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I said, at the beginning of my saga about my neighbour, that I wouldn't be judgmental but I think he has earned the honour! His relationship with Ivan the Terrible (the Eastern European contractor) has developed into a social relationship with Ivan doing favours for them such as collecting the children from school. They make a great pair, my neighbour and Ivan as they are both arrogant, ignorant and rude in the extreme. I have given up tackling Ivan over his totally selfish parking as it is pointless; his ignorance of the law, belief in his own interpretation of right and wrong and total disregard for anyone but himself truly reflect his employer.

Here are the basic facts and problems with my neighbour:

1. Despite numerous warnings that he is in breach of the covenants contained in the deeds, he parks his own vehicles and allows others to park their vehicles so that they block or obstruct our 'Right of Way' over the driveway.

2. My neighbour has never asked if we mind people parking on the driveway despite more than 50% of the land belonging to us. Mr Brown feels 'entitled' to do as he wishes. He has also told visitors that they can park on the driveway.

3. Mr Brown has, allegedly, called us "untouchables" which is the word that one of his Indian builders used.

4. Mr Brown has repeatedly lied to both my wife and myself regarding his intentions regarding the driveway surface which his contractors destroyed. They excavated a trench in the driveway, fitted a drainage inspection cover incorrectly and, in the process, lost 2 - 3 tons of decorative aggregate. The upshot of this is that the driveway floods every time it rains.

5. Mr Brown refuses to engage and discuss the issues, preferring to send his wife out to discuss the issues.

Thurs. 4 May 2023: The BMW and Mercedes Mini-bus are still here but the Mercedes car has gone, only to be replaced by a bigger Mercedes car. I don't talk about our problems with the Browns with the other neighbours but I am aware that they see and hear things which make them aware that there is a problem. A recent 'chat' with one of the neighbours further down the road made me aware that the Browns are universally despised because of the parking problems they cause and their habit of parking their vehicles in parking spots used by other residents. It appears that I have allies that I never knew existed.

Sat 20 May 2023: The Browns held a party and it caused shocking problems for both us and our neighbours! My wife estimates that circa 50 people attended, both adults and children with arrivals starting early evening. The visitors kept turning up in their cars and most of them dropped off their passengers but a few decided that they were entitled to park where they wanted, blocking neighbour's driveways and restricting the width of the already narrow street. Had there been an emergency such as a fire or the need for an ambulance, the emergency vehicles wouldn't have stood a chance of getting down the street.

Despite, our warning to Mr and Mrs Brown, one visitor parked on the end of our driveway for 3 hours from 20:56 until 00:02 the next morning! The Brown's allowed this flagrant breach of the rules and showed their utter contempt for both us and our other neighbours! The driver of the car totally ignored the large "No Parking on the Driveway" sign on the front of the wheelie-bin which shows how ignorant and entitled they really are.

Arrival: 2023-05-20 20:56

Departure: 2023-05-21 00:02

Mon 7 August 2023: Is it reasonable to decide to move one's vehicles at midnight? Well, Mr Brown did just that at 00:03 this morning. He moved the Bling Rover and the white Mercedes off of his parking area and then put the BMW convertible on the area followed by the Bling Rover and the Mercedes. The BMW has been badly parked for weeks on another road nearby. The Mercedes Mini-bus is still permanently taking up one of the 2 visitor parking spots our street.

September 2023: The Minibus has finally gone! the Brown's went off in it with a whole lot of family members and it has never been seen again, hoorah!

Things have been a lot better since May this year, when he was read the Riot Act and was told that if he didn't stop allowing his visitors and contractors to park on and/or obstruct the driveway, I was going to take him to court. Of course, Ivan the Terrible (now renamed Vlad after Mr Putin) has continued throughout the summer to park his van unnecessarily on the driveway causing obstruction on many occasions.

A New Year...

 

OK, I'll own up, although things have been better on the parking/obstruction front, they are far from satisfactory! The stress of wondering what Mr Brown and his visitors/contractors are going to do next is starting to get to my wife and me.

I look at the situation very simplistically, the deeds say that Mr Brown and his family etc. MUST NOT prevent my use of the 'Right of Way' across their property and likewise, I MUST NOT prevent their reciprocal rights. I should not have to tackle their visitors and contractors and ask them to move their vehicles off of the driveway as they should not be there in the first place. Mr Brown's front door has a full view of the driveway and they can clearly see if anyone is parking selfishly and blocking or impeding our right of way yet, they are either unwilling or unable to simply ask their visitors to park in the visitors spaces in the street.

In the case of Vlad, this man is such a bully that I seriously believe that he will not listen to Mr Brown and will do as he pleases. Of course it doesn't help matters when Mr Brown permanently parks his own vehicles in the visitor parking spaces.

My wife gave up driving our car some time ago as she will not navigate the restricted width of the driveway when Mr Brown's visitors so selfishly block or obstruct it. I have reached the end of my thether with Mr Brown's visitors and I'm fed up with their arguing and sometimes, abusive reaction to being asked to move their vehicles. I can remember two contractors in the last year that have actually stated that Mr Brown told them to park on the driveway!

February 2024: We were shocked to see the Mercedes Minibus reappear on the street a few days ago but it seems to have gone again so, fingers crossed. The anti-social behaviour continues and is even worse this year as Mr Brown and family are often out until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and they often have visitors during the evening that don't leave until the early hours making a lot of noise as they depart.

We were wrong, the Minibus seems to be back to stay and, as before, it is permanently parked in one of the two visitor parking spaces.

For a family that spent many, many thousands of pounds on a huge kitchen extension, they eat an awful lot of take-ways. It is almost a daily occurrence to see at least one and sometimes up to three take-way drivers arrive. They seem to live on take-ways.

Over the last three years, there have been contractors working inside Mr Brown's house for at least half the year. One can't imagine how much money has been spent inside the house and to what end. A neighbour commented that for all the money Mr Brown has clearly spent over that last 4 years, he could have bought a 5 or 6 bedroom house, with more than adequate parking in a much better area of the town. We both decided that we would never know Mr Brown's thinking!

Mr Brown has taken to playing extremely loud drum and bass (Jungle) music in whichever of the cars he decides to drive on a daily basis. It is deafening at times but goes well with his image of baseball cap. cool shades etc. Oh, by the way, did I mention that he and his wife are both in their early 40s!

I mentioned before that I don't discuss my problems with my other neighbours apart from one and then, not in great detail so, you can imagine my surprise when, chatting to another neighbour, Mr Brown came up in the conversation. I suddenly discovered that I was not alone! I was told that Mr Brown had made himself very unpopular with at least 6 of the nine families living in our part of the close, primarily due to his selfish parking but, even more worryingly, over his fast driving in our street, which, I believe I mentioned, has no sidewalks and is very narrow. I was also informed that he had, lied to other neighbours about the purpose of his extension to his property when he was sucking up to them to approve his building works.

A number of us believe, on reflection, that the huge kitchen and attached room with toilet and washing facilities were intended for use as a Take-Away kitchen with facilities for drivers and riders which thankfully never materialised. We have also been told by one of his contractors with whom he had a disagreement, that he is making alterations to his property with the intention of turning it into a HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) which would explain the huge amount of work being carried out inside the property which, by the way, is still progressing through the winter of 2023 - 2024.

Then, in January 2024, we discovered that Mr Brown has started-up a limited company with the following business aims:

• Buying and selling of own real estate
• Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate
• Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis

So, it looks as if Mr Brown is going into the property business.

There have been a couple of run-ins with visitors parking on the driveway so far this year. One parked their car right on the end of the driveway, completely blocking it and when challenged, got very argumentative and even swore at me. Mr Brown or his wife, came out and moved one of their cars so that the visitor could park properly in their parking area. The second one involved a driver who pulled onto the drive, switched on his hazard lights and then ran into the house. 20 minutes later, as I was photographing his number plate, he came out and at least apologised. I explained to him that he had no right to park on the driveway and he promised to never do so again.

A New Era...

The damage to the driveway has increased and the puddle mentioned before has now become a lake. My half of the driveway entrance is being damaged by Mr Brown's insistence on tearing off of the driveway and the constant traffic of his contractor.

Tuesday 12 March 2024: We went to town for lunch and shopping. What we came home to was unbelievable!

As can be seen, Vlad was completely blocking the driveway and we had no chance of driving our vehicle off of the driveway. He has been told time after time not to park like this but he seems to enjoy causing us as much inconvenience as possible.

My wife was extremely upset and once I had settled her in the house, I took the photograph shown here. I then went to Mr Brown's front door where I could see bodies moving around in the hallway. I pressed the doorbell but nothing seemed to happen so I banged on the door 3 or 4 times which got an almost instant reaction as the door was opened by Vlad who started to say something but I didn't wait, I simply walked away shouting "Move that van now!". I was utterly amazed when Vlad came out within about 30 seconds and moved the van into the totally vacant on-street parking spot where he should have been parked in the first place. I am pretty sure that Mrs Brown instructed him to move it!

This is typical of Vlad's selfish and, in my opinion, intimidating behaviour!

Why should I have to ask for vehicles to be moved? I have the right to free access and egress on my own property and, as both my wife and I have medical conditions that could require urgent treatment at the hospital, why should we have to waste time asking for our rights?