Parking Wars. How Do You Prove Sovereignty Over A Strip Of Tarmac

[nellypope]

Neighbors, what a nightmare. I need to prove that a parking space my husband uses is actually a visitors spot and does not belong to a particular neighbor in our cul-de-sac. Bit of a long story, all the parking in our close is allocated and indicated clearly by the relevant house number painted on the tarmac in each space. There used to be two visitors spots a big V was painted one each spot.

However back in 2009 some rather debatable characters moved into a particular house in our close and in the dead of night (or very early morning) a neighbor witnessed them painting their house number over the V, it made no difference as all of us who live in this close were aware of it, so we just ignored it. It was visitor's space after all. However fast-forward to now, new people have moved in and the letting agent is charging rent apparently for this extra space and threatening us because we park there. So we need to let the agent know that this is a visitor's spot.

Will the Land Registry hold such information, can I source it from them, where can I get it?

[albaqwerty]

My first port of call would be to the Council.

[Gizmonster]

I would have thought, something like this would be on the deeds, so hopefully the land registry should be a good place to try :)

[Old_Geezer]

You can but ask. They have a web site.
Need to await the legal eagles to post though. I'd be concerned that doing nothing at the time somehow allowed them to claim ownership or something over the intervening period. Laws can be strange like that.

[woofgang]

If the road and pavement in the cul de sac has been adopted by the local council, then I suspect that, unless its in the house deeds as a covenant, then no one has any "right" to park anywhere regardless of what is painted on the road. If the cul de sac is in the shared ownership of all the houses, then again i think it will depend on what is written in the covenant. BTW is your husband a visitor?

[Svejk]

mmm. if it is for visitors, should your husband have 'appropriated' it.

[cassa333]

The parking spaces may not be part of the adopted highway. If they are not highway they may be on the deeds and you can get a copy for all the houses in the road (about £8 each).

Are the spaces in a block, outside individual houses or along the roadside?
Are the houses privately owned or HA/council owned?

In the first instance I would write to the agents pointing out the error of the previous people and then just repaint the V!!

[ToraToraTora]

Can you confirm these spaces are not on the adopted highway. Sounds an odd arrangement to me.

[joko]

where are these spaces?
if they are just on the road outside the houses, then you may find they are meaningless anyway - that someone years ago, just painted them on to make life easier and to deter 'outsiders' from parking there

[black_cat51]

but if that is the case, the letting agency SHOULD NOT be charging for it?

[boxtops]

Have a look at the ground plan on your deeds, that's the best place to start, to see how the plots are marked out.

[boxtops]

PS - it's a shame that action wasn't taken 5 years ago, when the painting-out happened - why wasn't it addressed then?

[cassa333]

If you have checked on the deeds and you are sure it is designated visitor parking then point out to the agent that the space does not belong to that property, re-paint the v and park there anyway.

Let the agent threaten you all they like. They are just an agent and can't do anything..