Give owner notice of their liability for damage to my land?

[Satsuma]

I want to give next door's landlord 'notice' that I hold them liable for future repair costs from the damage being caused to my bit of the driveway by their tenants driving 'unauthorised' commercial-weight vehicles over it every day. How best to do so? Should I even advise my own buildings insurers or is that just a massive can of worms being unnecessarily opened?

The block paving around the drain covers and surrounds are already showing signs/sounds of wear from these heavier than normal vehicles passing over multiple times every day and I am worried one day they will give up entirely. I have already taken 1 set of dated photos and plan to do this on an ongoing basis.

Background:
I own the "front" of the drive and next door have a right of way over it to get to their own driveway - I can check exact wording if necessary, but the Land Reg plot shows it within my plot. They own a large vehicle (adapted for personal use) - basically a commercial van size; as well as other actual commercial vehicles parking there (works vans of varying weights). I understand commercial vehicles are not allowed under their tenancy.

(I don't want to get into neighbour dispute territory - and god knows there is sod-all else parking round here - but I also don't want to get stung for repairs not caused by me, on my land!)

MTIA for any advice
Sats

[supremetwo]

The landlord may not know about the business use and the possible negation of his property insurance.

You could talk to the Council re. domestic premises being used for a commercial business.

https://www.gov.uk/run-business-from-home

Permissions
To run a business from your home, you may need permission from your:

mortgage provider or landlord

local planning office - eg if you’re planning on making major alterations to your home

local council - eg if you’re going to get lots of customers or deliveries, you want to advertise outside your home or if you need a licence to run your business

[Satsuma]

It's not business use. One is a commercial size vehicle adapted for private family transport use. There is also one other, sometimes two different works vans parking overnight, not trading at the address or anything.

The van drivers come home from work, and then drive them back again the next day. One of them looks like the sort of van which would belong in a (possibly secure) depot normally so I assume it just means he has a convenient way to get to work each morning. The other is unmarked.

Sorry for not being clear in OP.

[supremetwo]

I own the "front" of the drive and next door have a right of way over it to get to their own driveway - I can check exact wording if necessary, but the Land Reg plot shows it within my plot.

Check the exact wayleave wording.

Most have a clause relating to maintenance.

[melonfool]

"I understand commercial vehicles are not allowed under their tenancy."

I'd check this too as it may be wrong or it may only relate to commercial vehicles in terms of being used commercially at the property.

In terms of the works van, s/he may not have to start from the 'depot' each day, they might get their jobs some other way and be expected to drive directly to their first customer, so they may not have an option but to bring it home (though this doesn't mean they should not take care with the driveway and be responsible for the cost of damage of course).

I'd expect the wayleave to say you share the costs though.

Mel

[Clitheroekid]

I want to give next door's landlord 'notice' that I hold them liable for future repair costs from the damage being caused to my bit of the driveway by their tenants driving 'unauthorised' commercial-weight vehicles over it every day. How best to do so?

In general terms a landlord is not legally liable for the conduct of their tenants.

If it's an estate type house on a modern (i.e. last 50 years or so) development there may well be restrictive covenants affecting the neighbour's title. A very common one is a prohibition about commercial vehicles being parked on the premises.

You do therefore need to check both your title documents and those of the neighbour to see if any such covenants exist. These are easily downloadable from the Land Registry - https://www.gov.uk/search-property-info ... d-registry

If you find any that look hopeful then come back for advice as to how they might be enforced against the neighbour.

[Satsuma]

If it's an estate type house on a modern (i.e. last 50 years or so) development there may well be restrictive covenants affecting the neighbour's title. A very common one is a prohibition about commercial vehicles being parked on the premises.

You do therefore need to check both your title documents and those of the neighbour to see if any such covenants exist. These are easily downloadable from the Land Registry - https://www.gov.uk/search-property-info ... d-registry

If you find any that look hopeful then come back for advice as to how they might be enforced against the neighbour.

It is exactly that sort of house!
I downloaded both the title register and plan for me house from Land Reg (the only documents available) and there is nothing about the drive on them. I do also have old paperwork from the purchase which I can dig out too. And in addition/unrelated to this, my ex-neighbour had previously shown me some tenancy information she had and [from memory] it said something like "commercial vehicles not allowed on the premises overnight". I can contact her again and see if she still has it, if my docs don't turn anything up.

[melonfool]

It might not be in the current tenancy though.

Mel

[Clitheroekid]

I downloaded both the title register and plan for me house from Land Reg (the only documents available) and there is nothing about the drive on them.

That's actually quite unusual. It's often the case that if there are restrictive covenants they aren't set out verbatim, but there's a note (usually in the Charges Register) saying something like: "The property is subject to restrictive covenants as set out in a Transfer dated 2 July 1976 (copy filed)".

If there is such an entry then you need to obtain a copy of the Transfer. If not then I'm afraid that puts paid to that possible solution.

However, for the couple of quid it costs it would also be useful to obtain a copy of your neighbour's title documents, as there may be a covenant on his land that isn't mentioned in your title. Because it can often be difficult to identify which land benefits from restrictive covenants the Land Registry tend to omit any reference at all, so many houses have the benefit of restrictive covenants of which they are wholly ignorant.

And in addition/unrelated to this, my ex-neighbour had previously shown me some tenancy information she had and [from memory] it said something like "commercial vehicles not allowed on the premises overnight".

Unfortunately, even if the tenancy agreement does contain such a prohibition I suspect that your neighbour may be unwilling to enforce it, as it will mean she's in conflict with her tenant. She may well take the view that if she has to annoy one of you then you're likely to give her less grief than her tenant!

[Satsuma]

That's actually quite unusual. It's often the case that if there are restrictive covenants they aren't set out verbatim, but there's a note (usually in the Charges Register) saying something like: "The property is subject to restrictive covenants as set out in a Transfer dated 2 July 1976 (copy filed)".

Ah! You helped out with a key word there CK (sorry, I am but a mere mortal and was looking explicitly for mentions of the driveway )....I looked again and it has this:

(DD.MM.YYYY) A Transfer of the land in this title and other land dated
DD MM YYYY made between (1) aaaaa and (2) bbbbb contains restrictive covenants.
¬NOTE: Copy filed under BKxxxxx.

My plan:
Get my purchase paperwork out.
Buy this BKxxxxx (if the covenant info is not contained within my own paperwork) - looking at the actual ref, it says it covers a number of plots.
Buy neighbours title info from Land Reg

This may take some time due to other stuff happening right now, but I will come back when I have the info to hand.

Many thanks
Sats

[Mike4]

Typically obliquely for internet forum answers, have you actually looked up the weights of these commercial vehicles? Especially unladen you may well find they weigh less than the typical monster 4x4 domestic 'car' favoured by yummy mummies around your way, so perhaps do less damage than a legit vehicle...

A better tack with your neighbour might be to discover the covenant makes them jointly liable for maintenance costs of the shared drive.

[Wizard]

Playing devil's advocate, if things got confrontational are you confident you could demonstrate the vehicles in question were causing any incremental damage?