Beware, Strangers May Park in your Drive!!

Many people believe that if you came home to find a strangers car parked on your driveway, many believe the law would be on your side and that the offender is breaking the law. The reality, on the other hand, is very different. A loophole in the law allows anyone to park in your driveway without any legal repercussions, there is very little you can do about it as the authorities will refuse to help you.

Strangers on your Driveway

There have many several cases where residents have found a strange car parked in your driveway and then discovered that the police and local council simply refused to help them, as they do not have the legal powers to remove it. This is because the case comes under a grey area between civil and criminal law.

Strangers Park in your Drive – Council Powers

Councils are allowed to issue a fine if a car blocks your driveway whilst being parked on a public road, but the problem occurs when they’ve parked on your driveway. As now, it’s no longer on public property and therefore out of the jurisdiction of the council. The car now falls under private property so the council is unlikely to react.

Councils are however legally required to remove any cars on both private and public property, only if they don’t have a valid MOT, road tax and insurance. If the car parked on your driveway as all three, then there’s nothing the council can do to remove it. Council will investigate abandoned vehicles parked on public land or highway, but not on private land. However, in order to be classified as abandoned the vehicle also needs to be untaxed for at least one month and left in the same location for a significant amount of time.

Strangers Park in your Drive – Police Powers

Whilst technically the car is trespassing on your private property, the police are more likely to view it as a civil matter. This causes it to be dropped down drastically on their list of priorities.

Strangers Park in your Drive – What can you do?

Realistically, homeowners have two choices. You can start a lengthy removal process of calling a tow truck and forcefully removing the car from your property. This would cost in the range of around £100. Alternatively, you could get an eviction notice. A solicitor would be able to acquire a civil court’s permission to find out the identity of the legal owner, and a judge would then have to order its removal. The court would process the order for removal, and that’d leave you with legal fees, perhaps thousands of pounds. Court enforcers would then be the ones to take action and actually have the random car moved.

On the downside, both of these options would be incredibly expensive. Furthermore, if the car is damaged in the process, the victim may have to pay out £1000s of compensation to cover the cost of repair.

Strangers Park in your Drive – Exceptions

There are some exceptions to this strange loophole. For example, if the vehicle is in a dangerous condition. This can include if it’s leaking petrol or contains dangerous items such as gas bottles, you can contact your local police via the non-emergency 101 number or 999 if an emergency response is required.

If the problem keeps occurring, installing a fence or parking bollard on your driveway to section it off would prevent other motorists from parking there. Please consider visiting our Youtube Channel. Safe and Enjoyable driving from the team at DTC Driving Test Services.