I was informed by the council (redbridge ) that you cant work on a car outside your house . I have a couple of classic cars and motorbikes . Anyway today my brother was changing plugs on his punto and the bonnet was up . Now this lady happen to be passing my house and pulled in pretty sharp . She gets out of her car and in her day glo over jacket asks me who own both cars on the road (both insured and taxed) . One is mine and the other his . She informs me that i cant work on them and writes the details down on her note pad . So i should be expecting a letter in the post in the next couple of days . Has anyone had this problem and can anyone define working on a car meaning topping up the water ,checking and changing wheels ,changing light bulbs were do they draw the line .

Who was she? A council dogsbody or a concerned citizen?

Sounds like borlix to me unless there's some sort of local bylaw.

I can understand the issues if you're found to be changing oil or antifreeze, etc and letting it go down drains, but otherwise, I see no reason for you not to be allowed to work on your car outside your house or anywhere else for that matter.

They can't expect everyone to be able to get to/afford a garage or have somewhere off road to do the work.

She had a council badge in other words a council dogsbody .Funny thing is i am sure somebody called her down to my house . We had a letter from the council a couple of weeks ago about fly tipping . They sent us a letter with a fine for fly tipping but it had the wrong name but right address. I thought it was a scam until i rang the number and it was genuine . The women on the other end of the phone working for the council was more annoyed with me for opening somebody elses letter but with my address . Anyway they have cancelled the fine now .

Speak in a foreign accent, claim it's harassment and the reason you left East eastastan in the first place was due to this kind of political interference in the affairs of law abiding citizens.
They'll probably give you a grant.

I think I've heard this before. I've always been under the impression that you can't carry out work on your car on the public highway. Otherwise where would the line be? I imagine what it could be is that your car isn't technically road worthy while you're working on it.

Both cars are insured and moted and taxed . If the council tell you you cant work on your car at what level of maintenance are they talking about . She never said what i could do and what i could not do . If she comes back i will be ready for her this time . If i do work on a car its always my driveway From time to time i do some work on my neighbours cars .

What do you mean 'working on your car'. I thought it broke down and you were trying to get it out of the road where it was in the way of other people?

Quite unbelievable. I would have mentioned sex and travel, utterly ignored the wench and suggested (if she persisted) that she phone the police.

I am fortunate that I can get my fleet on the driveway, but there are 3000 houses on the local estate where there are no garages OR driveways, and there is always work going on somewhere. If the car is legally entitled to be driven on the road (MOT, Tax, Insurance) then what is the problem? Ask her to use her BS to fill in a few potholes.........

I Didnt get on with one of my old neighbours who complained about me working on cars.
There's nothing stopping you,unless your tenancy or mortgage lender prohibits running a business from home.
If its for recreation and your hours comply with any rules enforced in that area then there's nothing they can do.
However a council official will and can prevent you from making noise if that's what the complaints are about.

I can imagine how tha complaint would go where I live...

"I'd like to complain. I can't hear the sirens, student parties or noise from any of the pubs because my neighbour is working on his car."

We've had complaints about our garage despite being 5 doors away from 3 big pubs and 2 main roads.
Not to mention the airport and Donington park.
Despite us having 24 hour access and working hours we are restricted due to new houses being built on what was an industrial premises.
If you don't like noise then why move next to a garage/airport/pub etc.

The council has to process every complaint regardless of the noise made elsewhere around you and they usually write to you first.
As long as your polite and agree to keep noise down wherever you can then they don't Pursue it further

Thing is i dont work on the road . However i own my house and have lived here for nearly 25 years . The house next to me has been rented out since 2004 . Some ok people but a family from eastern europe moved in about six months ago . They spend alot of time at home and make alot of bloody noise but i dont have a problem with them . I have a feeling its them that made a compliant because last week i was working on a mates buggy outside my house . Its a GS moonbuggy and we are fitting a Honda CBR600 engine to it . It came with a 150cc engine . For 10 minutes i had to use an angle grinder to cut a few brackets off .
The problem is when rubbish is dumped opposite (live opposite a park) or serious drug dealing or people stopping everynight to enjoy their take aways and then dumping the rubbish or drinking and speeding car the council dont seem that bothered . In fact they have a camera car at the bottom of the road everyday to caught people turning right when its not allowed .

I have heard, and seen the legislation (but can't remember what it is officially named), that it is not permissible to work on a car when the car is on a public road. There must be some exceptions to it such as changing a wheel or making it work if it has broken down otherwise the AA and RAC would be repeatedly breaking the law. However, if the car was on the road unfortunately she may be able to take some action, daft as that might seem.

I think you may have a case

Last section of this page on their own website...

Which seems to let you off the hook working on the road, let alone your own driveway!

It is unclear in many ways - http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/536/pavements-obstructions/465/repairing_cars_on_the_highway

says not if you make a profit, but otherwise repairs have to not be major, however, this almost says something different:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/pbc/2004-0...2005-01-18a.7.0

So you might not get away with it on a public highway if you are a repeat offender (say JBT did all his work on the road outside his house AND made a profit) but if it's your only vehicle and you are making repairs whilst not blocking the highway or causing a great amount of noise and leaving a mess when you've finished it's fine.

If you are on your drive doing it and you're not "in business" or causing a real issue in unsociable hours / throwing oil etc around then you can do what you like.

Hmmm, not sure - as I understand it under the RTA your driveway would be counted as public highway, because members of the public have access to it, as there's no physical barrier to prevent them gaining access.

This is definitely the view of the RTA, as people have been nicked for, say, drink driving, while still on their drives.

Except you can keep a car on your drive declared "SORN"...

Easy solution... make a list of every known repair on all your cars and bikes. When she arrives give her the list to tick or cross depending on if you are allowed to do it on your drive;

Oil filer
Air filter
Spark plugs
CV boot
Flux Capacitor
Brake pad loom
Brake pad clip
Brake pads
etc
etc
etc
etc

That sort of list should take them a few weeks and a couple of million £££'s

You can, but one of those links explicitly says they're using the RTA's definition of 'public highway', which will include any driveway which isn't gated.

So you cannot sell your car (Cheaply) if you don't have a driveway!!!!

Does that mean you cannot drive with a small for sale sign in your window.

I see a lot of people doing this.

Never thought of that! A piece of string and a "private road" sign then?

Are we sure that the RTA is the applicable legislation though? This, after all, is the Clean Neighbourhoods Act and it might define a road differently.

From the They work for you website:



IIRC the definition was expanded quite dramatically in the early 90s, as it previously classed places like supermarket car-parks as being private land, despite the public having unlimited access to them.

I believe that case law has established that even if there's a physical barrier to the land it is still counted as being public highway if a member of the public can simply pay a toll or fee to be granted access.

This is why if you've ever done a track-day there will be a reminder in the paperwork that the RTA applies at the track (so, in theory at least, the police could turn up at a track-day and start handing out tickets for non-road-legal exhausts, bald tyres, lack of number plates and a few for speeding).

Why should a track day be different from a race? Just read through all the paperwork for Goodwood that I'm attending as a track day on Saturday and nothing about RTA except for the use of seatbelts (must use seatbelts if the car is required to have them under RTA or MSA regulations).

I also read case law that suggests that, unless regularly used by the public, it's not considered a road.

Honestly, it sounds like a mess. Where does my drive stop and my gravel garden path start? Or my lawn for that matter.

Then, apparently, Vehicle Excise rules only apply to roads paid for by the public (hence why SORN can be done)

Well, from doing a bit of Googling it appears to be, as you say, a complete mess.

While every bit of track-day paperwork I've ever had has mentioned the RTA being in force it's possible that they only meant in the public areas of the circuit (i.e. the car-parks, entry roads, etc.) It seems far from clear.

On my old housing estate, the roads were owned and maintained by the housing co-op. several cars were worked on and SORN'd on the (public) roads and the council/police never seemed overly concerned. Seems to be one of those "interpreted as suits" kind of laws.