Hobby car dealer: 4 cars: but parks 2 in his driveway & 2 outside neighbours hse.

J

johnd

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A friend has a problem with a neighbour parking 2 cars outside house.

The neighbour concerned has 4 cars but parks 2 in his driveway and 2 outside my neighbours house.

They are not blocking the driveway but are there day and night which means any he cant park outside his own house.

He recently tried to hire a skip but it could'nt be deliverd as the only space left was in front of driveway.

The council won't act, the garda say as the cars are not abandoned they cannot do anything and the neighbour concerned says he has nowhere else to put them.

Neighbour buys and sells cars as a hobby.

Any suggestions please?
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Your friend could park his car across his neighbour's driveway ..thus blocking the other two in. His car would also not be abandoned and he could claim he has nowhere else to park it as he needs his own driveway to accomodate skips.
 
Parking outside neighbours house

There seems to be more and more instances of inconsiderate behaviour between neighbours. Very sad!

Maybe your friend's situation might become more liveable if he organises a local 'neighbourhood care' or neighbourhood watch' group where a part of the local community can manage itself for the common good? Not a quick solution admittedly but otherwise life is hell and s(he) is alone with all the inconveniences. A group in a street or identified area can verbalise (or get into a regular newsletter) some basic groundrules which will make life easier for all and curb the more antisocial elements.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

ACE Ltd said:
Your friend could park his car across his neighbour's driveway ..thus blocking the other two in. His car would also not be abandoned and he could claim he has nowhere else to park it as he needs his own driveway to accomodate skips.
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That's a great solution if you want to diffuse the situation and live in peace for the next few years......:rolleyes:
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

If he buys and sells cars this is not only a hobby but a business venture. If he is fixing them up or selling from the house he needs planning permission for change of use for part of his premises - you could object to this when he applies for it. Also is he making any profit for which he may be eligible for tax so no harm to let revenue know.
 
Parking outside neighbours house

"...........and they all lived happily ever after!" ;)
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

niceoneted said:
If he buys and sells cars this is not only a hobby but a business venture. If he is fixing them up or selling from the house he needs planning permission for change of use for part of his premises - you could object to this when he applies for it. Also is he making any profit for which he may be eligible for tax so no harm to let revenue know.
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I would agree with this. It is crazy that he is using area around house for business purposes
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

I'd agree on that: inform both local council (planning) and revenue (tax), but try and do it on condition your identity won't be revealed to the person concerned.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

I just start with the council complaint, as you suspect/know they are trading without licence. You dont know if they declare the income or not at this stage - they may well do and are entitled to benifit of doubt.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

As mentioned by previous posters, Revenue and Council are your best bets and Revenue are your greatest weapon.

A cousin of mine was in a similar situation not to long ago. Here's how to solve it.

Note down the registration number, car model and colour of each car parked "for sale" over a six month period and the rough dates that each appeared/dissappeared. After c.6 months, it will be more than just 1-2 cars.

After this 6 month period, ring you local tax office and report them making sure you tell revenue that you dont want anyone to know you made the report. Generally Revenue will act more quickly if the complainer gives own name/address rather than anonymous as many anon complaints are cranks. But remember that Revenue CANNOT reveal your name under any circumstances.

Give Revenue the list of car details you collected and the name and address of the person selling them.

Now Revenue has some hard evidence that they can follow up on. As they have the car details, investigators can verify information with vehicle registration people and follow up with the purchasers of the cars to obtain more evidence. They can also follow up with the people who sold the cars to your neighbour. They will ask these people "where did you buy/sell the car.......who bought/sold it et..." Most likely they will also send someone out from time to time to look at whatever cars are on sale and possibly have an investigator posing as a member of the public inquire about buying some of them.

After doing the above, they most likely will have enough hard evidence to prosecute and land him with a huge tax bill and penalties. And all without having to use you as a witness as the evidence in the Revenue case will be that obtained from the sellers/buyers of the cars plus Revenues investigators.

Hitting him in the pocket will put him out of business.

Now if you really want to screw him, AFTER Revenue have dealt with him and he's been officially labelled a car trader, if he is listed in the published defaulters list as such, you can draw the local councils attention to it and get them to hit him with commercial rates back money for using his house as a business premises and also for lack of planning permission.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Wait a minute - has the OP actually talked to the person in question?

The only reference to this was the neighbour saying he has "no where else to put them"

Surely all lines of discussion have not yet been exhausted?

If a neighbour was being belligerently awkward, believe me I would have no qualms in doing what csirl suggested in his/her frighteningly well considered post ;)

But this will all take time - why not see if there can't be some polite, quick settlement first?
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

One assumes that the comment by the OP that they said they'd nowhere else to put them means they tried a reasoned aproach (which I too would recommend as the first thing to do), but that was the result: an unwillingness to do anything.

Brilliant post csirl, by the way!
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

We had a similar problem recently. Neighbour parking their white van in front of our house as they had no room in their driveway. While it wasn't causing any obstruction it was unsightly when we looked out our front window. Don't know what the posters situation is but I just explained to him that he was obscuring the view of oncoming cars for my kids when they were coming out our driveway on their bikes and when we were reversing out. While this was not completely true at least it did not lead to any tensions between us. They now park the car in a parking bay just down the road.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Csirl - I have a relation in Dublin who could do with someone like you living in her estate. They are all fighting over car parking spaces.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

My other pet hate is people parking large commercial vehicles in housing estates. I dont mind small vans which dont take up much more space than a large car, but I do have a problem with larger trucks, HGVs, buses etc.

As far as I'm concerned, if someone parks a truck near my house on more than the occasional basis and there is a company name on the side (as there usually is) - its fair game to ring up the company's corporate HQ in Ireland, seek the highest ranking person who will take the call and ask them why their company is using a residential housing estate to store their trucks?........if they have the council's permission?.......why can they store their trucks on their own premises etc. etc?

Usually solves the problem.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

We live accross the road from a supermarket who are carrying out a big extension at the moment. Two or Three cars are parked daily in our small estate from employees of the supermarket. Can we put up signs private parking only. We feel this could escalate comming up to christmas
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Hi have somewhat same problem with all day parkers in my estate including neighbours' non resident friends and family members using the estate as a car park whilst town centre is nearby, also trucks use estate due to large lane size. Their is not much we can do about neighbours family members but suggest if in worst case scenario with all day parkers, you take registration details and insurance disc details of offenders and leave a note saying you will report them to their insurer for all day parking in residential area. Reasoning, if the area is not declared on insurance as primary parking day time location, it could affect their premiums. Possibly down to the risk of increased traffic, possibly a threat to kids, pedestrians, increasing damage to car through double parking and or malcious damage from residents. I am not certain can any car insurance experts qualify, but would wager the insurers may take a dim view and up the premiums. May not even stand up but maybe an idea -- I would guess you wouldn't even have to call up their insurer before non residents all day parkers would quickly move off.

On the issue of parking etiquette, my estate has a newsletter and we do mention consideration for neighbours. But to be honest, it is proving very difficult. The only really effective way on getting some cooperation is to speak to the neighbours concerned. They don't want problems with their neighbours either, and they may try to reduce the incidents of parking outisde your house somewhat - but dont bank on totally.

Problem is often 2 parent car households extend to 4 or 5 with adult kids. Then rented 4 bed households can have up to six cars at least.

On the issue of trucks, if HGV's park in estates - report them if they block visibility to the Gardai, forcing oncoming traffic to move into opposite lane, this is classed as dangerous parking. Otherwise you can report them to HSE or whatever environmental body if they're is oil leakage from the vehicle eventually being flushed into the drains/environment. I think HGV insurers would have similar issue with residential parking - write to their HQ and threaten local media action. No company likes bad PR.

Goodluck.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Thanks never thought about the insurance and the effect parking could have on the premiums, thats a good angle to start with.
 
Re: Parking outside neighbours house

Jeannie said:
Thanks never thought about the insurance and the effect parking could have on the premiums, thats a good angle to start with.
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Dont think that will work. Insurance companies dont care where you park during the day.

Regarding parking on public roads, im afraid that if there is no yellow line or official "no parking" signs or parking charge then people are entitled to park anywhere they want provided they are not parked dangerously. This includes roads in estates too.

If someone decides to ignore a residents association there is nothing you can do either.

I think the best suggestion for the OP is to contact revenue as other posters have suggested.
 
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