parking in front of my home

[MrJuice]

I live on a main road. There is some limited off street parking. No residents bays, no permission to make driveways on my block. Consequently, parking nearby has been a problem for some years. Then a few years ago, the council gave permission for a fairly big house builder to build a block of flats opposite us. 51 homes were built along with 16 parking spaces. On completion, parking became a bigger issue because those that didn't have a car space but did have a car would want to park where we used to park. All fine and legal. Annoying that I have to park several minutes away, especially when the baby is with me.

Now, there's a nearby estate agent. He buys a toyota hiace and parks it on our road with a for sale sign in the window. Not okay. I call the council several times over several months and nothing was ever done. I suspect this was because my complaint was not passed on to the correct person. It would always take at least 20mins of holding before you spoke to someone which is the reason why I didn't chase them. Then one day, I came home mid afternoon, to find there was no parking. I was pissed off. Called the council and finally got the name of the official who deals with this type of st. He was on answerphone, but called back. I explained the problem. He said he would visit. The hiace had by that point, been parked for sale for about 7 months. never once moved in that time. Council guy tells the estate agent the problem and estate agent opens the car and takes the for sale signs out. Fine, all legal. He can leave his hiace there long term just as much as anyone can.

Then I checked on dvla about his road tax. It expired on 01 Feb. So I called dvla. Not interested. They said call police or council. Called police. Not interested. They said call dvla or council. Called council. They interested but only after 62 days has elapsed from tax expiry.

Can anyone advise on what to do. This pisses me off daily because the estate agent is taking the piss.

Edited by MrJuice on Thursday 19th March 15:33

[MrJuice]

because it is parked up permanently, it doesn't get picked up on cameras.

[MrJuice]

I did try speaking with him. I explained I have nowhere to park. He looked out his window and by chance a space became available so he said I can see a space now. This was on the phone.

He's a that doesn't care less about the next man.

[MrJuice]

it was up for sale. it is otherwise unbranded. just happens to be owned by an estate agent whose shop is nearby

[MrJuice]

Jezzerh said:

How the hell were they allowed to build 51 homes with only 16 car spaces?? What the hell did they think would happen?

I met another estate agent through work once who told me he went from selling houses to selling land on behalf of local authorities and schools etc. he said, as agents, they would sell the land to the developer that gave the biggest back hander in cash. He said that planners, councillors and other officials were all on the take. Not uncommon to get 10k in cash on a fair sized bit of land. This was paid by big house builders. Household names.

That's how 51 homes were built with 16 car parking spaces.

[MrJuice]

I don't want to talk to the guy face to face because I have a 15k car that I park on the same road. He wanted 3.5k for his hiace. If it turns ugly and/or heated, he has a 15k car to cause small but expensive damage to. He might not. But equally, he might.

Right now he doesn't know who I am beyond being a resident of one of the twenty houses on the block

It is a working class area in zone five of london. 350k for a three bedroom terraced house.

[MrJuice]

Fitz666 said:

How about an ad on Gumtree for the vehicle, £250 for sale ASAP due to divorce, give the EA's shop number as contact?

Genius

Thank you for that gem