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Apologies for the long post but we have had a large issue that has grown.
We live in a residential new build estate managed by a management company with fairly strict restrictive covenants in place. We have operated as a childminder with informal permission from the management company which is against the remit of the covenant with no issues for 5 years.
We recently purchased a minibus for our new business venture and this has started many issues. My neighbours took offence at the presence of the minibus despite the fact it was parked safely and legally on the public highway.
A group of 3 different neighbours started a co-ordinated pattern of behaviour to make our life hell in what we consider to be harrassing and intimidating behaviour.
Every time we park our minibus they park 2 vehicles 1 inch in front and 1 inch behind so we are physically unable to move our vehicle, usually they will move it if we ask, but we are having our actions controlled. There is ample space for them to park further away, but they park this way to intimidate us.
If we take photos of their parking they come out of their houses and shout aggressively at us. We have called police out about this behaviour and they have discussed with these neighbours.
They complained about my wife's childminding business and enforced our management company to begin proceedings to shut the childminding business down. We have fought this but ultimately have been unable to stop the closure. During this process we did agree not to park our bus in the area and offered to ensure its absence from the area on condition of us keeping our business. Since the business closure we have moved our bus back to the area.
My wife has regularly been photographed whilst working, including photographs of other people's children under her care.
My wife has been followed when she is working, we assume so they can gather evidence of our activities.
These neighbours have falsely made a complaint to the local planning office enforcing us to have to arrange meetings with planning to prove we are not running a nursery from home.
These neighbours have refused offer of mediation from the management company to try and resolve the issues.
These people have taken away our livelihood and continue to bully and intimidate us with their parking and actions.
Our local police say there is nothing they can do if these neighbours are willing to move the vehicle when asked.
What legal protection can we get from this sort of behaviour, can we do anything to stop them from intimidating us and trying to control our vehicle movements?
At the moment my only course of action seems to be "play them at their own game" and start using our car and bus together to do the same kind of aggressive parking tactics as them, but I don't want to go down that route as it will not improve matters in the local area.
We live in a residential new build estate managed by a management company with fairly strict restrictive covenants in place. We have operated as a childminder with informal permission from the management company which is against the remit of the covenant with no issues for 5 years.
We recently purchased a minibus for our new business venture and this has started many issues. My neighbours took offence at the presence of the minibus despite the fact it was parked safely and legally on the public highway.
A group of 3 different neighbours started a co-ordinated pattern of behaviour to make our life hell in what we consider to be harrassing and intimidating behaviour.
Every time we park our minibus they park 2 vehicles 1 inch in front and 1 inch behind so we are physically unable to move our vehicle, usually they will move it if we ask, but we are having our actions controlled. There is ample space for them to park further away, but they park this way to intimidate us.
If we take photos of their parking they come out of their houses and shout aggressively at us. We have called police out about this behaviour and they have discussed with these neighbours.
They complained about my wife's childminding business and enforced our management company to begin proceedings to shut the childminding business down. We have fought this but ultimately have been unable to stop the closure. During this process we did agree not to park our bus in the area and offered to ensure its absence from the area on condition of us keeping our business. Since the business closure we have moved our bus back to the area.
My wife has regularly been photographed whilst working, including photographs of other people's children under her care.
My wife has been followed when she is working, we assume so they can gather evidence of our activities.
These neighbours have falsely made a complaint to the local planning office enforcing us to have to arrange meetings with planning to prove we are not running a nursery from home.
These neighbours have refused offer of mediation from the management company to try and resolve the issues.
These people have taken away our livelihood and continue to bully and intimidate us with their parking and actions.
Our local police say there is nothing they can do if these neighbours are willing to move the vehicle when asked.
What legal protection can we get from this sort of behaviour, can we do anything to stop them from intimidating us and trying to control our vehicle movements?
At the moment my only course of action seems to be "play them at their own game" and start using our car and bus together to do the same kind of aggressive parking tactics as them, but I don't want to go down that route as it will not improve matters in the local area.
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