Issues with neighbours - not sure on Lease wording

Mekrel

Mekrel

Mekrel

Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2004
Posts
8,423
Location
Buckinghamshire
I wondered if anyone can help with an issue I'm having and more specifically, if the lease I have will sort out this issue?

I bought a flat a year ago which consists of 7 flats in the building and 10 parking spaces. Each flat had a numbered space, with three additional spaces that aren't numbered and are for visitors.

However, this has meant the following issues occuring:

  • Two flats getting lodgers and their lodger's cars taking up the already limited parking. One lodger particularly is an issue as they have a car but never use it.
  • The other flat with a lodger will park their car in the visitors bay, leaving their assigned bay for their lodger.
  • Two flats who own two cars will often park their 1st car in a visitors bay and reserve their space for their second.
There is a clause in my lease that reads:
"The Tenant must not assign, sublet, part with possession or charge part only of the Flat or part only of the Car Parking Space."

I assume by saying you must not charge part only of the Flat, this means you can't have a lodger that you charge for? Seeing as you're only charging for the room?

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame people for having a lodger as every little helps with money but I don't see why they should profiteer out of the visitor bays.
 
I think the clause says what you think it does but it will never be enforced. Parking and modern flats doesn’t work either live with it or move.
 
good luck OP the guy across the road from me has a bare minimum of 10 vehicles parked outside his property. sometimes as many as 15.

when i invite people over i have to plan in advance whenever i see a spare spot in the 4 local visitor spaces to park my car there and leave it there so my guests can park in my driveway rather than 2 blocks away and walk.

the guy has now set up cctv over-watching the visitor spaces where at least 3-4 of his vehicles are usually parked constantly. some neighbour parked there and he double parked in behind him blocking him in. just to show you the mentality.

i had a sparky come out last week to fit something and he noticed the 5 commercial vans across the road. he was like your neighbours must be raging. i said there is nothing we can do about it as it's visitor spaces and nobody owns them. he can do whatever he likes. so this is someone who came to do a job and even he noticed there was a massive issue within seconds of getting there. he parked on the road across my drive and noticed the 4 spaces across the road were all taken with more vehicles double parked behind them.

this guy only moved in last year before that there was no issues.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
So whats your issue OP. Do you have visitors that need somewhere to park? Frequently or is it an occasional thing?

Or do you need somewhere to park your second car? ;)
Click to expand...

My issue is there's literally no space for visitors because people are using the visitor bays as their own personal bays. I only have one car, occasionally my girlfriend will stay 2 to 3 nights a week and she'll rarely find a space to park. Now, she doesn't have any god given right to have a space - but that should apply to everyone.

The biggest issue I have is with lodgers taking up the valuable parking space because essentially, the tenant is making money (albeit indirectly) from the visitor bay. I'm a reasonable person and I would prefer not to cause issues for anyone who decides to take in a lodger against the terms of their lease, but it is an avenue I will explore if people aren't willing to be reasonable with parking by telling their lodger to make other provisions when it comes to parking.

The second issue is couples who live together parking in a visitors bay before their own, reserving their space allocated space for their 2nd car.
 
I fell out with the rest of the directors at our block of 36 flats because they wasted so much time, effort, and money trying to enforce parking restrictions on our five spare places. In a world where it's not unusual for two people in a flat to have cars, where many/most visitors will have cars, and when we were situated right next to shops where parking was charged for, there was never going to be a solution. What's been put in place is just penalising legitimate visitors and causing ill-will.

Cars are a wonderful nuisance everywhere. I'm not a big fan of the Uber-type robocar concept, but a world where car ownership is taxed into submission will be the only solution to the current parking nightmare. It'll only get worse until then.

Good luck solving your problem. You'll need it!
 
Can you speak to the freeholders and seeing if they can put a daily permit system/time limit for visitor parking?
 
A charge is similar to a mortgage. You need to check the lease for wording around the visitor spaces.
 
Mekrel said:
My issue is there's literally no space for visitors because people are using the visitor bays as their own personal bays. I only have one car, occasionally my girlfriend will stay 2 to 3 nights a week and she'll rarely find a space to park. Now, she doesn't have any god given right to have a space - but that should apply to everyone.

The biggest issue I have is with lodgers taking up the valuable parking space because essentially, the tenant is making money (albeit indirectly) from the visitor bay. I'm a reasonable person and I would prefer not to cause issues for anyone who decides to take in a lodger against the terms of their lease, but it is an avenue I will explore if people aren't willing to be reasonable with parking by telling their lodger to make other provisions when it comes to parking.

The second issue is couples who live together parking in a visitors bay before their own, reserving their space allocated space for their 2nd car.
Click to expand...

so why don't you park in the visitor bay and let your gf take your reserved spot?
 
Psycho Sonny said:
good luck OP the guy across the road from me has a bare minimum of 10 vehicles parked outside his property. sometimes as many as 15.

when i invite people over i have to plan in advance whenever i see a spare spot in the 4 local visitor spaces to park my car there and leave it there so my guests can park in my driveway rather than 2 blocks away and walk.

the guy has now set up cctv over-watching the visitor spaces where at least 3-4 of his vehicles are usually parked constantly. some neighbour parked there and he double parked in behind him blocking him in. just to show you the mentality.

i had a sparky come out last week to fit something and he noticed the 5 commercial vans across the road. he was like your neighbours must be raging. i said there is nothing we can do about it as it's visitor spaces and nobody owns them. he can do whatever he likes. so this is someone who came to do a job and even he noticed there was a massive issue within seconds of getting there. he parked on the road across my drive and noticed the 4 spaces across the road were all taken with more vehicles double parked behind them.

this guy only moved in last year before that there was no issues.
Click to expand...
Is there any trees around? I’d there is throw some food on the roof and let the birds help you, you might get lucky and have foxes and cats help out too
 
Ah, flats can be a pita. My simple advice is to report it to the management company and see what they think. Limited parking is rubbish for everyone but visitor parking bays should be for exactly that - short term parking for visitors, not permanent use by someone else living there for months on end. Flat owners or the main tenant should always park in the designated bay assigned to the flat.

I let out a flat with the same issue and make sure the letting agent tells tenants it's one parking space ONLY. In the past one of my tenants decided to use spray paint and renumber the parking bays too. I took the **** for that.
 
The management company should consider if the building insurance cover is impacted if owners have lodgers, against lease terms ?

 
Andrew_McP said:
I fell out with the rest of the directors at our block of 36 flats because they wasted so much time, effort, and money trying to enforce parking restrictions on our five spare places. In a world where it's not unusual for two people in a flat to have cars, where many/most visitors will have cars, and when we were situated right next to shops where parking was charged for, there was never going to be a solution. What's been put in place is just penalising legitimate visitors and causing ill-will.

Cars are a wonderful nuisance everywhere. I'm not a big fan of the Uber-type robocar concept, but a world where car ownership is taxed into submission will be the only solution to the current parking nightmare. It'll only get worse until then.

Good luck solving your problem. You'll need it!
Click to expand...
On the other side of the road of where I live they just built about 50 rent & buy flats with a single parking space for each one and a single visitor parking space shared between about 6 of them flats :mad:

Now makes it almost impossible to find a parking space on the side of the road I live on.
Which stops me from being able to go out a lot of the time as I know I will not be able to park my car when I come back home.:mad::mad:
 
Last edited:
Buddy up with other non-mickey taking car owners in the block. Agree to use the visitor spots first and then use your nominated spaces for visitors. A little WhatsApp group to manage it.
 
Only problem you may have is that lodgers are not counted as tenants or sub letting. They are classed as paying guests.. so normal tenancy rules in most leases do not apply
 
I live on a private new build estate, all leasehold, which states that you may only park vehicles on your drive, no commercial vehicles are allowed, you're not allowed to park your car in visitor spaces and you are not to run a business from your home or words to that effect.

In reality, from day 1, most people completely ignored it, yes, the housing developer only built 1 space for 2 bed houses and 2 spaces for 3 bed houses, but we have residents who bought a 2 bed with 1 parking space but have 4 vehicles including long wheelbase commercial vans. The visitor bays are always full of residents cars and half the pavements have cars on, people have also resulted to parking on grass areas that I contribute £180 a year to maintain and completely ruined (someone even parks on a bed of flowers). We also have neighbours who bought a 3 bed with 2 parking spaces, only have 2 cars, but as the spaces are length wise, don't even bother using both spaces. We also have one guy who works for chips away, and seemingly on the side does it separately as he will often have multiple cars on the pavement outside his house to fix dents, resprays etc. We also have someone who always has about 4-5 cars parked on the pavement outside his house right on tight bends for sale.

I contacted the management company, who responded that, if enough people put in complaints they may consider writing to all residents, one resident went as far to get PCSO's involved due to parking on pavements, who, credit to them, knocked on a few doors, but nothing changed.

Luckily, it doesn't really impact me as we have 2 cars and a 2 car width drive, but it seems, there's not a lot you can do if the Landlord/management company don't care.
 
What is making it worse is increasingly both people in a relationship working and in many cases both realistically needing a car with modern working trends, etc. combined with far more families where children are moving out far later and often they also need a car for work, etc.

Something I've noticed changing over the years - the trading estates around my old town used to be a good place to go to learn to drive as they were usually quiet with little on the road parking even during business hours - now they are often double lined with parked cars 24x7 as people park there for work during the day and overflow park there at night from the nearby housing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom