Am i allowed to park my van on my drive?

Hi, just been speaking with my busy next door neighbour regarding my van (astra van so looks more like an estate, not your typical ford transit), and she said that our deeds states we can't park it on the drive apparently not that it bothers her apparently, i have dug the deeds out and the exact wording is '' the property shall not be used otherwise than as a private house and a garage for a private car'' we don't have a garage just a driveway that fits 2 cars, my private car and my astra van. A separate line in the deed says ''no caravan shall be kept or used on the property and no boat shall be kept on this property if it would be visible from other parts of the estate''. So it does not state a van on a driveway anywhere on the deed, the closest part was about garage fror private car, but we don't have a garage.

is it safe to say i'm ok, i just want to have a few cheeky digs at the old lady next door

An Astra van is very similar in size to your normal sized SUV but without windows, and no where near as large as a caravan or a boat which would block a view of the street from your neighbors house. You don't have a garage, only the driveway to park your cars. If it was a Ford F 1500 I'm sure that would make no difference either. I believe she has a bee in her bonnet and needs to get over it.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/vans/astra-van-/1085828940

Caravan usually denotes a mobile camper, so you your van should be fine.

An Astra IS a car in the original version, isn't it? As you say, the van version is the same size, just without so many windows. And if you are definitely parked within the boundaries of YOUR land as shown on the map in the deeds, she can't complain about that. Shared driveways are another matter - definitely one for snotty neighbours who need to get a life to kick up complaints about!

Perhaps she is complaining that you have 2 cars… In any case, unless the house is leasehold and she is the landlord, she can't do anything about it. Park away, mate! You just happen to be garaging your vehicles in the open air.

Now this wording is the kind of thing that usually appears in restrictive covenants in deeds (I'm assuming this is governed by English law). If this is in the Charges Register part of the Land Register, which IS your deeds (certainly if you bought the house after 1990 it MUST be a registered one), it's a restrictive covenant. The only person who can enforce them is the person who added them in the first place or their legal heir. Who in practice is almost impossible to trace. Especially if the house has been around a while, they're probably dead and their heirs don't care a fig. Or if the covenants were added by the property developer who built the road, they don't care either once they've built and sold the houses. I've seen the opinion of a solicitor who thought restrictive covenants are a waste of time because of this, but nevertheless the Land Registry are very reluctant to remove them so they just sit there cluttering up the records.

I bet she just doesn't like your van because it makes your house look like the home of a tradesman and "lowers the tone of the area". But of course she can't admit to that without looking like a snob.

On the cheeky dig front, perhaps you could politely thank her next time she points this out, tell her you've checked, it does indeed say A car on the deeds, so could she advise you on who is now responsible for enforcing the restrictive covenants so you can ask them for permission to park two? She probably won't have a clue what you're talking about.

Get a big dog and make it **** in her yard for awhile. Van is not a camper (caravan) she has no leg to stand on. Sounds like she's just a bit jealous and just likes to ***** like most LIBERALS do…