Parking large vehicle on your own land in a residential area

[InitialDave]

This is purely a question of interest, not relating to a neighbour parking a 7.5T recovery truck outside my house or anything like that. Came up when I was chatting with a friend about people building overland campers on the back of 4x4/6x6 ex-army trucks and the like.

Are there any restrictions on the size of vehicle you may park on your own property? I couldn't find anything giving an answer one way or the other.

If you have a pretty normal house in a pretty normal residential area, and you've got a big enough driveway that you can park one completely off the road, could you park a "bigger than a Transit" vehicle there? A 7.5T truck? A 12T rigid truck? An artic? The assumption being it is your own vehicle, only for your own use, not for a business which would bring in things like having an operator licence or operating centre as a requirement.

Should your neighbours decide they object to it, are there grounds for them to do anything about that, or would the response be a polite "it's perfectly legal, jog on"?

Anyone know of a reference that says definitively yes you can or no you can't?

[blearyeyedboy]

Not sure about laws, but covenants exist on some properties. They can be rather odd and specific, and exclude certain activities.

For example, I am not allowed to keep goats. Quite why I'd want a goat in the garden of our suburban house, I'm not sure!

[InitialDave]

blearyeyedboy said:

Not sure about laws, but covenants exist on some properties. They can be rather odd and specific, and exclude certain activities.

For example, I am not allowed to keep goats. Quite why I'd want a goat in the garden of our suburban house, I'm not sure!

A guy I worked with had a similar one, but for pigs. Supposedly the land his house was built on was originally bought from a pig farmer, who didn't want competition from someone if they bought the land. Possibly apocryphal, but makes sense, I guess.

But yes, for the purpose of my question, I'm assuming there's no covenant saying "you cannot park commercial vehicles/large vehicles/pink busses with flowers on them".

[Some Gump]

I know someone that used to park a 7.5t truck on their drive (race tranporter, no signwriting).
It was out of sight of all neighbors, no issues at all.

[rainmakerraw]

Down the road from us currently is a HGV (cab only) on a driveway, a HGV complete with trailer in the adjoining parking place (a 'cut out' from the paved area, next to the road) and a Land Rover 110 parked on a T junction with a trailer big enough to park two 7 series on the back, except it's piled up with rusty parts. All on a residential street. And you think a 7.5T is bad?

[MrJingles705]

Read This

Doesn't seem like there is any law to stop anyone doing it... all the usual things aside (not residing in it, not for business/hire/reward, taxed, MOT'd, insured)

[InitialDave]

MrJingles705 said:

Read This

Doesn't seem like there is any law to stop anyone doing it... all the usual things aside (not residing in it, not for business/hire/reward, taxed, MOT'd, insured)

Thanks! While that appears to be addressing the parking of big stuff on the road, I guess if they're ok with it being on the road, having it on your own land is no issue whatsoever.

My neighbours should be glad I only have a B licence.

[grumpy52]

Privately owned is not a problem, company owned and on an O Licence is another set of rules entirely.
It will be stated in the O licence where the vehicle can be kept when not working .
I had several weeks agency work moving trucks for a national distribution company every night as they had made a hoo hoo with their O licence.

[surveyor]

grumpy52 said:

Privately owned is not a problem, company owned and on an O Licence is another set of rules entirely.
It will be stated in the O licence where the vehicle can be kept when not working .
I had several weeks agency work moving trucks for a national distribution company every night as they had made a hoo hoo with their O licence.

My brother in-law used to drive tankers. He and another driver were working remotely and their long term parking space arrangement fell apart. The temporary stop-gap annoyed someone, and they ended up being given a rep's new company car, and driving back to base in London each day from Weston-Super-Mare.

[rxe]

blearyeyedboy said:

Not sure about laws, but covenants exist on some properties. They can be rather odd and specific, and exclude certain activities.

For example, I am not allowed to keep goats. Quite why I'd want a goat in the garden of our suburban house, I'm not sure!

But now that you know you can't keep goats ... surely all you want is a goat?

More seriously I parked a tractor in my back garden in central London for several years. No grief from the neighbours.

[The Surveyor]

There are Planning restrictions for operating a business from a residential property, mainly to protect the surrounding areas from increased traffic or 'non-domestic' activities.

If there is a large HGV parked at a house as part of the homeowners business then planning approval may be required.

[grumpy52]

A private estate nearby has a covenant of only private cars on the driveways ,no caravans ,campers ,boats ,trailers ,sign written vehicles, commercial vehicles of any type .
Helicopters are permitted.

[GipsyHillClimber]

rxe said:

But now that you know you can't keep goats ... surely all you want is a goat?

More seriously I parked a tractor in my back garden in central London for several years. No grief from the neighbours.

I would love to see a tractor driving through central london, i would also consider the driver of said tractor to be quite brave. I was driving an A8 through Kensington last week and felt like i was holding my breath half the time as had barely a few cms clearance between parked cars and oncoming cars. Give me a single track lane any day!

[rxe]

GipsyHillClimber said:

I would love to see a tractor driving through central london, i would also consider the driver of said tractor to be quite brave. I was driving an A8 through Kensington last week and felt like i was holding my breath half the time as had barely a few cms clearance between parked cars and oncoming cars. Give me a single track lane any day!

The tractor got regular outings on the roads of Islington. Christmas day with a santa hat on mainly. It is a 1946 single cylinder Field-Marshall!

[Matt_N]

grumpy52 said:

A private estate nearby has a covenant of only private cars on the driveways ,no caravans ,campers ,boats ,trailers ,sign written vehicles, commercial vehicles of any type .
Helicopters are permitted.

Same here, doesn't stop people parking caravans and campers on their drives and on the road though.

[Rangeroverover]

we sell many houses in developments where no vehicle over 2m or signwritten is allowed to be parked; its made very clear during the sales process, stuff like discoveries and 4x4s get overlooked but white vans don't.

once all the properties are sold then it seems to relax a bit

[S11Steve]

grumpy52 said:

Privately owned is not a problem, company owned and on an O Licence is another set of rules entirely.
It will be stated in the O licence where the vehicle can be kept when not working .
I had several weeks agency work moving trucks for a national distribution company every night as they had made a hoo hoo with their O licence.

As above, if it is a privately owned recovery truck for moving his own racecar for example, then no O licence is required. Company vehicles are under the O licence control, and that includes where the vehicle is parked at night.

Where there is a grey area lies is with "recovery truck" and what defines it. When I managed a rental operations branch, we had a 7.5t two car transporter that was initially classed as a recovery truck, but after a spot check from VOSA (as it was then) followed by weeks of head-scratching around the definition of "hire and reward" (although we moved our own hire vehicles, we were not directly paid by customers, nor did we charge third parties to move their vehicles), we agreed that it would be better to licence it as a transporter vehicle, rather than recovery.

It's a very complex field, and even for CPC holders, it's best left to DVSA to make the call on whether it is legit or not - https://www.gov.uk/contact-dvsa/y/vehicle-operator...

[herewego]

Since we all like to flout the law surely the main question should be "would my neighbours be upset by this?".

[InitialDave]

herewego said:

Since we all like to flout the law surely the main question should be "would my neighbours be upset by this?".

Well, mine probably wouldn't mind, but you only have to look at some of the threads that appear here to know that there are some neighbours who would be upset by anything.

The question is whether they have grounds for stopping you doing it, and the answer would appear to be "specific covenants aside, no".

I'm all for playing nice with your neighbours and being diplomatic, but sometimes people are just NIMBY s, and it's good to know if you're in the right (or in the wrong - you might get away with it by heading them off with aforementioned niceness/diplomacy before it becomes a debate over what the law says).

[blearyeyedboy]

rxe said:

But now that you know you can't keep goats ... surely all you want is a goat?

Of course! Mind you, I have enough trouble looking after the goldfish.