Neighbours repairing vehicles at home

My anti social neighbours across the road from me have a son (who also lives there) who has started repairing cars on their driveway. These vehicles do not belong to them. We and other neighbours have complained as they are noisy and do this till 10pm and sometimes later. Complaints have been made against the parents but still it continues.
Surely this is illegal. Do I report this to the police or the council?

Under what law?

If this is a commercial enterprise then it may contravene planning regulations. The local council should be able to advise. Definitely not a police matter.

I spent last Saturday wiring up the tow-bar electrics on my car – was I inadvertently breaking the law?

I spent last Saturday wiring up the tow-bar electrics on my car – was I inadvertently breaking the law?

If you were doing it for money, maybe…

Noise?
Running a business from a domestic property?
Probably not paying proper tax rates on income (or business rates, as it’s still a domestic property)
Environmental health as well (unless they take all the waste to a proper commercial disposal place?)
Health and safety?

Just a few ideas.

I had the same in a rented place ~20 years ago. I couldn’t do with the hassle so i moved.

They won’t have Planning permission for a commercial operation.

Not sure about the law but it might be against the terms of their home (resedential) insurance which likely prohibits a business being operated from the address. But that doesn’t really help you. IIWM I’d complain to them every single day they are up late making a noise, don’t let up, remind them all the time that you are unhappy with them carrying on. Recommend the neighbours do the same.
Are they physically intimidating towards you at all? maybe if you complain to them endlessly they might get angry and threaten you and then you have grounds to call the police, but always remain on the side of the law yourself. 😉
Good luck.

I spent last Saturday wiring up the tow-bar electrics on my car – was I inadvertently breaking the law?

Depends how much swearing was involved. Electrics = copious swearing.

No laws broken, possibly some planning issues, depending on how far you really want to take it.

I have a colleague who had this complaint made against him. But I don’t think he worked late. His comment was what are they going to do about it?

If the noise is after 11:00 I think that can be grounds for complaint. If they are running a car repair business from the drive what law does that break, genuine question.

But if its getting you down my sympathies. In what other ways are they anti social.

If the noise is after 11:00 I think that can be grounds for complaint

11pm – 7am is “night hours.”

If rented complaiun to landlord, if owned the mortgage company, estate freeholders dont allow allow commercial vehicles on their sites, or any working or repairs of vehicles not owned by the home owner.

So is it commercial or is it a group of mates working on each others vehicles on his drive ?

We had a neighbour wanting to convert his garage into a physio treatment room. Council wrote to neighbours who obviously objected..we cited lack ofparking, residential area, entitlement to peaceand quiet. Planning was rejected.

So i would assume home mechanic would be the same.

I am currently wondering if the op is the folk that just moved into my street 🙂

I guess it depends on the size of the operation. Are you sure the son isn’t just buying the cars, repairing and selling on? If so not sure that would be covered by commercial restrictions (especially if just one or two cars at a time). If he’s advertising a car repair business then obviously that’s a different issue.

Family friend used to fix cars in his garage which was down its own country lane. Got stopped because it was not a commercial property and the tax rates were not being paid.

I would guess the fastest way to get it stopped would be to report it to the council tax office, followed by HMRC. The police will likely not care as in terms of crimes it is not so high on their list.

Question to ask yourself is do they have another source of income? If they can’t work etc. will this have a better or worse impact on you?

If they’re doing it at antisocial hours you could go have a word with them and sort something out. No need to go for the big guns straight away, they might be perfectly reasonable.

I had someone on my old street make the same type of complaint against me. I was re-chassising a (my) land rover at the time.

I was doing so at considerate hours and trying to minimise noise, some people just don’t like the neighbourhood ‘going to the dogs’. She used to glower out of her front window at me, pretty sad really.

If they are running a car repair business from the drive what law does that break, genuine question.

Planning. Tax (rates). Quite possibly environmental laws too – car repair shops generate a lot of waste you can’t just chuck in the bin or down the sink.

She used to glower out of her front window at me,

Yeah and still you wouldn’t let us give her the v8 dawn chorus haha.

Anyone is allowed to repair their own vehicle on their driveway. However, if there is excessive noise (particularly any related noise post 11pm), enviro damage, vehicle detritous and they appear to be running a business from their property then that is an issue. If they happen to be tenants then they’ll likely be in breach of their tenancy agreement.

I have worked alongside a multi agency service / police force that deals with these types of complaints. We have evidenced breaches of the Environmental Protection Act to deal with this as reports of Anti-Social Behaviour, the other potent power your local council should consider evidence for is use of the Community Protection Notice (CPN). This power stems from The Anti-Social Behaviour, Police & Crime Act 2014.

The CPN is immensely flexible, the downside is that a decent number of councils woefully shy away from using it. Some councils gave designated authority for their relevant police forces to be able to use CPNs however this is patchy across the country. It forms a 2 stage process but breach of the terms of an issued CPN is usually a £80 or £100 fine. It can’t be appealed once issued and if not paid becomes a criminal offense leading to a criminal record… (I won’t go into the civil liberty arguements for or against this).

We’ve been highlighted as a national leader in appropriate and proportionate CPN use, various high profile Barristers and QCs in this field have referenced us, also used by the Home Office as good practice so my recommendations above are validated!

If they are running a car repair business from the drive

There’s whole raft of environmental stuff that they won’t have in place for a new motor business in a new premises. From waste oil disposal/storage to commercial waste down the foul drains. Environment agency call and let them have some fun.

Been out to top up me washer bottle.

“Yoool NEVA tek me halive cop-pa!” 😀

If they happen to be tenants then they’ll likely be in breach of their tenancy agreement.

This is probably true. Slight aside: our landlords, who we get on well with, gave us a stock tenancy agreement with a clause stating that we wouldn’t “work on any vehicle, apart from routine maintenance” (or words to that effect) on the property. They were unlikely to act on it, and they’re reasonable people, but I got that taken out. Whilst I might considered welding “routine maintenance,” other people may not 🙂

I spent last Saturday wiring up the tow-bar electrics on my car – was I inadvertently breaking the law?

Many many moons ago when id acrimoniously split from an ex, i got a knock at the door, blue coated gent, clipboard and council ID on a string..
“We believe you’ve been repairing cars on your driveway”

Me: I dont think so chap… for a start i’ve got commercial premises so why would i do jobs in the rain when i can be dry and warm…

Oh hold on a minute, I DID do a job on the drive the other day”

Council bods face perks up
“oh really?”

Me: “Yeah, the woman who has obviously sent in your complaint, (insert name) I noticed her rear number plate was hanging off when she came by for a nosey, so i screwed it back in place”

Council bod, now on his frowny face, mumbles “I dont think that counts, Sir, Good day.”
😛

poolman – Member

We had a neighbour wanting to convert his garage into a physio treatment room. Council wrote to neighbours who obviously objected..we cited lack ofparking, residential area, entitlement to peaceand quiet. Planning was rejected.

So i would assume home mechanic would be the same.

Are physio treatments generally noisy and disruptive? I’d be pissed if I got that rejected.

probably more the number of vehicles arriving and leaving + parked up in the neighbour hood.

Are physio treatments generally noisy and disruptive?

No pain no gain