On street parking (1 Viewer)

Big bus man

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Am I right in thinking that if a HM is road legal you can park it on most roads overnight so long as it is not being used for sleeping and there are no specific restrictions. This is just a curious question, I know you can't park MH's in your driveway unless it is approved by the local council so does street parking have similar restrictions.
 

CWH

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???
Certainly you can park your MH in your driveway!
You can also use it as a "spare bedroom" as long as whoever sleeps there also uses the house for something.
What you can't do is park it in your drive and use it as a separate dwelling.
Yes you can park on the road as long as you're not causing an obstruction.
(@GJH will tell you if I'm wrong, he's the MHF guru on this sort of thing) (y)
 

Minxy

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Am I right in thinking that if a HM is road legal you can park it on most roads overnight so long as it is not being used for sleeping and there are no specific restrictions. This is just a curious question, I know you can't park MH's in your driveway unless it is approved by the local council so does street parking have similar restrictions.

Not sure who's told you about the 'council' bit ... so long as there are no restrictions registered against your property itself, such as a covenant specifically forbidding MHs, caravans etc to be parked on your drive on the deeds, you can do so.

As for parking on the road - if you pay road tax and it is road legal there are no specific restrictions then again you can park it there.

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D

Deleted member 29692

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I know you can't park MH's in your driveway unless it is approved by the local council

Who on earth told you that?

Your MH is taxed and insured the same as any other vehicle so as long as you comply with any local parking restrictions, permits etc, you can park it anywhere you like.
 
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Big bus man

Big bus man

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It is the covenant bit I was referring to, I contacted the council before buying and they said it was fine after looking it up for me. Regarding the on-road parking bit, does this mean I can legally park up anywhere and 'wild camp' ?
 

Puddleduck

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I may be wrong but I thought that providing there are no restrictive covenants on your property you can have up to 5 vans for up to 28 days (which may or may not be consecutive) on your property without planning permission.

I do hope I am correct as then our friends will be able to seriously p*ss off someone who is being foul to them by having lots of friends come and stay :)

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Puddleduck

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It is the covenant bit I was referring to, I contacted the council before buying and they said it was fine after looking it up for me. Regarding the on-road parking bit, does this mean I can legally park up anywhere and 'wild camp' ?
Depends on where you are in the UK. In Scotland wild-camping is tolerated in many areas but you need to ask the land owners permission first. In other places you may be left alone if you are discrete and don't leave a mess but expect and be prepared to move on if asked to do so.
 

lorger

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I've never heard you needing local council approval to park it in your drive, possibly the builders approval if it's a new house and bans them I think it's called Covenants but these normally ban work vans too so if anyone was to complain get all vans removed.

As for on street parking as long as it's parked legally and not causing an obstruction I can't see an issue.
 

Minxy

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Parking isn't the same as 'wild camping' ... parking is just that, leaving the vehicle 'unattended' on the road, but wild camping is where you are actually using it to sleep in ... from memory I don't think its as clear cut as you being allowed to 'live' in it on the road however so long as it's done discretely and not causing a problem for anyone there shouldn't be any issues. We've done it a fair bit and only ever had a request to move once by a 'busy body' who didn't want us attracting gypsies! We did move as we obviously didn't want to upset the locals but could probably have stood our ground if we'd wished.

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D

Deleted member 29692

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It is the covenant bit I was referring to, I contacted the council before buying and they said it was fine after looking it up for me. Regarding the on-road parking bit, does this mean I can legally park up anywhere and 'wild camp' ?

Even when there are covenants in place they are usually none of the local councils business. They are usually put in place by developers for the period when they are trying to sell new builds and if they need enforcing it is via the courts. Local Authorities aren't involved in any part of the process so they are in no position to tell you whether it's fine or not. If there are any covenants on your house they would have shown on the searches when you bought it. Even if there are any they can only be enforced by whoever originally put it there. Nobody else can do it and if it has been put there by a developer they won't be in the least bit interested once they have sold the whole site and moved on.

In theory you can sleep in your van at the side of the road if you really want to as long as there is no TRO in place for that particular road specifically prohibiting camping.
 
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Been in our bungalow since 2002 there is a covenant! Put on by builder No caravans so I bought a motorhome. Had motorhome,s since May that year, we asked neighbour who was the mayor at that time his reply was no problems. So has been on our drive since.
 

Lenny HB

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Make sure your insurance covers you a lot of Motorhome policies will not cover you if you are keeping on the road, also won't cover it if left unattended for more than 36 hours if away from you residence where it is normally kept.

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Vlad The Impaler

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It is the covenant bit I was referring to, I contacted the council before buying and they said it was fine after looking it up for me. Regarding the on-road parking bit, does this mean I can legally park up anywhere and 'wild camp' ?


If your vans taxed,insured,mot'd ,and parked legally you can do what you like !
There is no law that forbids sleeping in your vehicle .
Stay away from areas that have parking restrictions such as no overnight ................. Whatever ! Usually found in tourist hotspots,
Park legally on normal roads or secluded pullins,lay-bys or car parks and you'll have no problems .
As far as on drive you can live in your van indefinitely as long as you use the house as well.



Vlad
 
D

Deleted member 29692

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Been in our bungalow since 2002 there is a covenant! Put on by builder No caravans so I bought a motorhome. Had motorhome,s since May that year, we asked neighbour who was the mayor at that time his reply was no problems. So has been on our drive since.

Legally there is no such thing as a motorhome. It's a motor caravan and for the purposes of things like this the term "caravan" is a catch all so the covenant would apply to your motorhome.

As I posted above though it can only be enforced by the builder. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the mayor, the council or anyone else.
 

scotjimland

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@Big bus man

A very informative website on all matters regarding Motorhome Parking, owned and maintained by Graham ..

This page deals with parking/camping on major roads http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/roads.htm

essentially, there is no national legislation that either allows or prohibits roadside camping .. but there may be local authority TROs that either prohibit or allow camping within the area over which they have jurisdiction..

read the introduction and links.

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DanielFord

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Our van is parked at my mothers house, and is used as a spare bedroom(s) for visitors to her house, this arrangement works well for all involved, since there is no room to park the van outside my house, and we have our own bed to sleep in when visiting my mother.
 

TheBig1

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as it happens I have a funny story about legally parking a motorhome

A couple of years back we were on one of our local days out with the van and ended up parking on Poole quay. specifically in a disabled bay opposite the new hotel and alongside the brand new marina. we hadnt been there 5 minutes and a busybody in a suit from the hotel came over and demanded we move on, as their visitors didnt want us blocking their view. I told him to take a long walk out across the water and we would be staying a while. 10 minutes later a poole council van pulls up and the busybody goes and talks to the driver who as it turns out was a traffic warden. said traffic warden wanders over, looks at tax disc and blue badge and turns to walk away. so i got out and asked if there was a problem? "not at all sir, please enjoy your visit" he said and returned to his van. busybody looked pretty peed off as he had an animated discussion with the traffic warden who then drove off.

anyway, we "had" only parked up for 1/2 an hour for a drink and a rest about 4:30. in the circumstances we decided to enjoy a fish and chip supper there on the quay watching the boats and deliberately sticking 2 fingers up at the busybody. we eventually left at about 11:30 and had an enjoyable and memorable evening.

we have been back many times since without any repeated harassment, but i believe i heard through the local grapevine that the management at the hotel changed soon after
 

GJH

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Thanks to all who have mentioned http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/ (y)

As regards covenants, I have a short explanation on my separate Notes page. As others have said, generally councils are not concerned with covenants. There are, however, sometimes restrictions placed on parking on drives and roads on council housing estates and councils would be concerned then.

As Mel mentioned, parking and habitation are different matters. Apart from as covered above there are generally no restrictions on parking. Habitation use, though, has to comply with the 1960 Act. There is a brief analysis of the relevant parts Here.

I'll be happy to answer any specific questions but it will be later on as I shall be out all day today.

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GeriatricWanderer

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I've been street overnighting for years, not all the time, just when convenient, very low cost, little, if any, planning required. Thousands of "pitches".
Pick the right spot, arrive late, leave early - just like parking a car overnight.
Having a small campervan is an advantage.
Never had a problem.
 

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