What is it with new houses and Motorhomes?

[62272]

We moved into a new build (David Wilson Homes) on a corner plot with lots of parking and one of the conditions of our purchase was that our 7.3 metre motorhome could be parked on the drive (variation to covenant) which was duly issued (along with a load of other covenant variations at my request). At the end of the day they want your money, and providing the motorhome can be accommodated they should say yes.

Incidentally the covenant on our estate does not mention motorhomes, it covers caravans, commercial GOODS vehicles over 1000kgs, trailers and boats.

This is the third new build we have had, there are certainly some howlers out there and even my property had some minor issues (in comparison), but I love the modern designs and so long as you do your homework you should pick up a nice property (pay for a professional snagging survey).

 

[Pausim]

As said in #53... A Mine Field..

Restrictive covenants have been around a long time but were little used until the 19th century. Property law is complex.

restrictive covenant Definition | Britannica Money

restrictive covenant, in Anglo-American property law, an agreement limiting the use of property. Known to Roman law but little used in England or the ...

www.britannica.com

 

[EuroTrotters]

I was only discussing this with my wife the other day.

Our house is an estate house. Currently, we have two cars, a van, a caravan and a motorhome on the drive.

The caravan is blocked in. But we can drive anyone of the others out without moving any of the other ones around and we still have visitor parking space on the drive.

I have managed 8 cars, motorhome and a van when we had a family weekend We don’t block anyone’s light or views, including ours.

Some of my clients £2,000,000 + houses can’t fit more than a couple of cars on.

The only issue is that one of the neighbours we share the easement / drive access with (the one that has his own separate, wider but smaller driveway) is …..he hates me.

He originally wanted the house we are in, his wife got her own way with that one.

They had an old motorhome when we moved in. Changed to a caravan, progressed to a beautiful brand new caravan when he retired. Idea being to over winter in Spain. Wife made him sell it.

We get a motorhome and the shit hit the fan. Think green eyed monster .

The house is currently SOLD STC, but we can’t find anything else a, within budget and b, with more than 2 parking spaces.


Still searching …..but we may have to pull out .

 

[Minxy]

Still searching …..but we may have to pull out .

Be careful, if you pull out when the agents have found a legitimate buyer who is able to proceed with the purchase you could still be liable for the selling fees.

 

[EuroTrotters]

Be careful, if you pull out when the agents have found a legitimate buyer who is able to proceed with the purchase you could still be liable for the selling fees.

I guess so. I emailed one of the start at the start who replied to say we only pay when contracts have been exchanged.

The only other way I guess is to stall the buyer and keep trying to find another suitable property. I guess if they back out !

That’s the last thing I want to do . I think it’s very unfair, but genuinely can’t find anything.

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[EuroTrotters]

Be careful, if you pull out when the agents have found a legitimate buyer who is able to proceed with the purchase you could still be liable for the selling fees.

Here

 

[Albacore]

I moved into a new build 5 years ago... I asked at the time whether I could put the caravan on the drive and was told it was ok as long as it couldnt be seen from the road the Developer is very hot on aesthetics! I had it in storage anyway so it was only for a couple of days to load/empty. The van is a bit smaller than the caravan, so I'm now parking on the drive full-time (as storage doesnt do MH's). Luckily my drive is a bit wider than most so I can park slightly diagonally to allow enough space for my Outlander to overlap bonnet/boot to fit them both on. We also have a covenant to say no parking on roads for residents. Yeah, like that one works! My defense,if someone complains, is that at least I am on my drive and not blocking the road with a car (like all the others do).

 

[Steve and Denise]

I like new but could not find anything that Was of any quality with the space we wanted in our area, so bought a plot and built our own, that was 15years ago and still there

 

[ontheroadagain]

You would have no problems with your neighbours with this house, but getting the motorhome there could prove difficult!

https://www.montgomeryfinlay.com/long-island-lower-lough-erne-enniskillen/810791

 

[Pausim]

You would have no problems with your neighbours with this house, but getting the motorhome there could prove difficult!

https://www.montgomeryfinlay.com/long-island-lower-lough-erne-enniskillen/810791

No street view available, must be something wrong with it.

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[Mike and Ann]

Been browsing new homes and thinking about moving.

Seems hardly any new houses have sufficient parking area for a motorhome. I get that, space is precious. However, even the ones that do (corner plots etc) have covenants on prohibiting commercial vehicles (understood), caravans (understood) and MOTORHOMES (Scandalous). When we enquire it seems to be a blanket no!

Anyone had a good experience?

The thing is about covenants, as far as I'm aware, is that they are only enforceable by the building company. After a couple of years they don't want to get involved in any tenant issues, as they have moved on, which is why you gradually see caravans, motorhomes and boats appearing all over the new estate. Once you have multiple of these the builders are even less inclined to get involved.

 

[Pausim]

The thing is about covenants, as far as I'm aware, is that they are only enforceable by the building company.

Not necessarily true. See #48. Sometimes only enforceable by developer and sometimes enforceable by others in the neighbourhood with no time limit.

 

[Cornish Crew]

Our cottage was built in 1780, enough room for 3 cars & a motorhome, that's what I call forward thinking

 

[SpeedyDux]

As Pausim says, not only the original developer/builder can enforce a restrictive covenant. When the nearby houses are technically part of a "building scheme" then subject to a few technical legal conditions being satisfied, a nearby homeowner who is bloody-minded and has enough money can bring a civil claim for an injunction and/or damages for breach of the restrictive covenant.

Covenants against caravans tend to be part of the deeds of houses on estates from the 1960s onwards. That's when caravan sites became licensed and regulated. Before that, due to the post-war housing shortage many bombed-out families were renting private caravans, and some greedy homeowners exploited this situation by having several rented caravans in their garden, which became a nuisance. Whether such early covenants that only mention caravans impliedly include a ban on motorhomes or campervans is partly a matter of interpreting the relevant wording, and partly a question whether the only available statutory definition of "caravan" should be used in this context, by default. The High Court has yet to decide the point, as far as I know although there is one reported case in a lower tribunal that says no.

It's complicated. Even qualified lawyers find it a tricky subject.

 

[Gillygrim]

When we swapped our camper for a motor home in 2006 we parked outside the house, on the road. We have a terraced 1930s house with a rear access lane. I was anxious to get the new moho off the road to avoid upsetting the neighbours so at the age of 65 (me) and 75 (John) we set to with picks, shovels, pneumatic drill etc and by losing half the 1930s useless garage (now John's shed) we created a hardstanding 7m x 4m, strong enough to land a Boeing 707 on. We did every bit ourselves, took two months but eventually we proudly put Lucy on her new home. Within weeks we noticed several vans appearing on the road and now fight to find parking anywhere near the house.

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[minesapint]

Been browsing new homes and thinking about moving.

Seems hardly any new houses have sufficient parking area for a motorhome. I get that, space is precious. However, even the ones that do (corner plots etc) have covenants on prohibiting commercial vehicles (understood), caravans (understood) and MOTORHOMES (Scandalous). When we enquire it seems to be a blanket no!

Anyone had a good experience?

Most new houses these days dont even have enough parking for the family cars.

We were lucky and found a 1960s house with a decent size drive, we had the drive paved and an area on one side laid with porous material for the motorhome to stand on.
No modern homes gave us the room for a motorhome, and some banned parking one.

 

[Howard B]

We were lucky and found a 1960s house with a decent size drive, we had the drive paved and an area on one side laid with porous material for the motorhome to stand on.
No modern homes gave us the room for a motorhome, and some banned parking one.

View attachment 734044 View attachment 734045

Looks similar size to our front , though we left the top 40% gravelled

 

[PaddyM]

We have restrictive covenants on the barn conversion where we live , we adhere to them ( as does everyone else ) which protects the unique nature of the beautiful place we live .
The ultimate sanction of breaking the covenant is that the breaker can have their property seized and sold ( really , it’s there in black and white in a legally binding document)
We are a limited company of ten directors with legal cover to enforce the covenant.
The covenant states no motorhomes to be parked permanently on site but I negotiated an exemption to have the motor home on site for a 24hr period prior to a trip away which I adhere to to the letter .
Our uber strong covenant has helped maintain our unique and amazing community and property .

 

[Lenny HB]

In our road the houses and bungalows have a convenant on them restricting caravans a bit strange as most were built in the 30's & 50's.
Our house was built in the 60's on an odd plot next to fields, no covenant.

Lost the original single garage in the great gale just after we moved in. Built large double garage onto the house extended the drive past the garage for a caravan. There is a shed there now but still have enough drive for the Motorhome and 4 or 5 cars,

 

[Mr B]

We’ve lived at our house since 2010. It was built circa 1928, and one of the 1st things I did was to measure the distance of the drive space between our house and next door. It started off with our caravan ( and stored the in-laws for a while).
Then our A class, and now our present van. It also doubles as an escape room for me when the grandkids sleep over lol

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[Coastal Cruiser.]

Built 3 houses in part of my garden with intentions of selling or renting 2 then moving into the 3rd one, made a spot for the van with a electric/water bollard
Had a silly offer and sold it before we moved in
Mrs CC was not happy

 

[uzsnowdrop]

Not allowed to park any shepherds hut with wheels ( includes bathing machines) here….
Damn it.

 

[Shrimp]

When we got our 1930’s detached house the only covenant we had was no Chickens or Geese to be kept!
These modern build houses don’t often have much character to them, and definitely not a lot of space!

 

[VXman]

We live on a 80's built estate in Milton Keynes. Reasonable large front and rear gardens, drives, garages (ours is a double at the rear with room for 4 cars on the drive so 7.5metre motorhome with ease. No idea about whether we have a covenant on the property or not.)

When we moved here in 1993 we were on the edge of town. Across the road (the old A5 - Watling street - Historic Roman road) was fields of sheep and cows.


This land has now become a massive housing estate with secondary school, primary schools, health centre etc etc. The planning of the estate is in complete contrast to ours - 3 story houses directly onto the road (no front gardens). Lots of terraced housing. 4 storey blocks of flats. No where to park a car let alone a motorhome. And the 4 bed houses here cost £500,000 plus!! This is the way most of the new estates in Milton Keynes have been designed. Its all about how many houses/flats the developer can squeeze into a plot. The council have given up on demanding well designed estates with space like they did in the 60's -80's. It's now just about money.

On another tack. When I was out walking in a slightly more 'working class' area recently (old semi detached ex council houses) I was surprised at the number of large motorhomes outside their houses. One reversed right up against the front window - no light to the front room at all. Next to it he had a shed! In the front of the house!!! Wouldn't want to be his neighbour!