set aside Covenants on the Land - but needs persuading that such an action is justified. Consult a lawyer!
Enforcement of Covenants is by the disadvantaged party to the Covenant (or named beneficiary) suing the party breaching the Covenant. Its basically a breach of contract. Again, consult a lawyer!
Massively simpler, cheaper, and a better move for future relations would be to sort things out without raising the stakes and getting lawyers involved.
Are there any mutual friends (other neighbours?) that could help you reach a compromise that everyone could manage to live with?
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bernie-woman
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| dougal wrote: | | Are there any mutual friends (other neighbours?) that could help you reach a compromise that everyone could manage to live with? |
Not since he started taking pictures of their driveways at 11 o clock at night no - in fact bizarrely it is my parents who were the only neighbours who had made any in roads with this guy and his wife. in fact they have always looked after his plants in the garden and taken in parcels etc.. for them when they have been away - the majority of the other neighbours have found him quite rude
I don't think for one minute my parents want to go down any legal road at all, I just want to be forearmed with info should he take it any further - they are just very upset at the unreasonableness of the guy to not even consider parking it on the other side of his drive and you can't reason with unreasonableness 
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Behemoth
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Re: enforcing deeds | bernie-woman wrote: | | his wife would have to reverse at an angle off the drive |
Is this a real problem? Is she a poor, nervous, hesitant driver, or does he not trust her?
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bernie-woman
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Re: enforcing deeds | Behemoth wrote: | | bernie-woman wrote: | | his wife would have to reverse at an angle off the drive |
Is this a real problem? Is she a poor, nervous, hesitant driver, or does he not trust her? |
Not a real problem at all - at its widest the drive would fit at least four cars across its width - if he moved the van to the other side of the drive she would easily be able to park behind it and reverse straight or park to the right hand side of the van and still be able to reverse straight - he doesn't want to move it to the other side as he will have to look at it all of the time - despite him telling my parents that he can't understand what the problem is as it is a beautiful piece of machinery 
Was talking it through with some friends last night at the pub, one set of which live behind this guy and they were telling me that when he cut his apple tree down (which is a crime in itself  ) a fairly large chunk fell on their fence and broke it and when they went round to mention it to him he said "prove it" and shut the door in their faces - the man is a complete twat and also happens to be a headmaster of a school
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dougal
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Re: enforcing deeds | bernie-woman wrote: | | ... the man is a complete twat and also happens to be a headmaster of a school |
So probably likely to be a bit sensitive about publicity... (and rather newsworthy).
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JB
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Re: enforcing deeds | dougal wrote: | | bernie-woman wrote: | | ... the man is a complete twat and also happens to be a headmaster of a school |
So probably likely to be a bit sensitive about publicity... (and rather newsworthy). |
But might also be perfectly capable of managing the media himself. "Local headmaster in neighbour row" could easily be spun to be "Local headmaster victimised by neighbours"
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Cho-ku-ri
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Aghh... his 'Achilles’ Heel' tell him he is blocking out your elderly parent's much needed light and that you are going to expose him to the press about his selfishness, and perhaps having such selfish headmasters is what is making pupils (I don't really believe this) more self centred. Take photos and write your story yourself asking him if he would like to make any comments before you send it into the press. He will move it. If your parents have glasses you can also describe them as visually impaired. 
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Cho-ku-ri
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Find out his phone number and we could all call him and tell him to move it. If he has been told his phone number is on an internet forum he will freak out. Don't really post it, just p.m. it to those willing to phone him. I will. Am I evil? 
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JB
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Realistically no teacher will ever have a phone number that isn't ex-directory so you would probably not be able to make that threat. More to the point if you did want to use the media then making any such threat would just allow him to use the media to his advantage.
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Cho-ku-ri
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bernie-woman's parents looked after his house, they will probably have is number, anyway how on earth is he ever going to look good if this went to the press? He is just trying to bully the neighbourhood. If he is blocking light, he can't get away with it. He could pay to put his motor home in storage. He is on a big wage.
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Treacodactyl
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He sounds like too many dodgy neighbours these days.
While checking the deeds were there any house plans? IIRC I've lived in a house where the drives went down the outside of the neighbours house but the plans showed the land wasn't owned by the neighbour. I.e. when the houses were built they were in the middle of the plot but each house holder let their neighbour have a few foot of land so drives could be built. It might turn out your parents own part of the drive the van's parked on.
If an amicable settlement can't be reached then I suppose a light in the hall?
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JB
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| Cho-ku-ri wrote: | | ... anyway how on earth is he ever going to look good if this went to the press? |
| Quote: | Headmaster victimised by neighbours
Mr X, headmaster of the highly acclaimed local academy, has become a victim of neighbour rage after he was threatened by neighbours who objected to him parking on his own property. Quote "The issue started after neighbours insisted I park my own vehicles against my front door blocking my wife from going out. When I attempted to reason with the neighbours they threated me telling me that they would publicise my phone numbers on the internet to start a campaign of harrassment"
This is not the first time Mr X has been threated though. In a previous incident he was threated simply because he was using his own rear garden. That time his fences were damaged and a neighbour came to his front door threatening him with a branch of a tree which had been sawn off his own apple trees.
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Something like that perhaps?
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Northern_Lad
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| JB wrote: | Mr X, headmaster of the highly acclaimed local academy, has become a victim of neighbour rage after he was threatened by neighbours who objected to him parking on his own property. Quote "The issue started after neighbours insisted I park my own vehicles against my front door blocking my wife from going out. When I attempted to reason with the neighbours they threated me telling me that they would publicise my phone numbers on the internet to start a campaign of harrassment"
This is not the first time Mr X has been threated though. In a previous incident he was threated simply because he was using his own rear garden. That time his fences were damaged and a neighbour came to his front door threatening him with a branch of a tree which had been sawn off his own apple trees.
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Coo, you could get a job in pottylicks with spin like that.
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bernie-woman
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| JB wrote: | This is not the first time Mr X has been threated though. In a previous incident he was threated simply because he was using his own rear garden. That time his fences were damaged and a neighbour came to his front door threatening him with a branch of a tree which had been sawn off his own apple trees.
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Very good except it wasn't his fence which was broken it was my friends
However...
neither me nor my parents want to get into a 'neighbour war' with this - if he doesn't move the van, then my parents will have to live with a darker kitchen - the window is a side window and in the winter the back door is shut permanently so they won't be able to see it - they are all too aware that it could be much worse (they were aware of the difficulties we had when living in a terraced house which we had to move from due to neighbour difficulties) my parents are just deelpy disappointed in his recation to what was a perfectly reasonable request 
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Cho-ku-ri
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What a shame if he wins. I hate bullies that win.
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Cho-ku-ri
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| JB wrote: |
Something like that perhaps? |
No, because the newspaper would have to get both sides of the story. The fact that he is breaching his titled deeds and blocking out daylight form a partially sighted elderly couple in their retirement home leading to SAD depression may make him look like the greedy so-and -so he is. Any figure in a position like his will not want his embarrassing story or home address published in the newspaper.
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Northern_Lad
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| Cho-ku-ri wrote: | | No, because the newspaper would have to get both sides of the story. |
What? While I agree that they should get both sides of the story, they rarely do.
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JB
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| Cho-ku-ri wrote: | | JB wrote: |
Something like that perhaps? |
No, because the newspaper would have to get both sides of the story. |
"have" to? Realistically when have you ever seen a newspaper, any newspaper, offer a balanced view of all sides of a story? Particularly on local papers where TBH a reporter will have 30 minutes to bash something together and anything will do as long as it has a good headline.
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Cho-ku-ri
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The whole thing will never get that far. Just threaten the bully with the bad publicity. That will intimidate him the most and settle the argument without the need to go anywhere near the papers. I suggest bernie-woman acts promptly on her own with this threat, and leave her poor parents out of the debate. That way they can look each other in the eye in future. Good luck bernie-woman, I'm sure your parents would have stood up to bullies for you if you had needed help in the past.
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bernie-woman
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| Cho-ku-ri wrote: | | I'm sure your parents would have stood up to bullies for you if you had needed help in the past. |
Yes I am sure they would but then again they also taught me that you do not get the better of a bully by being as much of a bully as they are and engaging in equally as intimidatory behaviour
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Cho-ku-ri
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Good luck to whatever route you take .
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