I am thinking of getting a caravan but I seem to remember there was some restriction when I bought my house that said that caravans could not be kept in the  garden. Does anyone know if I can get this changed or if this is likely to be enforced. How would  I go about getting it changed? thanks

I would think your solicitor would be the best person to ask. If none of your neighbours have caravans then I would expect the answer to be no - and if you did get a caravan then I doubt many of them would be happy about it !.
I've recently heard of a family nearby hoping to buy a new house. Just before exchange of contracts they discovered that works vehicles are not allowed to be parked on the drive or roadside and must be parked in the garage. As this chaps van was too big for the garage they had to pull out of the sale. It appears these rules can't always be broken.

I seem to think that you are not allowed to LIVE in a caravan in the garden as it would require planning permission but I don't know about storing them in a garden / driveway. I've seen loads of caravans on people's driveways?!

>I've seen loads of caravans on people's driveways?!

It depends on the terms of your lease or mortgage or title deeds, the same as some people aren't allowed to erect fences on the front of their property.

>>It depends on the terms of your lease or mortgage or title deeds

But how would anyone (ie neighbours) know what was in the terms of your mortgage etc?

Sometimes covenants like that apply to the whole of a development.

It is nothing to do with your mortgage ( well some lenders do not allow businesses)  it is restrictive covenant ( or real burden in Scotland)   Either the house builder in capacity as land owner ( this is general who it is) or the original land owner put these on the title deeds , the most common ones are restrictions on caravans and commerical vans etc, keeping certain amounts and types of animals and no commerical businesses run from home.   It doesn't matter how often the house is sold they stay on ie "runs with the land".

You can ask the house builder to lift them but in most cases they will not.  In your case, they are used to prevent house values being affected by people have drives full of commerical vehicles or streets full of caravans.  

There are many various covenants in place even preventing people building any brick buildings outwith the house build line etc.

A lot of streets where there is no space issue people do not object too much to a caravan in the drive as long as it is not like a building block BUT you can be told to move it at anytime.

>>they are used to prevent house values being affected by people have drives full of commerical vehicles

Why would commercial vehicles affect house prices?!?! I would rather see driveways full of commercial vehicles than not - At least it shows people in the area work!!

Crazy rules. :)

Many new builds have so little space and overlook one another that the owners are not allowed Caravans, boats, or even Work vehicles,a s these would obstruct light and views and also may be considered an eye sore.

If this is a stipulation in the deeds it was put there for a reason and you may find neighbors will fight to have it retained.

In Germany when my relatives were moving they even needed permission from the authorities to be able to have the removal van park.

>Why would commercial vehicles affect house prices?!?!

A stinky skip-lorry or knacker's truck is usually considered unpleasant in a residential area!

A few years back our neighbour drove a big delivery lorry and parked it in his drive every night and at weekends. It wasn't very nice to look out and see a lorry plus it didn't let much light into our living room despite us having huge windows! He is still a driver but comes home with a small van that doesn't block any light or views!

Why would commercial vehicles affect house prices?!?!

I was going to say if you just spent 500K but it really applies to anyone with a house,who wants to look out their window or drive in their street and see vans everywhere and worse lorries in groups in the street.  Certainly not me :-)

In moderation yes but people always cross the line. I recently saw a huge lorry parked in a semi detatched drive. Right in front of the house. I personally would have had a fit if I lived next door to that. It was 2/3rds the height of the house :-)

I have no issue with vans,caravans but BEHIND the building line and out of site, I accept people have to be fair to each other BUT.

There are loads of places to store caravans now and some insurers insist they are store securely.

and some people feel that a builders van etc lowers the tone ;0, often depends on the area you live in, fine where I am but my Dads neighbours would have a fit, they have complained to the council about him or the boys working on their cars on the drive and that they have too many vehicles (four adults live there with a vehicle each and often have visiting relatives or friends).

We are talking about a property with a third of an Acre garden and a front garden and drive big enough to sue as a car park if they took up the front lawn, but the drive alone has room for about 8 cars.

We live in a close and according to the deeds, the whole area is not allowed to have caravans parked outside their properties.  I would get a copy of your deeds and see what it says.

We have a caravan and keep it in storage at a cost of £400 per year. If you are going to insure it...insurance companys do like the caravan to be stored in storage rather than at home.
We could keep it at home if we want to on the drive but its such a huge thing it takes up quite a bit of room...and people know then when you go away  and your home is unoccupied.
There is a restriction in one area of our home we are not allowed a caravan or boat to be parked for more than 10days at any one time.

Some of our caravan friends keep their caravans at home and have no trouble at all from anyone.

Gosh you post took me back. as a teenager my brother and I had a car each and Mum & Dad. Then Mum took in lodgers, one day we tried to sell a car the bloke came said "your a trader" and left!!

We have two vehicles a small wee IQ and a large 4X4 signwritten and we are ok on the drive. But we cannot have a gypsey encampment on our drive!!!!!!! its in the covanant.

A covanant is set up to preserve a selling condition (shall we say) sometimes historic -  like my gypsey encampment. Its usually between builders and buyers, if the builders have gone smack or died they often will not be enforced. Its usually civil action and if you can get to the bottopm of who put the covanent on (on your deeds should be the info) you can either write to the other party or if defunct do what you want. Council's (District therefore planning) are not interested in covanants.
However if its on the planning permission granted as a condition you can apply for relief of the condition, it will be advertised to the neighbours and Parish Council can comment and you will get a yay or nay in  about 8 weeks, it will cost.

Hope thats of help??

Thanks Whistler, very helpful. I have waded my way through all the paper work and found the reference. It seems to be on the planning permission so I will contact the council tomorrow and ask them about it.

Did you get any joy with the District Council?

I spoke to the planning dept and they said I could apply for permission to keep the caravan. It would cost £170 for this and might not be granted. She advised me to drop into the council and speak to a planning officer about how likely it was that permission would be given.I will do this when I next have a day off.
I asked if I could just park the caravan outside over night while preparing for a trip and she didn't really know if that would be Ok. More or less said that I would probably be OK it if the neighbours didn't complain.

>More or less said that I would probably be OK it if the neighbours didn't complain.

Planning permission will also depend upon the number of objections that they receive from your neighbours (who must be informed). 

I'd recommed you factor offsite storage into your purchase and maintenance costs just in case.  Even then, if you are anticipating a complaint, do make sure to tell your neighbours it will be at home for the odd night before and after a trip, and that it will be returned to offsite storage after that.

Caravans do seem to generate quite heated debate :)

We paid next to nothing for a years secure storage when we had our caravan so this option may be worth looking at. It really wasn't a huge amount and for that we knew it was kept undercover in a secure shed. We just rang the day before we wanted it and they got it out for us so it was sat in the yard waiting when we got there. We did park it up outside the odd time when we were going away or coming back and no neghbours ever complained as they knew it was just temporary.

You can park your caravan outside your house on the road over night providing you leave it hitched up to your car.