Caravan parked on land formerly garages owned by Guinness Housing Association

[Zak Dingle]

I have an old caravan parked on a hardstanding which was where  garages were some years ago. 

There are still several garages still in use on this plot, I rent one of them from the Housing Assosciation.  There are cars/vans also parked there belonging to houses which are adjacent to the garages and hardstandings. 

A few months ago a crashed car was dumped on one of the former garage hardstanding's. This was reported to the Housing Assosciation by the Householders adjacent to the lot. 

A Customer Liaison Officer from Guinness visited the site and subsequently spoke to me about my Caravan.  I confirmed that it was my caravan and had been there for several years.  The area where around 6 garages had been demolished has been adopted as an unofficial parking area for the houses adjacent to the garage site.  I was asked to move my caravan and told that this was a 'Car Park'!  There are no signs of any description on the site indicating that it is Private Land/Car Parking Only or any other type of sign.

The Customer Liaison Officer has now written to me and given my 14 days to move the Caravan or the matter will be refered to their Legal Team!

Where do i stand with this?  

[honeybee13]

Hello, welcome to CAG. I expect the forum guys will be along over the course of this morning.

I've popped a few paragraphs into your post to make it easier for the guys to read.

Best, HB

[Nicky Boy]

Hi Zak,

First thoughts are to just await communication from their "Legal Team" and see what's said.

To me, no signs = not a car park...

Could you please upload the letter you've already received from them.

Also, you say that you rent a garage from them. Presumably, there will be a rental agreement / contract?

Could you find and upload that as well?

From seeing other council / association garages, many users appear to park their cars in front of the actual garage. Does this happen in your area, and is it allowed?

[Ethel Street]

Are you a resident renting one of the housing association properties? If so presumably you would be entitled to use the car park for parking your car in. Although it seems they haven't formalised any sort of parking authorisation system for its use.

But a caravan is not a car. Irrespective of signage I'd think they are entitled to say what they permit to be put their land.

Is it practical for you to put the caravan in the garage you rent and park your car in the "car park"? 

How long have you been keeping the caravan on the site?