A new law drafted by the Minister for Home Affairs could make parking on private land without permission illegal. At the moment, there is no formal law on parking on private land, meaning that any car, unless illegally owned, cannot be removed.
A trial is to take place in Jersey to see if making ‘nuisance parking’ illegal is successful and cost-effective. The law proposed would allow illegally parked cars to be removed and also make it unlawful for a car to be clamped if left on a driveway or private parking area.
What is nuisance parking?
Nuisance parking, the act of parking on private lands, such as a driveway, without prior permission is currently legal thanks to a loophole in the law. All of this is about to change with the introduction of a nuisance parking law.
Currently, under the Freedom Acts 2012, anyone can technically park on your driveway and not face any consequences such as clamping or towing unless lawful authority has been granted which can often be a long and costly process.
The Minister for Home Affairs in Jersey, Connétable Len Norman, said: “Vehicles that are parked on private land without permission can be a source of great frustration for private landowners. Currently, private landowners have few remedies to deal with the problem, and it can involve a costly legal process. The introduction of this law will make it much easier for private landowners to deal with vehicles that have been abandoned on their land or that are causing a nuisance, obstruction or a potential hazard to the emergency services.”
Pricey parking
Parking can be one of the most expensive hidden costs of driving, with some motorists having to pay up to £8 an hour in central London boroughs, it is no wonder some people choose to park on private land, which is free and can be closer to their destination. However, the cost can end up being on the owner of the land.
Criminal law and civil law become funny when referring to cars parked on private land, as unless the car has no MOT, tax or insurance on it, the car can legally be parked on your driveway. Although some may find this thought ridiculous it is technically legal. Removing a car from private land means that the owner of the land would have to foot the bill, which can run into the thousands, factoring in the cost of getting it removed, legal costs and any compensation for damage to the car. In many ways, it can seem a lost battle if the owner of the car doesn’t remove it themselves.
Many people, when doing the school run or dropping off people, do often use driveways and private land as a holding spot. This can come as great annoyance to the owners of that land as they are trapped into their driveways, or find that it is impossible to manoeuvre out of their road.
Current laws
According to the Office for National Statistics, over 100,000 cars a year are towed away, and while it does not delve into the specifics, it seems likely that a considerable number of these will be for illegal parking. But this only encompasses the number of vehicles towed away for illegal reasons, and so it is a strong assumption that the number of cars parked legally but in a nuisance way is much higher.
To remove a vehicle currently requires a court order from a civil court for the removal of a vehicle or to pursue civil action against the owner for nuisance. Some may have the legal action covered by their home insurance.
Advice from policing question site, AskThePolice, on the subject of “Someone has left a car on my land, what should I do?” says:
“Under no circumstances would we advocate you merely pushing the vehicle onto a road and leaving it there, as you may commit an offence.
Don’t damage/clamp the vehicle or have it removed by a third party without first seeking legal advice. If you do any of these things, you may commit a criminal offence or the owner may pursue a civil action against you.
You may be able to obtain the cost of having the vehicle removed from the owner but you will need to speak to your legal advisor about this.”
The new law
This new law gives private landowners the chance to fight back against parking is sure to be well received. While the current trial is only happening in Jersey, there will be many motorists across the country who are welcome to this trial starting and the future it holds for them.
The draft Motor Vehicles (Removal from Private Land) (Jersey) Law – will allow landowners to:
- Remove vehicles from their land when the vehicles do not have permission to be there
- Apply to the Petty Debts Court for an order preventing persistent ‘nuisance’ parking on their land
The law is set to come into play, once debated and approved, at the beginning of 2019, and a selection of State approved removal companies will carry out the work to ensure compliance is met and all involved can trust the team carrying out the work.
Is this a good idea? Would you like to see this happen in a nationwide rollout? Let us know in the comments below
Why couldn’t they have done this years ago? It’s a shocker that someone can take up your private space and you can’t do squat!
Disgusting, people Who are so cunning and crafty and mindless should be considered as criminals and just nuisances.. should we all wants the quite and distant life of every respectable civilians and healthy and peaceful environment then Law must be put in place and enforceable immediately.
You can do something but you have to go through the civil courts a long and costly process
Long-overdue law allowing common-sense to prevail!
Long-overdue law allowing common-sense to prevail at last!
No consideration or respect for other people’s land or property, totally agree with you larry
Although a good idea, how will it be enforced? How will it stop someone from parking across your drive for 10 minutes and blocking you in while they drop the kids off?
It won’t that are allowed to park across drive for 20 mins for unloading loading
If this new law allows farmers to bulldoze travellers from their land then it’s a GREAT idea!
Travellers are the biggest nuisance in my opinion and they rip up fences and stumps to gain access to public land.. The mess they leave behind as well has to be cleaned up and paid for.. But if you plan on bulldozing travellers make sure youve got a will or enough henchmen to hold your side otherwise they may take drastic action on you.. These poeple aint your average joes!
I refer a to an illegal traveller site as a vermin infestation.
Ah but if we get the hard border, those posts are going to be long in the Irish Sea.
Good point Daz!
It’s a big IF Murray. Is access to public land the same as private land or have I misunderstood? Take your point though
I would have thought the law of trespass against the registered driver, unless they could prove they were not driving at the time the car was parked on a private drive could come into play. Any legal bods care to coment?
In the UK, there is no ‘law of trespass’. Trespass is a civil matter, which has to be taken though the court process. Better to use the ‘Wilfull Obstruction’ offence, see
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/part/IX/crossheading/obstruction-of-highways-and-streets
for details
You say UK, not true as different law applies in Scotland. Where there is trespass as in private land. No wheel clams by private companies. Only police, DVLA/VOSA and council car parks
Trespass will NOT be prosecuted. Trespass is a civil offence – cf: https://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/trespass/
I’m not a legal bod, just thinking if a person parked on my drive and walked away they would be trespassing no more than over unsolicited callers so I doubt you could? Very bizarre that this is already not illegal I had no idea
I’m wondering as you can’t touch vehicle if you have gates would you be entitled to secure property Ie chain gates? Driver wouldn’t be able to leave then
I seem to remember reading of this being done before and the land owner being prosecuted for entrapment or some such
And how about cars parked on the road but directly across your driveway, blocking you in? We have this problem at work on an almost daily basis!
This is already illegal, it’s called obstruction. I’m sure one of the legal bods will give the legal definition, but record the numbers of the offending vehicles and report to the police or the local authority parking enforcement department who may send an enforcement officer to issue tickets.
who may send an enforcement officer to issue tickets.
or may not claiming they cn’t do anything about it, often they will only act if your vehicle is blocked in, not if it is blocked out.
A ticket does not remove a vehicle in an instant, A ticket is a fine and who gains from that?The obstrucrtion should be removed immediately and the cost sent to the owner (if known).
Vehicle causing obstruction should be towed away instantly and owner charged, if owner turns to move it after tow truck ordered they should still be charged for tow truck and a fine, both to be settled within 24 hours or car will be found and confiscated. Penalties must be hard enough to deter those willing to take the risk.
I once had my vehicle towed away for parking on an extended driveway to an obviously derilict over grown piece of land secured by a set of rusty gates. The police said it was potentialy causing an obstruction and as such had to be removed to the local pound. If you block or park in someones drive ,you are committing an offence and the vehicle can be removed.
Here here….totally agree what we need in this country is meaningful laws not pass the buck….soft touch UK
well said no ticket no clamp just remove they wont do it again
Yes, parking between dropped kerbs is illegal i believe
You have the right of access in or out.
Not according to the police. If your car is fully road legal then it is an offence to block it from accessing the road.
However, if your driveway is empty, anyone can park across it or even on it and, currently, there is nothing you can do. There’s even been a few cases pop up in the nationals about it.
Nothing i can do about it? PLEASE PLEASE come and block my driveway and see if there’s nothing i can do about it i promise you wont block my driveway again. I think this practice is the most selfish and disrespectful thing a person can do and it should be made totally illegal with a severe punishment.
they would only block my driveway once also. don’t care what the law says. so bring it on.
Then the law should be changed , because if my driveway is empty, and I come home and see my neighbors car or anyone who just wanted to park there because it was empty, that will be a problem!!
I know this is right as I had discussed it with a parking officer about 4 weeks ago.
There is a small dropped kerb outside Eastbourne library, not the usual suburban cul-de-sac!
It`s not marked in any way and sits between disabled and motorcycle parking bays; no lines, no signs – just a little dropped kerb!
£70 fine!
Do you not think a dropped kerb next to a disabled bay might, y’know, be there for someone disabled to allow the use of a wheelchair/mobility scooter?
Anyone parking across a dropped kerb deserves every penny of the fine they get
I am seeing this infringement more and more – irrespective of background and area.
The “selfie” society driving the “status” car – comes from the top down i.e. so called royals.
Obstruction applies only on a public highway. This is about parking on private land.
I was blocked in and the Police contacted the offender and offered her “words of wisdom” and I was advised she would move it in her lunch hour! I was told a notice could be put on her car and if it was not removed in 7 days then they could give a fixed penalty . I had to cancel a child’s psychology appointment and stay in until she removed her car. I had paid for the drop kerb and a white line to try and avoid this kind of incident.
Sound like a case of lazy police.
This country is a JOKE !!
As I said in my earlier comment, if police use their powers wisely, positive results happen. So many stand on the sidelines or are “afraid” to act.
I was once told that it is only an obstruction if there is a Council approved drop kerb to give access to your property. People who place wood for example, in the gutter to aid getting their car up the kerb would have no legal protection under obstruction. How true this is remains to be clarified.
I believe this to be true from my time working in the highway authority of a Local Authority. Pavements are not meant to be driven over unless they have been strengthened for that purpose. Look at all the damage caused by selfish motorists pulling onto pavements rather than finding a car park in any given town. Besides which, how can you justify on the one hand evading paying a one off charge to have a proper vehicle crossing built and on the other expecting the Local Authority to come to your rescue when it suits. Not having a go at you personally but everybody seems to know their rights but very few their responsibilities.
There’s been a few bits about this in the newspapers of late. It’s not an offence to block an empty driveway – even if it has a dropped kerb, it’s only an offence if there is a road legal vehicle on the drive which cannot get out.
Likewise if you have a garage. One of our neighbours parents constantly parks across our garage even though we keep a car in there and he argues all the time about his right to park anywhere he wants as he has a valid MOT and tax. I hope this new law covers such things so we can get the car moved quickly. At present, even though the car insurance is for the car to be kept garaged overnight, we cannot always garage it. The law is obstructing access to the Queen’s (King’s) Highway I believe, so if you’re already on the road, unlucky.
I believe that is correct. If you don’t have a proper crossover you are not allowed to drive across the pavement, even if you have knocked down your front garden wall and built a hard-standing. This is to protect underground pipes, drains, cables etc.
True. Technically you would be “driving on the pavement” which is illegal.
Yeah right if some one could come out they would but there’s no police these days and the only reason parking on private land is a cival matter is because they wanted the police to do more meaningful tasks…but in reality they lost their jobs.
Sorry Mark, it is only obstruction if it is stopping the flow of traffic on the road.
Councils seldom work at night, a lot of this goes on then and the nusience parkers play on it.
If it’s blocking you in phone the traffic wardens that will ticket them
Nice idea in theory. Where I live the parking enforcement role was privatised years ago. Now we have maybe 5-6 wardens to cover a whole city. You ring their number to report illegal parking and you go through to an answer service at their organisations HQ,which isn’t even in the county, you have to leave the details of the street name, town and postcode whereupon you hear a message that the issue will be forwarded to the relevant team in that area ie two weeks next Tuesday if your lucky. Our privatised warden’s are invisible over 98% of the city and only visible in key strategic areas. Laws are only effective if properly policed and enforced so this one will have zero impact on the issue.
In our town you can park on double yellow lines and “Get away with it” like i said soft touch UK
What good is that! You should be able to go about the enjoyment of your own vehicle without issue. Hopefully this new law will get the police to check on the PNC, call the offending owner of the vehicle and get it moved straight away. I know they can do this as my daughter stupidly blocked access to a lane and, as I was the contact for the insurance on the car, I got a call. Needless to say I got it moved pronto!
This is already illegal, but only if you are blocked in and unable to get out, rather than out and unable to get in. Happened to us for an entire weekend once – Friday mid-afternoon until Sunday night – and my wife had to get me to come home from a different town to do the school run.
Unfortunately by the time we tried to contact the relevant authorities, they had closed for the weekend so there was nothing we could do about it and we didn’t think to record the registration number.
if you have an official lowered curb and a White Line across your drive, then it is an offence under local by-laws.
That’s wrong, check with your local council
It’s called obstruction and is ilĺegal under current laws. Take photos of the offending vehicles ( include reg nos dates and times) and make sure the photos clearly show the location and position of the vehicle(s) so there is no argument as to the problem
If people are blocking you in by obstructing your driveway, then it’s unlawful imprisonment. Photographs sent to the police should put a stop to that.
Flat tyres work wonders…there’s never a second occurrence…
Merely letting the air out of a tyre is Criminal Damage, you don’t have to puncture it.
If you have a dropped curb the police can issue a £60 fine under the road traffic act
Please could they extend it to vehicles parked full on a pathway.
These laws already exist phone ticket office
if you mean the footway (pavement) then they already can but don’t in most of the country, London has an extra law regarding this but generally it is an offence to drive on the footway and you can’t park on it without driving on it
Parking on the pavement in London and you get a ticket,so WHY NOT throughout the rest of the country.?
Because the roads are so narrow fire engines cannot get through if cars are fully parked on both sides of the road. Not feasible Tuggy
Does this include Travellers who invade private land i.e. farmers fields, village greens, car parks etc?
This always amazes me. If I overstay my parking ticket for ten minutes I get fined. If twenty travellers and their caravans turn up and park for days, a court order is required to move them and they pay nothing.
Funny that isnt it….breaking the law is breaking the law but it seems not for everyone.
Would be nice if it did, but it would need the law to specify all public and private land, rather than just residential, which is all that the laws of trespass currently do.
To apply the new law to “travellers ” would be racist in modern nearly Corbyn’s Britain
Travellers are not a “race”, they’re just a menace!
most travellers are of British denomination so how can you be racist against your own countryman!
We have a guy that brought part of a right of way through our land and promptly put 13 cars on it and started living on the right of way in a car and has a shed on it ,he has already dug up loads of our fruit trees and bushes ,he just laughs in our face .police are useless even though he stole furniture and bikes that were stored ,they got back only a rotovator and we had to collect it from them ,no prosecution as no witnesses so they are not interested as we are pensioners cannot afford solicitors .So in answer to your question I think it’s a no the travellers have their own ways staying and ruining other people’s land .if there is a way to get him off our lives would be happier to say the least .x
So now the poorly thought out law (Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PFA 2012), it is now a criminal offence to clamp, tow, block-in or immobilise a vehicle without lawful authority on privately owned land) is effectively being changed by ‘Muppets are Us’ i.e. poor quality law makers. I can only imagine they will create a different set of ‘un-forseen’ problems as usual. Entertainment for some of us.
clamping or immobilising is stupid, someone parks so that it causes a problem and you force them to carry on doing it for longer than they otherwise would have done, clearly then it can’t have been suh a big problem if you want them to do it for longer.
The right to remove the offending vehicle would make much more sense
At last some sense. Why should a landowner have to allow unauthorised parking or be penalised for removing a transgressor. Funny how wrongdoers have more rights than law abidding citazens.
Yes excellent move, should also apply to people multi parking cars on roads preventing residences parking, and causing delivery problems.
The idea doesn’t go far enough. As more and more people buy and use cars but do not have their own drive or off road parking area revert to parking their vehicles anywhere they choose on the public highway , blocking roads, causing obstructions etc. Emergency vehicles cannot get through let alone ordinary deliveries and the culprits couldn’t care less. Councils no longer enforce the law concerning obstructions and yet what a money spinner for them if they employ a few enforcement officers by imposing fines it would deter people from parking illegally and provide much needed revenue.
Absolutely! I live in a private close of 26 town houses and for years we have been victims of illegal parking. Our problem is that in a parking space with 26 co-owners it is exceedingly difficult to ascerain whether a car is illegally parked or not. I hope the new law will embrace this sitation, otherewise there will be a spate of test cases to determine what is meant vu owner’s permission.
As a person with disabilities, it would be more use to thousands of wheelchair / mobility scooter and pram pushers not to mention blind pedestrians if parking on the pavement was addressed more! I regularly get marooned because of inconsiderate parking even across the gate so çlose that I can’t even walk out
Next year. The rnib are pushing through a £70 fine for pavement parking.
Yes this is a great and long awaited law which gives the powers back to the aggressed and NOT to the accressor.
How will this work with travelers ( gypsies ).?.
first build developments with enough parking spaces. i live in area built in 2012 when labour was in charge and these IDIOTS imposed a law that developer must provide only 1.5 (one and a half) parking spaces per household. this is how stupid politicians are. why things which matter are set by incompetent lobbyed idiots?!
Not every household will own a car or more than one car.
For example , By having 1.5 spaces per household
In a road of 30 households that means 45 spaces. It’s also on most administrations agenda to reduce environmental pollution-so not encourage 3 cars but improve public transport- this is where the present administration needs to seriously improve!
In many households now both the husband and wife work, or if one does stay at home there is always the school run – the days of going to the local school have long since gone meaning it is necessary to drive the children miles to a distant school. So 2 cars for most households needed, but when the children grow up and want a car of their own….
As you say, the days of going to the local school have long gone & this causes problems. A friend of mine lived in a cul de sac close to a very good village primary school, which was 3 miles out of town. Because it was a good school you had the town people driving their children out there & because of that, half the village children couldn’t get into the school & their parents had to drive their children 3 miles to a school in town How ridiculous & crazy is that? The village children were able to walk to school, but the yummie mummies who drove there parked anywhere they felt like, blocking in all & sundry. They’d get there at least half an hour early to get a space close to the school so that little Tarquin didn’t have to walk another 50 yards & this happens twice a day. The locals used to ask them to move so that they could get out, & all they got was a load of abuse, totally unacceptable. Hopefully this might help to address this type of behaviour. However the very best way would be to have all children attend their local school. This would also help to reduce pollution, congestion & parking problems.
That is just to much common sense for any politician to contemplate.
Our household has 4 cars … not uncommon when adult children cannot afford a place of their own.
It’s a sorry reflection on our society that there is increasing multiple occupancy in houses so more than 2 cars per house is quite common, and it is increasingly difficult to find work near enough to home to use public transport. Inconsiderate and obstructive parking does need addressing, especially where private driveways are being blocked or used without consent.
Typical Tory attitude : let’s encourage more cars on the road and cause even more congestion! One and a half spaces per household is if anything too high. We need to dissuade the ownership of cars and encourage the use of public transport, where applicable/possible. In fact people should be charged for personal private spaces both at work and even at home, and the revenue going towards better public transport, as the council have done in Nottingham.
Typical Labour/socialist/Green attitude: We don’t like this, so we will control them, so they must do what WE want. Our children are too young to drive, but we have had 2 and sometimes 3 cars. The third was a company car when my wife’s employer owned (or leased) the car and did not allow any personal use. We both work to pay YOUR party’s taxes (which no other party reduces or eliminates when THEY get into office…).
No thanks, anyway the money would only go to the ministry of silly projects. In any case I already pay dearly in council tax for my private drive way.
If I need to go to the bank and then do some shopping On Public Transport I will need a minimum of 5 hrs and have to do it daily to be able to buy enough.so daft idea you.If YOU don’t want/need a car don’t buy one,but leave the rest of us to choose..
Crazy that thid is not currently law!
Crazy that this is not currently law!
If a Vehicle is on the highway a ROAD, causing any obstruction, such as blocking a drive, straddling road and a pavement, obstructing an entry and exit where there is a dropped kerb. I would have had no hesitation in issuing a Fixed Penalty Notice as a Traffic Officer. Sadly these days I have to say many officers I meet these days after my retirement do not even know the laws! Is it little wonder such arrogance is allowed to continue unhindered.
If you ignore carrying out your duties little wonder the public have lost respect. So sad to see.
If cars park in front of a private driveway, in front of a house- and there is no dropped kerb, no road markings to indicate no parking , infact is part of a parking area complete with a continuous white line and signs to indicate parking area, can the owner of the house with drive way- put notices on neighbours cars not to park outside the house, and a sign outside saying ‘no parking’ ( directives, not polite requests) parks 3 vehicles on the drive 2 not working( that’s his business it’s his land) and then his work van and wife’s car in the parking area with lines- not even across his own gate- what’s the situation for his neighbours?
The law covers obstruction of exit but not entry to a dropped kerb. You cannot issue a ticket for this under current law. This should also be altered
But obstructing access to a driveway is not causing an obstruction on the ROAD. Blocking the road itself is a different matter. But you’re right – it would never be enforced while the authorities are so stretched.
In America new York they are not stretched any car not parked right it “Will be towed”
This country needs backbone not soft laws
I think you will find you would be the law breaker.
Yes, the sooner the better, it should Never of been allowed in the first place
My apologies for last entry omitting the offence…the simplest one wiuld be Causing an unnecessary obstruction. It could be dangerous parking too if on a pavement and mother with a pram, blind person with a guide dog, disabled person on s ooter has to leave pavement and be forced out into the road. That is dangerous!
I had a large van abandoned on my land, I informed the Council who once the facts were explained to them posted a 7 day removal notice on it,after the 7 days had expired the council instructed a Breakers yard to removed the vehicle which they did and as far as I recall the vehicle was scrapped, end of problem and legal…KARMA.
Does this include parking in disabled bays in supermarkets without a blue badge? They always use the excuse that they can’t enforce parking because it’s on private land.
I don’t know what the law is in England or Wales, but in Scotland the law on disabled spaces in private car parks eg supermarkets was changed several years ago. The local authority (Council) will enforce the correct use unless the supermarket says they will do it.
I think that most supermarkets will do it themselves as they will want to avoid bad feeling in their customers if they get a ticket for wrongly parking in a disabled bay.
So the first place to complain to is the supermarket itself.
I don’t know if England and Wales have followed this, although they did with charging for plastic bags and stopping smoking in public buildings.
I have a Blue badge. One day I parked in a space at my local supermarket. A lady driving a Range Rover parked in the bay next to me. I told her she had forgotten to display her blue badge and she said “Oh darling, I am not disabled. My Range Rover does not fit in a normal bay”
My late wife was severely disabled and used a wheelchair, hence we were frequent users of disabled spaces. We printed a leaflet which said “80% of drivers who park in a disabled bay without displaying an Orange badge [now Blue] have a criminal record. Thank you for identifying yourself”. I would often leave half a dozen of these on cars in a supermarket car park.
Never mind in supermarket car parks, disabled parking bays are (according to a Birmingham City Highways Engineer) “only advisory”, apparently there is no law in England which prevents anyone who wants to park in a disabled space from doing so, therefore you apparently don’t need a blue badge to use a disabled parking space. I had a disabled bay put outside my home a couple of years ago but I won’t be telling my neighbours that they can park in my space!
I didn’t know this. This seems to say that someone temporarily blocking my drive, preventing me from accessing the public highway, cannot be legally removed. What a nonsense. Most other countries in Europe have a much easier system. If you are illegally parked on private land, you may be towed away. Seems simple enough to me. Fortunately, I suspect most UK drivers are not aware of this ‘loophole’ and act responsibly.
I’ve sometimes had people block me in by parking across my drive when my car is parked on the drive, and after checking with neighbours that it’s not them, the police do turn up pretty quickly and tow them away. However, they’ll only do that if your car is blocked in and you can’t get it out of your drive. If they block your driveway and you can’t get IN to your driveway, then you’re not being obstructed, and it’s tough – the police can’t do anything then.
Yes I agree that nuisance parking should be made illegal as it has immense inconvenience to the land owner, especially when blocked in and for example have doctors or hospital appointments, it can have serious consequences.
Did I read this right??? Someone can park on someone else’s drive???? I do know that if someone stops you driving off your drive and you have a dropped kerb, by parking their car you can ask the police to get it moved.
My fix for this would simply to be to park across the front of my driveway, go in the house and watch the fun begin while enjoying a nice cup of tea. Better yet, park on my driveway in front of their car, tell them that it will cost them £50 for me to move the car.
Oddly enough, you are then breaking the law and the person on your drive can legally get your car removed as you are blocking them from exiting the dropped kerb. Another reason the law needs to be changed as soon as possible
Stopping them from exiting your property is false imprisonment and you would be arrested.
At last sense is prevailing, ridiculous not being able to remove illegally parked cars
I would like to see this happen. I get blocked in on a weekly basis.
According to police, if your vehicle is road legal and unable to access the highway, this is illegal. If, however, you return to find you cannot access your driveway, this isn’t illegal.
Good idea
Brilliant idea. In our small South Yorkshire village visitor’s etc constantly use our drive as a turning circle – block us in, park on double yellows, even drive along the pavements etc etc. What do the authorities do? Zilch.
I don’t think the law goes far enough. If a car is illegally parked on my land, I should be able to clamp it and charge the owner. Once people realise they are going to be financially worse off, they will desist.
If it was on your land and NOT blocking you in it is NOT illegally parked. The police could only advise the owner not to do it. You would have to take the owner to civil court yourself to get it removed. YOU would be breaking the Law if you clamped/moved their car without a court order.
We should take a leaf out of America’s book, If it ain’t supposed to be there it gets towed and the owner pays costs.
This should also apply to pavements. Many drivers park half on the road half on the pavement and people, especially young mothers with children in pushchairs,have to walk in the road at rick to themselves and children. Getting back to the parking on other peoples drives I think that when these people starting paying part of the taxes on that land then they can use it!
Although it is not illegal to park partly on the footway outside the Metropolitan Police Area, it IS an offence to OBSTRUCT the footway (according to the Chairman of Lincolnshire County Council on local radio recently).
So, if a car prevents push chairs or wheelchairs/mobility scooters from passing, they ARE committing an offence.
This would be very good idea esp for travelers
Yes I agree it’s a real problem for private car parks in apartments
What about charging to park on private land? Can they sue the owner if a charge is displayed?
what is the law on the parking on white line outside some-ones house?
I parked at Hope cove in Devon and paid the parking fee private land and left before the time ran out. They are now suing me for parking without authority even though I sent them a copy of the parking ticket. How many people keep their parking tickets? It should be kept for 14 days in case.
Does this law also include partial parking obstruction, like parking your car blocking part of the entrance to a driveway so that the occupant must drive over other neighbours grass to get out onto the road ?.
Along with this legislation the parking on and blocking of pavements for those with pushchairs or disability scooters needs revision to make it a ticketable and fineable offence by use of a date and time collected photograph supplied by those who come across such obstruction and not just police and traffic wardens. With a projected average of 2.5 cars per household the parking on and the blocking of pavements to foot traffic has become endemic and dangerous for those of us using the footpaths for the very use they were intende for i.e. to seperate traffic from pedestrians. Forcing foot traffic to move onto a traffic carrying road needs to be seen as a health and safety issue and punished accordingly as dangerous practice. Swift deterrent action would seem the only solution and any funds raised from this action could be used to repair our crumbling road and pavement structure.
There are moves afoot to ban pavement parking across the UK. RNIB pushed it to parliament this year.
Very welcomed and overdue.
Overdue and very welcome new law.
It should be nationwide i am a disabled driver but would never park on other people’s land just to get closer to where I need to go.
I recall a report many years ago when a rugby follower who was attending a match at Twickenham parked in someone’s private drive. The house owner must have realised that it would be illegal to simply push the offending vehicle into the road, so he jacked the car up and removed its wheels. When the car owner returned to collect his vehicle, the householder charged him a significant sum for the return of its wheels. The offender driver eventually paid up and learnt a costly lesson.
could the person that removed the wheels not be charged with theft
Theft Act 1968, s1 – Basic definition of theft.
(1) A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it……
If it is clear that the intention is to return the wheels, then I would conclude there is no such intention.
I’ve read the article ((What is nuisance parking?
Nuisance parking, the act of parking on private lands, such as a driveway, without prior permission is currently legal thanks to a loophole in the law. All of this is about to change with the introduction of a nuisance parking law…Currently, under the Freedom Acts 2012, anyone can technically park on your driveway and not face any consequences such as clamping or towing unless lawful authority has been granted which can often be a long and costly process))….. I definitely agree we need new laws too deal with inconsiderate, ignorant, arrogant drivers who believe they can get away with parking on other peoples (driveways) property, without any thought for the owner of the driveway or their circumstances…. It makes my blood boil, because the arrogant owner of the offending parked car either doesnt give a hoot nor care that the person they are illegally blocking in, is or could be a possible disabled owner//driver of any driveway, that arrogance offends me & the offender should be brought too book & made to pay a very harsh compensation package with extreme preduice & also made to pay an extremely harsh fine into the bargain…. Then it will send a message out to all offenders that parking illegally on peoples drives is an unacceptable practice…….
This seems fair enough. But what about parking on pavements, which seems to be normal now, even when the pavement is almost completely blocked?
Home is “your Castle” and police will take away burglar robing you but your outdoor property you pay for it to, law allowing every selfish D&H occupy, damage and made your life misery. Why is so often low on criminal side. Why government need trial. This could be done century ago. It is CRAZY. ???????????????????????????????????????????? Can you imagine prime minister obeying present law if some individual park the car in the front of Downing street gate. Good luck to him.
If ever the law was an ass………A friend of mine dealt with the school run parking problem across his drive by getting his neighbours to park their cars in front and behind the offender with not enough clearance for the offender to get out. Watching the offender getting very animated and sharing her predicament with other passing mum’s, he took great delight in watching her finally stomp off, to return that evening to retrieve her car. Fortunately he did not need to go out that day, suffice to say that he never saw her park there again.
So you believe in breaking the law when it suits you.
Sometimes a small transgression is necessary when the authorities will not deal with the problem.
Actually while there might have been a technical transgression of the law of obstruction it would be almost impossible to prosecute either of the drivers. There is no law saying that you must leave a minimum gap between you and the next car. Some drivers are not skilled enough to get into or out of a space that has 2 or 3 feet at each end while others can manouvre safely in a space that is only 18 inches at each end so blocking this thoughtless driver in by parking so close to her she cannot drive away would normally work. Of course a few drivers might become very aggressive towards the other vehicles and their owners so their is a risk that they might become violent to the blockers and or their cars. In this case the justifiable action worked. Next time they might not be so lucky. Hopefully the woman learned her lesson too.
The best solution is not to be inconsiderate to other drivers, not to block their car OR their driveway. Then there will be no dispute. It would also help if local councils stop trying to ban parking on our streets. (They love to make our lives harder.) Then there is more chance that people can park when they need to without causing a nuisance. So many councils are trying to stop any parking in their boroughs or trying to introduce huge parking fees on their meters that the number of spaces available to drivers (most of whom have already paid to use the road) is so small that it can never meet the demand.
By the way the farmer who wants to bulldoze travellers off his land will never be given permission to do so, not under this law or any future one. While I greatly sympathise with him he would be deemed to be causing serious criminal damage and would probably be jailed. Unfair maybe but that;s the way it is. he will have to rely on approved contractors to remove them and given that travellers usually go around in groups the action would still need the police who are usually too busy to get involved. So I doubt this new law will make ANY difference to farmers and other landowners.
If the farmer could use the field to pasture a bull then who knows….
My Friend in Devon and his father, got out the pig slurry tankers, told the travellers they were spraying the whole field, gradually worked up the field, they left in a hurry.Join the discussion…
Smashing tactic! Don’t get mad – get even.
When I was at school my parents had no car. I went to the local school and was walked there by someone until I was able to cross roads safely myself. Kids living further away caught a bus or a train or even cycled. Only kids on crutches or in plaster casts were driven to and from school.
When we allow cars to dictate how we live our lives then we are forced to accept the consequences along with the advantages ;-(
the sooner this becomes law the better,having my drive block ed would prevent my son from being able to go to work it would also prevent my wife from parking after her night shift.
This is something that should have been addressed long ago. This change should make a great difference to private landowners.
Hopefully it won’t be long until the powers that be address nuisance parking on public verges adjacent to the public part of a private drive.
If someone parks on your driveway, like many have done in Takeley near Stansted Airport, then would it be ok to block them in? Great if you have room and can park behind them to stop them getting out as they cannot move the other car.
What if you stick a notice on the car saying you will be putting up bollards in 5 or 7 days and them block them in. They cannot cause criminal damage to move obstructions.
A long way for some to carry their luggage home but they deserve it. If they knock, say the other person will be back in 14 days. Then on day 14 park another car there, and keep it up.
If someone parks on your drive & are not stopping you from getting your car out then they are not breaking the law. If you decide to block them onto your drive, YOU become the lawbreaker.
Parking on both sides of narrow roads should also be illegal, it definitely nuisance parking