Keeping a boat at home

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seafever

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Hi All
Has anyone that owns a trailer sailer and keeps it at home had any problems with their local planning department? I have owned a sailfish 18 for over 8 years and have kept it at home without any objections, however a new neighbour has complained and I have been told to get rid of the boat off my property. Is there anyone out there that has been affected by this type of action or has any information that may help
 
I've had 5 cars, boats, caravans etc in front of my house, on the drive and the cars on the road with no problems BUT some areas don't allow caravans and alike to be parked in front of your house.

Usually this information is seen when you receive your deeds/documents to the property - it all depends on your area I'm afraid. Areas ususally effected are private estates, conservation areas and housing estates - worth checking yourself first before entering into correspondence with the complainer with nothing better to do!
 
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You need to look at your deeds and see if there are any covenants restricting the parking of boats, caravans, horse boxes, trailers, etc. Our last house covenants stipulated none of the above to be forward of the building line, current house says nothing parked where it can be seen from the road. If you don't have restrictive covenants, tell him to "go away".
 
seafever said:
Hi All
Has anyone that owns a trailer sailer and keeps it at home had any problems with their local planning department? I have owned a sailfish 18 for over 8 years and have kept it at home without any objections, however a new neighbour has complained and I have been told to get rid of the boat off my property. Is there anyone out there that has been affected by this type of action or has any information that may help
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who told you to move her
 
colhel said:
We have a covenant on our property that doesn't allow boats,caravans or commercial vehicles between our property and the main road, ie.front drive.
I don't know who enforces it, or how.
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I'm not a lawyer, but I believe covenants have to say whose benefit they are created for in order to be valid. That person is also the (only) one who can enforce them. In many cases they don't specify this, so really could be ignored, but people are scared to.

Fortunately I don't have any convenants on my property that restrict things I'd like to do. I am not allowed to turn my house into a school, church, pub, or gravel-pit (!), and I am also not allowed to erect a stationary steam engine on the premises :)

Pete
 
I used to own a house that had a convenant saying "no caravans or trailers" but it didn't stop me keeping a caravan.

Often, these covenants are just there imposed by the builder, to stop you doing anything outrageous while the development is still being built / sold.

Once the builders have finished and moved on, they have little or no interest in enforcing them.

I think an important thing in the OP's case is how long have you been keeping boats and trailers at your house? More than about 10 years and your qualify for established use and they can't stop you continuing.

But unless there's a covenant, they can't stop you anyway.

I can never understand why people put up with these restrictive covenants. I only did on my first house because I didn't know any better. But when looking for subsequent houses, that was one of my first questions at a viewing, and restictive covenants removed that house from my list.

EDIT:

I've just re read read the OP. "New neighbour"

Tell him to Foxtrot Oscar and go and buy a different house somewhere else as you have been doing this LONG before he CHOSE to buy a house close to you.
 
We used to park a trailer boat on our driveway, a neighbour told us we were not allowed to, a covenant was in force. We could see that other house owners had parked boats and caravans on their driveways. We checked with the solicitor, he said that the original builders of the houses had made the covenant but the builders had ceased trading over 20 years ago. For anyone wanting to stop the parking now, they personaly would have to mount a challenge and pay fot it, once the neighbour was informed of this, he kept his hands in his pocket and shut up. We had already agreed between the parkers that we would chip in and fight any challenge to our parking. the parking of boats and caravans continue to this day.
 
I think you have to look at the other side of the coin. Would you feel agreived if one your neighbours parked a rusty old pick up full of scrap metal and another neighbour parked his caravan etc etc ?
We pay to store our caravan and boat away from the house, this we feel gives us the moral right to complain if someone makes a mess of the neighbourhood.
 
colhel said:
I think you have to look at the other side of the coin. Would you feel agreived if one your neighbours parked a rusty old pick up full of scrap metal and another neighbour parked his caravan etc etc ?
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This is one VERY important thing for me when I choose a house.

There MUST be sensible space for parking boats, caravans, trailers etc on the property. By sensible I mean tucked somewhere alongside the house out of the way, where it's not an eyesore.

Far Far too many houses are built with no sensible provision for anything other than one car on a drive in front of the garage. To me, I would not find it acceptable to have such a house and then fill the front garden with boats and caravans, regardless of what the neighbours might think.

And by way of recipricating, it is also very important to me that the neighbours also have adequate provision for what they want to keep on their property.

I remember when looking for my second house, I viewed and ruled out a LOT of houses because the parking was inadequate, to the point that one of the estate agents labelled me as a time waster.
 
planners

the planners have allowed an awful lot of awful building. not enough space for one person to live, no paring, no access, on flood plains, the list goes on. but I guess, like all berauracrats thet ave to justify their pay somehow

England is a nation brimmimg full of jobsworths
 
colhel said:
I think you have to look at the other side of the coin. Would you feel agreived if one your neighbours parked a rusty old pick up full of scrap metal and another neighbour parked his caravan etc etc ?
We pay to store our caravan and boat away from the house, this we feel gives us the moral right to complain if someone makes a mess of the neighbourhood.
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+1
I keep my trailer sailer away from the house unless I'm packing to go away or doing work on it. We're not overlooked, and when on the drive the boat is behind the building line. The only person to complain so far is my wife!
 
That's shocking, I have a yacht and a speedboat at the back of my house, and yes I have neighbours but It's never ever even crossed my mind that someone would complain.

You don't have nice neighbours my friend, report them for dog barking, even if they don't have a dog lol.
 
ProDave said:
Far Far too many houses are built with no sensible provision for anything other than one car on a drive in front of the garage. .
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Absolutely correct.....and I think Prescott might have something to answer for. Not that long ago I attended a planning appeal in our village; the main arguments seemed to centre around how many parking spaces per dwelling. The "inspector" determined that an overall provision of 1.5 cars per dwelling was the MAXIMUM that should be allowed. This is a leafy-lane suburb in an area where most existing properties can easily accommodate at least 3 cars.
 
VicMallows said:
Absolutely correct.....and I think Prescott might have something to answer for. Not that long ago I attended a planning appeal in our village; the main arguments seemed to centre around how many parking spaces per dwelling. The "inspector" determined that an overall provision of 1.5 cars per dwelling was the MAXIMUM that should be allowed. This is a leafy-lane suburb in an area where most existing properties can easily accommodate at least 3 cars.
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That's a turn around.

I recall someone I used to work with wanted to extend his house to add an extra "bedroom" that he intended to use for an office.

His application was turned down, as then, you had to have one parking space per bedroom, and he didn't have enough space to create an extra parking space.

Instead he built a conservatory and used that as an office.
 
richardabeattie said:
Frustrating when the OP disappears! Will we ever know who told him he coudn't?
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(S)he is still a new user, so have to get their replies vetted by a hooman bean in a 9 to 5 office before the replies appear here. Patience, Grasshopper.

We kept a 22' blige keel sailing boat on a trailer at the bottom of our garden over winter for several years. It didn't provoke anything other than curiosity and loads of conversations with passing strangers with boaty connections. It was damned convenient for doing odd jobs, too.

(Well aware of restrictive covenants from a previous house. There are none on our current house, but we are 'beneficiaries' (?) of restrictive covenants on some nearby houses which stop them planting trees, etc. amongst other things.)

Andy
 
ProDave said:
His application was turned down, as then, you had to have one parking space per bedroom, and he didn't have enough space to create an extra parking space.
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Near my parents' there was a development that was originally planned with two parking spaces for the smaller houses and three for the bigger ones. The council objected and said they could only allow one per house. This in a village with minimal public transport (couple of buses a day to places you don't want to go) and where the prices practically guaranteed two or three car families. Madness.

More recently, the same thing has happened here in Southampton (fortunately not too near me), with predictable impact on the residents around the new development as the occupants try to park on the streets.

Pete
 
Our last house in East Yorkshire was built on Trinity House land and had an enormous range of covenants on it.
No one on the small estate seemed to take any notice of it and it would seem that it would have to have been Trinity House who objected to enforce the covenants.

The OP didn't say who had told him to desist.
If it is just a letter from the arsehole neighbour's solicitor it can be pretty safely ignored. They are just trying it on. Most unlikely they would pay real money to take it to the next level.
Even if they did complying with an injunction would solve the problem.
 
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